ASSAM

· Supreme Court bans mining activities along Kaziranga park

ð The Supreme Court has banned all mining activities along the Kaziranga National Park and catchment area of rivers originating in Karbi Anglong Hills in Assam.

ð A bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta issued a notice to the Assam government and sought its reply within three weeks.

ð The mining activity in this area were resulting in environment degradation and habitat destruction in an important elephant and tiger habitat.

INTERNATIONAL

India to set up IAIARD in Malawi

The Ministry of External Affairshas signed an MOU with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Consultancy Service (NABCONS) for setting up India-Africa Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development (IAIARD)in
IAIARD would be a Pan-African Institute wherein trainees from Malawi and other African countries, will receive training to develop their human resources and build their capacity.IAIARD will impart training in the areas of micro-financing and agro-financing, among others. IAIARD is the first of its kind initiative undertaken in an African country by India. IAIARD will further strengthen the bilateral relations with Malawi and India’s relations with the African Union.
NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS)is a fully owned subsidiary promoted by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). Nabcons is engaged in providing consultancy in all spheres of agriculture, rural development, and allied areas.

NATIONAL

National Maritime Day: 5 April

5 April marks the National Maritime Day of India.

On this day in 1919, navigation history was created when SS Loyalty, the first ship of The Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd. journeyed to the United Kingdom.

It was a crucial step for Indian shipping history when sea routes were controlled by the British.

BSNL gets licence for WiFi on flights from DoT

Bharatiya Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), a State-owned telecom service provider, has received licence from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)to provide Internet and mobile services on flights. BSNL and its satellite partner, Inmarsat, will be able to offer in-flight connectivity to airlines once the ground infrastructure and associated approvals are set.
The DoT had notified its rules in December allowing airlines flying within and transiting through India to provide Internet and voice services on mobile phones along with an Indian telecom operator or licencee. So far, SpiceJet has announced that it will offer Internet access to passengers. Vistara has evinced interest in this service.
According to the rules, passengers can make phone calls or use the Internet when a flight is at aminimum height of 3,000m in Indian airspace to avoid interference with terrestrial mobile networks.

Phayeng Village of Manipur becomes Indias first carbon-positive settlement

A village is given the Carbon-Positive Tagif it sequesters more carbon than it emits, slowing the accumulation of greenhouse gases and mitigating the effects of climate change.
As part of the carbon-positive village project, Phayeng will receive a grant of Rs10 crorein phases to facilitate afforestation in the catchment of river Maklang that flows along the village.
Phayeng is a scheduled caste village of the Chakpa community in Imphal West district and its conservation efforts are mainly linked to the belief that the forest is a sacred grove.
It is surrounded by three densely forested hillockswith fruit trees at centre and a stream flowing through it.

Indian Navy to acquire 6 lethal submarines under Project-75 India at Rs 50,000 crore

Under Project 75-India, the Navy wants to build six conventional diesel-electric submarines which would be almost 50 per cent biggerthan the under-construction Scorpene class submarines being built at the Mazagon Dockyards Limited in Mumbai.
The submarines should have the ability to carry and launch 18 heavyweight torpedoes in the sea.
For the Indian Navy, the Project 75I-class submarine is a follow-on of the Project 75 Kalvari-class submarines.
The submarines will be equipped with heavy-duty firepower as it wants the boats to have at least 12 Land Attack Cruise Missiles (LACM) along with Anti-Ship cruise missiles (ASCM).

GK bit – Important projects of navy

Some important projects that are a significant part of the weapon modernisation of Indian Navy have been planned to induct new and advanced weapons. These are

Project 15 – The project is to develop Stealth Guided Missile Destroyers for the Indian Navy. These are INS Kolkata, INS Kochi and INS Chennai.

Project 17A – It is a follow up of project 17 (Shivalik class frigate) which is to manufacture 7 frigates, which would be built by Mazagaon dock and GRSE.

Project 75I – the project is for 6 diesel electric submarines. It is a follow up of project 75 (Kalvari class submarine)

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