By: D.K Chaudhary
1. India, China Sign 2 Agreements On Brahmaputra Water Data Sharing & Non-Basmati Rice Export
i. India and China signed two bilateral agreements following the meeting between the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit. The agreements include continuing to share Brahmaputra water data during flood season and exporting non-Basmati rice to China.
ii. The two countries have set a trade target of 100 billion dollars by 2020. During the hour-long meeting between Mr Modi and Mr Xi, both countries agreed on several initiatives to take forward the spirit of Wuhan Informal Summit. Chinese President accepted Prime Minister Modi’s invitation for a Wuhan type informal summit in India next year.
- Beijing is Capital city of China.
- China Premier is Li Keqiang.
- Guwahati is situated on the bank of the Brahmaputra river.
2. Centre Launches ‘Rail MADAD’, ‘Menu On Rails’ Mobile Apps
i. The Ministry of Railways has launched two mobile applications to ease the traveling experience. The two apps, ‘Rail MADAD’ and ‘Menu on Rails’, were launched by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State (MoS) Manoj Sinha during a press conference organized to highlight the achievements of the Ministry in the last four years.
ii. While Rail MADAD will enable travelers to lodge complaints, Menu on Rails will facilitate seamless ordering of food. The Minister stated Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh has been created with a corpus of one lakh crore rupees for making additional funds available for safety-related works.
3. Northern Railways To Monitor Cleanliness Of Trains Using WhatsApp Groups
i. The Northern Railways will now monitor the cleanliness of its trains using WhatsApp groups supervised by senior officials. Every department, be it the pantry, bedrolls etc., will have separate WhatsApp groups, in which status report of cleanliness will be uploaded on a daily basis.
ii. WhatsApp groups have been created for train and pantry cleanliness, bedrolls and functionality of air conditioners in trains. Photographs are being uploaded in these groups for monitoring by senior officials.
4. Met Dept To Use Flash Flood Guidance System For First Time To Forecast Floods
i. India Meteorological Department (IMD) will use flash flood guidance system for the first time in the country to forecast floods. Currently, the Central Water Commission issues flood warnings.
ii. The national weather agency is preparing to launch this service from the next month. Different kinds of soil from various parts of the country have been studied to find out how absorbent each variety was.
- In1875, the Government of India established the IMD.
- Kanduri Jayaram Ramesh is Director General of IMD.
- The head office of IMD is in New Delhi.
5. India Is The Second Highest Sender Of Foreign Students In US
i. With 1,86,000 Indian students currently studying in the United States, India is the second highest sender of foreign students to the US, next only to China.
ii. US consul general in Kolkata, Craig Hall, stated that the United States is the top destination for foreign students worldwide and the number of Indian students in the US has more than doubled in the last 10 years.
