[CA] INS Viraat

Aircraft carrier INS Viraat sailed into sunset on March 06, 2017, after 30 years with the Indian Navy. The warship was decommissioned after an impressive ceremony on board in the presence of Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba and top armed forces officials.

The aircraft carrier, in its earlier avatar, had won the Falklands War against Argentina in 1982 for the Royal British Navy. It weighs about 27,800 tonnes and served in the British Navy as HMS Hermes from November 1959 to April 1984 and after refurbishment, was commissioned into the Indian Navy.

In the late 80s, India purchased it for $65 million and was re-commissioned on 12 May 1987.

[CA] Tirunelveli first to have 100% waste segregation

It took barely a few months for Tirunelveli municipality in Tamil Nadu to achieve the feat of achieving 100% segregation of waste at source across households and establishments. It involved taking undertakings from each house hold to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste, campaigns though TV and local radio channels targeting housewives, and involving religious leaders and NGOs.

The city, with a population of 4.8 lakh, achieved this at a time when other cities are either weighing the risk of failure be fore starting any initiative or are considering imposition of penalty on erring residents. The Tirunelveli model can be easily adopted by other cities.

Tirunelveli, which has about 1.6 lakh households, took up this challenge in April 2016. However, an intensive campaign started only on October 2, taking cue from the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. The rules make it mandatory for all waste generators to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste, and hand over the segregated waste to authorised waste pickers collectors.

While biodegradable waste is collected every day, non-bio degradable waste such as plastic is collected every Wednesday.

The collected dry waste is sold to waste recyclers at Rs.2 per kg and the amount is given as reward to waste collectors. The Union urban development ministry conferred an award to Tirunelveli for becoming the first city to achieve 100% segregation of waste at source.

[CA] Drought in South Indian States

 South Indian states are staring at a severe water crisis this summer as water levels in major reservoirs have hit rock bottom. The worst-affected is Tamil Nadu where water levels are 80% less than normal.

Central Water Commission statistics show that TN is followed by Andhra Pradesh, with deficient storage of 48%. Karnataka and Kerala reservoirs have 37% and 31% less. Only Telangana has normal water reserves, with 75% above normal.

Normal storage is the mean for a period from 10 to 20 years. The collective water storage in 27 reservoirs spread across these drought hit states has depleted by nearly 100 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) within 20 days, raising concerns over drinking and irrigation needs in the coming months.

The present storage in reservoirs that depend on Cauvery river basin, the lifeline of farmers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, has only 14% of their full reservoir level marking a drastic drop in a decade by 65.43%. It is followed by reservoirs along the Krishna river basin in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The Centre has sent advisories to state governments to take urgent steps for optimal use of water. The Union ministries of water resources and rural development are working in tandem with priority being accorded to water recharging blocks where water was overdrawn in the drought affected states.

Water shortage has led to fierce inter-state disputes. In Tamil Nadu, at least 60 farmers have committed suicide between December 2016 and the first week of January this year because of distress.

[CA] Sunday Bytes - March 05, 2017

·        Government of India has taken a decision to celebrate Dec 03 as "Agriculture Education Day" to commemorate the anniversary of first President and Agriculture Minister of India, Bharat Ratna, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, for inspiration of youth. Similarly, it has been decided to celebrate Oct 15 as Women Agriculture Day

·        Number of ODF (Open Defecation Free) districts in the country has now crossed 100. Over 1.7 lakh villages have become ODF.

·        DRDO conducted the successful launch of the interceptor missile Advanced Area Defence (AAD) from Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha.

·        DRDO formally handed over an indigenously developed Weapon Locating Radar (WLR) system called “Swati” to the Army. It has been extensively tested along the LoC.

·        Kalvari, the first of the Scorpene submarines being built in India successfully conducted its maiden test – firing of an anti –s hip missile in the Arabian Sea

·        A Government appointed Panel (headed by Partha Mukhopadhay) has recommended necessary legal and policy framework to protect the interests of the migrants in the country, stating that the migrant population makes substantial contribution to economic growth and their Constitutional rights need to be secured.

·        A call by the traders Federation in Tamil Nadu to ban sales of Coca-Cola and Pepsi soft drinks came into effect on March 01, 2017 in the State of Tamil Nadu

·        Virat Kohli has been chosen for the BCCI’s International Cricketer of the Year (2016) for the third time and will receive the Polly Umrigar  Award

·        Leading up to International Women’s Day on March 8, 2017, Ministry of Women and Child Development has initiated a social media campaign - #WeAreEqual - targeted at raising awareness about gender discrimination

·        Singer Rihanna has been honoured with the 2017 Harvard Humanitarian of the Year Award

·        President, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Kochi Muziris Biennale Seminar on ‘Importance of sustainable cultural building’

·        Half of the 4096 km border of India – Bangladesh border had been fenced

·        Sweden announced that it will reintroduce military service (for all Swedes born after 1999) starting this summer to respond to global security challenges

·        Joint secretary Gopal Baglay has been appointed as the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs .He is replaced by Vikas Swarup

·        March 03: World Wildlife Day; theme: "Listen to the Young Voices"

[CA] India: Largest Muslim Populated country by 2050

Muslims are the fastest-growing group in the world since they have the youngest median age (30) of all religious groups, and by 2050, India will be the country with the world's largest Muslim population, said American think tank Pew Research Centre.

Presently, Islam is the world's second-largest religion after Christianity. Pew said that if current demographic trends continued, Muslim population would exceed the number of Christians by the end of this century. India is set to be home to 300 million Muslims by 2050.

There were 1.6 billion Muslims in the world as of 2010 -23% of the global population. Presently, Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population. In a 2015 report, Pew said that while the world's population was projected to grow by 35% in the coming decades, the number of Muslims was expected to increase by 73% -to 2.8 billion in 2050.In fact, Muslims are the only major religious group projected to increase faster than the world's population.

At 62%, a majority of Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region. This included large populations in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey, Pew said. “The Muslim population in Europe also is growing; we project 10% of all Europeans will be Muslims by 2050,“ Pew said.

[CA] Television viewers in India is more than the European population

Television was always big in India. It only got bigger this year - perhaps as big as the entire continent of Europe. BARC India, the country's TV viewership monitoring agency, has increased its estimates for audience size and television penetration, saying the medium now is watched by 780 million citizens in the South Asian nation. By comparison, Europe has a population of about 745 million.

After the update, the homes with a television set in the country have gone up to 183 million from 154 million, implying an increase in TV penetration to 64%, from the earlier estimate of 54%.

The marked increase follows the latest Broadcast India Survey, the largest ever research study undertaken to ascertain TV universe and television viewing habits in India. Fieldwork for the Broadcast India survey was carried out between November 2015 and February 2016, covering 300,000 homes across 590 districts, touching about 4,300 towns and villages.

One of the interesting changes is in the urban and rural split, which was 50:50 earlier. As per the new universe, rural India now has 99 million TV owning homes, contributing to 54% of the total universe, while urban India has 84 million TV homes, constituting the remaining 46%. 

The survey also highlights that India has more nuclear families without elders than ever before, and it is also the dominant family group among TV owning homes.

evision penetration, saying the medium now is watched by 780 million citizens in the South Asian nation. By comparison, Europe has a population of about 745 million.

After the update, the homes with a television set in the country have gone up to 183 million from 154 million, implying an increase in TV penetration to 64%, from the earlier estimate of 54%.

The marked increase follows the latest Broadcast India Survey, the largest ever research study undertaken to ascertain TV universe and television viewing habits in India. Fieldwork for the Broadcast India survey was carried out between November 2015 and February 2016, covering 300,000 homes across 590 districts, touching about 4,300 towns and villages.

One of the interesting changes is in the urban and rural split, which was 50:50 earlier. As per the new universe, rural India now has 99 million TV owning homes, contributing to 54% of the total universe, while urban India has 84 million TV homes, constituting the remaining 46%.

The survey also highlights that India has more nuclear families without elders than ever before, and it is also the dominant family group among TV owning homes.

[CA] Feb 2017 Current Affairs

February 2017 Current Affairs

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