Current Affairs Assam – September 2018
( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of September 2018 )
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September 10
Assam Governor launches projects to develop Madhupur Satra
- Assam Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi visited the Madhupur Satra, located in Coochbehar district of West Bengal and laid the foundation stone of two different projects for the development of the historic satra and to attract more tourists.
- The Governor, laid the foundation stone for ‘Infrastructure Development of Cultural Tourism Centre at Sri Sri Madhupur Satra, Cooch Behar under Untied Fund.
- Under this project, a two- storied ‘athithasala’ (guest house) with a capacity to host 500 guests will be constructed at a cost of Rs 1 crore and a ‘bhogghar’ (dining hall), at a cost of Rs 1 crore will be constructed in the premises of the Satra within one year.
- He also launched a project for the ‘Protection & Development of MadhupurSatra, Cooch Behar’ worth Rs 1 crore.
- Under this project, a two storied school-cum- cultural centre, ‘bhakathati’ and ‘gosaichora’, conference hall and office-cum-store, art-cum patface museum, toilet and water facilities, ‘doulgriha’ and septic tanks will be constructed, within a year.
FACTFILE – Madhupur Satra
- It is a religious institutional center associated with the Ekasarana tradition of Vaishnavism, situated in Cooch Behar, West Bengal.
- It is established by Assamese Vaishnavite monasteries for religious practices in 16th century during Koch kingdom.
- Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankardeva and his disciple Mahapurusha Madhavadeva died here.
- Madhupur satra is also called as dahmukutor than; ‘dahmukut’ means ‘bhiti’ or living houses of ten disciples (bhaktas) of Srimanta Sankardeva.
- This satra buildings were built by 16th century’s koch king Nara Narayan.
- After independence of India, Assamese chief minister Mahendra Mohan Chowdhury rebuilt the houses, Namghar, roads with brick and mortar and built Sankardev’s temple in January, 1968 with help of ‘Madhupur Satra Samiti’.
- The name satra originates in the Bhagavata Purana in Sanskrit (sattra), and is used in the sense of an assembly of devotees.
Per Capita Waste in Guwahati increasing drastically over the years
- Generation of garbage in Guwahati has been increasing at a consistent rate, says a new report prepared by IIT Kharagpur, which studied various characters of garbage in the city.
- According to the report, in 2011, the per capita waste generation was 0.350 kg per day, in 2012 and in 2017 it was 0.372 kg in a day.
- The Integrated Waste Management System Report for Guwahati City report shows that the per capita waste generation will become 0.375 kg per day in 2018, 0.379 kg in 2019, 0.383 kg in 2020, 0.387 kg in 2021, 0.390 kg in 2022, 0.394 kg in 2023, 0.398 kg in 2024, 0.402 kg in 2025, 0.406 kg in 2026, 0.410 kg in 2027, 0.415 kg in 2028, 0.419 in 2029, 0.423 kg in 2030 and 0.427 kg per day in 2031.
- Average moisture content for the entire Guwahati city was found to be 49.54 percent, pH 5.83, hydraulic conductivity 0.082 cm per sec, water holding capacity 39.92 percent, volatile solids 41.31 percent and calorific value 1,833 kcal per kg
- The potentiality of waste incineration plant, potentiality for gasification and pyrolysis, potentiality of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production and potentiality of bio-methanation.
Union Power Minister brings back Electricity Amendment Bill
- The Power Ministry has sought comments on a revised draft of the Electricity Amendment Bill which seeks to separate carriage and content businesses to enable consumers to switch their power suppliers as they do for telecom services.
- The feedback on the revised Electricity Amendment Bill 2018 has been sought within 45 days. The draft has been circulated among all related government agencies, departments, regulators, PSUs and industry bodies.
- The Electricity Amendment Bill 2014 was introduced in the LokSabha on December 19, 2014 and subsequently referred to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy. The panel gave its report in September, 2015.
- The bill provides for more than one service operator to supply power to a consumer in one distribution area. This will give consumers an option of changing their power supplying company or utility based on the efficiency of their services.
- The bill also provides for ‘Smart Grid’, which it says is an electricity network that uses information and communication technology to gather information and act intelligently in automated manner to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.
- It also provides for medium term power purchase agreement. This will allow stressed power projects to go for medium term power purchase agreements and run their plants.
- The bill also provides for renewable purchase obligation under which the ‘polluter pays’ principle applies. Under this, the renewable power purchased would be used to meeting the RPO requirement.
- The bill also provides to stricter penalties for non-compliance, theft and other offences. In some cases, penalty has been raised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1 crore.
Arpinder Singh wins India’s first Triple Jump medal at Continental Cup
- Triple jumper Arpinder Singh created history by becoming the first Indian to win a medal in Triple Jump Medal the IAAF Continental Cup as he clinched a bronze.
- He cleared 16.59m in the first of his three jumps to be in the four-man semi-finals. No Indian has ever won a medal in the Continental Cup which was known as the IAAF World Cup before 2010.
- The 25-year-old Arpinder was representing the Asia-Pacific team in the meet, held once every four years. He had jumped 16.77m in Jakarta and has a personal best of 17.17m which he recorded in 2014.
FACTFILE – IAAF Continental Cup
- The IAAF Continental Cup is an international athletics competition which comprises track and field events.
- It is the only world cup contested by teams representing entire continents, rather than just those of individual countries. The event takes place every four years.
- The founder of the original World Cup was the Italian IAAF former President Primo Nebiolo.
- In 2018, the inaugural Athletics World Cup was held. This event is not related to the original IAAF World Cup or its IAAF Continental Cup successor, and the latter continues to be held.
September 11
First ever mid-air refueling of Tejas carried out by HAL
- The first ever mid-air refueling of the indigenously developed light combat aircraft Tejas was successfully carried out on 10th September, placing India in an elite group of countries having air-to-air refueling system for military planes, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).
- The milestone was achieved at 9.30 am when 1,900 kg of fuel was transferred from the mid-air refuelling tanker of IAF’s IL78 to the Tejas LSP8 at an altitude of 20,000 feet.
- The feat was achieved days after the Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully did a dry run of mid-air refuelling using the Russian-built IL-78 MKI tanker.
- The IAF IL78, accomplished the task with designers from HAL and Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) closely monitoring system parameters from the ground station at Gwalior.
- The speed of Tejas was 270 knots when all the internal tanks and drop tanks were refuelled.
- The IAF had ordered 40 Tejas Mark-1 version and a request for proposal was issued to HAL by the IAF in December for procurement of another batch of 83 Tejas at a cost of around Rs 50,000 crore.
FACTFILE – The Indian Air Force (IAF)
- IAF is the air arm of the Indian armed forces.
- Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks fourth amongst the airforces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflict.
- It was officially established on 8 October 1932 as an auxiliary air force of the British Empire which honored India’s aviation service during World War II with the prefix Royal.
- After India gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, the name Royal Indian Air Force was kept and served in the name of Dominion of India.
- With the government’s transition to a Republic in 1950, the prefix Royal was removed after only three years.
India, Bangladesh launches three infrastructure projects
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina jointly inaugurated three infrastructure projects in Dhaka.
- The three projects include two railway projects – construction of a 15.5 km railway link between Akhaura in Bangladesh and Agartala in Tripura and rebuilding the Kulaura-Shahbazpur section of Bangladesh Railways – and a 500MW additional power supply from India to Bangladesh through the existing Bheramara-Baharampur interconnection.
- The inauguration of the three projects was done via video conference with Tripura and West Bengal Chief Ministers Biplab Kumar Deb and Mamata Banerjee joining in.
- The Ministry of External Affairs signed an agreement to establish an educational and medical e-network in African countries
FACTFILE – Ministry of External Affairs of India
- It is also known as the Foreign Ministry, is the government agency responsible for the conduct of foreign relations of India.
- The Ministry comes under Government of India and is responsible for the country’s representation in the United Nations.
- The Ministry was initially the Ministry of External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations, a holdover from the British Raj. It was renamed the Ministry of External Affairs in 1948. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru held the portfolio as an additional charge till his death in 1964 and it was only then that a separate Minister with Cabinet rank was appointed.
- The ministry is responsible for the administration of Naga Hills, Tuensang Area, Indian Emigration Act of 1923, the Reciprocity Act of 1943, the Port Haj Committee Act of 1932, the Indian Merchant Shipping Act in so far as it relates to pilgrim ships, the Indian Pilgrim Shipping Rules of 1933, the Protection of Pilgrims Act of 1887 (Bombay) and the Protection of the Mohammedan Pilgrims Act of 1896 (Bengal) are also the special responsibility of the Ministry of External Affairs.
- The Ministry is the cadre controlling authority of the Indian Foreign Service; the service is wholly under the administration and supervision of the External Affairs Ministry.
HIV/AIDS Act, 2017 implemented from September 10
- In efforts to strengthen public health legislature for the HIV community, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced that HIV/AIDS Act, 2017 to be implemented from Sept 10, 2018.
- The Bill seeks to prevent and control the spread of HIV and AIDS, prohibits discrimination against persons with HIV and AIDS.
- It provides for informed consent and confidentiality with regard to their treatment, places obligations on establishments to safeguard their rights, and creates mechanisms for redressing their complaints.
- The Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Bill was passed on 21 March 2017 in the Rajya Sabha.
- An ombudsman shall be appointed by each state government to inquire into complaints related to the violation of the Act and the provision of health care services.
FACTFILE – Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2017
- Prohibition of discrimination against HIV positive persons: The Bill lists the various grounds on which discrimination against HIV positive persons and those living with them is prohibited.
- The requirement for HIV testing as a pre-requisite for obtaining employment or accessing health care or education is also prohibited.
- Every HIV infected or affected person below the age of 18 years has the right to reside in a shared household and enjoy the facilities of the household.
- Informed consent and disclosure of HIV status: The Bill requires that no HIV test, medical treatment, or research will be conducted on a person without his informed consent.
- No person shall be compelled to disclose his HIV status except with his informed consent, and if required by a court order.
- Establishments keeping records of information of HIV positive persons shall adopt data protection measures.
- Every person in the care and custody of the state shall have right to HIV prevention, testing, treatment and counselling services.
Role of the Ombudsman: An ombudsman shall be appointed by each state government to inquire into complaints related to the violation of the Act and the provision of health care services.
Court proceedings: Cases relating to HIV positive persons shall be disposed off by the court on a priority basis.
Indian junior men’s skeet team clinched silver at ISSF World Shooting Championships
- The trio of Gurnihal (119), Anantjeet Singh Naruka (117) and Ayush Rudraraju (119) combined for a score of 355 for a second-place finish in the finals for silver.
- India are placed fourth in the overall medals’ tally with seven gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals for a total of 20 at the premier International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF)
- Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela secured quota places for the Olympics by winning a silver and finishing fourth respectively in the women’s 10m air rifle event.
- The 19-year-old Gurnihal also made the six-strong individual final, where he shot a score of 46 to claim the individual bronze, the biggest achievement of his international career so far.
FACTFILE – 52nd ISSF World Shooting Championships
- ISSF World Shooting Championships were held in Changwon, South Korea from 2 to 14 September 2018. This also served as first qualification for 2020 Summer Olympics.
- The ISSF World Shooting Championships are governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation.
- World Shooting Championships began in 1897, after the successful 1896 Summer Olympics, and although the ISSF was not founded until 1907, these early competitions are still seen by the organization as the beginning of a continuous row of championships.
- These championships, including all ISSF shooting events, are held every four years since 1954.
- For the shotgun events only, there is an additional World Championship competition in odd-numbered years. These extra competitions are not numbered. In running target, there will be World Championships in Olympic years.
Point2remember – In the final Medal table, India ranked 2nd with a medal tally of 20 (9 Gold, 5 Silver and 6 Bronze)
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