The Daily Brief – 3rd March, 2017

The Railways will soon move towards Aadhaar-based online ticketing system to prevent touts from blocking a bulk of tickets, end fraudulent bookings. The Aadhaar number has been made mandatory for senior citizens to avail concessions in train tickets from April 1.

Signalling a major shift in its position on talks with Pakistan on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), India has accepted an invitation to attend the next meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) to be held in Lahore in March.

Following allegations of corruption and a sustained campaign by the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and citizen groups, the Karnataka State government decided to shelve the controversial Rs. 1,791-crore steel flyover project in Bangalore.

Half of the 4,096-km border India shares with Bangladesh has been fenced. The border runs along West Bengal for 2,216.7 km, Assam 263 km, Meghalaya 443 km, Tripura 856 km and Mizoram 318 km. The aim of the project is to curb infiltration and smuggling of cattle and fake Indian currency notes.

The National Green Tribunal prohibited all camping activity from Shivpuri to Rishikesh on beaches along the Ganga which fall within 100 meters of the river. The roughly 50 km stretch between Shivpuri to Rishikesh is a hub of eco-tourism and river rafting.

The West Bengal Government has given official language status to the endangered tribal language Kurukh, belonging to the Dravidian family. The language has been listed as “vulnerable” in UNESCO’s list of endangered languages.

The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has successfully coordinated Operation Thunder Bird from January 30 to February 19, 2017 in its fight to end poaching of India’s wildlife. It also convened Operation Save Kurma, a species specific operation on turtles between 15 December 2016 and 30 January 2017.

World Wildlife Day is observed on 3rd March every year to celebrate and raise awareness about the world’s wild fauna and flora. It is celebrated to mark the signing of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on this day in 1973.

The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) formally handed over an indigenously developed Weapon Locating Radar (WLR) system dubbed as ‘SWATHI’ to the Indian Army. The DRDO also handed over a Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) recce vehicle Mk-I and NBC treatment drugs to the Indian Army.

Essar Steel has forayed into high-growth defence manufacturing sector by developing steel grades which find application in land and naval defence. The estimated expenditure in defence sector is more than the $200 billion over the next five years.

Scientists have used lasers to analyse how the Big Ben — one of the largest bells in the U.K. — produces its harmonious sounds. Officially known as the Great Bell, Big Ben is the largest of five bells that hang in the belfry of Elizabeth Tower at the Palace of Westminster.

NASA has made a range of software products publicly available, including codes for more advanced drones and quieter aircraft, which people can use for a wide variety of technical applications — without any royalty or copyright fees. A number of software packages are being presented for release for the first time. Each catalogue entry is accompanied with a plain language description of what it does.

Sweden announced that it will reintroduce compulsory military service starting this summer to respond to global security challenges, including from Russia. The Scandinavian nation, which has not seen armed conflict on its territory in two centuries, ended conscription in 2010 after it was deemed an unsatisfactory way of meeting the needs of a modern army. Some 13,000 young Swedes are expected to be mobilised from July 1, but only 4,000 of them will be selected for military service based on motivation and skills. They will be called up each year after January 1, 2018.