National River Conservation Plan
- Under the National River Conservation Plan the river Sal project in Goa was sanctioned by the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change.
- The aim of the plan isto prevent pollution of rivers and improving water quality.
- The activities under National River Conservation Plan include following
- Sewage treatment plants for treating the diverted sewage.
- Low cost sanitation works to prevent the open defecation on riverbanks.
- Public awareness and public participation.
- Electric crematoria to ensure proper cremation of the bodies brought to burning Ghats.
Task force on artificial intelligence
- The Department of Defense Production constituted a task force headed by Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran to study use of artificial intelligence.
- It has potential to provide military superiority apart from driving technology-driven economic growth.
- Similarly, in 2017, the then Commerce and Industry minister constituted the ‘Task force on AI for India’s Economic Transformation’ chaired by V. Kamakoti of IIT Madras
Maldives
- Maldives is facing a constitutional and political crisis with is government is against the judiciary, polity and a section bureaucracy.
- It is a south Asian island country located in the Arabian sea part of Indian ocean.
- The Maldives archipelago is located atop the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean.
- Maldives is a founding member of the SAARC. It is also a part of the United Nations and Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Global Terrorism Index
- The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) is a report published annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)
- Two third of the countries experienced a terrorist attack in 2016
- India is one among the ten most impacted countries by terrorism
- Five countries account for three quarters of all deaths from terrorism: Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria and Pakistan.
- The major reason for terrorism in most impacted countries is internal conflict.
Source: The Hindu, BusinessLine, Business Standard
