13th April 2015

>> Gujarat government is promoting a tour package covering major industrial installations which have earned global acclaim for the state.

• Some of the major attractions of this recently launched tour package include a visit to Tata Nano plant in Sanand, Pipavav port near Amreli, Alang ship breaking yard in Bhavnagar and Amul Dairy in Anand.

• The package, called Industrial Tour of Gujarat, has been offered by city-based Akshar Travels Pvt Ltd, official partner of state-run tourism agency Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd (TCGL), which is promoting the tour on its website.

• As per the itinerary of this tour package, tourists can select the places from various options which include visit to Sanand based Tata Nano plant, Morbi-based ceramic industry as well as Asia's biggest Ajanta clock factory.

• Tourists can also opt for a visit to Reliance Refinery in Jamnagar, Tata Chemicals factory in Mithapur, ship breaking yard in Alang, Pipavav port, Asian Paints plant in Ankleshwar, Arvind Mills in Ahmedabad, Amul Dairy in Anand and many more such destinations.

• Tourists  can take to salt pans near Okha. Those interested in cotton are taken to Kadi in Mehsana, which has the highest number of cotton gins in Asia. Our package also include visits to world-famous diamond industry as well as textiles industry in Surat and plastic industry in Hazira," .

>>Government's think tank NITI Aayog today said it will soon come out with an integrated policy to help meet massive demand for energy including solar, wind, gas and coal.

• The move is aimed at boosting power generation in the country from various sources like solar, wind, gas, coal etc to meet the growing demand.
• At present, the country has an installed power generation capacity of over 2,50,000 MW from all sources, while the peak power deficit in around 3.6%.
• The government has set an ambitious target of generating 1,75,000 MW from renewable sources by 2022, including 1,00,000 MW solar power.

NITI Aayog  Chairman:Narendra Modi

NITI Aayog Vice Chairman: Arvind Panagariya.

CEO:Sindhushree Khullar.

>> The Lok Sabha passed the Constitutional Amendment Bill to scrap the collegium system of appointing Supreme Court and High Court judges and cleared the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2014 to regulate the procedure.

• The National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014, was passed by voice vote along with one official amendment The Minister moved an amendment changing the number of the constitution Amendment Bill from 121^st to 99^th . So the Bill was introduced as 121st but since it got cleared earlier than others, its number was changed.”
• Under the new law,a six member panel-NJAC –headed by the chief Justice of India will select judges of the apex court and state high courts.
• Along with the head,this panel includes two senior-most Supreme Court judges,Union Minister of Law and Justice and two”eminent persons” nominated by a committee comprising the Prime Minister,CJI and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha or Leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha.

>> The Haryana government decided to give “status equivalent to Cabinet Minister” to Baba Ramdev, who has been appointed as the State’s brand ambassador to promote yoga and ayurveda.

• “Ramdev, Brand Ambassador for promotion of yoga and ayurveda in Haryana, will be given status equivalent to Cabinet Minister,” Haryana’s Health and Sports Minister, Anil Vij tweeted.
• The emphasis on yoga and ayurveda would lead to an amalgamation of tradition and modernity and inclusion of yoga in the school syllabus would turn Haryana into a model State based on Indian values and traditions, Mr. Vij had said.
• Yoga would be made a compulsory subject in Haryana’s schools for which ‘yogshalas’ will be constructed in all the towns and about 6,500 villages of the State under the guidance of Baba Ramdev, he said.

>> Mobile commerce platform Paytm inked memorandum of understanding MoU with National Centre for Trade Information (NCTI) to promote Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

• As per MoU, Paytm will offer a virtual marketplace platform for NCTI members and will extend its services and enable them to sell online.
• In this regard, Paytm will set up payment gateways platform for online ticketing and membership fees for NCTI.

>> German Nobel laureate novelist Guenter Grass passed away on 12 April 2015 in Berlin. He was 87.

• Grass is recognized for his efforts to revive German culture in the aftermath of World War II and also had given voice and support to democratic discourse in the post war Germany.

Awards and Honours-

• In 1999, he was awarded Nobel Prize for literature for his efforts to revive German literature after the Nazi era. Hermann Kesten Prize (1995).
•  He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1993.

>> The Maharatna Company status Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) commissioned 600 MW unit of a thermal power project for the Dainik Bhaskar Power Limited (DBPL) at Dhabra in Janjgir Champa district of Chhattisgarh.

• The commissioned unit is the second unit of DBPL’s 2 × 600 MW power project. The first 600 MW Unit was commissioned in 2014. BHEL is partner in the power development programme of the state of Chhattisgarh.
• With this commissioning of second unit, BHEL’s cumulative installed capacity has increased at 11,400MW in Chhattisgarh and accounts for 68 per cent share of the total installed capacity in the state.