Jharkhand
- Jharkhand to have new pass port seva kendra in 13 district
- The Jharkhand Postal Circle is all set to start post office passport seva Kendra in 13 districts of the state in different phases.
- The objective is to ease the burden of theRegional Passport Office (RPO), Ranchi which receives more than 500 applications every day from across the state.
- It will be easier for people living in these districts to apply for passports, as the new offices will start in the head offices of the postal department.
- The first Regional Passport office was started in the state capital in 2002 while residents who used to travel all the way from various districts of the state to apply for passports had to re-visit to seek information but due to large volume of applications pending, they were asked to report after few days.
- Jharkhand to have intercity air link by September
- Intercity air connectivity will become a reality in Jharkhand by September this year. Jharkhand government signed a tripartite MoU with the DRDO and AAI for setting up an international airport at Deoghar.
- This new airport, the second to come up in Jharkhand since Independence, will boost tourism and improve connectivity to the Santhal Pargana.
- The Deoghar airport will be completed by December 2019 at a cost of Rs 350 crore. While the DRDO will give Rs 200 crore, AAI will spend Rs 100 crore. The remaining amount will be taken care of by the state government
INTERNATIONAL
- Liu Xiaobo, Chinese dissident who won Nobel prize, dies.
- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, China’s most prominent political prisoner, died on Thursday at a hospital in the country’s northeast, officials said. He was 61.
- Chinese literary critic, writer, human rights activist who called for political reforms and end of communist single-party rule. He is also known for his role in 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing.
- Liu is the third person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention, after Germany’s Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi (1991).
NATIONAL
- New rules to protect policyholders.
- The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) has notified new rules to protect policyholder’s interest.
- If an insurer delays claims payments, it has to pay a penalty that’s 2% over the bank rate, which is specified by the Reserve Bank of India, as on 1 April of that fiscal.
- It has to do so within 30 days from when the decision to pay was taken.
- National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination in India (2017-22)
- The Strategic Plan gives year wise elimination targets in various parts of the country depending upon the endemicity of malaria in the next 5 years.
- Highlighting the salient features of the NSP, Shri Nadda stated that the strategies involve strengthening malaria surveillance, establishing a mechanism for early detection and prevention of outbreaks of malaria, promoting the prevention of malaria by the use of Long Lasting Impregnated Nets (LLINs), effective indoor residual spray and augmenting the manpower and capacities for effective implementation for the next five years.
- India to host 8th Edition of Theatre Olympics ‘The Biggest Theatre Celebration of the World’
- India will host the 8th edition of Theatre Olympics in 2018, the biggest theatre celebration of the world.
- The eight edition of the greatest carnival will start from February 17-April 08, 2018.
- The Theatre Olympics will take place simultaneously in various cities across the country.
- There will be five hundred plays and seven hundred ambience performances from across the world.
- Delhi government to start online RTI portal
- Delhi became the second state to launch e-RTI portal that will enable citizens to file online Right to Information (RTI).
- The Central government had launched its own online RTI application portal in 2013, which allowed users to file queries, pay application fee and submit requests for appeal.
- The Central government had urged the States to set up their own online application portals. Maharashtra had followed suit in 2015 with its own RTI portal.
- Dumping in Ganga will be fined from now.
- Penalty of Rs 50, 000 will be imposed on those dumping waste in the stretch between Haridwar and Unnao of River Ganga, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said.
- No waste dumping should be allowed within 500 meters from the edge of the Ganga. Also, 100 meters from the edge of the river should be declared a “no-development zone.
- The Tribunal directed the concerned authorities to complete the setting up of a sewage treatment plant and cleaning of drains within two years.