‘Jail Olympics’ in Punjab Jail from March 1, 2012
For the first time in Punjab the Jail authorities in Punjab in order to keep the prisoners away from social evils viz. drug addiction, will be organising ‘Jail Olympics’ from March 1, 2012.
Events like Basketball, Kabaddi, Athletics, Cricket, Volleyball, Wrestling and Tug-of-war will be there.
These games will be inter-jail tournaments, which would later be elevated to inter-zone.
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New Rail Coach Manufacturing unit at Palakkad (Kerala) 
- A new Rail Coach Manufacturing unit at Palakkad (Kerala) setup sanctioned by the Centre.
- Capacity: Manufacture 400 coaches per year
- Joint Venture in which Railways shall contribute 26% of the equity.
- This will help Indian Railways to meet the increasing demands of passenger transportation.
- It shall also ascertain elicitation of state of the art aluminium coaches on Indian Railways.
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Soon sanction for direct import of Aviation/Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) by Indian Carriers 
- The Ministry of Civil Aviation has communicated to the Ministry of Commerce on to take steps to allow direct import of Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) by Indian carriers.
- The step in continuance of the verdict of the Group of Ministers’ (GOM) on Civil Aviation, which was taken in the GOM meeting, held on February 7, 2012.
- The GOM in its meeting adjudicated that the Ministry of Commerce will allow direct import of ATF by or on behalf of Indian carriers directly as the actual user and on actual use basis.
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IAF to induct ‘MI-17 V5 helicopter’ in its fleet
- Russian Helicopter
- In 2008, India had signed an agreement with Russia to induct 80 Mi-17 V5 helicopters
- Falls in the category of armed helicopter
- Has significant and effectual firepower with the latest and sinewy engines that will deeply heighten its payload carriage capability at higher altitudes.
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Union Govt to launch Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant after report from the panel formed by TN Govt.
- Union Government to launch the Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant after a report from the Committee headed by M.R. Srinivasan and appointed by the Tamil Nadu Government and makes it clear that Russian Scientists would maintain to stay at the plant site.
- The 4-member expert committee headed by M.R. Srinivasan constituted by the Tamil Nadu Govt to look into the safety aspects of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project and address the fears of the local population, is to meet in Chennai on Friday.
- A segment of villagers in Kudankulam and Idinthakarai are on a hullaballoo against the project, heading to the postponement in commissioning of the first unit of nuclear plant.
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“Sahara” for BCCI
- BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and the Sahara Group reached a settlement after a series of feverish dialogues
- Sahara will remain the key sponsorp of the Indian Cricket Team
- The BCCI and Sahara confirmed that the auction purse for Pune Warriors will be reactivated which means the Pune team can take several players subject to the squad composition regulations. The agreement also paved the way for the Pune team's participation in the 5th edition of the IPL.
- Regarding the debatable issue of substitution for Yuvraj Singh, who is having treatment for cancer in USA, Sahara has offered to find the consent of all the franchises for fielding 5 foreign players for the IPL matches.
- The BCCI and Sahara also agreed to commence the arbitration proceedings led up by Sahara via naming of an arbitrator to address the Sahara's claims for a diminution in franchise fee for 74 matches.
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For CPGRAMS execution, Government sets up minister's office interface
- The Govt launched Minister's Office Interface for improved implementation of CPGRAMS (Centralized Public Grievances Redress And Monitoring System).
- CPGRAMS: A single window application for on line receipt of grievance by any citizen from any part of India.
- Since June 2007, CPGRAMS operating in all the ministries in Central Government.
- Ministers Office Interface of CPGRAMS will also be made available to offices of other ministers soon.
- Other features of CPGRAMS interface include: Registration of grievances received manually or by post and grievances will be acknowledged with unique registration numbers.
- For the redress and monitoring of public grievances, an officer of the level of joint secretary in the CPGRAMS in each ministry has been designated as nodal director of grievances.
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Guidelines of NDMICS, released by the Government
- Government issued the Guidelines of National Disaster Management Authority, NDMA for Information and Communications System, NDMICS.
- NDMA has devised Guidelines on NDMICS which will furnish essential guiding principles to the Central Ministries, Departments and the State Governments for laying down much needed Disaster Management infrastructure.
- The Guidelines will pave the way for laying down National Disaster Management Information and Communications System at the Central Level which would be coupled to a dedicated foolproof National Disaster Communication Network with a particular stress on last-mile connectivity.
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Person in News: ‘Bibhudendra Mishra’ – Freedom Fighter passes away
- Bibhudendra Mishra (93), prominent freedom fighter and former Union Minister passed away.
- He was an associate of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose.
- He was the Law minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's second cabinet.
- He also participated in the 1942 Quit India Movement and was imprisoned then.
- He had also edited some Odia magazines during his far-famed career as a literary figure in the language sweeping over 70 years.
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Advanced Nuke Centrifuges activated by Iran
- A new generation of centrifuges activated by Iran at its Natanz nuclear site.
- This will assist in speeding up Iran’s uranium enrichment activities.
- Iran has now 9,000 centrifuges working which will raise its Uranium enrichment capability.
- Iran welcomed the eagerness of the P5+1 group (P5+1 = Britain, China, France, Russia, United States + Germany) to come back to negotiations in order to take fundamental steps toward further cooperation.
- The last talks b/w Iran and P5+1 took place in Istanbul a year ago and terminated in a deadlock.
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