Skill India gets its first Batch of IES officers to the ISDS cadre

NATIONAL NEWS

Skill India gets its first Batch of IES officers to the ISDS cadre

• The first batch of the Indian Skill Development Services (ISDS) commenced their training program at the Administrative Training Institute (ATI), Mysuru.
• Indian Skill Development Services (ISDS) is the newest central government services. The ISDS has 263 all India posts. The cadre comprises of 3 posts at Senior Administrative Grade, 28 posts at Junior Administrative Grade, 120 posts at Senior Time Scale and 112 posts at Junior Time Scale.
• This service has been specially created for the Training Directorate of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and is a Group ‘A’ service.
• This is the first batch which is joining the ISDS cadre from the Indian Engineering Service Examination conducted by UPSC.
• The induction of young talent as ISDS officers is one of the special initiatives taken by the MSDE to attract young and talented administrators towards institutionalizing the Skill Development environment in the country.

Nepal Infrastructure Summit 2019 held in Kathmandu

• Nepal Infrastructure Summit 2019 was held in Kathmandu, Nepal.
• It focuses on the global and regional mega trends, including climate change and their relevance to the local context, issues surrounding infrastructure project delivery, financing modalities and opportunities for cross-border economic cooperation and investments.

FACTS

Prime Minister of Nepal-K P Sharma Oli

 Capital- Kathmandu.

IAF resurrects vintage 'Golden Arrows' squadron to fly first batch of Rafale jets

• The Ambala Air Force Station will be home to the first batch of Rafale fighter jets. The Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted a resurrection ceremony for the Ambala-based 17 Squadron or the Golden Arrows that will operate the multirole fighter aircraft.
• The squadron will be the first unit of the Indian Air Force to fly the Rafale jets.
• In the near future, 17 Squadron will be the first Squadron to be equipped with the State of the art Rafale aircraft, which is an extremely capable, fourth generation, multirole aircraft with advanced weapons.

DRDO successfully tests indigenous anti-tank missile

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested an indigenously-developed low weight, fire and forget Man Portable Antitank Guided Missile (MPATGM) in the ranges of Kurnool.
• The missile was launched from a man portable tripod launcher, while the target was mimicking a functional tank. The missile hit the target in top attack mode and destroyed it with precision.

PM Modi to launch National Animal Disease Control Programme

• Doubling farm income by 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to launch the National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) for eradicating the foot and mouth disease and brucellosis in livestock.
• The project, which will cost ₹12,652 crores for a period of five years till 2024, will be funded entirely by the government. The programme, to be launched in Mathura, aims to control the livestock diseases by 2025 and eradicate these by 2030.

ANGAN, an international conference, was held in New Delhi

• An international conference Augmenting Nature by Green Affordable New-habitat (ANGAN) was held from 9-12 September in New Delhi. The conference focus on Energy Efficiency in the Building Sector.
• The conference was inaugurated by Shri Raj Pal, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Power and Shri Abhay Bakre, DG, BEE.
• The Conference was organized by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power in collaboration with GIZ under the Indo German Technical Cooperation.

Gurugram Police ties up with tech giant Google

• The Gurugram traffic police have tied up with Google maps for real time traffic updates.
• The traffic related information will be shared in real time for public use. The information such as planned road closures, diversions, traffic alerts regarding road crash etc. will be shared by Gurugram traffic police with Google maps. Google maps will immediately update the information on its public maps.
• The basic idea behind this arrangement is to prompt commuters to make intelligent choices in order to make their commuting experience hassle-free.

DEFENCE

INS Khanderi: India's 2nd Scorpene-class submarine

• India’s second Scorpene-class attack submarine -- INS Khanderi -- will be commissioned into the Navy in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The ceremony will be attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
• The submarine has been manufactured by the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in Mumbai.
• Scorpene-class submarines are diesel-electric attack submarines jointly built by DCNS France. It features diesel propulsion.

ENVIRONMENT

Cryodrakon boreas, the largest flying animal was a plane-sized reptile

• Scientists unveiled a new species of pterosaur, the plane-sized reptiles that lorded over primeval skies above T-rex, Triceratops and other dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous.
• With a wingspan of 10 m and weighing 250 kg, Cryodrakon boreas rivals another pterosaur as the largest flying animal of all time, researchers reported in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

APPOINTMENT

P K Mishra is new principal secretary to PM

• Pramod Kumar Mishra has been appointed the new principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• Mishra was the additional principal secretary to the prime minister and was holding the rank of a Cabinet minister.

Shri PK Sinha appointed Principal Advisor to Prime Minister

• Shri PK Sinha, currently functioning as Special Duty in the Prime Minister's Office, has been appointed the Principal Advisor to the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
• Shri Sinha served as Cabinet Secretary from 13th June 2015 to 30th August 2019.
• He was a 1977 Batch IAS officer from Uttar Pradesh Cadre. During his illustrious career, Shri Sinha has served as Secretary in the Ministries of Power and Shipping. He also served as Special Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

AWARD

England greats Boycott & Strauss honoured with knighthoods

• England cricket greats Geoffrey Boycott and Andrew Strauss honoured with Knighthoods by Theresa May in her resignation honours list.
• The former cricketers have received the honour for their services to sport after outstanding careers for England.
• Geoffrey Boycott played 108 tests between 1964 and 1982 for England. He scored 8,114 Test runs at an average of 47.72.
• Andrew Strauss played 100 tests for England from 2004-12 scoring more than 7,000 runs at an average of 40.91 and captained the team to two Ashes series wins.
• He served as England’s director of cricket between 2015 and 2018.