Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently announced that it will shortly issue Rs 20 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series. The new denomination has motif of Ellora Caves on the reverse that depicts the country’s cultural heritage. It also contains a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at the centre, with micro letters ‘RBI’, ‘Bharat’, ‘India’ and ’20’, along with a guarantee clause, Governor’s signature with Promise Clause and RBI emblem towards the right of Gandhi’s portrait. On the right side of the portrait are — an Ashoka Pillar emblem and electrotype (20) watermarks. The base colour of the note is Greenish Yellow. It will bear the signature of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. The dimension of the new Rs 20 note will be 63 mm x 129 mm. All the banknotes in the denomination of Rs 20 issued by the RBI in the earlier series will continue to be legal tender.

Notes:
Indian Army signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) to construct four underground tunnels for storage of ammunition along the China and Pakistan border. This is a pilot project and the tunnels are expected to be completed within two years. The cost of the pilot project is around Rs 15 crore. At Under the pilot project, three tunnels will be built on China border while one will be built along the Line of Control with Pakistan. The project is meant to bolster the Indian Army’s capabilities along the Chinese border where India’s infrastructural development is far outpaced by that of China. Besides strengthening the defensive capabilities, the tunnels will protect the ammunition and other stored equipment from the air-strikes and detection by the enemy satellite. present, ammunition dumps are mostly over-ground and could be targeted by the enemies and their spies.

Notes:
The Central Works Public Department (CPWD) has constituted an expert committee to formulate a design policy for building construction and infrastructure development. The committee, under the chairmanship of CPWD’s Additional Director General M K Sharma, is aimed at reviving building construction and infrastructure development at all levels in the CPWD which comes under the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. The committee has been asked to submit its report to Director General Prabhakar Singh within 30 days. The CPWD is the largest construction agency of the central government. It constructs most of the government’s buildings across the country, erects fences on the country’s international borders, among others. The agency also carries out projects in foreign countries under friendship programmes with India.

Notes:
Rama Sengupta Paul (66), the Veteran lady mountaineer, has passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal. She led the first successful all-women expedition to Kedarnath Dome in Garhwal Himalaya which was organized by city-based Himalayan Association to commemorate the International Year of Women in 1975.

Notes:
Puranik Yogendra (or Yogi) from Pune has become the first ethnic Indian to contest and win an election in Japan. He has been elected to Edogawa Ward assembly of Tokyo. Hence, this is the first-ever victory of a naturalized Japanese of Indian origin in elections in Japan. Yogi went to Japan to pursue higher studies in 1997 and worked with various IT companies there. He lived there for 20 years and has been the resident of Edogawa for 15 years. Puranik believes that his ties with his adopted home were strengthened after Japan went through earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and he came to know more about the country when would visit the affected area on weekends to help the people affected due to two calamities. Soon after, he obtained Japanese citizenship and came to enter politics; he was fielded by the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) of Japan in the recent polls.