[CA] Sunday Bytes [Nov 20,2016]

·       India has taken strong exception to the World Bank’s “inexplicable” decision to set up a Court of Arbitration and appoint a Neutral Expert to go into Pakistan’s complaint against it over Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir.

·       A two member technical team of IUCN deputed by UNESCO visited Bhitarkanika National Park in Odisha; Visit is to perform field assessment of the unique mangrove ecosystem of the park

·       High Level Meeting of Interior Ministers of the Indian Ocean Region to Counter Drug Trafficking was recently held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

·       India and Japan signed ten agreements to boost the bilateral cooperation between the two nations. The agreements were inked in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe. Prime Minister was on a three-day visit (Nov 10 – 12, 2016) to Japan.

·       Russia has invited India to join in developing nuclear reactors and participate in its fast reactor research project.

·       Union Human Resource Development Minister, inaugurated the world’s largest digital national building initiative “Smart India Hackathon 2017” by handing over a torch to technology students over the country.

·       With an aim to reduce maternal and infant mortality, the government has rolled out a new scheme to provide fixed-day antenatal care to pregnant women on the ninth of every month.  The scheme — ‘Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan’ (PMSMA) — will provide free and comprehensive care on the ninth day of every month during the course of the pregnancy, especially to the poor.

·       The Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) 2016 came to an end with the adoption of the ‘New Delhi Declaration’ and the ‘Asian Regional Plan for Implementation of the Sendai Framework’.

·       The regional news Unit of Radio Kashmir Jammu started morning news bulletin in Gojri language. The five minutes Gojri news bulletin will be aired at 10:15am daily from the transmitters of Radio Kashmir Jammu. Gojri is one of the most widely spoken languages of the state and over 20 percent chunk of the population in the state consists of Gojri speaking people.

·       Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Thiruvananthapuram have developed a gelator to recover marine oil spills.