Bihar
- Zoo to name cubs on International Tiger Day
- The Patna zooauthorities have decided to showcase the four-month old tiger cubs, kept with their mother Swarna in special care, on the occasion of International Tiger Day on July 29. The two tiger cabs were born on March 13 this year.
- The zoo will also celebrate the day by naming the cabs
- Apart from tiger display, kids can also take part in various interschool competitions, such as quiz and painting, which will be organised at the second gate of the zoo.
- Liquor ban in Bihar hits TB diagnosis.
- The positives of the liquor ban in Bihar notwithstanding, the prohibition has taken a toll too — on TB diagnosis.
- Conducting tests for diagnosing tuberculosis has become an uphill task in Bihar since the ban on liquor was imposed in the state last year.
- There is a scarcity of ethyl alcohol which is used to conduct such tests in the laboratories, including those in government facilities
- With the alcohol ban imposed in Bihar, the laboratories are facing difficulty in procuring alcohol and this has affected the diagnosis of tuberculosis in the state.
- Bihar was on April 5, 2016 declared a dry state with the Nitish Kumar government imposing a total ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol, including Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).
INTERNATIONAL
- Liu Xiaobo, Chinese dissident who won Nobel prize, dies.
- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, China’s most prominent political prisoner, died on Thursday at a hospital in the country’s northeast, officials said. He was 61.
- Chinese literary critic, writer, human rights activist who called for political reforms and end of communist single-party rule. He is also known for his role in 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing.
- Liu is the third person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention, after Germany’s Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi (1991).
NATIONAL
- New rules to protect policyholders.
- The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) has notified new rules to protect policyholder’s interest.
- If an insurer delays claims payments, it has to pay a penalty that’s 2% over the bank rate, which is specified by the Reserve Bank of India, as on 1 April of that fiscal.
- It has to do so within 30 days from when the decision to pay was taken.
- National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination in India (2017-22)
- The Strategic Plan gives year wise elimination targets in various parts of the country depending upon the endemicity of malaria in the next 5 years.
- Highlighting the salient features of the NSP, Shri Nadda stated that the strategies involve strengthening malaria surveillance, establishing a mechanism for early detection and prevention of outbreaks of malaria, promoting the prevention of malaria by the use of Long Lasting Impregnated Nets (LLINs), effective indoor residual spray and augmenting the manpower and capacities for effective implementation for the next five years.
- India to host 8th Edition of Theatre Olympics ‘The Biggest Theatre Celebration of the World’
- India will host the 8th edition of Theatre Olympics in 2018, the biggest theatre celebration of the world.
- The eight edition of the greatest carnival will start from February 17-April 08, 2018.
- The Theatre Olympics will take place simultaneously in various cities across the country.
- There will be five hundred plays and seven hundred ambience performances from across the world.
- Delhi government to start online RTI portal
- Delhi became the second state to launch e-RTI portal that will enable citizens to file online Right to Information (RTI).
- The Central government had launched its own online RTI application portal in 2013, which allowed users to file queries, pay application fee and submit requests for appeal.
- The Central government had urged the States to set up their own online application portals. Maharashtra had followed suit in 2015 with its own RTI portal.
- Dumping in Ganga will be fined from now.
- Penalty of Rs 50, 000 will be imposed on those dumping waste in the stretch between Haridwar and Unnao of River Ganga, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said.
- No waste dumping should be allowed within 500 meters from the edge of the Ganga. Also, 100 meters from the edge of the river should be declared a “no-development zone.
- The Tribunal directed the concerned authorities to complete the setting up of a sewage treatment plant and cleaning of drains within two years.