Kartarpur corridor
- Union Cabinet approved the building and development of the Kartarpur corridor.
- The corridor extends from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district to the international border.
- It is built in order to facilitate pilgrims from India to visit GurdwaraDarbar Sahib Kartarpur on the banks of the Ravi Riverin Pakistan, where first Sikh Guru Nanak Dev spent eighteen years.
- Pilgrims would then be able to visit the holy shrine throughout the year.
Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill
- Union Cabinet has approved the Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2018 for regulation and standardization of education and services by allied and healthcare professionals.
- It provides for the establishment of a central and corresponding State allied and healthcare councils.
- Which contains 15 major professional categories including 53 professions in Allied and Healthcare streams.
- The Bill thus seeks to establish a robust regulatory framework which will play the role of a standard-setter and regulator for Allied and Healthcare professions.
Transgenic Rice
- CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute have developed transgenic rice by inserting a novel fungal gene.
- The new innovation will results in reduced arsenic accumulation in rice grain.
- In India large number of people are affected by arsenic toxicity, it is imperative to develop rice with lesser arsenic content and high yield.
Ken-Betwa Link Project
- Ken River is one of the major rivers of the Bundelkhand region of central India, it originates from Kaimur Range in Jabalpur district.
- Betwa River or Betravati is a tributary of the Yamuna, It rises in the Vindhya Range, north of Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh
- The Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) is India’s first river linking project started in 2017.
- It aims to transfer surplus water from the Ken River in MP to Betwa in UP to irrigate the drought-prone Bundelkhand region spread across the two states.
Sangai Festival
- Sangai Festival is an annual cultural extravaganza in Manipur, the festival helps to promote Manipur as a world class tourism destination.
- Every edition of the festival showcases the tourism potential of the state in the field of Arts & Culture, Handloom, Handicrafts, Indigenous Sports, Cuisine, Music and Adventure sports of the state etc.
- The ‘Festival’ is named after the State animal, Sangai, the brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur.
- The State’s classical dance form, ‘RasLeela’ is quite famous all over the world for its distinctiveness from any other dance forms in India.
Sangai Deer
- The Sangai is an endemic and endangered subspecies of brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur, India.
- It is found in its natural habitat only at KeibulLamjao National Park over the floating biomass in the south eastern part of Loktak Lake.
Source: The Hindu, PIB, New Indian Express
