ANDHRA PRADESH
- Andhra Pradesh History : Patrons of Buddhism
- Most of the inscriptions of the Andhra Ikshvaku period record either the construction of the Buddhist Viharas or the gifts made to them. All the donors and builders of the Viharas were the female members of the Ikshvaku royal family. Although Santamula I is reported to have performed the Vedic sacrifices, nothing is known about the religious leanings of his successors.
- This was the period during which Andhra became a flourishing centre of Buddhism and a place of pilgrimage for the Buddhists. The patrons were ladies from the royal household, the merchants and artisans and the people at large. The great stupas of Jaggayyapeta, Nagarjunakonda and Ramireddipalle were built, repaired or extended during their reign. Buddhist pilgrims and scholars visited the Buddhist centre at Nagarjunakonda. The attraction for this Buddhist centre can be accounted for from the sea trade which was carried on between Lanka and the Ikshvakus though the ports situated on the mouths of the Krishna and the Godavari.
INTERNATIONAL
- Pakistan approves the proposal to open Sharda Peeth corridor
- The Pakistan government approved a proposal to establish a corridor that will allow Hindu pilgrims from India to visit Sharda Peeth.
- It is an ancient Hindu temple and cultural site in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
- The Sharda Peeth corridor, when opened, will be the second religious tract after Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan-controlled territory that will connect the two neighbouring nations.
- After Partition in 1947, the temple went under the control of Pakistan.
- It is about 130km from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir.
- Kashmiri Pandits consider Sharada as their “kuldevi” or principal deity.
- India, Bangladesh to start cruise service
- India and Bangladesh will start a cruise service that would take passengers through the Sunderbans to Dhaka.
- The move aims to strengthen inland waterway routes between the two countries.
- Other than road and rail, India and Bangladesh also have very strong power connectivity through waterways.
- As the movement of goods starts using inland waterways, goods from India can go in the cheapest possible form up to Narayanganj and Dhaka in Bangladesh.
- Apart from it, people would have the option to travel through the Sunderbans on luxury vessels up to Dhaka.
- World’s largest e-waste recycling hub opened in Dubai
- Located at the Dubai Industrial Park, the 2,80,000 square feetplant will process Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), IT asset disposition (ITAD), refrigerant gas and specialised waste.
- It is established by ‘Enviroserve’ company with a total cost of $5 million.
- It has a processing capacity of 100,000 tonnesof total integrated waste per year, of which 39,000 tonnes is e-waste.
- The 120 million dirhams ($5 million) project is backed by the Swiss Government Export Finance Agency.
NATIONAL
- Government notifies Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules 2019
- Health and Family Welfare Ministry have notified the Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019 with an aim to promote clinical research in the country.
- The new rules will change the regulatory landscape for the approval of new drugs and conduct of clinical trials in the country.
- These rules will apply to all new drugs, investigational new drugs for human use, clinical trial, bioequivalence study and Ethics Committee.
- It has reduced the time for approving applications to 30 days for drugs manufactured in India and 90 days for those developed outside the country.
- The ethics committee will monitor the trials and decide on the amount of compensation in cases of adverse events.
- ISRO to launch 29 satellites including EMISAT on April 1, 2019
- India on April 1 will launch an electronic intelligence satellite ‘Emisat’ for the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) along with 28 third party satellites.
- ISRO, for the first time, will also demonstrate its new technologies like three different orbitswith a new variant of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket.
- PSLV-C45will take off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota tentatively at 9:30 AM carrying the satellites onboard.
- EMISAT, weighing 436 kg, is intended for electromagnetic spectrum measurement.
- The 28 international customer satellites are from four countries, viz. Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland and USA. All these satellites are being launched under commercial arrangements.
- India successfully conducts an anti-satellite missile test in Mission Shakti
- India successfully completed ‘Mission Shakti‘ operation where it destroyed a live satellite on a low earth orbit (LEO) using an Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile in three minutes.
- A DRDO-developed Ballistic Missile, Defence Interceptor Missile successfully engaged an Indian orbiting target satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in a Hit to Kill mode.
- He assured the international community that India’s capability will not be used against anyone but is purely a defence initiative for its security.
- The successful launch of an anti-satellite missile, the country has emerged as a space superpower in the world.
- After the US, Russia, and China, India is the fourth country to acquire this space capability.
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