2nd January, 2018 ............................................................................................................................................... 1

SOCIAL SECTOR ....................................................................................................... 1

NARI & e-Samvad ................................................................................................... 1

Margdarshan.......................................................................................................... 2

ECONOMY ................................................................................................................ 2

Major constructions and portals under Ministry of Road Transport & Highways ... 2

INAM-Pro+ ......................................................................................................... 3

Bhoomi Rashi ..................................................................................................... 3

Sarathi ................................................................................................................ 4

VAHAN ............................................................................................................... 4

mParivahan App ................................................................................................. 4

National Waterways -2 ........................................................................................... 4

ENVIORNMENT ........................................................................................................ 5

Bhitarkanika National Park .................................................................................... 5

New Ginger species discovered in North East ......................................................... 6

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SOCIAL SECTOR

NARI & e-Samvad Why in News?

Both portals were recently launched by Ministry of Women & Child Development

NARI Portal

Developed by the Ministry of Women & Child Development

It contains following information:

o Summarizes over 350 government scheme

o Links to the Ministries, Departments and autonomous bodies offering these schemes

0484-3190310

9446331522

9446331522

TPS 18 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS Date: 02-01-2018

o Important information for the benefit of women suggestions for health check-ups,

information on major diseases, tips for job search and interview etc. o Easy access to online applications and grievance redressal

e-Samvad portal

Platform for NGOs and Civil Societies to interact with the Ministry of Women & Child

Development

They can provide their feedback, suggestions, put up grievances, share best practices etc.

Senior Officers within MWCD will view the inputs/suggestions received for their concerned subject areas and appropriately respond to NGOs.

Margdarshan

Why in News?

Recently mentioned as one of the key four initiatives for higher education by AICTE.

What is it?

Margdarshan or Share and Mentor institutions programme is one of AICTE Quality Improvement

Schemes (AQIS) by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). AICTE, a statutory body of government of India is the nodal agency for technical education

Major features

In this scheme, an institute of repute will be designated as a Mentor and it will serve as the

hub to guide and disperse knowledge to and between around ten technical institutions to

encourage best practices.

The secondary branches, the spokes, are additional services provided to faculty for self-

improvement. Eventually, the Hub ‘n Spoke system will allow for inter-hamlet information sharing, such as technical education, research and sharing of resources to the entire system.

Implementation

The mentor Institution/ University Departments must be Government or Government

Aided/Self-Financed institute or AICTE approved institutes/ University Departments.

It should have been before established 15 years.

Duration of project shall be of 3 years.

A maximum grant of Rs.50 lakh will be provided.

The distance between hub and spoke should be less than 600 kms.

The Chief Coordinator shall be a full time faculty member of the Mentor institute and shall be primarily responsible for the implementation of the project.

ECONOMY

Major constructions and portals under Ministry of Road Transport & Highways

Why in News?

Mentioned in the yearend review of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways

Name Location Features

Chenani- Nashri

Tunnel

On NH 44 between Udhampur

and Ramban in Jammu &

Kashmir ; connecting Jammu

with Kashmir Valley

9 km long, India’s longest highway tunnel,

Asia’s longest bi-directional highway tunnel;

All weather twin tube, India’s first tunnel

with integrated control system

Dhola Sadiya

Bridge (Bhupen

Hazarika Setu)

between upper Assam and

Eastern part of Arunachal

Pradesh; across the Lohit

river which is a tributary of

the Brahmaputra river.

9 km – longest bridge in India; Sadiya is in

Assam and is the birthplace of iconic singer

Bhupen Hazarika.

Extra-dosed Bridge across river Narmada at

Bharuch, Gujarat

For people travelling on the Vadodara- Surat

section of NH-8; The 1.4 km ‘Extradosed’

cable stayed bridge is the longest in India

and the second such bridge in the country

after Nivedita Setu over Hooghly.

INAM-Pro+

It is a common platform to bring buyers and sellers of construction industry together.

It is an upgraded version of INAM-Pro which was restricted to cement buyers. This made

the comparison of prices, availability of materials etc. quite convenient for the prospective

buyers i.e. Government Contractors.

INAM-Pro has been recognized and listed in Book-on-Innovations “New Beginning” released by Hon’ble PM on the Civil Services Day.

Following the success with cement, the portal has recently been upgraded as INAM-Pro+ to

include the A to Z of construction materials, equipments/machinery and services like

purchase/hiring/lease of new/used products and services in the domains of Construction

Materials.

The web portal designed by National Highways and Infrastructure Development

Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL), fully owned company of the Ministry of Road Transport &

Highways, Government of India. Unlike National Highways Authority, NHIDCL undertakes works

in north-east and Jammu and Kashmir.

It will increase efficiency and transparency in procurement of construction materials as a user

can now place orders, obtain price quotes and track them in swift manner on this portal.

Bhoomi Rashi

It’s a web utility by the Ministry of Road transport and Highways which will be one-point

platform for online processing of land acquisition and notifications.

It would be linked with the e-gazette platform of the Ministry of Urban Development, for e-

publication of land acquisition related Gazette Notifications.

The affected/ interested parties would be given an access to the system so as to track the

status of their acquired land.

Sarathi

This portal deals with the issuance of various categories of licenses viz learning license, driving

license, driving school license and conductor license.

It also uses the devices to capture biometrics like photograph, thumb impression and signature

of license holder.

VAHAN

It is a highly flexible and comprehensive system for Vehicle Registration

The software enables the processes at RTO involving Vehicle Registration, Fitness, Taxes,

Permits & Enforcement to capture various data related to license and vehicle holder.

mParivahan App

It’s a mobile application for information and comprehensive services on vehicles to citizen.

It will provide following information:

o Virtual driving licence and registration certificates

o Full details of the car and the owner, including his driving licence and registration

certificate, if the vehicle number is available. It will be useful to check the genuineness

of a vehicle’s ownership and driver and help in passenger safety when hiring a driver or

when buying a second-hand vehicle.

o Facilitation for “good Samaritans”: They can report accidents by clicking pictures and

reporting to traffic authorities in states and to road transport organizations, with the

option of hiding their identity, if they so wish.

National Waterways -2 Why in News?

Recently the Shipping flagged off cargo movement on the Pandu-Dhubri route of the National

Waterways 2 (NW-2) on the river Brahmaputra.

What is it?

The 891-km stretch of the Brahmaputra river between Sadiya in the easternmost part of

upper Assam and Dhubri near Bangladesh border was declared the National Waterway-2

in 1988.

The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) plans to initiate regular cargo movement

through inland waterways under the Sagarmala programme on the same route.

It will charge only Rs 318 per tonne as waterway transportation charges from Pandu Port to

Dhubri/Hatsingimari to encourage entrepreneurs and logistic operators to shift to a cost

effective and eco-friendly mode of transportation that also reduces road congestion.

The Ministry of Shipping has been focussing on connecting the north east region to Kolkata,

Haldia, Mongla and Chittagong ports, besides providing efficient logistics in the North East,

setting up roll on-roll off services across River banks and facilitating movement for armed forces

NW-2 has differential global positioning system (DGPS) stations at four locations—

Dhubri, Jogighopa, Biswanthghat and Dibrugarh —for safe navigation by vessels with electronic

charts.

At present, Pandu is the only port with multimodal connectivity in NW-2; the IWAI is

presently considering a proposal to develop a multimodal terminal at Joghigopa as well.

Multi-modal Portal at Joghigopa will provide Bhutan easier access to NW-2 by road and

from there to Bangladesh via waterways. The potential export cargo for Bhutan are boulders,

gypsum, and limestone.

Of the 106 new National Waterways notified in April 2016 under the National Waterways Act,

2016, 19 are in the north-east region. Some of these are NW-16 (the Barak), NW-95 (the

Subansiri), NW-39 (the Ganol) and NW-93 (the Simsang).

ENVIORNMENT

Bhitarkanika National Park

Why in News?

The Bhitarkanika National Park in Odisha’s Kendrapara district is out of bounds for tourists for a week in view of for the annual census of estuarine crocodiles.

Features

The National park is located in the delta of rivers Brahmani, Baitarani and Dhamara.

It is the second largest mangrove ecosystem in India and is a Ramsar site.

Gahirmatha Beach and Marine Sanctuary which is known as the world’s largest rookery of Olive Ridley sea turtles, lies to its east

The national park is home to Saltwater crocodile, White Crocodile, Indian python, King cobra, black ibis etc.

It has one of the largest populations of endangered saltwater crocodile in India and is

globally unique in that 10 percent of the adults exceed 6 m length. The park found mention in

the Guinness Book of World Records in 2006 for its 23-feet-long saltwater crocodile listed as the largest in the world

Bagagahan, a breeding colony of herons is one of the largest in the country.

New Ginger species discovered in the North East

Name Location Features

Hedycium Chingmeianum

Tuensang Nagaland

Ephiphyatic - grows on tall trees, Reddish stem , creamy white flowers

Caulokaempferia Shiru Hills Ukhrul Manipur

Found in rock crevices boulders and humus rich soil, Oval shaped pink flowers

Both the plants belong to the family of Zingiberaceae, to which the commonly found ginger (Zingiber officinale) belongs to.

Out of 44 taxa, 31 species and 13 varieties of genus Hedychium found in India, only 5 are reported in south India. The remaining species are all found in North East.

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