1) Public Service Broadcasting Day: 12 November
•Public Service Broadcasting Day is celebrated on 12 November every year. The day is celebrated every year to commemorate the first and last visit of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi to the studio of All India Radio, Delhi in 1947. The Father of the Nation addressed the displaced people, who had temporarily settled at Kurukshetra in Haryana after partition.
2) Gujarat Govt gives approval to world’s first CNG terminal at Bhavnagar port
•Gujarat Government has given approval to the world’s first CNG terminal at Bhavnagar port, Gujarat. The joint venture of United Kingdom-based Foresight Group and Mumbai-based Padmanabh Mafatlal Group will invest 1,900 crore rupees to set up a CNG terminal at Bhavnagar port. For this, a Memorandum of Understanding between Gujarat Maritime Board and London-based Foresight Group was signed during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit earlier this year.
3) Union Cabinet recommends President’s rule in Maharashtra
•President Ram Nath Kovind has signed the proclamation imposing President’s rule in Maharashtra. The Union Cabinet has recommended the President rule on the report of the Governor invoking Article 356 of the constitution in the state. Article 356, commonly known as President’s rule, deals with ‘failure of constitutional machinery in the state’
•The Governor’s office stated that the government cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution, and submitted a report as contemplated by the provision of Article 356 of the Constitution.
4) Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurates the India Pavilion at the ADIPEC
•Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the India Pavilion at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC). The India Pavilion has been set up by 9 Indian Oil & Gas companies from the upstream, midstream, downstream and engineering segments, along with Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
5) Centre approves to set up four medical device parks
•The government of India has given approval for setting up four medical device parks with a view to support Make in India initiative and provide world-class products at an affordable price for treatment. The four parks will be set up in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
•These parks will provide the necessary infrastructure, where companies can easily plug and play. This will not only cut import bill but will also help in easy access to standard testing facilities and reduce the cost of production. The project of Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone for creation of Common Facility Centre (CFC) for Superconducting Magnetic Coil Testing and Research was given in-principle approval recently. The scheme proposes to provide Rs. 25 crores or 70% of the project cost of setting up CFCs, whichever is less, for the creation of common facilities in any upcoming park.
6) George Schaller lifetime award for wildlife biologist K. Ullas Karanth
•Wildlife biologist K. Ullas Karanth, Director, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru, was awarded the George Schaller Lifetime Award in Wildlife Conservation Science for his contribution to the field of conservation. He is the first recipient of the award instituted by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), New York, in honour of Dr George Schaller, who is considered one of the greatest wildlife scientists and conservationists globally.
•K. Ullas Karanth was honoured with various awards, which includes Padma Shri award (2012), Karnataka Government’s Rajyothsava Award (2010) etc. WCS George Schaller Lifetime Award has been created to honour members of WCS for their outstanding contributions in conserving wildlife and wild places.
7) Justice AP Sahi sworn-in as Chief Justice of Madras High Court
•Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi was sworn-in as Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office to Justice Sahi. Justice Sahi replaces Justice VK Tahilramani, who quit on September 6. Prior to this appointment, Justice Sahi was Chief Justice of the Patna High Court from November 17, 2018.
8) “National Capital Region -2041” conclave held in Delhi
•Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, chaired the inaugural conclave on “National Capital Region -2041” in Delhi. This conclave is organized by the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB). The theme of the conclave was “Planning for Tomorrow’s Greatest Capital Region”. The Regional Plan-2041 should be a citizen-centric plan, with liveability as the hallmark, to ensure ease of living.
9) NASA detects huge X-ray burst from outer space
•NASA has detected a massive thermonuclear explosion coming from outer space, caused by a massive thermonuclear flash on the surface of a pulsar. The crushed remains of a star that long ago exploded as a supernova. The explosion released as much energy in 20 seconds as the Sun does in nearly 10 days.
•NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope on the International Space Station (ISS) detected a sudden spike of X-rays on August 20, reports the US space agency. The X-ray burst, the brightest seen by NICER so far, came from an object named “J1808”. The observations reveal many phenomena that have never been seen together in a single burst.
10) Dal Lake of J&K to be declared Eco-Sensitive Zone
•The Jammu and Kashmir government has set up a 10-member committee to declare Srinagar’s famous Dal Lake and its surrounding areas as an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ), following concerns over its shrinking size. Pollution and encroachments have resulted in the Dal Lake shrinking from its original area of 22 square kilometres to about 10 square kilometres, according to an assessment by the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) in 2017. The capacity of the lake has shrunk to 40%. The depth of the lake has reduced in many places due to the absence of desilting.
•The Eco-Sensitive Zone is called Ecologically Fragile Areas. A region or territory is notified as ESZ by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change. In General, the regions are around wildlife sanctuaries, protected areas and National Parks.
11) Newly discovered species of spider named after Sachin Tendulkar
•Dhruv Prajapati, a research scholar from the Gujarat Ecological Education & Research (GEER) Foundation, has discovered two new spider species in Kerala, TamilNadu and Gujarat. One spider species was named after Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar as “Marengo Sachin Tendulkar” while the other was named as “Indomarengo chavarapater” after Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, who played a key role in creating awareness on education in the state of Kerala.
