Rajdhani Express
Category: Infrastructure
- The country’s first Rajdhani Express, which revolutionised Indian Railways by way of speed and luxury in the 1960s, turned 50.
- The Kolkata-New Delhi Rajdhani Express embarked on its first journey on March 3, 1969.
- It was the first train with meals included in the fares.
CPSEs
Category: Economy
- The NITI Aayog has been tasked with drawing up a list of non-core assets of various CPSEs, both healthy and sick ones, as a first step towards Finance Ministry’s plan to monetise such assets and unlock value to shareholders.
- This is part of the overall plans of the government to lay down a procedure and mechanism for monetisation of non-core assets of central public sector undertakings (CPSEs), that include mainly land and building.
- The report by NITI Aayog would be taken up by the alternative mechanism on disinvestment, headed by Finance Minister.
- So far, the disinvestment process was confined to the corporate level. Now, it will go one step down and monetise non-core assets of CPSEs to unlock wealth and generate value on equity for shareholders.
Oil exploration
Category: Energy
- Life of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) regime may remain only for the next 10-15 years, as the country’s entire oil and gas exploration as well as production business is shifting to Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP)-Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP).
- In India there are mainly three different categories — nomination basis: areas given prior to auction rounds; pre-NELP and NELP: where areas were given through auctions based on production sharing contracts; and HELP regime — a uniform licensing regime based on revenue sharing model and OALP.
- Since NELP was introduced in the late 1990s, 314 blocks have been offered under various auction rounds, of which 254 have been awarded.
- From 2017 all new contracts have been signed under the HELP regime. Although most of the producing blocks in the country, at present, are those that have been offered before NELP or after NELP. All these production sharing contracts have a life.
- OALP is a continuous bidding process.
Lighthouse Project
Category: Infrastructure
- Six cities across the country have been selected as “live laboratories” for a pilot project under which 1,000 houses will be built using innovative technologies that are low-cost, sustainable and disaster-resistant.
- Six cities have been identified to serve as live laboratories for the Lighthouse Project. These are Rajkot (Gujarat), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Agartala (Tripura) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh).
- The Vulnerability Atlas of India is a collation of the existing hazard scenario of the entire country.
- ‘April 2019-March 2020’ has been declared as Construction-Technology year and stress has been put on the use of advanced technology to meet the increasing demand for housing in the country caused by rapid urbanisation.
OIC
Category: International
- Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is an international organization founded in 1969.
- It consists of 57 member states with 40 countries being Muslim Majority countries.
- The organisation states that it is “the collective voice of the Muslim world” and works to “safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony”.
- The OIC has permanent delegations to the United Nations and the European Union.
- The official languages of the OIC are Arabic, English, and French.
National Security Council
Category: Polity & Governance
- The National Security Council is an executive government agency tasked with advising the Prime Minister’s Office on matters of national security and strategic interest.
- It was established by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998.
- Prior to the formation of the NSC, these activities were overseen by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.
