Daily Current Affairs for March 30-31,2018 ( English)

2.     Telangana Panchayat Raj Bill, 2018 was passed by the Telangana Legislative Assembly on March 29, 2018. The bill is comprehensive and envisages making villages self-reliant, clean and green.

3.     The Railway Ministry announced that the available vacancies have now been increased to 1,10,000 from previously 90,000 for Group C (26,502 Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) and Technician posts) and Group D (62,907 posts). The last date for the applications is March 31, 2018.

4.     The first male cabin crew as part of its plans to be an ‘equal opportunity employer’ was introduced by Vistara airlines. Besides, the airline also unveiled an elegant uniform for its male cabin crew, designed by celebrated designer label Lecoanet Hemant. Apart from Vistara, Air India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet have mixed cabin crew.

5.     Goa Regional Plan 2021 was revived by the Goa state government on March 29, 2018, nearly six years after it was put on hold due to protests. The plan was put on hold by the then chief minister Digambar Kamat of Congress on June 4, 2012 amid protests by the opposition which feared that the plan would unleash unbridled construction activity damaging the fragile ecology of the coastal state.

6.     The Jalandhar district administration has made it mandatory for applicants, seeking fresh or renewal of arms license to undergo a dope test. The primary aim of the move is to check the misuse of the licensed weapon by the drug addicts, thereby ensuring the safety and security of the people. 

7.     The Gauwahati High Court would be setting up exclusive fast-track courts in all districts of Assam for the day-to-day trial of cases related to rape and murder of women and children in the state.

8.     The Goa bench of Bombay High Court passed an interim order on March 29, 2018, directing immediate suspension of transportation of minerals from the 88 mining leases in Goa whose operations were stopped by the Supreme Court last month.

9.       India’s longest elevated road- Hindon Elevated Road was inaugurated in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The elevated six-lane road is approximately 10 kilometres-long. It is built on 227 single pillars. It was built at a cost of about Rs 11,000 crores. It connects UP Gate to Rajnagar Extension and will make it easier to commute between Delhi and Ghaziabad. It reduces 1 hour journey by 18 minutes. It is estimated that around 4,000 vehicles would ply on this elevated road every hour.

10.   The first US-sourced LNG shipment was imported by state-owned GAIL on board of its chartered LNG ship ‘Meridian Spirit’ from Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility in Louisiana. It was discharged at GAIL’s Dabhol terminal, Maharashtra after 25 days voyage. The development comes on heels of India’s first import of crude oil from US in October 2017.

11.   Rajasthan’s first mega food park-Greentech Mega Food Park Private Ltd was inaugurated at Roopangarh Village in Ajmer district by Union Minister for Food Processing Industry Harsimrat Kaur Badal. It has central processing centre as well as well as four Primary Processing Centres (PPCs)at Jaipur, Nagaur, Tonk and Churu. It also has facilities for primary processing and storage near farms. The park was set up under Central Government’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana and ‘Make in India’ initiative.

12.   Geographical Indication (GI) Tag to Madhya Pradesh’s Kadaknath chicken has awarded  by Chennai based Geographical Indication Registry and Intellectual Property India. Kadaknath chicken breed is unique for its black colour due to its black-feathers. This breed of chicken is popular for its adaptability and flavourful good-tasting black meat, which is believed to have medicinal properties. It is native tribal districts of Jhabua, Alirajpur and parts of Dhar in Madhya Pradesh. The GI tag will ensure that no one else can use name Kadaknath Chicken while selling any other black chicken.

13.   Swachh Bharat Summer Internship (SBSI) 2018 aimed at engaging college youth with Swachhata work in villages in coming Summer vacation will be launched by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in association with Ministry of Human Resource Development. SBSI 2018 aims to engage lakhs of educated youth across country, develop their skills and orientation for sanitation sector, amplify mass awareness and cement people’s movement (Jan andolan) aspect of SBM.

2.       GSAT-6A communication satellite using its heavy rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F08) was successfully launched by India on March 29, 2018. Soon after separation from GSLV, the two solar arrays of GSAT-6A were automatically deployed in quick succession and the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan, Karnataka assumed control of the satellite. This was overall 12th GSLV flight (and fifth successful) and sixth flight with indigenously built cryogenic upper stage engine. GSAT-6A is high power S-band communication satellite with a mission life of about 10 years. It was placed in Geosynchronous orbit of Earth. It weighs 2066 kg and is most powerful home-made communication satellite till date. It is similar to GSAT-6 is a high power S-band communication satellite that was launched back in 2015. On April 1, 2018, ISRO confirmed that it had lost contact satellite GSAT-6A in the aftermath of second orbit-raising exercise.

3.       A pair of twin Beidou-3MEO satellites – Beidou-30 and Beidou-31 –into space as part of its third and final stage of launching  its domestic Beidou (Compass) satellite navigation system was sent successfully by China. They were launched on board Long March-3B carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. BeiDou is 2nd generation of Chinese homegrown navigational system seen as rival to US’s Global Positioning System (GPS). It was named after Chinese term for plough or Big Dipper constellation.

4.       Russia has successfully test fired its latest nuclear Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) RS-28 Sarmat. The test was carried out at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, as spaceport in the west of Russia, close to the Arctic Circle. The ICBM Sarmat has the capacity to reach any point in the world. The missile will enter into service by 2021.