Current Affairs-GK March 12, 2016

India to supply 18 Meter Gauge Diesel Electric Locomotives to Myanmar

• RITES (Public Sector Enterprise under Ministry of Railways) signed a contract to supply 18 Meter Gauge 1350 HP Diesel Electric Locomotives to Myanmar Railways.
• This supply will help Myanmar to meet increasing demand for passenger and freight traffic.
• Contract was signed at Naypyitaw, Myanmar on 4 March 2016.

Gujarat: Leaks In Kakrapar Nuclear Plant, One Unit Shut

• A power generation unit at Kakrapar Atomic Power Station in Surat was shut down after leakage of heavy water.
• Leakage in the primary heat transport system of unit one of Kakrapar atomic power station in Gujarat has forced the authorities to shut down the unit as an emergency measure.

IMF and India to set-up South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center in Delhi

• India and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have decided to set up South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Centre (SARTTC) in New Delhi. In this regard, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Union Power Ministry named LED based Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme as UJALA

• Union Power Ministry has announced name UJALA for the LED based Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP). UJALA is acronym for Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All. The National LED based DELP programme was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 2015 for energy conservation by reducing energy consumption.

Lt Gen N P S Hira appointed Deputy Chief of Army

• Lieutenant General (Lt Gen) N P S Hira has been appointed as Deputy Chief of Army Staff. He will be now moving to Army Headquarters in New Delhi. Presently he is posted as Chief of Staff of Northern command at Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir. 
• He was commissioned in the Sikh Light Infantry. He has a rich experience of counter insurgency operations in J&K and in the northeast region, as well as conventional operations in Western command.

Arab League declares Lebanese movement Hezbollah a terrorist group

• The Arab League has declared Lebanese movement Hezbollah, a Shia political organisation a terrorist group. The move comes after the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) had adopted the same stance. Decision in this regard was taken during the Arab League Foreign Ministers’ meeting at the organisation’s seat in Egypt’s capital Cairo. 
• All-22 Arab League members supported the decision except Lebanon and Iraq expressed reservations. Hezbollah (Party of God) is a Shia political organisation created by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the 1980s. It was established with an armed wing during Lebanon’s civil war from 1975 to 1990.

Suresh Prabhu Has Launched "Clean My Coach" Service

• Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu on 11th march 2016 has launched the 'clean my coach' service.
• The service allows a passenger to make request for a dirty coach to be swept and cleaned by sending an SMS on mobile number 58888 or by using an app or a designated website. Prabhu had announced the scheme in the Rail Budget last month.

Govt sets new norms for Hydrocarbons licensing

• Government of India has approved a new policy for exploration and also defined the norms for pricing of existing and new discoveries made in difficult areas.
• The petroleum minister said the new oil and gas exploration policy will now be based on a revenue-sharing model, as opposed to cost-and-output-based norms earlier.

Long march against Indo-Bangladesh power plant near Sundarbans started

• A 250 km-long protest march against plans to build Rampal Power Station, Indo-Bangladesh coal-fired power plant near the Sundarbans, was kick-started on 10 March 2016.
• The protest march calls for scrapping the project that supposedly will harm the ecosystem of the world's largest mangrove forest.
• Environmentalists, cultural and political activists, and eminent individuals began the four-day march from Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka to persuade the Bangladeshi Government to drop its backing for construction of the plants near the Sundarbans, an area of rice paddies, shrimp farms and vast mangrove forests.
• The Rampal Power Station is a proposed 1320 megawatt coal-fired power station at Rampal Upazila of Bagerhat District in Khulna, Bangladesh.
• It is a joint partnership between India's state owned National Thermal Power Corporation and Bangladesh Power Development Board.

Honey festival in Mangaluru from March 12

• The Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, in association with the Karnataka Horticulture Department, will conduct a ‘honey festival’ in Mangaluru on March 12 and 13.