Current Affairs [Monthly]

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The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) IT wing has launched the first-of-its-kind women safety application ‘Ammavin Aran’ in Tamil Nadu. The app will give the user details about the nearest police station and hospital along with map details and phone number. There is an in-built whistle, which can manipulate the phone speaker to create a loud noise when pressed by anyone in distress. The app also carries an in-built call recorder and ‘Tips’ icon to provide life saving information. The meaning of ‘Ammavin Aran’ is “mother’s fortress”. Currently, AIADMK is in power in Tamil Nadu and is the third largest party in the Indian Parliament.

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The biggest river festival of India “Namami Brahmaputra” has started in 21 districts of Assam on March 31, 2017. President Pranab Mukherjee has inaugurated the 5-day festival on the banks of the river, which is considered country’s only male river. Various cultural programmes, traditional sports, Brahmaputra Aarti, exhibition, film shows, seminars and competitions will be the part of the festival. Spiritual leader Dalai Lama and several Union ministers will also attend the festival. This festival is likely to give a boost to the investment and tourism prospect in the state. Prime Minister of Bhutan, Governor of Assam and Chief Ministers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will also attend the inaugural ceremony.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated an exhibition titled ‘Swachhagraha – Bapu Ko Karyanjali’ in New Delhi on April 10, 2017 to mark centenary of the historic Champaran Satyagraha – Mahatma Gandhi’s first Satyagraha in India. The exhibition will showcase Champaran Satyagraha and it will connect essential principles of Satyagraha with Swachhagraha. The exhibition will also showcase the ground covered by the Swachh Bharat Mission in creating a mass movement towards a clean India.

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The 2017 Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet (GRAM) has started at Kota, Rajasthan from May 24, 2017 to empower farmers with latest technical know-how and best practices. Malaysia is the partner country in the GRAM Kota 2017. The GRAM will provide a platform for Agri-firms to promote themselves and/or find promoters. The 3-day event will bring all stakeholders- farmers from in and around Kota, academicians, technologists, agribusiness companies and policy makers – to accelerate development of sustainable agricultural and allied activities through innovative methods and best practices.

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The Barkana Falls is a water falls located near Agumbe in Shimoga district of Karnataka. It is among the ten highest waterfalls in India and is formed by Seetha River. The water falls is filled with water only during rainy season.

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In a major initiative to connect all the North-East (N-E) states to the National Gas Grid, the 5 central oil PSUs – IOCL, ONGC, GAIL, OIL, and NRL – have signed a joint venture agreement for executing the North – East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid (N-ENGPG) in Guwahati on July 19, 2018. As per the agreement, a Joint Venture (JV) company will develop, build, operate and maintain the Natural Gas Pipeline Grid (NGPG) connecting Guwahati to the other major North -Eastern cities and major load centres such as Numaligarh Refinery and integrating it with gas producing fields in the region. The project will connect the state capitals of all the 8 NE states – Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh with an expenditure of Rs 6000 crore for 1500 Km length gas pipeline in a tentative four years time schedule. The project will be implemented in 3 phases.

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The 3rd edition of “Words in the Garden” festival 2019 is scheduled to be held on February 22 in New Delhi and will pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi with the theme — ‘Bapu ki Dilli’. The 3-day festival will celebrate the creativity, imagination and ideas that Delhi generates, sustains and embodies. Commemorating 150 years of Gandhi’s birth anniversary, the event will feature plays, recitals, readings, discussions honoring the life and ideology of Bapu. Highlights include M K Raina’s play “Stay Yet A While”, poems, recitals, acts and music by Gandhi Ambedkar Circle of St Stephen’s College, storytelling by Mahmood Farooqui on Gandhi’s final journey and Madhup Mudgal’s “Ashram Bhajanavali”. The fest is free and open to all, and will see participation by stalwarts from the fields of literature, art, and social sciences among others. The fest is the brain child of renowned Hindi writer Ashok Vajpeyi.

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A team of researchers at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has created a next-generation plastic, called Poly Di-Ketoenamine (or PDK), that can be fully recycled into new materials of any colour, shape, or form, without loss of performance or quality. They have designed a recyclable plastic that, like a Lego playset, can be disassembled into its constituent parts at the molecular level. According to the journal Nature Chemistry, unlike conventional plastics, the monomers of PDK plastic could be recovered and freed from any compounded additives simply by dunking the material in a highly acidic solution. The acid helps to break the bonds between the monomers and separate them from the chemical additives that give plastic its look and feel. After testing various formulations, the researchers demonstrated that not only does acid break down PDK polymers into monomers, but the process also allows the monomers to be separated from entwined additives.

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The Indian Space Research Organisation is set to conduct the second session of its Young Scientist Programme for school children called Yuva Vigyani Karyakram (YUVIKA).
The programme which was first launched in 2019 by ISRO, aims to inculcate the school children about space theories and technologies. This initiative is expected to promote awareness among the children in space related activities. The online registration for this year’s programme has recently begun, as per the announcement from ISRO.

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The Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Mahendra Nath Pandey launched the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship programme in the Indian Institute of Management in Bengaluru.
The Fellowship is a part of the SANKALP programme of the ministry and aims at preparing District Skill Development plan by providing skilled manpower for District Skill Committees. Under this pilot project, IIM-B shall train 75 graduates for two years in preparing the District skill plan.