Assam Current Affairs – September 8-14 , 2018

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Current Affairs Assam – September 2018

( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of September 2018 )

September 2018 – eBook Monthly PDF | eBook Monthly Quiz

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September 12

World’s tallest rail girder bridge being setup in Manipur
  • The Bridge No. 164 across the valley of the Ijai river near Noney, on the new Jiribam-Imphal broad-gauge line in Manipur, will be the world’s tallest rail girder bridge when completed. According to the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Construction Organisation, the Rs 450-crore bridge would be ready by June 2019.
  • It will have a pier height of 141 metres. It will thus surpass the existing record of 139 metres of the Mala-Rijeka viaduct at Montenegro in south-eastern Europe.  More than 50 per cent of work on the bridge is complete.
  • The new broad-gauge line from Jiribam to Imphal in Manipur, which has been declared a national project, is scheduled for completion by 2020 and will serve as a vital link in the proposed Trans Asian Rail Network.
  • The entire engineering of Bridge No. 164 – right from conceptualisation to detailed design and construction – has been done indigenously by the NFR (Construction). The length of the bridge will be 703 metres.
  • A laboratory at the site has been established to test and pass all the materials that are being used in the bridge construction. Experts from outside are also consulted for double-checking the quality control system.
India Inc revenues rise 17% in first quarter
  • Aggregate revenues grew 17.1% year on year during the first quarter (Q1 FY2019) as per ICRA. But on a sequential basis, sales fell 2.4% due to seasonality in several sectors.
  • Overall operating profit margin (OPM) rose 130 basis points. Sectors showed broad-based revenue growth 26 out of 32.

Various sector wise Q1 revenue growth

  • 15.7% –Pharma
  • 12.8% – Allied building materials
  • 10.9% – FMCG
  • 7.9% – Capital goods companies
TCIL, MEA sign MOU for pan Africa e-Network project
  • Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd. (TCIL) signed an agreement with Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for the implementation of e-VBA (e-VidyaBharati and e-AarogyaBharati) Network Project for a total value of Rs. 865 Crores.
  • The e-VBA Project is fully funded by MEA, GoI and is envisaged to be implemented in 9 months followed by 5 years of operations and maintenance.
  • Indian Education (VidyaBharati) and Indian Medical services for human well-being (AarogyaBharati) under the flagship e-VBAB Network Project of MEA, is a step towards capacity building in the field of education and medical science for all the 54 African Nations.
  • The project aims to provide an opportunity for local employment and opens the door for access to education and medical expertise from India to African students, doctors, nurses and paramedical staff.
  • It will also give an opportunity for Global acceptance of Indian University Education system and Indian medical Health services.
  • TCIL, a pioneering Public Sector ICT company, under the Department of Telecommunications, have in their credit, successful execution of many large Telecom projects in India and abroad. They are well accepted in Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia, for their skills in Telecom and IT. They have done a number of infrastructure Projects of Fiber, ICT and Microwave in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Algeria.
Cabinet approves new procurement policy to ensure MSP to farmers
  • The cabinet has approved a new procurement policy under which one scheme will focus on compensating oilseeds farmers if rates fall below the MSP, and another will allow states to rope in private players for procurement.
  • In the budget this year, the government had announced that it will put in place a fool-proof mechanism to ensure minimum support price (MSP) to farmers.
  • It had asked think-tank NitiAayog to suggest a mechanism in consultation with the union agriculture ministry and states.
  • Under the new policy, the state governments will be given an option to choose multiple schemes to protect farmers when prices fall below the MSP.
  • Under the new policy, the states will also have an option to choose the existing Price Support Scheme (PSS), under which central agencies procure commodities covered under the MSP policy when prices fall below the MSP.
  • The centre also implements Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for procurement of those commodities, which are perishable in nature and are not covered under the MSP policy.
  • Under the MSP policy, the government fixes the rates for 23 notified crops grown in kharif and rabi seasons.

September 13

NITI Aayog announces development of 1.5 Lakh Health and Community Centres
  • NITI Aayog announced the development of 1.5 lakh health and community centres under the Ayushman Bharat over the next four years to screen the population for diseases including Hypertension, Diabetes, Breast and Cervical Cancer.
  • Already established 2,500 centres across the country of which 600 are in the 117 Aspirational Districts identified by NITI Aayog. The target is to set up 15, 000 such centres this year.
  • Community Health Centre is also funded by state governments and accepts patients referred from Primary Health Centres.

FACTFILE – NITI Aayog

  • The NITI Aayog also National Institution for Transforming India, is a policy think tank of the Government of India, established with the aim to achieve Sustainable Development Goals and to enhance cooperative federalism by fostering the involvement of State Governments of India in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach.
  • It was established in 2015, by the NDA government, to replace the Planning Commission which followed a top-down model.
  • The Prime Minister is the Ex-officio chairman. The permanent members of the governing council are all the state Chief Ministers, along with the Chief Ministers of Delhi and Puducherry, the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar, and a vice chairman nominated by the Prime Minister
Tripura CM to unveil Space Technology Incubation Centre of NIT Agartala from ISRO Bengaluru
  • Space Technology Incubation Centre of the National Institution of Technology (NIT), Agartala will be dedicated to the nation by the chief minister of Tripura Biplab Kumar Deb on September 18, 2018 at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
  • This is a kind of process of developing incubating start ups by the ISRO and the government initiative of Transforming India.
  • ISRO has been planning to set up incubators to groom space start ups and these incubation centres will facilitate this process that build newer solutions in rocket science, communication satellites and applications from remote sensing data.
  • This could be exploited commercially and create a strong local commercial space ecosystem in the country.

FACTFILE– Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

  • The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the space agency of the Government of India headquartered in the city of Bangalore.
  • Formed in 1969, ISRO superseded the erstwhile Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) established in 1962 by the efforts of independent India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his close aide and scientist Vikram Sarabhai.
  • The establishment of ISRO thus institutionalized space activities in India. It is managed by the Department of Space, which reports to the Prime Minister of India.
India, Iran, Afghanistan to boost economic, counter-terrorism cooperation
  • India, Iran and Afghanistan agreed to strengthen economic and counter-terrorism cooperation in their first tripartite meeting held in Kabul on 12th Sep.
  • The meeting focused on consolidating economic cooperation, including Chabahar, as well as enhancing cooperation on counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, and continuing support to the peace and reconciliation process that is led and owned by Afghanistan.
  • The three sides agreed to hold the next round of consultation at an appropriate time in India in 2019.
  • While the meeting was chaired by Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, the Indian delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and the Iranian side by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Cabinet approves EXIM’s blockchain research with BRICS banks
  • The Union Cabinet approved a joint research on the distributed ledger and blockchain technology by Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) with member-banks of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS).
  • Exim Bank, which promotes India’s international trade through competitive financing, will participate with member-banks under BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism.
  • The banks are BancoNacional de DesenvolvimentoEconomico e Social (BNDES, of Brazil), China Development Bank (CDB), State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank, Russia) and Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
  • The MoU aims for a better understanding of the technology through joint research. It will identify areas within respective business operations for potential applications to enhance the operational efficiencies.

FACTFILE – Blockchain

  • Blockchain is a digitised, decentralised ledger to record real-time transactions across borders.
  • Distributed ledger is a database held and updated independently by each participant in a large network across multiple sites, institutions or geographies.
  • A blockchain, is a growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked using cryptography.
  • Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data.
  • By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of the data.
  • For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for inter-node communication and validating new blocks.
  • Although blockchain records are not unalterable, blockchains may be considered secure by design and exemplify a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance.
  • Blockchain was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to serve as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency bitcoin.
  • The invention of the blockchain for bitcoin made it the first digital currency to solve the double-spending problem without the need of a trusted authority or central server. The bitcoin design has inspired other applications, and blockchains which are readable by the public are widely used by cryptocurrencies.
Delhi Govt. launches doorstep delivery scheme of govt. services
  • Delhi Government has launched a scheme for doorstep delivery of around 40 important  govt. services like caste certificate, marriage certificates and new water connections.
  • It’s the first home delivery scheme of various essential government services in the country. It will deal with corruption in delivery of essential government services and promote transparent governance.
  • Eventually, more services will be added to the list in later phases.
  • These essential government services will be delivered by mobile sahayaks with fee of Rs 50.
  • For implementation of this scheme, Delhi government has an intermediary agency which has set up call centres and hired mobile sahayaks (facilitators).
  • For availing doorstep delivery of services, Delhi citizens need to call the centralised number to set up a home visit with the mobile sahayak.
  • The mobile sahayak will be equipped with all necessary equipment such as biometric devices and camera.
  • These sahayak will help user fill out application, pay fee and collect documents needed for service.
  • Then completed certificate will then be posted to the applicant.
  • For certificates that mandate visit to office concerned, such as test for driving licence, applicant will be required to personally visit to office after sahayak helps with initial application at home.
  • This scheme will cover doorstep delivery of various certificates including caste, new water connection, income, driving licence, ration card, domicile, marriage registration, duplicate RC and change of address in RC, among others.

September 2018 – eBook Monthly PDF | eBook Monthly Quiz

Go To Assam Current Affairs                                                                                                 Go To Assam Current Affairs Quiz

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