RAJASTHAN

The figures released by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) showed that crime rates in Rajasthan have witnessed a marginal drop in 2016 compared to 2015 even as it has brought to fore challenges ahead of the state police, especially in controlling crime against women and weaker sections of the society, and keeping a tab on cyber security.

As per NCRB data, Rajasthan is at No. 4 in the crime against women category. Despite the fact that the senior police officers have been claiming to start GPS enabled buses and special women squad, the safety of women still remains a far cry.

On the other hand, crime under SC/ST atrocities Act has become a major challenge for the state police. The state is at No. 2 position in terms of ST atrocities and has improved a bit compared to 2014 and 2015.

The numbers for human trafficking cases released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) put Rajasthan at an embarrassing number two position with 1,422 cases registered in 2016.

According to NCRB data, the state’s share stood at 17.49% of the total 8,057 cases registered across the country. The list is topped by West Bengal with 3,579 cases. Rajasthan is followed by Gujarat with 548 cases in 2016. However, the police can take heart in the fact that Rajasthan also tops in the list of victims that were rescued in 2016.

The NCRB notes that more minor boys were trafficked than girls. But, on the other hand, among adults, more girls were trafficked compared to boys.

Rajasthan police had launched operation ‘Milap’ this year to reunite missing children with their parents. The operation was a major success.

INTERNATIONAL

India was re-elected to the Council of the International Maritime Organisation under Category B at an assembly of the body at its headquarters in London.

Indian High Commissioner to the UK YK Sinha represented India at the assembly where India secured the second-highest number of votes (144) from member-countries, just after Germany’s 146 and ahead of Australia’s 143.

The other countries to make the cut included France (140), Canada (138), Spain (137), Brazil (131), Sweden (129), The Netherlands (124) and the UAE (115).

· Lipstick Under My Burkha wins tves Global Sustainability Film award in London

In London “Lipstick Under My Burkha”, which explores women’s sexuality, has bagged a top prize at the time Global Sustainability Film Awards 2017.”Lipstick Under My Burkha” is produced by Prakash Jha and directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and stars Konkona SenSharma and Ratna Pathak Shah.
The Founders Award for Sustainability on the Big Screen was introduced this year and sponsored by philanthropist Surina Narula.
The time Global Sustainability Film Awards was launched in 2012. It is an annual film competition for companies and institutions, recognising those whose films most powerfully portray solutions for sustainability.

· Google introduces Datally app for quick data usage in real time

Google launched Datally App to understand, control and save users mobile data themselves.
Datally App available on the Google Play Store will enable users to track their data usage in real time and get personalized recommendations on saving data along with notifications of nearby available public Wi-Fi spots.
Turn on the Data Saver bubble to block background data usage and track real-time data usage.You can also block data with one tap if an app’s data usage gets out of control.

The word ‘populism’ has been announced as Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year 2017.
The dictionary defined populism as “political ideas and activities that are intended to get the support of ordinary people by giving them what they want”.
It said searches for ‘populism’ rose when Pope Francis made statements warning against its rising tide.

Miss KoreaJenny Kimwas crowned Miss Supranational 2017 on Friday in Poland. Tica Martinez of Colombia and Bianca Tirsin of Romania were named the first runner-up and second runner-up respectively.

NATIONAL

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved setting up of National Nutrition Mission (NNM) with a three year budget of Rs.9046.17 crore commencing from 2017-18.

The NNM, as an apex body, will monitor, supervise, fix targets and guide the nutrition related interventions across the Ministries.

The programme through the targets will strive to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies.

Former journalist and author A. Surya Prakash has been appointed as the chairman of the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati for a second term.

Prakash, who has been at the helm of Prasar Bharati for three years since 2014, retired earlier in October.

Miss World 2017, Manushi Chhillar was awarded the Indian of the year special achievement awardby Minister of Finance and corporate affairs, Arun Jaitley at a recent event at New Delhi.
The beauty queen was given the award for her historic win at the Miss World pageant.
She was greeted by Star cricketer Virat Kohli who congratulated her on her success.

Seventh edition Kathakar:International Storytellers Festival was held at Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi. It was inaugurated by Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju.
The partners for this edition of three-day festival are IGNCA of Union Ministry of Culture in Delhi, Heritage Transport Museum, Gurugram and National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai.
It is special initiative, to promote the oral storytelling tradition which has existed across the world. It is only oral storytelling festival in India.