BIHAR

The Bihar State Road Development Corporation Limited (BSRDCL) has initiated the bidding process for roping in firms to prepare a feasibility report for the construction of a six-lane road on the 6-km, 150- year-old track which has altogether 30 metres of land in width on its sides.

The proposed road will not only provide seamless connectivity between north and south Patna but will also reduce the distance between R-Block and Digha by at least 2km.

INTERNATIONAL

The 28th Plenary Meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was held in Jurmala, Latvia On 14th and 15th June 2018.

· Russia Launched Soyuz 2.1b Carrier Rocket With Glonass M Navigation Satellite

Russia launched a Soyuz-2.1bcarrier rocket from the Plesetsk space center to orbit a Glonass-M satellite.
GLONASS – the Russian acronym for ‘Global Navigation Satellite System’.
The Glonass network provides real-time positioning data for surface, sea and airborne objects around the globe, at an accuracy reportedly on par with the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS).
With this Launch, there are now 26 Glonass satellites in orbit.

· SAARC fund to launch social enterprise programme in India and 7 other member nations

Thimpu-based SAARC Development Fund (SDF) will soon be launching a Social Enterprise Development Programme (SEDP) to fund 80 entities annually across the 8-member states including India.
SDF was established by the Heads of the eight SAARC member states in April 2010 and its Governing Council comprises finance ministers of these eight countries.
SAARC members are – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The World Bank has approved $700 million to improve the primary education sector in
It will also finance implementation of the government’s Fourth Primary Education Development Program (PEDP4).
This project will build about 95,000 classrooms, teachers’ rooms, and multipurpose rooms.
It will also build 80,000 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) blocks and 15,000 safe water sources.
The projects will provide recruitment to about 100,000 teachers.

On June 18, 2018, Chinese envoy to India Luo Zhaohui unveiled a four-point vision for future cooperation with India.
This is followed by the informal summit between PM Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The four-point vision are:
1) Sign a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation

2) Negotiate a bilateral Free Trade Agreement

3) Enhance connectivity

4) Work for early harvest on boundary issues.

NATIONAL

Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari has expressed hope that collaboration with Google will help in effective flood management in India.

Central Water Commission (CWC), India’s apex technical organization in the field of Water Resources, has entered into a Collaboration Agreement with Google.

CWC would use state-of-the-art advances made by Google in the in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and geo spatial mapping for effective management of water resources particularly in the field of flood forecasting and dissemination of flood related information to the masses widely using the dissemination platforms developed by Google.

This initiative is likely to help crisis management agencies to deal extreme hydrological events in a better manner.

Mehbooba Muftiresigned as Jammu and Kashmir’s chief minister, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ended its alliance with her Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), potentially pushing the state towards Governor’s rule.
She handed over her resignation to Governor NN Vohra.