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- October 2019
Index
Toppers Talk
Art & Culture
Polity
- Right to access internet is fundamental right declares Kerala High Court
- Legal rights of Deities in India, Difference in Natural and Juristic Person
- Bru refugees refuse to return to Mizoram
- No animal sacrifice in Tripura temple-Orders High Court
- EC’s Order on Reducing Sikkim CM’s Disqualification Period
- Law Ministry issues corrigendum to Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act
- Appointment of the Judges in India.
- New Chief Justice of India- How is CJI appointed?
- Indian Penal Code 1860, HM Amit Shah wants to Overhaul IPC
- National Population Register (NPR) 2020
- Whistle Blowers Allegations on Infosys
Governance & Social Justice
- 60% girls in Delhi colleges anaemic
- Niti aayog’s School education quality index
- Multipurpose National Identity Card
- Population pyramid : India Vs China, Demographic dividend Phase of India
- UN Population Report, India will become the most populous country by 2027
- Supreme Court upholds SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendments Act
- Comparing Population Pyramids of India and China
- Waqf boards-Their governance and purpose
- Harvard Admissions Case
- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana- Ist Anniversary, Problems and solutions
- Significance of sexual and Reproductive Health-Status of reproductive services in India
- Pregnancy in Old Age, What is In Vitro Fertilisation-Risks and legal shortcomings
- Supreme Court Judgement on NGOs and RTI
- Social Stock Exchange
- Rajasthan Govt changes EWS norms, Sets Rs 8 lakh family income as only criteria
- Global hunger index 2019
- No Government job for those with more than two kids
- Ranitidine CANCER risk
- IIT Council Introduces Tenure track system
International Relations
- Bangladesh growing faster than India ?
- Cyprus dispute explained
- Donald Trump impeachment
- India wins Hyderabad Nizam case against Pakistan
- India’s reply to Pakistan at UNGA
- Prime Minister of Malaysia calls India and invader in Kashmir
- Should India recognise the armenian genocide ?
- Why are CARICOM countries important for India ?
- Why are countries leaving OPEC ?
- Attacks on Saudi Oil facilities
- Organization of Islamic Cooperation issues statement on Jammu and Kashmir
- Sri Lanka’s relations with India & China
- US troops start pullout in Syria as Turkey prepares for operation
- What are Vanilla Islands?
- India-USA trade deal
- UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award-2019
- Modi – Xi Informal meet at Mamallapuram – Historic Chinese links
- India China informal summit in Tamil nadu
- Pakistan save from FATF blacklist till 2020
- USA blacklists China organisations over Uighur Muslim abuse
- Why is Chile burning ?
- Why is the Philippines important for India
- Xi jinping Nepal visit 2019 and impact on India
- India Pakistan Cross LOC Trade suspended, Should India revoke suspension?
- Protests in Lebanon
- Chennai to Vladivostok Sea Route
- End of baghdadi
- Indian government’s security advisory
- Indians no longer require Visa to visit Brazil
- Non Aligned Movement 2019 summit
- US backed Ceasefire between Turkey and Kurds
- Pakistan stops postal exchange with India
- China’s GDP growth slows to 6% slowest in 27 years
- Common Goods for Health project by WHO
- Turkey attack Kurds in Syria
Geography
Economy
- Behavioural Aspect of Farmer Suicide
- Is rural India really open defecation free ?
- Global Growth Slow Down
- Nobel Prize in Economics 2019
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
- SBI wrote off bad loans worth 76,000 crores
- Surge in Onion Price
- Agriculture Credit by RBI’s Internal Working Group
- What is Debt to GDP Ratio?
- Yes Bank Crisis
- Nobel prize in Literature – Controversy
- Boosting Indian Exports
- Sopore Fruit Mandi deserted
- What is Pink Collarisation?
- Mizoram to have Broad Gauge railway line by 2021
- Demand downturn in Indian Economy
- Payment facilitation fund
- Participatory Guarantee Scheme
- RBI’s 4th Bi-monthly Monetary Policy 2019-20
- Tourism restrictions lifted in Kashmir
- Link between Jobs, Farming, and Climate
- Draft Social Security Code 2019
- State Tax Revenues, SGST and Central Tax Devolution are likely to fall short
- Competitiveness Index 2019 by World Economic Forum
- NITI Aayog’s Water Resources Strategy
- BSNL and MTNL financial issues-DoT prepares Rs 74000 crore revival plan
- 20th Livestock Census
- India falls 10 ranks in World economic forum’s Global competitiveness index
- RBI stops Printing Rs 2000 Notes
- What is the Unified Approach proposal of OECD?
- FCI granaries overflowing
- India’s Economic Growth 2019
- Financial Sector Scams in India
- Labour Market of India
- New Strategic Disinvestment Process
- Payment Delays to Sugarcane Farmers
- Why India’s IMF Quota is not increased
- What is monetary policy Transmission? Why banks are not reducing interest
- Mahatma Gandhi’s theory of Economics
- India moves up 14 spots to 63 on world Bank ease of doing business index
- New amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act
- Power Sector Scenario in India
- Telecos to Pay Rs 96,642 crore to the Government
- Camel population declines in Rajasthan
- Merger of BSNL and MTNL
- World bank on Indian economy
Defence & Security
- Nagas Kukis Conflict, What is the cause of the latest tensions?
- Case against 50 Celebrities controversy
- Can Indian Government intercept WhatsApp?
- UP Government fires 25000 home guards, Is Yogi Government’s decision justified?
- NCRB’s Crime in India 2017 report
- Aadhaar Social Media mandatory linking case
- What is TechSagar? National repository of India’s cyber tech capabilities.
Disaster Management
Science & Technology
- ISRO’S Project NETRA
- Facebook’s LIBRA Currency in trouble
- WHO launches first World report on Vision
- 2019 Nobel prize in physics
- 2019 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine
- Elon musk’s starlink project
- NASA’s ICON mission
- New King of the Moons in the Solar system is Saturn
- What Is Spectroscopy ?
- Quantum supremacy
Environment
- Climate Vulnerable Mapping Of India
- C40 Cities
- Gujarat Unveils emission trading scheme
- Forest Plus 2.0
- Himalayan States seeks Green Bonus
- India to Phase Out Single Use Plastic (SUP) by 2022
- Role of Volcanoes in Global Warming
- NH 766 ban controversy, Protests in Kerala against night traffic ban on the forest stretch
- Climate Change needs Global Solution
- Aarey Forest -2185 trees to be cut for Mumbai metro
- Government to build 1400 km long Green wall
- Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi
- Aerosol formation brightening clouds
- Anthrax outbreak in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Two affected buffaloes died
- Species in News from June to October 2019
- Climate Action Summit 2019
Prelims bits

Tag:GS-3|| Economy|| Infrastructure|| Transportation
Why in News?
- Recently Home Ministery announced that Mizoram’s Capital Aizawl will be connected through a broad gauge railway line by 2021.
Details of the project
- Home Minister Amit Shah proposed that a 51-km track to Sairang will be the railhead for the capital city Aziwal, would be completed by 2021.
- The announcement was made during the inauguration of the handloom and handicraft exhibition organized by the North East Council.
- The current government (NDA) at the Centre had allocated more resources(Rs 42, 972)to Mizoram as compared to that by the Previous government(UPA -Rs 19,974).
- Rail infrastructure in India’s North East will get a massive and unprecedented boost over the next three years with the Railway Ministry planning to execute 491 projects costing a whopping Rs 6.48 lakh crore across the region, said Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.
Indian Railways(IR) –A behemoth
- In the year ending March 2018, IR carried 26 billion passengers and transported 1.16 billion tonnes of freight.
- The world’s eighth-largest employer, it had 308 million employees as of March 2017.
Mizoram –the final frontier of IR
- Indian Railway has already converted the current 84 km rail line from Katakhal (Assam) to Bairabi,2 km inside Mizoram.
- Passenger services started on this line on 27 May 2016.
- Its further 38 km Bairabi-Sairangline extension from Bairabi to Sairang (20 km north of Aizawl) in Mizoram is under construction, with a target completion date of2021.
Why is Railway so crucial to the NE region?
- Food supply during rainy months.
- Spurring Economic development.
- Easing public transport for people.
- Owing to long international borders, northeast region has huge requirement for providing railway networks from strategic considerations of defense.
Capital links –forging bonds of steel
- Capitals of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura are connected by rail.
- The capitals of Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim, and Nagaland are not yet connected.
- Rail Link To Tawang
- The proposed rail link to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh is the most ambitious.
- The proposed rail will cover a distance of 166 kilometers.
- The rail line will pass through elevations of over 10,000 feet.
- Rail Link to Gangtok
- Another major link is the one to Sikkim’s capital Gangtok, which is under construction now.
- Rail link Manipur
- About 65 percent of the work on linking Manipur capital Imphal by rail to Assam has been completed. The entire project is expected to be completed by
- After that, the line to Imphal will be extended to Moreh on the India-Myanmar border, from where it will then be extended to Myanmar to form part of the ambitious Trans-Asian Railway line.
- Rail line to Nagaland
- Only 25 percent of the work on laying the 5 km line from Dimapur (Nagaland’s only railhead at present) to Zubzanear state capital Kohimahas been completed.
- Goyal has asked NFR authorities to sit with the Nagaland government to accelerate the process of land acquisition that is holding up progress on this rail link.
Challenges
- There are land acquisition issues –Nagaland, Meghalaya.
- Extremely challenging terrain –Hills, forests, rivers.
- Load-bearing capacity of soil is less.
- Working season for only 5 months.
- Landslide-prone areas.
- The per-kilometer expenditure of laying single-line tracks in the Northeastern region is Rs 15 crore, while it is Rs 6 to 7 crore in the plains.
Way forward
- The government (Centre as well as State) needs to be totally committed and work in collaboration to ensure the development of Mizoram in particular and northeast region in general and to find solutions to all kinds of challenges that the strategic area is facing.
- Infrastructure development in India’s North East will definitely get a massive and unprecedented boost over the next few years and would bring huge opportunities for the people of the region.
- Authorities need to call for the development with protection while planning and implementing the proposed projects.
Mains model question
- What are the main challenges currently faced by the government to connect the Northeast region with mainland India? How these challenges can be overcome to make northeast a well-developed region of India?
References