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By admin: March 7, 2022

Prime Minister Inaugurates Pune Metro

Tags: National News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 12 Km stretch of the 32.2 km Pune metro rail project on 6 March 2022. The Foundation stone of the project was laid down by the Prime Minister on December 24, 2016.

• The Rs 11,420-crore-31.25 km Pune Metro Phase 1 comprises a 16.58-km Corridor-1 from Pimpri Chinchwad to Swargate with 14 stations and a 14.66-km Corridor-2 from Vanaz to Ramwadi with 16 stations.

• Pune Metro project is a joint venture between Government of India and Maharashtra government. The project is funded through a loan of 600 million euro from European Investment Bank  and 245 million euro from AFD (French Development Agency) of France.

Mula-Mutha River Projects 

• PM Modi  also laid the foundation stone of rejuvenation and pollution abatement of Mula-Mutha river projects in Pune.

•  Rejuvenation would be done in a 9 km stretch of the river at a project cost of more than Rs 1,080 crore.

(for detail about this project kindly see  23 February 2022 post)

RK Laxman  Art Gallery 

• The Prime Minister also inaugurated the R K Laxman Art Gallery-Museum constructed at Balewadi, Pune. 

• The main attraction of the Museum is a miniature model based on the village of Malgudi which will be made alive through the audio-visual effects. Cartoons drawn by cartoonist R K Laxman will be showcased in the Museum.

• R K Laxman was a famous cartoonist who created a character of common man which was published daily in the Times of India newspaper  “You Said It” column.  

• Malgudi Days was a short story collection written by his brother R.K.Narayan, which was made into a famous TV serial on Doordarshan .

Important for Exams 

• The first metro rail system in the world was started in London on 10 January  1863 .

• First metro in India; Kolkata Metro which started its operation 24 October 1984 between Dum Dam to Tollygunge . It was started with the help of the Soviet Union . 

• Largest metro rail in operation in India : Delhi Metro (390.14 km:Source DMRC as on 7 March 2022). It started operation on 24 December 2002.

• Smallest Metro: Ahmedabad metro, 6 km;

• The metro rail systems in operation in India are in the cities of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru,Chennai, Delhi,Gurugram,Hyderabad, Jaipur,Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai,Nagpur, Noida ,Pune. (total 14 cities )

93% of Indian lives in high air pollution areas

Tags: Science and Technology

The United States based Health Effect Institute (HEI) in its Annual report “State of Global Air analysis for the year 2020” has found that around 93% of the Indian population lives in areas where the air pollution is seven times the World Health organisation (WHO) standards. 

Major highlights of the report 

• 93% of the Indian population is exposed to air containing at least 35µg/m3 concentration of PM2.5 (particulate matter of the size of 2.5 microns). According to the WHO standards, the upper annual limit for PM2.5 is 5µg/m3. 

• Due to high exposure to air pollution,Indians have  on an  average loose  1.51 years of their life. 

• The large exposure to PM2.5 has also reduced life expectancy for countries and regions—Egypt (2.11 years), Saudi Arabia (1.91 years), India (1.51 years) China (1.32 years) and Pakistan (1.31 years).

• Almost 100% of the world population lives in areas where the PM2.5 levels exceeded WHO recommendations.

• India was ranked as the ninth most  exposed country to Ozone after Congo, Ethiopia, Germany, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey.

• The lowest impacts of pollution on longevity is in Norway, Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand.

Concept Clearing 

PM or Particulate Matter 2.5 and PM 10

• Particulate matter is composed of a mixture of solids and liquids found in the air. It comprises dust, dirt, soot, etc.
• PM or particulate matter, in simple words, refers to small particles of dust
• Dust particles are graded by measuring their diameter in microns. The most important types of particulate matter are PM2.5 and PM 10 from a public health perspective. 
• PM 2.5  has a diameter of 2.5 microns  and PM 10 has a diameter 10 microns.
• It enters into lungs and causes respiratory diseases like asthma, bronchitis etc.

Impact of Russian-Ukrainian war on Diamond Industry in India

Tags: Economics/Business

The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the resultant sanctions by the western countries led by the United States on Russia has created uncertainty in the diamond sector in India.   

• India is one of the centres of global diamond trade and around 90% of rough diamonds in the world are cut and polished in India, especially in the Gujarati city of Surat. 

• India is the largest exporter of cut and polished  diamonds in the world.  During the April to January 2021-22 period the export of cut  and polished diamond was $20.06 billion which is around 6% of the total merchandise export from India. 

• India is totally dependent on imported diamonds and it imported $14.83billion of rough diamonds during the April to January 2021-22 period.

• The major supplier of the diamond to India is the world’s largest diamond company, Alrosa of Russia which contributes to around 30% of world’s natural production.

•  Major banks of Russia have been  banned from the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide International Financial Telecommunication) financial messaging system for international payment. This has created a problem of payment by the Indian importers to Russia as payment and settlement in American dollars and Euro is becoming virtually impossible. 

• This is likely to create a major problem for the diamond industry in India which creates lakhs of jobs in India.

Fact About Diamond 

•  Top producer of rough diamonds in the world 

•  The largest producer of natural diamond in the world is Russia followed by Botswana and Congo (2016 Data). These three companies control over 60% of the world's natural diamond  production.

• The world's largest diamond trading companies are Alrosa of Russia followed by De Beers of Luxembourg and Rio Tinto company of Australia and Britain. 

4th Jan Aushadi Diwas celebrated

Tags: Popular Important Days

Jan Aushadi  Diwas is celebrated in India on 7 March every year . 

Every year from 1 to 7 March is celebrated as the Jan Aushadhi Week  to generate awareness about the usage of generic medicines and benefits of Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana..

The theme of the Jan Aushadhi week 2022 was “Jan Aushadhi-Jan Upyogi”. 

What is Jan Aushadhi 

Jan Aushadhi or generic drugs (medicine) is a type of medicine on which the patent has expired . The generic medicine has the same chemical composition of the original patented one and provides the same benefit.

What is Pradhan Mantri  Bhartiya Janaushadi Yojana (PMBJY)

 The scheme was launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers in 2008. 

What is its aim

It aims to provide quality generic medicine to the public at affordable prices .

Coal Ministry to celebrate “Iconic Week” from 7th March, 2022

Tags: National News

The Union Minister of State for Coal, Mines and Railways, Shri Raosaheb Patil Danveon inaugurated  the “Iconic Week” celebration organised by the Union Ministry of Coal on 7 March 2022 at New Delhi.

• The Union Ministry of Coal is celebrating “7 to 11 March 2022”  as an”Iconic Week”, to celebrate and commemorate the 75 years of Independence, as part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.

• The Government of India is celebrating 75 years of Indian Independence “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav” to mark 75 years of progressive India and its elegant history. 

• The Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav was started on 12th March, 2021 and will end on 15 August 2023. 

Hansa-NG completes its sea trial successfully

Tags: National

The country’s first indigenous Flying Trainer HANSA-NG (New Generation) designed and developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore, has successfully completed the sea level trials at Puducherry from 19th February to 5th March. Hansa-NG is said to be one of the most advanced flying trainers. 

Hansa-NG is designed to meet the Indian flying club needs and it is an ideal aircraft for Commercial Pilot Licensing (CPL) due to its low cost and low fuel consumption. 

Full Form for Exam 

CSIR : Council for Scientific and Industrial Research 

Headquarters of CSIR : New Delhi 

India Defeats Denmark to stay in the Davis cup World group stage 1

Tags: Sports

The Indian men’s  tennis team defeated Denmark  4-0 in their Davis Cup 2022 World Group I playoff tie played  at the Delhi Gymkhana Club on 5-6 March 2022.

• The best of five match was won by India 4-0 and the fifth match was not played.

• Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri won their singles title matches and Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan won their doubles ties. 

• Later Ramkumar Ramnathan won his return singles match,to make it 4-0 for India.

• India have made it to the Davis Cup final thrice – 1966, 1974 and 1987 but it has never  won the title .

Current Davis cup Champion : Russia 

Davis Cup 

• Davis cup is an annual men tennis championship organised by International Tennis Federation 

• It started in 1900 as a competition between Great Britain and the United States and now 135 countries participate in the cup.

• The most successful team is U.S which has won it 32 times 

• The second most successful team is Australia which has won it 28 times

• Current Champion Russia has won it 3 times .

The women's equivalent of the Davis Cup is the Billie Jean King Cup  formerly known as the Fed Cup. The winner of the  Billie Jean King Cup  2021 is Russia .