Today's Current Affairs 12th April 2023

NATIONAL

Prime Minister Modi flagged off Rajasthan’s first Vande Bharat Express train

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Rajasthan’s first Vande Bharat Express train today via video conferencing. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra attended the programme.

The inaugural train will run between Jaipur and Delhi Cantt. railway station. The regular service of the train will start between Ajmer and Delhi Cantt. Tomorrow (13 April), with stops at Jaipur, Alwar and Gurgaon. The train will improve the connectivity to major tourist destinations in Rajasthan, including Pushkar and the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, among other places that draw visitors in bulk around the year.

The new Vande Bharat Express will cover the distance between Delhi Cantt. and Ajmer in 5 hours 15 minutes. The fastest train on the same route, Shatabdi Express, takes 6 hours 15 minutes from Delhi Cantt. to Ajmer. That means, the new Vande Bharat Express will be faster by 60 minutes as compared to the present fastest train running on the same route.

The Ajmer-Delhi Cantt. Vande Bharat Express will be the world’s first semi-high-speed passenger train on high-rise overhead electric (OHE) territory.

Today, more than 500 school students will be given the opportunity to travel free of cost in the inaugural special Vande Bharat train.

Sehore Sharbati wheat and various handicraft products from Madhya Pradesh gets GI tag

Madhya Pradesh’s popular Sharbati wheat, also called The Golden Grain, has bagged the Geographical Indication (GI) tag. Efforts were on to get it the GI tag for a very long time. While Sehore district is the largest producer of Sharbati wheat in the country, Madhya Pradesh is its largest producer and exporter.

Flour made from Sharbati wheat  is considered to be of the highest quality in the country. Farmers also get the highest level of prices for the most productive sharbati wheat in the district.

As the name suggests, Sharbati variety wheat is slightly sweeter in taste probably due to the presence of slightly more amount of simple sugars like glucose and sucrose as compared to other wheat varieties.

Recently, several handicraft products of Madhya Pradesh also received the GI tags, including wrought iron crafts of Dindori, batik print of Ujjain, handmade carpet of Gwalior, stone craft of Bhedaghat in Jabalpur and handloom sarees and fabrics of Waraseoni.

SPORTS

Nisha Dahia wins Silver in Asian Wrestling Championships in Kazakhstan

India’s Nisha Dahiya won silver at the Asian wrestling championships in Astana, Kazakhstan yesterday. This is the biggest-ever medal of her career in the women’s 68kg category.

Nisha, on a fine injury comeback, reached the final but fell to Japan’s Ami Ishii 10-0 and finished as a runner-up. Nisha had defeated China’s Feng Zhou 7-6 in the semi-finals.

Another Indian wrestler, Priya Malik clinched a bronze in 76 kg category. She defeated Japan’s Mizuki Nagashima in the repechage round. Overall, India have won six medals so far.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

LIGO India, a major breakthrough initiative to probe Gravitational Wave

On the path of establishing India’s efforts towards becoming a developed nation, the central government has given a nod to set up Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), the country’s biggest facility to probe the universe through the detection of gravitational waves. Science and Technology is a key aspect of the progress and development of any nation and LIGO is one such initiative in realising a major scientific breakthrough in India.

Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time created by some of the Universe’s most destructive and energetic processes or produced by cataclysmic events such as colliding black holes, massive stars exploding and colliding neutron stars. In his general theory of relativity, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, which encapsulates the understanding of how gravitation works.

About LIGO - LIGO is the world’s most powerful observatory and a large-scale Physics experiment carried out to detect Gravitational waves. It is a planned Gravitational-Wave Observatory that will operate as part of a worldwide network to capture and measure gravitational waves coming straight from space.

OBITUARY

Keshub Mahindra passeS away at the age of 99

Keshub Mahindra, former chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra, passed away at the age of 99 on Wednesday April 12. He served as the chairman of the flagship company of the Mahindra Group for 48 years between 1963 and 2012. After that, he was the chairman emeritus of the firm.

Recently, Forbes revealed that he was India's oldest billionaire, with a net worth of $1.2 billion.

Under Mahindra, the company went under a great deal of diversification. When he started working there in the company in 1947, its main business was manufacturing the iconic Willys Jeeps. Now, the group is a conglomerate with interests spanning automobile, energy, software services, real estate, hospitality and defence.

About: Keshub Mahindra - Born on October 9, 1923, in Shimla, Mahindra completed his graduation from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. In 1945, his father, JC Mahindra, co-founded the company. In 1947, Keshub joined the company and assumed the role of chairman in 1963.

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

Aparesh Kumar Singh, the new chief justice of Tripura  High Court

Justice - Aparesh Kumar Singh, a justice of the Jharkhand high court, has been appointed as the chief justice of the Tripura high court with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office.

On January 25, the collegium approved the nomination of Justice Jaswant Singh, a judge of the Orissa high court, as chief justice of the Tripura high court. However, a week after Justice Singh's appointment, on February 19, 2023, Justice Singh announced his retirement from the service. The collegium then recommended that Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh be appointed chief justice of the Tripura high court. Since Justice Indrajit Mahanty retired from the Tripura High Court on November 10 of last year, the position of chief justice has been vacant.

About: Tripura High Court - The Tripura High Court was set up in March, 2013, along with the full-fledged High Courts in Meghalaya and Manipur. All the northeastern states, excluding Sikkim, were earlier under the Guwahati High Court.

IMPORTANT DAYS

International Day for Human Space Flight

Every year on April 12th, International Day for Human Space Flight celebrates the first human space flight anniversary. It’s also a day to reaffirm the importance of space science and technology.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first human-made satellite was launched into outer space. The satellite was called Sputnik I. Four years later, another historic event took place. On April 12th, 1961, Yuri Gagarin carried out the first human space flight. Gagarin was a Soviet citizen, pilot, and cosmonaut. His space capsule, Vostok 1, was the first to complete an orbit of Earth. His journey around the earth took over 108 minutes. Gagarin’s journey marked an important milestone in the Space Race.

Other important space exploration milestones include -

June 16, 1963 – Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to orbit the earth.

July 20, 1969 – Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot upon the moon.

July 17, 1975 – The U.S. and the Soviet Union achieved the first international human mission in space.

SUMMIT'S & MOU's

RRI signs MoU with Indian Navy for developing secure maritime communications using Quantum Technology

Quantum technologies will soon be used to develop secure maritime communications in a joint effort by the Raman Research Institute (RRI) and the Indian Navy.

RRI, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Weapons and Electronics Systems Engineering Establishment (WESEE), the R&D establishment of the Indian Navy, during a ceremony held in New Delhi recently. The MoU, which is for a period of five years, was signed between Professor Tarun Souradeep, Director, RRI, and Vice Admiral Sandeep Naithani, Chief of Materiel, Indian Navy.

Under this agreement, RRI’s Quantum Information and Computing (QuIC) lab will lead the research efforts towards developing quantum key distribution techniques that the Indian Navy could leverage in the nation's efforts towards securing free space communications.

Three-day International Conference on Defence Finance and Economics to begin in New Delhi: April 12

The Defence Minister fo India Mr, Rajnath Singh will inaugurate a three-day International Conference on Defence Finance and Economics in New Delhi, starting 12 April.

The conference will provide a unique platform to policymakers, academicians and government officials to share their insights and experiences on Defence Finance and Economics in the present evolving security challenges.

Delegates from USA, UK, Japan, Australia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Kenya will participate in the conference.

Ministry of Defence said, the objective of the conference is to disseminate the best practices, experiences and expertise of various countries. It will also facilitate collaborations with foreign governments, international institutions and global leaders in promoting government’s vision of Aatmanirbharta in the Defence sector.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Nilesh Sambare Receives Maratha Udyog Ratna Award 2023

Nilesh Bhagwan Sambre, the founder of Jijau Educational and Social Foundation, was recently honored with the "Maratha Udyog Ratna" award at the "Maratha Entrepreneurs Conference 2023". The conference was organized by the “Maratha Entrepreneurs Development and Guidance Institute Maharashtra State”. Nilesh Sambre received the award for his noteworthy achievements in the industry sector and his dedicated work in remote areas like Palghar.

Nilesh Sambare, also known as Appa, received the "Maratha Udyog Ratna" award for his noteworthy achievements in the industry sector and his dedicated work in underprivileged communities in Palghar.

The award was presented by prominent entrepreneurs from Maharashtra, including Suresh Haware, Purushottam Khedekar, Nirmalkumar Deshmukh, Dr. Sachin Bhadane, and Vijay Ghogare.

About: Jijau Educational and Social Organization - The Jijau Educational and Social Organization is a non-profit group with a focus on uplifting underprivileged communities in five districts of India, namely Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg. Nilesh Sambre founded the organization in 2008, and it has been providing education, healthcare, employment, and agriculture-related assistance using its own funds for the past 14 years, without accepting any donations.