ASSAM

Defective roads have been found to be causing the majority of fatal road accidents in the state, the research wing of the ministry of road and highways transport said. Fault in road design, potholes, sharp curves and speed breakers have been found to be contributing factors. “Out of the total 7,435 road accidents killing 2,572 persons in Assam in 2016, 653 accidents happened at T-junctions, killing 179 people, and 425 at Y-junctions, killing at least 118 persons,” the central research wing reported.

Citing the report, a transport department official said, At least 30 people died after they lost control of their vehicles at speed breakers. Lack of proper marking of speed breakers was found to be prime reason, besides rash driving.

There were four heavy accident prone zones identified in Cachar, Jorhat and Dibrugarh districts. Tinsukia and Kamrup districts have two black spots each

INTERNATIONAL

The first edition of the Global Wind Summit will be held in Hamburg from September 25-28, 2018.

The organisers of the four-day event are expecting speakers from about 100 countries, including India, China, the US, Spain and Denmark.

The conference on wind is the largest and most important meeting of the wind industry worldwide.

· PMs Of India And Bangladesh Inaugurate Bangla Bhavan In Shantiniketan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinajointly inaugurate Bangladesh Bhawan at Shanti Niketan in West Bengal.
The two leaders then paid floral tributes to Rabindra Nath Tagore.
This is the first time in Indian history, that two prime ministers attended a convocation ceremony.

NATIONAL

· DAC Approves Procurement Of Equipment For Defence Forces

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, met in New Delhi and accorded approval for the procurement of equipment for the Defence Forces valued at over Rs. 6900 crores.
The DAC approved procurement of Thermal Imaging (TI) Night Sights for the Rocket Launcher (RL) used by the Army and the Air Force under ‘BUY (Indian) IDDM’ category through established Indian Vendors.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a survey on the NaMo App,asking people to rate the performance of the government at the Centre and MPs and MLAs in their constituencies.

He launched the initiative, to mark the completion of four years of the NDA government, which came to power at the Centre in 2014.

Sangeeta Bahl, a 53-year-old former model become the oldest Indian womanto conquer Mount Everest.
Bahl, who currently resides in Gurugram, scaled the peak with the help of two Sherpas and was felicitated at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu.
She already conquered six out of the seven highest peaks in the world.

E-Way Bill systemfor intra-State movement of goods will be implemented in seven more states and Union Territories from 27th May 2018.
The States are Maharashtra, Manipur, Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep.
With this, the number of States, where the system is being implemented, will go up to 27.
As per the decision of the GST Council, e-Way Bill system has been rolled out from 1st of April this year.

At least 10 species, including the Ganges river dolphin and the gharial, found in Ganga for centuries, are on the verge of extinction, according to new report released by the ministry of water resources last week.

While the dolphin is listed as an endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN ) Red list, the Gharial is placed under critically endangered category.

The other species include birds such as the black bellied tern and Indian skimmer; turtles such as the northern river terrapin, three stripped roofed turtle, red crowned roofed turtle; and the golden mahaseer fish.

The sarus crane, the mugger crocodile and the snow trout have been put in the vulnerable list.

When the new, refurbished IRCTC website goes live, it will let the passengers know the probability of confirmation of tickets on wait-list, based on a new algorithm developed by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS).

According to the new feature of wait list prediction, one can predict the chances of a wait-listed or an RAC ticket getting confirmed on the basis of booking trends.

The algorithm will take into account last 13 years’ data to arrive at a “robust, workable model.

The users can also perform multiple activities like cancellation, printing, request for an SMS, selection of an alternative train by exercising the “Vikalp” option and changing the boarding point, if required.

Nearly 13 lakh tickets are booked on the IRCTC website every day against a reserved accommodation of 10.5 lakh berths.