Wednesday, 23 December 2015

Current Affair 24 December 2015



India’s first indigenously designed & built frigate INS Godavari decommissioned

INS Godavari India’s first indigenously designed warship INS Godavari decommissioned has been decommissioned after 32 years of service. It was decommissioned at Naval Dockyard in Mumbai (Maharashtra) after it completed its full life cycle, meeting all responsibilities and duties assigned in 3 decades of service. After decommissioning, the ship would be used as a target to practice missile firing for final burial at sea.

About INS Godavari
·        INS Godavari was the first of the three in her Class of guided-missile frigates and was commissioned into Indian Navy on 10 December 1983.
·        The ship was considered as a symbol of India’s growing military might and self-reliance.
·        It was first of three Godavari Class frigates, others being Ganga and Gomati
·        Naval Operations: In its three decades of service, the warship took part in major naval operations including Operation Jupiter (1988) in Sri Lanka, Operation Shield and Operation Bolster (1994) for de-induction of Indian Army from Somalia, Patrol of Gulf of Aden (PoG) in 2009 and anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden in 2011.
·        It was also part of ‘Operation Cactus’ in 1988 where India successfully thwarted a coup d’état against the Maldivian government.


Dr. Rakesh K. Jain selected for 2015 National Medal of Science

Rakesh-Jain(2) Indian American professor Dr. Rakesh K. Jain has been selected for 2015 National Medal of Science of the United States. He will be presented this top award along with 16 other winners by President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony in January 2016. All of them were chosen for this award for their individual achievement and leadership in advancing the fields of science and technology

About Dr. Rakesh K. Jain
·        Rakesh K. Jain is currently working as professor at Harvard Medical School and also is the director of tumour biology laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital.
·        He is regarded as a pioneer in the area of tumour micro-environment and widely recognized for his seminal discoveries in tumor biology, in vivo imaging, bioengineering, drug delivery and bench-to-bedside translation.
·        He holds B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT-Kanpur. He has received around 75 awards for his contribution to engineering and medical field.
·        He is also member of all three branches of the US National Academies viz. National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering and also of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

About National Medal of Science
·        It is an annual award established in 1959 by United States Government.
·        It is bestowed by the US President to individuals in science and engineering.
·        These individuals must have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioural and social sciences, chemistry, engineering, biology, mathematics and physics.

Union Government’s Policy Initiative Development of Industrial / Economic Corridors

Union Government has adopted the strategy of developing integrated industrial/economic corridors across the country in partnership with respective State Governments for boosting industrial development. This information was given by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. It was also announced that National Industrial Corridor Development Authority (NICDA) with its headquarter in Pune (Maharashtra) has not been constituted yet.

The five industrial/economic corridors are Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC):
The project spans the 6 states viz. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. This corridor lies along the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) of the railways. It would initially have 8 nodes (cities) in the six DMIC states for development purpose. Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC):
It has three industrial nodes (cities) viz. Ponneri (Tamil Nadu), Tumkur (Karnataka) and Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).
Bengaluru-Mumbai Economic Corridor (BMEC): One node (city) has been identified for master planning viz. Dharwad (Karnataka).
Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC): Two nodes (cities) for master planning have been identified. They are Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Srikalahasti-Yerpedu (Andhra Pradesh).
Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (AKIC): Feasibility study with respect to the Inception Report of this corridor has been completed.


Union Government launches two mobile apps for farmers

mobile-app-700x498 Union Government has launched two mobile applications namely Crop Insurance and AgriMarket Mobile to benefit farmers These apps were launched by Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh in New Delhi to celebrate the birth anniversary of former Prime Ministers Choudhary Charan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Key facts

The main purpose for developing these Apps is to provide all relevant information to farmers and other stake holders in real time to create conducive environment for raising farm productivity and income to global levels.
Crop Insurance mobile app: It will help farmers find out complete details about insurance cover available in their area. It will also help farmers to calculate the insurance premium for notified crops, coverage amount and loan amount. Farmers can use this app to get details and information about normal sum insured, premium details, extended sum insured and subsidy information of any notified crop in any notified area. AgriMarket Mobile app: It can be used by farmers to get the market prices of crops in the mandi within 50 km radius of the device. It can automatically tracks the location of person using mobile GPS and fetches the market prices of crops in those markets. 

National Consumer Day December 24, 2015

24th December is being observed as National Consumer Day. On this day the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 had received the assent of the President. The enactment of this Act was considered as a historic milestone in the consumer movement in the country. This Act aims to provide consumers with effective safeguards against different types of exploitation such as defective goods, unsatisfactory services and unfair trade practices. This day provides an opportunity for individuals to highlight the importance of the consumer movement and the need to make every consumer more aware of their rights and responsibilities. It should be also noted that World Consumer Rights Day is observed on 15th March every year. 
Some facts about Consumer Protection 
Act, 1986 It provides consumers with speedy and inexpensive redressal grievances mechanism and specific relief or award of compensation. It recognizes six of the eight rights of the consumer as provided in the UN charter. It envisages following rights of consumers (i) Right to Protection. (ii) Right of Information. (iii) Right of Choice. (iv) Right of Hearing. (v) Right of Redressal. (vi) Right of Education.



No comments:

Post a Comment