[CA] Daily News (Feb 04, 2018)

Headlines Today (04-02-2018)

# India won the Men's ICC U-19 world cup by defeating Australia in the finals held at Mt. Maunganui in New Zealand; this is India's fourth U-19 world cup title

# Centre has eased the regulations for Tibetan refugees who wish to travel and study abroad

# Assam: Investors summit titled as “Advantage Assam” was inaugurated in Guwahati by Prime Minister; Prime Minister said that India’s growth depends on northeastern states.

# Tamil Nadu: Bharathiyar University Vice chancellor A. Ganapathy was arrested for bribe charges

# Tamil Nadu: Meenakshi temple Mandapam worst hit by fire

# Supreme Court committee for Sensitisation of Family court matters, chaired by Just. Kurian Joseph will soon undertake a nationwide exercise to enumerate the number of States that do not have family court in each state

# Feb 04, 2018: Maratha Light Infantry (LI) regiment celebrates its 250th regimental day

# Book “Exam Warriors” written by Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi

# Chief of Staff of the United Stated Aur Force Gen. David L. Goldfein flew on India's indigenously built light combat aircraft (LCA), Tejas. He is the first air chief of a foreign country to fly on the Tejas

# NASA’s Chandra Observatory have discovered planets lying outside the Milky Way for the first time

# India Open 2018: India’s P. V. Sindhu to take on Beiwen Zhang in the finals of Women's Singles

# Kone Elevator India is planning to commission a new factory in Sriperumbudur

# Japan: launched world's smallest rocket with the ability to put a micro-satellite into orbit

[CA] Jallikattu referred to Constitutional Bench

The Supreme Court has referred to a Constitution Bench to decide whether the people of Tamil Nadu can preserve jallikattu as their cultural heritage under Article 29 (1) of the Constitution and demand its protection.

It is for the first time the Supreme Court is considering the question of granting constitutional protection to jallikattu as a collective cultural right under Article 29 (1).

Article 29(1) is a fundamental right guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution to protect the educational and cultural rights of citizens.

[CA] Parliamentarian Award

The Indian Parliamentary Group decided to confer the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for the years 2013 – 2017. The names were shortlisted by a committee headed by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

Year	Winner	Party
2013	Najma Heptulla	BJP
2014	Hukumdev Narayan Yadav	BJP
2015	Ghulam Nabi Azad	INC
2016	Dinesh Trivedi	AITC
2017	Bhartruhari Mahtab	BJD

Previous winners:

1992 - Indrajit Gupta

1994 - Atal Bihari Vajpayee

1995 - Chandra Shekhar

1996 - Somnath Chatterjee

1997 - Pranab Mukherjee

1998 - S. Jaipal Reddy

1999 - Lal Krishna Advani

2000 - Arjun Singh

2001 - Jaswant Singh

2002 - Manmohan Singh

2003 - Sharad Pawar

2004 - Sushma Swaraj

2005 - P. Chidambaram

2006 - Mani Shankar Aiyar

2007 - Priyaranjan Das Munshi

2008 - Mohan Singh

2009 - Murli Manohar Joshi

2010 - Arun Jaitley

2011 - Karan Singh

2012 - Sharad Yadav

[CA] Polluted Rivers in India

[CA] Kudimaramath

The Madhanam tank off Trichy-Ariyalur main road is brimming with water— it is a heartening sight for locals after three decades. Over the years, due to heavy silt, the Peruvalai feeder channel that brings water to the tank from river Cauvery had become almost invisible. But, thanks to Kudimaramath, Tamil Nadu's ambitious project to restore water bodies with people’s participation, the community hopes to irrigate some 208 hectares of ayacut in the region without depending much on deep borewells in the otherwise dry area.

While opposition brands it a scam, Kudimaramath, has come as a relief, especially at a time when Tamil Nadu is battling droughts and legal battles for water with its neighbours.

It all started in May. As part of the scheme, ‘ayacutdars’ (local farmers), living in the vicinity of defunct tanks were identified by the public works department that was looking for nominees to carry out the restoration. Among the water users in the area one farmer was chosen as a nominee and the schedule was laid out — the 1.8 km long Peruvalai feeder channel would be desilted first and later the tank bund strengthened after silt was removed from the bed. The cost worked out to ₹14.47 lakh and the chosen ayacutdar removed 19,723 cubic metres silt using machinery. The 48.5 acre tank is today a rich source for 10 water-starved villages in Lalgudi taluk after the recent spell of rain.

Poovalur former president K Ashokraj said, “We have enough water to irrigate our paddy and sugarcane crops for two more months. Our neighbours from Vellanur, Irudhayapuram and Alampakkam are also being benefitted by the tank.” The level of groundwater table that had dropped due to heavy use of borewells, is recharging now, with officials estimating 65,100 cubic feet of available water in the tank.

Far away, a feeder channel of Paganur tank near Srirangam got a facelift due to the contribution of farmers. A damaged sluice has also been repaired. “The tank should be desilted immediately,” Y Arockiasamy, of Yagappa Udaiyanpatti said. Paganur, Suriyur Big Tank, Ootathur, Veeramachanpatti, Serkudi and Soorampatti tanks in Ariyar division may soon be restored too.

In ancient times, Kudimaramath, the maintenance of water bodies, was carried out by the public. The system was widely practiced with farmers taking charge of construction, repair of the revival of this system, the state government sanctioned ₹100 crore during the last fiscal. About 10% of the estimated cost of the work is being borne by the user association or ayacutdars, in the form of labour, material or cash.

“With 1,513 projects being completed in the first phase, the storage in these tanks increased due to excavation of earth from the bed and strengthening of the tank bund. The supply channels are being cleared of debris and free flow of water is being ensured for efficient irrigation. We will launch our second phase soon,” said PWD, water resources department, engineer-in-chief, M Bakthavathsalam. The second phase covers 2,065 tanks.

There is an imperative need for restoration of water bodies in the state. A study conducted by several central and state government agencies and Central Water Commission in 2013 on effective utilisation of northeast monsoon, said the deficit in total water demand (domestic, irrigation, livestock and industrial needs) would rise to 17% by 2045 from the existing 11%.

The developments help to prevent flooding of adjoining parcels of land during rain, but the opposition to the initiative is far from happy. While chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has been taking credit for rolling out the scheme, DMK alleges corrupt practices and seeks a white paper on Kudimaramath.

[CA] Karanj

Karanj is the third of the six Scorpene-class submarines being built by MDL under the Project 75 programme. The first one, INS Kalvari, was commissioned on December 14 last year. The second one, Khandari, has already been launched and is undergoing sea trials.

[CA] Australian Open 2018

Australian Open 2018
Category	Winner	Runner
Men’s Singles	Roger Federer* (Switzerland)	Marin Cilic (Croatia)
Women’s Singles	Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark)	Simon Halep (Romania)
Men’s Doubles	Mate Pavic (Croatia)	Juan Sebastian Cabal (Colombia)
	Oliver Marach (Austria)	Robert Farah (Colombia)
Women’s Doubles	Timea Babos (Hungary)	Ekaterina Makarova (Russia)
	Kristina Mladsenovic (Serbia)	Elena Vesnina (Russia)
Mixed Doubles	Mate Pavic (Croatia)	Rohan Bopana (India)
	Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada)	Timea Babos (Hungary)

* à It is Roger Federer’s 20th Grand Slam and his 6th Australian Open title

Maximum Grandslam Winners (in Singles)
Player	Total	Australian Open	French Open	Wimbledon	US Open
Margaret Court (Australia)	24	11	5	3	5
Serena Williams (USA)	23	7	3	7	6
Steffi Graf (Germany)	22	4	6	7	5
Roger Federer (Switzerland)	20	6	1	8	5
Helen Wills (USA)	19	NP	4	8	7