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- The Indian Navy has commissioned INS Tillanchang at Karwar, Karnataka. It is a Water Jet Fast Attack Craft (WJFAC) It is the third ship of four WJFACs built by the Kolkata based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE). The first two ships, INS Tarmugli and INS Tihayu were commissioned in 2016. These ships are designed to take on both conventional and asymmetric threats.
- CSIR Pvt. Tech Ltd (CSIR-Tech), a company affiliated to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and primarily formed to commercialise technology developed by the 75-year-old organisation’s 37 labs, has been shut down.
- The Sri Lankan government has decided to release all 85 Indian fishermen who are now in its custody. The Indian government too is likely to reciprocate the gesture and release the 19 Sri Lankan fishermen in its custody. The development comes two days after Tamil Nadu fisherman K. Britjo was shot dead in the Palk Bay.
- With the Uttarakhand forest department focusing on tiger conservation, the State is soon to get two new tiger reserves, work towards which is under way. The Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary, which falls under the Terai Arc Landscape spanning across India and Nepal, and the Surai Range in the Terai East division of the Uttarakhand forest department are the two proposed tiger reserves. Uttarakhand now has two tiger reserves – the Corbett Tiger Reserve and the Rajaji Tiger Reserve. According to the tiger census data released in 2015, Uttarakhand has 340 tigers making it a State with the second highest tiger population in the country after Karnataka. With the two new tiger reserves, Uttarakhand, would become the first State in North India to get four tiger reserves.
- The World Gold Council (WGC) expects a revival in demand for the yellow metal in India in the current calendar year after 2016 ended on a dismal note on account of a surge in gold price coupled with factors like an increase in excise duty and demonetisation. The global body expects Indian gold demand to be about 650-750 tonnes in 2017.
- Negotiations for the Peru-India Trade Agreement will take place soon, according to Edgar Vasquez, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, Republic of Peru. In September 2016, Peru and India concluded the joint feasibility study for an accord in trade in goods, services, investment and cooperation.
- The first meeting between the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the Indian cricket team’s coaching staff was held in Bangalore. The CoA has asked head coach Anil Kumble to present a comprehensive report related to the national team, junior team, women’s team and domestic first class cricket. Kumble is expected to present the report in three weeks. Apart from Kumble, assistant coaches Sanjay Bangar and R. Sridhar had an opportunity to engage with the Vinod Rai, Diana Eduljee and Ramachandra Guha.
- Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel addressed a congregation of top women athletes of the country on International Women’s Day at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium and assured them equality of right and all support. Goel, while addressing conference on “Women and Sports in India” organised by the Union Sports Ministry, said a high-level committee would be constituted to resolve the grievances and complaints of women sportspersons. The committee, expected to be all-women, will function under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Sports), and will comprise athletes, an advocate, senior officers of the Sports Ministry and sports journalists.
- Micro-blogging website Twitter has introduced Moments analytics for all its users on the web. Moment creators can now “track how well their content is working on Twitter” and know details on “opens, likes, shares.” It allows users to collect and curate tweets to tell stories in new ways.
- A new frog species, which measures just about two centimetres and was discovered in the Peruvian Andes, has been named after noted British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough. The frog is formally described as Pristimantis attenboroughi, while it is to be referred to as Attenborough’s rubber frog.
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