NOV 16th 2015-Current Affairs

>>India and Australia today announced completion of all the formalities for their bilateral civil nuclear agreement, paving way for the pact to come into force.

The announcement was made after a meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull in Antalya on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.

"Another milestone achievement as two PMs announce completion of procedures for India Australia Civil Nuclear Agreement," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas .

"With the completion of procedures, including administrative arrangements, the India Australia Civil Nuclear Agreement will enter into force.

Australia had signed a civil nuclear agreement with India in September last year to supply it uranium for meeting Indian energy needs.

Australia has got 40 per cent of the world's uranium and the deal is important for both the countries.

Mr Modi thanked Mr Turnbull and described the agreement as a "milestone and source of trust and confidence".

>>Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda launched the country’s first Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment (AMRIT) programme. 

The programme is aimed at lowering treatment cost of cancer and cardio-vascular diseases. The country’s first AMRIT outlet has been inaugurated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where drugs will be sold at highly discounted rates.

“We have identified 202 drugs of cancer and cardio-vascular diseases where the price is going to be reduced on an average by 60 to 90 per cent,” said Mr. Nadda.

Under the programme, 148 cardiac implants will be given from the centre and sold here and their cost will be reduced by 50 to 60 per cent.

“This is a pilot project which we have started at AIIMS. After 15 days, we are going to review the programme and in the coming times, will try to replicate it in all Central government hospitals,” the minister added.

>>Indian Navy has got a fully indigenous decoy system that can divert under-water torpedo attacks on ships and submarines.

 Developed by Vishakapatnam-based Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), two such systems are into production grade now. 

The Advanced Torpedo Defence System (ATDS), christened as Mareech was handed over by defence minister Manohar Parrikar to the Navy on Saturday.

 Mareech detects and locate the incoming torpedo and apply countermeasures to protect naval platform against attack. Two production grade MAAREECH systems have been developed even as their user evaluation trials have been completed on board two Indian Navy ships.

The new ATDS first detects and then confuse and divert the torpedo attacks on ships from under the water. By diverting the torpedoes' original course, it forces it to lose its energy thus preventing it from being effective on target. Torpedoes are self propelled weapon with a warhead and can be used under or on the water surface. They are one of the mainstay of sea-warfare attack systems.

>>Under the Digital India programme dreams, Jharkhand has introduced ‘Mobile Governance’ as the state marked its statehood day.

 “The theme of today is ‘Mobile Governance’ and 15 mobile applications have been introduced,” Chief Minister Raghubar Das announced while addressing the people to mark the 16th Foundation Day.

>>Syed Akbaruddin, who was the chief coordinator of the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) held in New Delhi last month, has been appointed as the new permanent representative of India to the United Nations in New York.

"Syed Akbaruddin, (IFS:1985), currently additional secretary in the ministry, has been appointed as the next ambassador/permanent representative of India to the United Nations in New York.
Mr Akbaruddin will be replacing Asoke Kumar Mukherjee, who will be retiring.

After completing a very successful term as the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson in April this year, Mr Akbaruddin was slated to go to Geneva as India's permanent representative to the UN offices there.

>>Prime Minister David Cameron  announced 2017 as the UK-India Year of Culture to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Indian independence, on the first of day Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit here.

The Year of Culture 2017 will see an exciting festival of events celebrating the vibrant cultural history of the two countries, when top UK institutions will partner Indian counterparts.

Cameron said: “The great partnership between India and the UK extends beyond economic ties to the boards of The Bard and the beaches of Bollywood. We have some of the best cultural exports in the world – and it’s about time we celebrated this, together.”

To mark the start of this cultural pairing, the British Library will be digitising 200,000 pages of their South Asian archives. Two Centuries of Indian Print will be part of a major programme to make the wealth of Indian printed books held by the British Library dating from 1714 to 1914 accessible to anyone around the globe.

>> Xuerui Li of China won Gold Medal in China Open 2015 in women’s singles category while Saina Nehwal won Silver Medal.

Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia won in Men’s singles category, Kim Gi-jung and Kim Sa Rang won in Men’s doubles category, Tang Yuanting and Yu Yang won in women’s doubles category and Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei won in Mixed doubles category.

>> News schemes PRASAD and SWADESH DARSHAN launched by the government to promote Tourism.

In pursuance of the budget announcement 2014-15, the Ministry of Tourism has launched two new plan schemes (i) “National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD)” and (ii) “SWADESH DARSHAN”. Both the schemes are to be implemented in mission mode. Developing world-class infrastructure in the respective destinations/circuits is one of the mission objectives of the schemes. 

Under PRASAD, initially, twelve cities namely Amritsar, Ajmer, Amaravati, Dwaraka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Kedarnath, Kamakhya, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi and Vellankani have been identified for development. 

This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge), & Civil Aviation, Dr. Mahesh Sharma in a reply to an Unstarred question in the Lok Sabha.