India declared itself free from the highly contagious avian influenza (H5N1) or bird flu from 5 September 2016. 
•    The declaration was made by the Department of Animal Husbandry under the Agriculture Ministry.
•    The Department in a statement said that it had notified the same to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). 
•    The outbreak of the avian influenza was notified on 9 May 2016 at Humnabad, Bidar district, Karnataka. 
•    In areas on the one-kilometre radius of the outbreak location, the government took measures, including culling, disinfection and clean-up, to contain the spread of avian influenza.
•    Bird flu affects mainly the domestic poultry. 
•    The disease spreads from infected birds to other winged creatures through contact with nasal and respiratory secretions and also due to contamination of feed and water.
•    Avian influenza (AI) is an infectious viral disease of birds. 
•    Highly pathogenic viruses result in high death rates (up to 100% mortality within 48 hours) in some poultry species. 
•    Low pathogenicity viruses also cause outbreaks in poultry but are not generally associated with severe disease. 
 

Leading the campaign from the front, Hon’ble Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu launched Swachhta Saptah under the Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat Mission from New Delhi Railway Station today(17.9.2016). In order to spread wider awareness on sanitation and cleanliness in rail premises and make hygiene a habit amongst the travelling public, the Indian Railways is organizing a special nine-day long public outreach programme scheduled from 17th September to 25th September 2016. Stating that this day coincidentally marked the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shri Prabhu said that it is befitting that the Swacchta Saptaah should commemorate his lofty vision and goals. Commencing the Swachhta Saptaah today (17th September 2016) as Swacch Paryavaran Diwas(Clean Environment), the Hon’ble Minister spelled out the Railway’s commitment by recounting the initiatives taken under the Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat Mission. 
•    He also felicitated railway employees Shri Jagdeep Hooda, Coach, Indian Boxing Team & Shri Lalit Mathur, Athlete Player of the Indian Relay Team at Rio Olympic 2016 on the occasion. 
•    Lending their valuable presence to this cause, the sportsmen who were honored participated with enthusiasm accompanied by cheers and gusto from Railway officials and crowd of rail passengers at the venue. 
•    Commencing with ceremony on a big note and with great enthusiasm General Manager, Northern Railway Shri A.K.Puthia launched the the Swachhta Saptah today at Dehradun station. 
•    Various activities held at the station include Nukkad Natak by Scouts and Guides, Cleanliness drives and awareness campaign by SNCF Volunteers. He inspected equipment, materials & machines used for cleaning at stations & in trains and interacted with passengers and with press and media. 
•    In keeping with the program, Indian Railways undertook intensive cleanliness drives on all stations. All stations wore the ceremonial look with posters and banners spelling the message loud and clear to the travelling public that the Railway is their travelling home. Railway officer and staff donned the ceremonial caps interacting with the travelling public and conducting inspections at station premises. 
•    Anti-littering slogans were posted at various locations. Dustbins for garbage were provided and awareness programmes were undertaken. All major stations on the Northern Railway were inspected by all levels of hierarchy from top executives and supervisory cadres.
•    A drive on garbage handling and disposal was also undertaken at railway stations, Trains and Depots. Tree plantation ceremonies were held at various places. 
•    Earmarking each day with specific focus area for spruce-up, the cleanliness programme has certain defined thrusts like Swachh Stations (Clean Stations), Swachh Rail Gaadi(Clean Train), Swachh Neer(Clean Water), Swachh Parisar(Clean Complex), Swachh Sahyog(Cleanliness Participation), Swachh Samvad (Cleanliness Dialogue), Swachh Samarpan (Dedication for ensuring Cleanliness), Swachh Aahar (Clean Food) upto 25th September 2016. Indian Railways is committed to continue this Cleanliness drive on sustained basis. 
•    The Indian Railways appeals to all rail users to express their solidarity through greater public support and an active public co-operation to make the Railways a place of pride and rail journey a pleasant experience.

The government has developed a scientific tool based on a UN model which will use satellite imagery and on-ground assessments to measure direct and indirect damages besides the 'opportunity cost' lost due to disasters. 
•    This will help the Centre make a more accurate and scientific assessment of relief and reconstruction packages for disaster-hit regions, and not be dependent on the arbitrary claims made by states.
•    The scientific tool, called the Post-Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA), has been developed by the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), a part of the home ministry. 
•    It is ready for trials and a pilot will run in a calamity-hit region. The tool has been designed to meet Indian conditions, though modelled on the lines of a similar tool used by the UNISDR for Latin American countries. 
•    The UNISDR tool was developed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and is known as ECLAC tool for disaster risk reduction and loss assessments.

105-year-old Kunwar Bai, who was felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for building toilet by selling off her goats, has been chosen as the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ mascot.
•    Prime Minister Modi will felicitate Kunwar Bai at a function in the national capital to mark `Swachhta Diwas’ on September 17. 
•    Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in February touched her feet during a rally in Rajnandgaon.
•    The Prime Minister, who was in Chhattisgarh to launch the ambitious Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban (rural-urban) Mission, felicitated Kunwar Bai from Kotabharri village of Dhamtari and then touched her feet to seek blessing.
•    Kunwar Bai had sold-off her 8-10 goats to build two toilets at her home. Subsequently, she started showing other villagers the toilets at her home while informing them about its importance.

A group of Keralite women on Saturday created history by taking part in 'Pulikali', a famous folk art which has been an exclusive bastion of male artistes, along with over 500 male counterparts, donning the garb of symbolic tigers.
•    Breaking the conventional gender barriers, they performed along with men on the streets, dancing to the beat of drums wearing tiger masks and body painted with the face of big cat. 
•    The participation of women added colour to the annual folk fiesta, held in front of the famed Vadakkunnatha Siva temple in the city as part of the Onam festivities.
•    A large number of trained artistes, painted as tigers and hunters, danced to the beats of instruments such as 'udukku' and 'takil'. 
•    Three women are N A Vinaya, Divya and Sakheena -- members of Women Integration and Growth through Sports (WINGS).
•    Vinaya said it was an opportunity for them to leave a mark in an area in which only men were till now involved.
 

An indigenously built warship equipped with a range of high-tech missiles was launched on Saturday with Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba.
•    Christened ' Mormugao ', the vessel has been built by government-run Mazgaon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL) and belongs to Visakhapatnam class of ships being constructed under Project 15B.
•    The Project 15B missile destroyers are modern warships equipped with the latest weapons package in continuation of the lineage of the highly successful Delhi and Kolkata Class ships.
•    Admiral Lanba's wife Reena launched the bedecked ship at a function at MDL here at 11.58am and it was released into the Arabian Sea for the first time. 
•    The vessel will undergo certain testings required by Indian Navy and would be subsequently known as INS Mormugao.
•    Four more such destroyers would be built and delivered by MDL during 2020-2024, the PSU said in a statement.
•    The first ship of the Visakhapatnam class was launched on April 20, 2015. 
 

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance's IPO, worth up to Rs 6,057 crore and biggest for Indian markets in about six years, will hit the capital market on Monday.
•    Ahead of the IPO, ICICI Prudential has allocated over 4.89 crore shares at Rs 334, the top-end of the price band, aggregating Rs 1,635.33 crore to a clutch of anchor investors from India and abroad. 
•    It marks one of the biggest anchor investor placements in the Indian IPO market.
•    Among the 40-odd anchor investors are Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Nomura, Government Of Singapore, UTI MF, Russell Investment, GMO Emerging, SBI MF, Tata MF, HDFC Standard Life, Reliance, Birla Sun Life, Kotak Mahindra, IDFC,National Pension Service Managed By Oaktree Capital Management L P and The Boeing Company Employee Retirement Plans Master Trust.
•    The offer would constitute 12.63% of the company's post-offer paid-up equity share capital. 
•    At the upper end of the price band, the offer would be worth Rs 6,057 crore.
•    This would be the biggest initial public offering after Coal India. 
•    The state-run firm had hit the capital markets in 2010 to raise over Rs 15,000 crore.

Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said 2.33 crore bogus ration cards have been weeded out all over the country, that nearly paralysed the public distribution system, due to Aadhaar seeding.
•    Addressing a conference on reforms in Public Distribution System (PDS), Pawan revealed that this weeding led to ‘Rightful Targeting of Food Subsidies’ of Rs 14,000 crore.
•    Eliminating duplicate or fake ration cards will help save a lot in subsidy bill annually.
•    The Union Minister also stressed on the importance and role digitisation played in automating 1.5 lakh fair price shops. He urged states to expedite reforms.
•    As on March 31, 2015, there were 11 crore households with public distribution system (PDS) ration cards.
•    The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is a government ministry of India. The Ministry is headed by a minister of Cabinet rank. 
•    The ministry is divided into two departments, the Department of Food and Public Distribution and the Department of Consumer Affairs .
 

The Delhi High Court on Friday held that the photocopying of course packs prepared by Delhi University comprising portions from books published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis did not amount to infringement of copyright.
•    The court dismissed the suit initiated by the publishing majors, which had sued Delhi University and Rameshwari Photocopying Services, a kiosk inside Delhi School of Economics, claiming infringement of copyright by engaging in preparing copies of course packs with portions culled out of its books in keeping with the syllabus prescribed by the varsity.
•    Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw also lifted the stay on the kiosk from photocopying the course packs. 
•    The case had seen protest by students who backed the kiosk.
•    Copyright is intended to increase and not to impede the harvest of knowledge. It is intended to motivate the creative activity of authors and inventors in order to benefit the public.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), India’s No.1 Container Port, has commenced the holding yard operations in a six-hectare land at JNPCT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Container Terminal) approach roads to further ease out congestion and streamline the traffic to the terminal. This holding yard, which has been developed within the centralized parking plaza, will be utilized for parking Tractor Trailers (TT) awaiting the final documentation.
•    Commencement of holding yard at JNPCT is already showing results and has reduced the congestion by 90% at the port gate roads. 600 TTs can be accommodated in this holding area at one time. 
•    EXIM traders are largely benefitting in saving fuel, logistics cost and improved truck turnaround time as well as number of trips made by a tractor trailer in a day has also increased. 
•    The yard operation ensures free movement at the JNPCT approach roads which will help in better planning of TT movements. This area is developed as pay & park facility for trucks. 
•    Concessional parking rates have been offered at the yard is Rs. 60 & Rs. 70 for every 8 hours stay for 20’ and 40’ containers respectively.
•    TTs will be allowed to move to Terminal Gate only after receiving required clearance of all the documents or proper ticket clearing. 
•    TTs coming directly from CFSs with all clear documents will be allowed directly to Terminal Gate and TTs, which do not have clear documents including PIN number, will be diverted to Holding Yard.
•    The undocumented factory stuffed containers which generally park on roads approaching to port area causing traffic congestion, will now be confined to holding yard and better traffic ensures that risk of shut out of export containers are eliminated.