ASSAM

• Assam, Manipur can now decide on AFSPA

• The Union Home Ministry is set to give up its power to impose the ‘disturbed areas’ tag on Assam and Manipur, both ruled by the BJP. The move effectively means it will be the States’ decision to either continue the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) or revoke it.

• As per Section 3 of the AFSPA, it can be invoked in places where “the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary.”

• The AFSPA empowers the Army and Central forces deployed in “disturbed areas” to kill anyone breaking the law and arrest and search any premises without warrant.

INTERNATIONAL

• Melbourne named as World’s Most Liveable City

• According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Report 2017, Melbourne (in Australia) world’s most liveable city for a record seventh year in a row.

• Melbourne scored an overall rating of 97.5 out of 100 on the liveability index.

• It is the first time in the survey’s 15-year history that a city has held the No 1 rank in its own right for seven consecutive years.

·       India moves to revive TAPI gas pipeline.

ð India will host the next steering committee meeting of the proposed 1,814 kilometre-long Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline.

ð   The decision was came during the sixth joint Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) meeting on trade, economic, scientific and technological cooperation.

ð The pipeline, that had its ground-breaking ceremony in December 2015, has seen flagging interest since then for a number of reasons. India’s effort is to tap Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh gasfields, which are the fourth largest in the world.

Gk bit– TAPI

• The Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline(TAPI), also known as Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline, is a natural gaspipeline being developed by the Asian Development Bank. The pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India. Construction on the project started in Turkmenistan on December 13th, 2015. The pipeline is expected to be operational by 2019.

• The capacity will be 33 billion cubic metres (1.2 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas per year of which 5 billion cubic metres (180 billion cubic feet) will be provided to Afghanistan and 14 billion cubic metres (490 billion cubic feet) to each Pakistan and India.

NATIONAL

• Union Cabinet approves new metro rail policy.

• The Union Cabinet has approved a new policy for expanding and regulating metro rail services in cities across India. This is the first such policy document prepared by the Centre since Metro Rail operations began in Delhi in 2002.

• The policy gives a big boost to private players by making private participation mandatory for all the three funding options – be it a public-private partnership (PPP) model with central assistance under the Viability Gap Funding scheme of the Finance Ministry, a grant from the Centre under which 10% of the project cost would be given as a lump sum, or a 50:50 equity sharing model between the Central and State governments.

• The policy also seeks to ensure that metro projects are initiated for sound reasons.

• The metro project can
  Join Our Telegram Channel
  213.4-11.5c23.5-6.3 42-24.2 48.3-47.8 11.4-42.9 11.4-132.3 11.4-132.3s0-89.4-11.4-132.3zm-317.5 213.5V175.2l142.7 81.2-142.7 81.2z"/> Subscribe on YouTube