Burning problem Air pollution is on the rise in Thoothukudi due to emissions from industries and chemical units.

Permission has been granted for two more thermal power stations along the Town-Harbour stretch.N. Rajesh

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Govt to launch electric fleet with 100 buses, two depots

*Envisaging what it hopes will be a gradual, but complete, shift to a

State-run transportation system powered by clean fuel, the Aam Aadmi

Party (AAP) government has begun laying the foundation of a future fleet

of electric buses to be maintained and operated by the Delhi Transport

Corporation (DTC).

*“So far, it has been decided to keep the number of the fleet at 100

buses, which will be managed and operated by the DTC. Two depots, it

has been proposed, will be equipped with charging points to cater to 50

buses each,” said the source.

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Students march for cleaner air in Gurugram

*With air pollution levels continuing to be very high in the National

Capital Region (NCR) for the past several weeks, a large number of

students from a government senior secondary school, Chakkarpur, took

out a march on Saturday wearing masks to demand cleaner air and

greener surroundings.

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Big push for Northeast roads

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PM announces Rs90,000 crore to be spent on highways, other projects

*Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated crucial

connectivity and power projects in Mizoram and Meghalaya.

*Mr. Modi dedicated the 60-MW Tuirial hydropower power project, which

made Mizoram the third power-surplus State in the region after Sikkim

and Tripura.

*Mr. Modi said the dam could be used for improving connectivity in

remote villages, fisheries, ecotourism and also as a source of potable

water.

*In Meghalaya, he announced a grant of ₹90,000 crore for improving roads

and national highways in the northeast over two or three years to

improve connectivity.

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*He dedicated to the nation a 271-km two-lane national highway

connecting Tura in western Meghalaya to Shillong.

*He said the Act East Policy of his government would soon make Mizoram

the gateway to the Southeast Asian countries, which include Cambodia,

Myanmar and Vietnam.

*Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, connecting Aizawl with

the deep-water Sittwe Port in Myanmar, would provide great benefits to

the people of the north-eastern States.

*With the allocation of ₹10,000 crore for the power sector, a state-of-the-

art transmission system would be in place soon in the Northeast.

*The development of the Rih-Tiddim road and the establishment of

numerous rural markets along the Mizoram-Myanmar border would

increase trade volume, he said.

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India stands by free Internet: Prasad

*Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said here on Saturday that the “right of non-discriminatory access to Internet is not negotiable”.

*“When Facebook came to India with Free Basics, I examined it ... and I found it will be free only when you enter from my gate. India does not believe in one gate and I didn’t give them permission,” Mr. Prasad said while addressing the Digital India Summit.

*The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a regulation in February2016 on discriminatory pricing for internet access, which led to a ban of platforms such Free Basics and Airtel Zero.

*As per ruling, the companies violating the rules would be fined ₹50,000 perday for the duration of contravention, subject to a maximum of ₹50 lakh.

*He said the government was making efforts to make India a $1 trillion digital economy in the coming five years which include IT and IT-enabled services

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Interpol cancels RCN against Naik

*Interpol has cancelled the Red Corner Notice (RCN) it issued against

controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik earlier this month, his aide said

on Saturday.

*The request of the National Investigation Agency for a fresh RCN was not

accepted by the Interpol as the charge sheet had not been filed when

the request was submitted.

*Now the NIA will submit a fresh request as the charge sheet has been

filed in the NIA court in Mumbai.

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Suhaib Ilyasi convicted of murdering wife*A sessions court here on Saturday convicted Suhaib Ilyasi, producer of TV show India’s Most Wanted, for murdering his wife Anju in 2000.

*Ilyasi, who was present in the courtroom, was immediately taken into custody.

*Additional sessions judge Sanjeev Kumar Malhotra held him guilty under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.

*Initially, Ilyasi was booked for charges of subjecting his wife to cruelty, dowry death and destroying evidence. But later, the Delhi HC in 2014 ordered that he be tried for murder.

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Madhu Koda gets 3-year RI for coal scam

*Observing that “white collar crimes” are in fact more dangerous to

society than ordinary ones, a special court, trying cases of irregularities

in allotment of coal blocks, on Saturday awarded three years’ rigorous

imprisonment to former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda and three others.

*However, all convicts were later granted bail to allow them to appeal

against their conviction and punishment in the Delhi High Court.

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PM to visit cyclone Ockhi victims on Tuesday

*Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Thiruvananthapuram on

Tuesday evening for an hour-long visit to assess loss of lives and property

in cyclone Ockhi.

*Mr. Modi will hold discussions with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his

Cabinet members and top State officials, a release said.

An eyesore The Fort Kochi beach is in a mess as it is filled with litter

brought in by high waves in the wake of cyclone Ockhi in Kerala.

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‘Reduce pesticide residue in rice’

*With the pesticide level in rice exceeding the stipulated limit, which has

led to problems in export, major rice producing States in the South have

been asked to take necessary steps to reduce the residue.

*Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have been

asked by the Union Ministry of Agriculture to keep a watch on the use of

pesticides by farmers that could finally enter the food chain.

*It has also urged the local department of agriculture and agricultural

universities to review the use of pesticides in paddy and create

awareness among farmers of the correct dose.

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Arctic beckons adventure traveller from Kerala

*Niyog is all set for the adventure of a lifetime. The 26-year-old adventure traveller from Punalur in Kerala’s Kollam district has just got through an online poll that would make him the first Indian to take part in Fjällräven Polar, an expedition across the Arctic, set to be held in April, 2018.

*Fjällräven Polar is a dream expedition of adventure travellers across the world. It is an annual expedition organised by Swedish company Fjällräven since 1997.

*The participants will have to travel 300 km at minus 30° Celsius through the arctic wilderness in Norway and Sweden on sleighs pulled by around eight Siberian Husky dogs.

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Lizard genes reveal grasslands’ antiquity

*Earlier this year, India’s less-known lacertid lizards gave scientists a sneak peak into the country's ecological past. Genes of these grassland-dwelling reptiles show that they evolved with the spread of arid Indian habitats around nine million years ago.

*These open habitats contain six times more lacertid species than currently known to science, highlighting the need to recognise India's oft-ignored native open habitats as unique biodiversity-rich habitats, shows the study published in the Journal of Biogeography.

*Open arid habitats in India – such as savannas and grasslands – are often considered wastelands or degraded forests, despite the ecosystem services (including supporting diverse wildlife and large numbers of livestock) they provide. But are these grassy biomes natural or caused by early human activities like tree-felling and burning?

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Advanced technologies smarten new subway line in Beijing

*Advanced technologies have made the newly-constructed subway Yanfang (YF) line smart, which had a trial run without passengers in the Fangshan District of Beijing on Friday.

*The YF line is China's first completely-automaticsubway with the Chinese-owned proprietary intellectual property rights.

*On this automatic subway line, "drivers" on the trains do not need to operate the devices; they just monitor the devices and the routes where the trains run.

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Superbacteria could soon be eating China’s textile waste

*In a Hong Kong laboratory, researchers are working with one of the

world’s biggest cloth makers to improve its production process using a

special ingredient: bacteria.

*TAL Apparel Ltd, which has factories in mainland China and Southeast

Asia, has teamed up with City University to identify bacteria that can

clean up more efficiently the vast quantities of waste water the textile

industry produces.

*It’s one of hundreds of efforts by China’s private and state-owned

companies to fix a problem that could end up rewriting the playbook of

the global fashion industry.

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NASA's 'SuperTIGER' balloon to study cosmic particles*NASA scientists in Antarctica are set to launch a balloon-borne

instrument to collect information on cosmic rays, high-energy particles from beyond the solar system that enters Earth's atmosphere every day.

*The instrument, called the Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (SuperTIGER), is designed to study rare heavy nuclei, which hold clues about where and how cosmic rays attain speeds up to nearly the speed of light. It will be launched on December 10.

* In 2013, the SuperTIGER had broken flight duration records while flying over Antarctica.

*The most common cosmic ray particles are protons or hydrogen nuclei, making up roughly 90 percent, followed by helium nuclei (eight percent) and electrons. The remainder contains the nuclei of other elements, with dwindling numbers of heavy nuclei as their mass rises.

*With SuperTIGER, researchers are looking for the rarest of the rare -so-called ultra-heavy cosmic ray nuclei beyond iron, from cobalt tobarium.

Question

Why White Collar

Scams are the most

dangerous for society?

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