Daily Current Affairs for May 31,2018 ( English)

2.       Mission Raftaar – a one day workshop aimed at raising average speed of freight trains and coaching trains in New Delhi was conducted by the Ministry of Railways. The mission aims at doubling average speed of freight trains and increasing average speed of coaching trains by 25kmph over a five year period. It was launched as part of strategy of Indian Railways to keep pace with growing competition from competing modes viz. road and airlines etc.

3.       The new user interface of its Next Generation e-Ticketing (NGeT) System on Indian Railway’s Online Travel Portal (www.irctc.co.in) has been launched by the Union Ministry of Railways. It was launched as part of Union Government’s Digital India’ initiative to harness power of technology and in making lives easier for citizens of India. Through NGeT system, Indian Railways new online ticket booking system provides user-friendly, easy and fast way of booking rail tickets by automating journey planning and purchase of tickets.

4.       For the first time, the Union Ministry of Tourism issued guidelines for Adventure Tourism in India in an effort to make adventure sports safer. In past few years, adventure tourism has grown rapidly India. It has been playing vital role in economic growth of the country as well as attracting large number of travellers from across globe to country.

5.       Andhra Pradesh Government notified its new state symbols after four year after bifurcation of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2014 into two states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. These states symbols were notified by State department of environment, forest, science and technology.New state symbols State bird: Rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri). Locally known as Rama Chiluka. State tree: Neem ( Azadirachta indica). Locally known Vepa Chettu. State animal: Black-buck (Antilope cervicapra). Locally known as Krishna Jinka. State flower: Jasmine (Jasminum officinale). Its adoption will promote jasmine, which is grown commercially in Guntur, Prakasam, Kurnool, Kadapa, Anantapur and Chittoor districts of state. State symbols of Telangana: State symbols of Telangana State bird: Indian Roller (coracias benghalensis) or Palapitta. It also state bird of Odisha and Karnataka. State tree: Jammi Chettu (prosopis cineraria). State animal: Jinka or spotted deer.State flower: Tangidi Puvvu (senna auriculata). It is widely used in the state’s famous Bathukamma festival.

6.       The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development urged the States and UTs to issue necessary directions to the concerned departments for including male child victims of sexual abuse in the Victim Compensation Schemes or Funds. The Minister also urged that the compensation including the interim compensation should be given to the victims on time.

7.     The Union Government signed a $500 million loan agreement with the World Bank to provide additional financing for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) Rural Roads Project. The project, implemented by the Union Rural Development ministry, aims to build 7,000 km of climate resilient roads, out of which 3,500 km will be constructed using green technologies.

8.     Child Rights and You (CRY), the non-governmental child rights organization announced that it has received a USD 100,000 grant from global technology major Oracle for a digitally enhanced monitoring system that would potentially improve lives of underprivileged children across 19 states. This system will potentially improve lives spanning across 19 states of India and covers 2,060 villages, 2 lakh households and 4.13 lakh children.

2.     Social networking giant Facebook has partnered with National Commission for Women (NCW) to launch Digital Literacy Programme to train women on safe use of internet and social media. Under it, awareness training will be conducted for 60,000 women in universities across major cities over a one-year period. The programme was launched by Facebook in collaboration with Ranchi, Jharkhanda-based Cyber Peace Foundation (CPF), a civil society organisation involved in training related to all aspects of cyber security.