ASSAM

20km Assam bridge to cut travel by 200km
India’s longest river bridge will be built across the Brahmaputra, connecting Dhubri in Assam to Phulbari in Meghalaya, and will cut road travel by 203km as also travel time.
The 19.3km, four-lane bridge will be built by 2026-27
At present, vehicles take an over-200km-long detour using the Naranarayan bridge, which is 60km upstream. The new bridge will complete the missing link of NH127B from Assam to Meghalaya.
Japanese funding agency JICA has approved a loan for this project as a part of a road infrastructure improvement package in the north-east after assessing the economic benefit of the big project.

INTERNATIONAL

· India, Myanmar sign pact for appointment of port operator

India and Myanmar on Monday inked a crucial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the appointment of a private operator of the Sittwe Port that will boost connectivity and help in creating local job opportunities as the two sides discussed bilateral issues as well as topics of common interest, including developments in the strife-torn Rakhine state.

Sittwe Portis a deepwater port constructed by India in 2016 at Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in Myanmar, on the Bay of Bengal.

· In Nov, memorial for India’s WW1 forces opens in France

A memorial commemorating the contribution of Indian armed forces in the World War I is being built in France and will be inaugurated in next month.

Nearly 1.5 million Indian soldiers participated in the World War I as part of the then British Indian Army, of which 1.3 million fought overseas in places such as Flanders (Belgium), East Africa, Gallipoli, Aden, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Persia and China, Chhina said. Some74,000Indiansoldiers lost their lives.

· Ocean Cleanup Foundation launched floating pipe to gather ocean plastic

The Ocean Cleanup Foundation has launched a project to collect the plastic in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Wilson, a 2,000-foot-long floating pipe has begun its mission to collect the plastic in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The pipe is constructed inU shape. It features a three-metre-deep net to trap floating plastic under the water’s surface. A boat will visit the spot every few months to remove the debris.

NATIONAL

· Number of Taxpayers goes up by 70%, but collections down by 34%.

E-returns filed by individual taxpayers grew 70% annually to 5.4 crore in the April-August period of the current financial year, but the average tax paid by them has come down by 32% to Rs 27,083.

Even though first, demonetisation, and later, the goods and services tax (GST) helped add pace to tax base expansion, the rate of growth in personal income tax (PIT) collection hasn’t risen commensurately.

PM Modi announces national award in Netaji’s name for disaster relief workers

A national award in the name of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose will be given every year to police personnel who do excellent work in rescue and relief operations during any kind of disaster.

The announcement came on the 75th anniversary of Bose’s declaration of the formation of India’s first independent government — the Azad Hind Government on October 21, 1943.

The NDRF and SDRF are constituted with personnel from the Central paramilitary forces and State police organisations respectively.

Centre’s Ayushman Bharat crosses 1 lakh subscribers in 30 days

The Centre’s flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY), has crossed the one-lakh beneficiary mark within a month of its September 23 launch.

Close to 7,000 government hospitals are empanelled and treating patients under the scheme. No private hospital is yet empanelled. About 8,000 hospitals are in the process of being empanelled.

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