• Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari had addressed the 19th Meeting of National Road Safety Council (NRSC) and called for reducing road accidents by half by the year 2025.

National Road Safety Council (NRSC)

• It is an advisory body.
• It was established under section 215 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
• Its main objective is to improve road safety aspects in road transport sector.
• The Council is chaired by the Hon’ble Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH).

• National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) celebrated its 16th Foundation Day.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)

• The Disaster Management Act has statutory provisions for constitution of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for the purpose of specialized response to natural and man-made disasters.
• Accordingly, in 2006 NDRF was constituted with 8 Battalions.
• At present, NDRF has a strength of 12 Battalions.
• In the beginning, the personnel of NDRF were deployed for routine law and order duties also.
• Later, NDRF Rules notified in 2008, makes NDRF a dedicated force for disaster response related duties, under the unified command of DG NDRF.

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the investment of Rs. 5281 Crore for 850 MW Ratle Hydro Electric (HE) Project.

Ratle Hydro Electric Project

• It is located on river Chenab, in Kishtwar district of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The Power generated from the Project will help in providing balancing of Grid and will improve the power supply position. 

• Project Sea bird is the largest naval infrastructure project for India in Karwar, Karnataka.
• It involves creation of a naval base at Karwar on the west coast of India.
• Upon completion, the program will provide Indian Navy with its largest naval base on the west coast and also the largest naval base east of the Suez Canal.

S-400

• A group of Indian military personnel is leaving for Russia to undergo training on key operational aspects of the S-400 air defence systems as Moscow looks at supplying the first batch of the missile to India later this year.

Rudram Anti-Radiation Missile

• Flight Lieutenant Bhawana Kanth, one of the first women fighter pilots in IAF, will be a part of the air force’s tableau in the Republic Day Parade that will showcase mock-ups of the light combat aircraft (LCA), light combat helicopter and the Sukhoi-30 fighter plane.
• The LCA model would be equipped with indigenous Rudram Next Generation Anti-Radiation Missile (NGRAM) and LCH model would be equipped with Dhruvastra, indigenous helicopter fired anti-tank guided missile both of which are under development.
• The SU-30MKI would be equipped with the indigenous Astra Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Air to Air missile.
• The recently inducted Rafale fighter jet will also fly over the Rajpath during the Republic Day parade.

Shaheen-III Missile

• Pakistan has successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable surface-to-surface ballistic missile recently.
• The missile can strike targets up to 2,750 km.

Bank Investment Company

• The P.J. Nayak Committee in its report on ‘Governance of Boards of Banks in India’ has recommended the setting up a BIC as a holding company or a core investment company
• The report recommended transferring shares of the government in the banks to the BIC which would become the parent holding company of all these banks and all the PSBs would become ‘limited’ banks.
• The Bank Investment Company (BIC) would be constituted as a core investment company under RBI registration and regulation.
• It is also vital that the CEO of BIC is a professional banker or a private equity investment professional who has substantial experience of working in financial environments.
• The BIC will be autonomous and will help to ensure that government’s stake in these banks is strategically reduced to up to 51%.
• It will borrow funds from market to raise capital, which will then be infused into individual banks as per need.

Nubra valley

• Nubra valley separates the Ladakh and Karakoram Ranges.
• The 32 metre Maitreya Buddha statue is the landmark of Nubra and is maintained by the Diskit Monastery.
• The Diskit Monastery on the Shayok river was built in 1420 AD.
• Hundar was the capital of the erstwhile Nubra kingdom in the 17th century, and is home to the Chamba Gompa.
• Thikse Monastery is located in Leh district of Ladhak.
• Recently the first ever Ice climbing festival was celebrated in Nubra valley.

“MICE” Tourism Policy 2021-25

• The acronym “MICE” stands for “Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions”, and is essentially a version of business tourism that draws domestic and international tourists to a destination.
• Gujarat government has announced the tourism policy for 2021-25, it aims to make Gujarat one of the top five MICE tourism destinations in the country.
• To incentivise international events, the government has announced an assistance of Rs 5,000 to the event organiser per foreign participant staying overnight, subject to an upper limit of Rs 5 lakh.

EBITA Metric

• Earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITA) is a measure of company profitability used by investors.
• EBITDA is now commonly used to compare the financial health of companies and to evaluate firms with different tax rates and depreciation policies.
• EBITDA is not a substitute for analysing a company's cash flow and can make a company look like it has more money to make interest payments than it really does.

Iron Ore Policy 2021

• Recently, the Ministry of Railways has rolled out Iron-ore Policy 2021.
• Under the policy Categorization of Priority of movement of Iron Ore has now been based on the availability of Railway infrastructure developed by the customer for loading/unloading and the nature of movement between various types of sidings with a view to maximize iron-ore movement by rail.
• Higher priority given to movement of iron-ore traffic for domestic manufacturing activity.
• Higher priority given to movement of iron-ore traffic for domestic manufacturing activity.
• It aims to provide total logistics support to steel industry to meet the competitive challenges domestically and globally.