 Prime Minister Narendra Modi named Rohtang passageway in Himachal Pradesh as Atal Tunnel to mark the 95th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The tunnel has been named as a tribute to the former Prime Minister who took the historic decision of constructing this strategic tunnel. It will provide all-weather connectivity to remote areas of Lahaul and Spiti Valley and also reduce the distance between Manali and Leh by 46 Kilometres. |
| Source: The News on AIR |
 Indian tennis ace Leander Paes has announced that 2020 will be his last year as a professional tennis player. Leander, who made his Olympic debut in 1992, will look for one final flourish at Tokyo Olympics next year. He has won eight doubles and ten mixed doubles Grand Slam titles. |
| Source: The Hindu |
 Renowned Hindi author Ganga Prasad Vimal passed away in a road accident in Sri Lanka. He was born in 1939 in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. He wrote more than a dozen poetry collections, short story collections and novels. His last novel, Manushkhor, was published in 2013. He received several Hindi literary awards. |
| Source: The Hindu |
 Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister unveiled India’s first long-distance CNG bus fitted with CNG cylinders in New Delhi. It can travel around 1000 kilometres in a single fill. The first long-range interstate CNG bus will ply from Delhi to Dehradun. This type of buses will soon ply between Delhi to Jaipur, Chandigarh and Agra. The project has been executed by Indraprastha Gas Limited, the largest CNG distribution company in the country. |
| Source: The News on AIR |
 The Pakistan Government decided to import Polio markers from India recently. The Government had suspended the trade with New Delhi for months after abrogation of Article 370. |
| Highlights There are three countries in the world where Polio is still endemic. It includes Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. As of December 2019, there have been 111 documented cases of wild polio virus in Pakistan. In 2014, Pakistan had the highest number of polio cases in the world. The country has recently decided to import polio markers from India. The cabinet has provided one-time permission for the import. The polio markers are used to mark the fingers of the children after they are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by the WHO. |
| Polio The disease is caused by Poliovirus. In 1995, India launched Global Polio Eradication initiative of WHO that aims at 100% coverage. With the programme successfully implemented, India has completely eradicated Polio. The last case of Polio was reported in 2011 in India. |
 On December 25, 2019, Union Minister of Communication and IT Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated “Digital Village Guruwara”. During the launch, it was announced that the Government has planned to offer free Wi-Fi services to all villages till March 2020. |
| Highlights The Government of India has so far connected 1,30,000-gram panchayats through Bharatnet. More than 50,000 Gram Panchayat are yet to be connected. The government is working under the current target that at least 15% of villages are to be digitalized in next four years. The free Wi-Fi services are being announced under Bharatnet project. The GoI in June 2018 announced that all gram panchayats will receive broadband connectivity by 2020. However, the connectivity has been made free now. |
| Bharatnet Project The initiative was launched in 2011. Under the initiative, 100 Mbps speed internet were to be provided to around 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats. The aim is to increase their speed to around 2 to 20 Mbps in the future to all households in rural areas. The project is a National Optical Fibre Network project. It is seen as a major initiative in order to succeed Digital India. It is being implemented by the Ministry of Telecommunications. |
 India’s first university for transgender community will be opened in Fazilnagar block of Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh. It is the first of its kind University in country, where transgender community members will be able to get education. |
| The university is being built by Akhil Bhartiya Kinnar Siksha Seva Trust (All-India transgender education service trust). The university will facilitate its members to study right from class 1 to Post Graduate (PG) and even do research and get PhD degree. Members of the transgender community will get education and will be able to give a new direction to the country. From 15 January 2020, two children who are brought up by community members will get admission and from February and March 2020 other classes will start. |
 Centre government is planning to revamp ‘All India Radio’ officially known as ‘Akashvani’ by introducing Digital Radio in India by 2024, when the country will be technologically-equipped for it. The announcement in this regard was made by Union Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar at the 2019 Akashvani Annual Awards in New Delhi. |
| Significance All India Radio is an institution which is a part of people’s lives in form of music, news or entertainment and with AIR news commanding huge credibility, as being one of the largest news gathering and dissemination apparatus in world, there is a needs for AIR to stay ahead of competition from private players. Therefore, once Digital Radio is launch by 2024, there will be more clarity as the audio of digital radio will be more clear, and with digital radio having higher reach Akashvani will be heard for longer range. There will also be four times more stations. |
| About All India Radio (AIR) AIR was established in 1936 and is officially known as Akashvani since 1956. It is the national public radio broadcaster of India and is a division of Prasar Bharati, which is India’s largest public broadcasting agency. AIR is sister service of Prasar Bharati’s Doordarshan elevision Network. |
 South African all-rounder Vernon Philander announced international retirement from all forms of cricket after the conclusion of the upcoming Test series against England. He has played 97 matches across all three formats, taking a combined 261 wickets with 1784 runs in his international career. He also took 51 wickets in his first seven Test matches which earned him the 2012 SA Cricketer of the Year award. |
| Source: The Business Standard |
 Kamareddy district of Telangana has secured the United Nations International Children’s and Education Fund (Unicef)-2019 Award. The district has won the award for effective implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission in water sanitation and hygiene sectors. Kamareddy district was on top in the country among other districts in construction of individual sanitary lavatories, swachh darpan wall paintings, swachh survekshan, swachh sundar shouchalay and many other activities. |
| Source: The Hindu |
You need to login to perform this action.
You will be redirected in
3 sec
