By: D.K. Choudhary
Report finds India as second largest arms purchaser after Saudi Arabia
i. As per the report of ‘Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations 2008-2015′ released by Congressional Research Service (CRS), India has emerged as the second largest purchaser of arms among developing nations after Saudi Arabia.
ii. According to the report, between 2008 and 2015, India purchased defence equipment worth $34 billion while in the same period, Saudi Arabia’s purchase was worth $93.5 billion.
iii. The report highlights the recent Indian efforts to diversify its procurement of arms, of which the US has been a major beneficiary. India is planning for continuous modernisation plan for its defence forces.
China operationalises world’s longest bullet train line
i. China has started the operations of the longest east-west high-speed railway, which connects eastern coast to the less-developed southwestern part of the country.It is one of the world’s longest high-speed railways.
ii. The Shanghai-Kunming line is 2,252 km in length with the maximum speed of 330 kmph and traverses the five provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan and cuts travel time from Shanghai to Kunming from 34 to 11 hours.
iii. China has built more than 20,000 km of high-speed rail lines.It also planned to increase the mileage to 45,000 km by 2030.
Points to Remember :
♦ World’s highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge has opened in central China.
♦ China commissions world’s largest radio telescope “Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in the remote Pingtang county in southwest China’s Guizhou province.
