12 January 2018 Current Affairs
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12 January: National Youth Festival
The National Youth Day celebrated every year on 12 January. This is the day when Swami Vivekananda, one of the greatest social reformers, thinkers, and philosophers of India, was born. The Indian government had declared back in 1984 that Swamiji’s birthday would be celebrated as the National Youth Day. The main aim behind this is to make sure that the students across the country can be encouraged to learn about the life, the ideas and philosophy of Swami Vivekananda and apply them in their lives. The Theme of the Festival is ‘Sankalp Se Siddhi’.
Indu Malhotra, first woman lawyer to be directly promoted as Supreme Court judge
The senior advocate Indu Malhotra has been recommended as a judge of the Supreme Court by the collegium of Supreme Court. Indu Malhotra would become the first woman lawyer to be directly appointed as a judge of the highest court. Along with Indu Malhotra, Justice K M Joseph has also been cleared for elevation to the apex court. Justice K M Joseph is presently chief justice of Uttarakhand High Court.
Kajol named ambassador for Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat
Actress Kajol, an active supporter of eradicating preventable deaths from hygiene-related issues, has become an advocacy ambassador for a Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat initiative. Kajol took to Twitter to urge people to become “swachhta doot” and contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
ISRO’s PSLV-C40 lifts off from Sriharikota
ISRO’s PSLV-C40 carrying Cartosat-2 series satellite and 30 other spacecraft lifts off from Sriharikota. The “Cartosat-2 Series” and 29 other satellites inserted into a 505-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. Later, the payload Microsat developed by the ISRO will be taken down to a lower orbit at 359-kilometer height and launched using the ‘multiple engine switch-on’ method. This is the fourth time the novel method has been used by the ISRO for placing satellites in multiple orbits in a single flight.
India tops Domestic Air Traffic Demand at 16.4% in November: IATA
India’s domestic air passenger traffic grew by 16.4 percent in November 2017, topping the growth chart worldwide, according to the global aviation body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Globally, the total revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) increased 8 percent compared to November 2016. The available seat kilometres (ASKs) or capacity grew by 6.3 percent. The ASK for India was at 10.4 percent, second only to China where capacity grew by 12.9 percent, according to the IATA’s monthly data.
Ministry of Railway launches SFOORTI App
In a major digital initiative to help plan the traffic flows and optimize freight operations, Ministry of Railways launched Smart Freight Operation Optimisation & Real Time Information (SFOORTI) App for Freight Managers which provides features for monitoring and managing freight business using Geographic Information System (GIS) Views and Dashboard. With this application, movement of freight trains on Geographic Information System (GIS) view can be tracked. Both passenger and freight trains can be tracked over Zones/Divisions/ Sections in single GIS View.