RAJASTHAN
● Rajasthan leads in violating official secrets Act
Rajasthan recorded the highest violations of the official secrets Act in 2017. The state recorded four cases related to breaching the official secrets Act, majority of which were related to espionage activities.
Being a border state, Rajasthan has always been a target of the Pakistan’s ISI which try to sneak in its operatives to collect information about the movement of troops in the frontier areas.
This year, for the first time NCRB also recorded the list of “Crime Committed by Anti-National Elements,” in which a separate list of crimes committed by LWEs (Left Wing Extremists) and terrorists, but no cases were reported.
INTERNATIONAL
- Disarmament Week: 24-30 October
Disarmament Week is an annual event that is observed from 24 October to 30 October in various parts of the world.
The observance revolves around raising public awareness of the dangers of the arms race and the need for international disarmament.
An important focus of this week is trying to convince nations to only keep the weapons they need for an adequate police force.
- India and France explore 3rd country projects in Western Indian Ocean region
India and France have taken concrete steps to firm up their strategic partnership in the western Indian Ocean part of their Indo-Pacific strategies, within two months of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Paris.
They consisting of Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles in the western Indian Ocean currently meeting for the first time in the Reunion Islands (French territory) for exploring economic and development partnership.
India represented by the minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan at the meet.
India has longstanding defense partnerships with Mauritius and Seychelles, its defense ties with Comoros and Madagascar are growing as part of India’s Indo-Pacific outreach to ensure peace and stability. Indo-French defense partnership extends to the western part of the Indian Ocean.
NATIONAL
- Govt Accords ‘Maharatna’ Status to Hindustan Petroleum, Power Grid Corp
The government accorded ‘Maharatna’ status to state-owned Hindustan Petroleum and Power Grid Corporation.
Two separate orders to this effect were issued by the Department of Public Enterprises, under the Ministry of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises.
The grant of Maharatna status to the PSUs will impart enhanced powers to their Boards to take financial decisions.
Total Maharatna CPSEs now :
- Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
- Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited
- Coal India Limited
- GAIL (India) Limited
- Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited
- NTPC Limited
- Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited
- Power Grid Corporation of India Limited
- Steel Authority of India Limited
- Indian Railways to convert 200 saloons into 10 tourist trains to be run by IRCTC
Indian Railways decided to convert 200 saloons into ten luxury tourist trains to be run by the IRCTC in a bid to regulate the use of the colonial era-style carriages and generate additional revenue for the national transporter.
The inspection cars to be exclusively used by railway officials to visit far-flung areas, these saloons comprise two bedrooms, a lounge, a pantry, a toilet, and a kitchen that are built to facilitate the stay for up to five days.The concerns over misuse of these saloons by officials, Railway minister Piyush Goyal given up the use of his ones calling them trappings of a colonial mindset.
The Railway Board prepared a set of instructions for its zones to strictly regulate the number and use of such saloons.The saloons and observation car for zonal general managers, each zone will have two additional carriages for inspection purposes.
Each railway division will have a self-propelled inspection car with windows at both ends.The remaining should be used for premium tourist traffic to earn additional revenue for the railways.
