Notes:
The Basava Sagar Dam has been built across the Krishna River at Siddapur Village in Bijapur district of Karnataka. The reservoir that it impounds is known as Basava Sagar, and has a total storage capacity of 37.965 tmcft with 30.5 tmcft live storage. The full reservoir level is 492.25 m MSL and the minimum draw down level is 481.6 m MSL. The dam is 29 meters high and over 10 kilometres long and has 30 gates for water release.

Notes:
The New Delhi World Book Fair has started at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on January 6, 2018. It is organised by the National Book Trust (NBT) in association with India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO). The main theme of 2018 fair is “Environment and climate change” and European Union is the focus country. More than 40 countries including Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are participating in the book fair. The annual event will come to an end on 14th of this month.

Notes:
Prof Baldev Raj (71), the director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), has passed away in Pune, Maharashtra on January 6, 2018, while attending a conference. A recipient of the Padma Shri award, he took over as director of NIAS Bengaluru in 2014 and presided over the expansion of the institute in terms of faculty strength and research grants. He had also served as director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam. He was a major contributor to the advancement of technologies like the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) and the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR). He contributed to the fields of nuclear materials and mechanics, non-destructive evaluation, nanoscience and technology as well as robotics and automation during the course of his career. He was also an author of around 1,000 academic papers in peer reviewed journals and more than 70 books. Prof Raj won more than 100 awards and assignments in more than 30 countries.

Notes:
The Indian Navy has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) for utilizing the Port’s berthing facility at Mattancherry wharf for Naval ships. As per the MoU, Cochin Port’s Q2 and Q3 berths at Mattacherry wharf, totaling 228 metre quay length, would be handed over to the Indian Navy for five years for berthing their ships. The lease, at an approximate cost of Rs10 crore a year, would not only enhance the growing partnership between the Navy and CPT, but will also provide the Navy with larger berthing space, thereby enabling the presence of naval ships in Kochi, both at naval as well as commercial jetties.

Notes:
Haryana has become the first Indian state to launch High-Risk Pregnancy (HRP) portal which helps in early identification of high-risk pregnant cases up to the grass-roots level and ensures their timely referral to the civil hospitals for further management and delivery by specialists. The High Risk Pregnancy Policy has been implemented across the State since November 2017, for identifying 100% name-based high-risk pregnancy cases, and ensuring their delivery by specialists at civil hospitals. This initiative will definitely increase the pace of decline in Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Still Birth Incidence as morbidity and mortality is quite high in high risk pregnant cases, if not managed timely.

Notes:
Soon, India’s second Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) will be set up by the Union Government in Arunachal Pradesh as part of tapping the potential of the Northeastern region. The first FTII was set up in Pune, an autonomous institute operating under the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B). Film actor Anupam Kher is the current Chairman of this institute.

Notes:
John Watts Young (87), the legendary astronaut who walked on the Moon and later commanded the first space shuttle flight, has passed away at Houston, United States on January 5, 2018. He became the 9th person to walk on the Moon as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. Young enjoyed the longest career of any astronaut, becoming the first person to fly six space missions (with seven launches, counting his lunar liftoff) over the course of 42 years of active NASA service. He was the only spaceman to span NASA’s Gemini, Apollo and shuttle programs and became the first person to rocket away from Earth six times.

Notes:
The World Bank (WB) in its latest report “Global Economic Prospects (GEP-2018)” has projected India’s GDP growth rate at 7.3% in 2018 and 7.5% for the next two years. As per report, despite initial setbacks from demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), India’s economy is estimated to have grown at 6.7% in 2017. Ayhan Kose, the Director of World Bank(WB)’s Development Prospects Group (DPG), stated that India’s growth potential will be around 7% for the next 10 years. For global economy, World Bank’s outlook, for the first time in many years, is better than expected with all regions seeing improved growth. However, it has warned that countries must make investments to improve their growth prospects, and the time to do that is before the next crisis hits, as it inevitably will.

Notes:
The Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO), the research arm of Union Ministry of Railways, has launched “New Online Vender Registration System” on January 9, 2018. This new system provides major improvements and paradigm changes in the registration system over the earlier system. Public access to the information, expeditious process completion with defined timelines, simplification of procedures, round-the-year services, availability of all related information on RDSO Website, constant monitoring at all levels, reduction in cycle timelines, regular updation of online data, user friendly interface etc. are the hallmarks of the new system. And also, there is no need for vendors to visit RDSO office for any activity related to his case for registration.

Notes:
The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) sub-committee on girl child education has decided to recommend free and compulsory education for girls up to post-graduate level across the country. The committee will also recommend establishing of exclusive residential degree colleges for SC and ST women besides provision of health and hygiene kits to girls. All these schemes are already being successfully implemented in Telangana. The committee also wants schools to maintain academic atmosphere besides providing basic amenities like toilets, running water, maintenance, safety measures and power supply and also appoint a counselor for adolescent girls. Apart from this, the committee wants the Union government to establish a university exclusive for women in all States. The sub-committee is likely to submit an interim report to Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar during a meeting on January 15, 2018. Kadiam Srihari, Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Telangana, is the head of the sub-committee.