Current Affairs 1st January 2018

Current Affairs 1st January 2018 - Important Points

• Major contracts for Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga awarded by - GAIL
• Kiran Mazumdar Shaw hails Real-time Governance module of Chandra Babu Naidu on - 29th December 2017
• 2 new ginger species discovered in northeast by - Indian Scientists
• Arunachal Pradesh declared Open defecation-free State  by - Northeast State Government

Current Affairs 1st January 2018 - Details

Major contracts for Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga awarded by - GAIL

State-run Gas (India) Limited- GAIL laid down the orders for next 400-km natural gas pipeline scheme
under aspiring Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga. Thus, the total pipe gave request for 2,100 km of Jagdishpur-Haldia,Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline project have been laid down.

Key Highlights

• The 2,655 km long JHBDPL project also named ass Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project starts
  at Jagdishpur, Uttar Pradesh.
• The main chest box of pipeline ends to Haldia, West Bengal and Dhamra, Odisha.
• The pipeline proceeds via Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.
• The total value of project is Rs. 12,940 crores and is projected to be accomplished by 2019.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw hails Real-time Governance module of Chandra Babu Naidu on - 29th December 2017

 Pioneer Business leader Kiran Mazumdar Shaw encouraged political class to reproduce the good governance module for superior transparency and accountability. The Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon used Twitter and shared a picture from the cabinet meeting led by Chandra Babu Naidu.
A short time ago, President Ram Nath Kovind also captured the stock of the war room evolved by state
administration during his last state visit and also hailed the distinctive initiative.
The main objective of RTG tool is to nourish the course of administration and governance using
technological involvements like new age technology, electronic communication and e-governance.

2 new ginger species discovered in northeast by - Indian Scientists

Botanical Survey of India scientists have uncovered 2 new varieties of ginger, Hedychium chingmeianum and Caulokaempferia dinabandhuensis in northeast India. Both the plants are related to the family of Zingiberaceae, to which the ginger is related.
Important Highlights

• Hedychium chingmeianum was uncovered in Tuensang district in Nagaland, both encircling Myanmar.
• It is an epiphytic plant and develops on trunks of tall trees. It has red coloured stems and off-white flowers.
• Caulokaempferia dinabandhuensis was discovered growing in rock cracks, boulders and humus rich soil in the Shirui Hills in Ukhrul, Manipur.
• It bears beautiful round-shaped pink flowers which blooms in June- July months. It got its name after being discovered ny Mr. Dinabandhu Sahoo.
• Out of 44 taxa, thirty-one species and thirteen species of genus Hedychium are found in India, only 5 are described in south India.
• The rest species are found in northeast. Most of the species in this genus have medicinal benefits. However, it is yet to be discovered, whether the freshly uncovered species Hedychium chingmeianum has medicinal benefits or not.

Arunachal Pradesh declared Open defecation-free State  by - Northeast State Government

Arunachal Pradesh has  officially been announced Open Defecation Free state. It is 2nd State from Northeast, after Sikkim and overall 5th state after Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Haryana to be announced ODF state. The declaration comes after 3 remaining districts including Upper Subansiri, Siang and Changlang were officially announced ODF. Arunachal Pradesh has overall twenty-one districts and it obtained this major cleanliness achievement under Swach Bharat Abhiyan much before the national time limit of October 2nd, 2019.
Did you know?

• Arunachal Pradesh had accepted ODF project under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) by increasing
  incentive of Rs 8,000 per toilet.
• This was in addition to Central Government’s support of Rs 12,000, raising the permit for building a toilet to Rs 20,000.
• The State government also had inaugurated Swachh Arunachal Mission on October 2nd, 2017 at Tawang which predicted Swachh Protocol focused at safeguarding sustainability of assets formed under SBM (Gramin).