Here is the digest of important newspaper articles and quiz!
Asia’s first Rice Technology Park in Gangavati
The Karnataka state government will set-up Asia’s first Rice Technology Park at Gangavati and a Maize Technology Park at Ranebennur on the public-private participation model as a one-stop solution to all problems of rice and maize growers.
These parks would pave the way for opening new avenues for rice and maize growers to add value to their produce and get better returns and also enhance quality of the produce. As a value addition, the technology park would have facilities for rice flour, rice rava, rice bran oil, noodles, rice-based alcohol, animal and poultry feed and paddy husk used for power generation and brick-making.
Analysis
What is the Mega Food Park Scheme? – Mega Food Park Scheme is the flagship program of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India. Mega Food Park Scheme proposes a demand driven/pre-marketed model with strong backward/forward linkages and sustainable supply chain.
The primary objective of the proposed scheme is to facilitate establishment of integrated value chain, with processing at the core and supported by requisite forward and backward linkage.
The scheme provides for creating infrastructure for farm level primary processing centre-cum- cold chain in identified clusters, processing of intermediate products, collection centre cum cold chains, centralized infrastructure to take care of processing activities, which require cutting edge technologies and testing facilities, besides the basic infrastructure for water supply, power, environmental protection systems, communication etc.
Source: TheHindu
India, Japan, US to hold naval exercises
Four Indian warships will join the navies of the United States and Japan in the second half of June 2016 for the next edition of Malabar exercises east of Okinawa, a Japanese island. The trilateral exercise were started after Japan joined the bilateral exercises of India and the USA.
In September 2007, the navies of Australia, Japan and Singapore joined India and the U.S. in the Malabar exercises which forced China to issue a demarche to New Delhi.
Australia has repeatedly expressed interest in joining Malabar on a permanent basis and the United States had been pushing its inclusion, but India has so far resisted the move so as not to antagonise China.
Analysis
What are the various joint military exercises of India? – India conducts multiple military, naval and air force exercises with various countries.
Naval Exercises
1) Varuna naval exercise is joint exercise of navies of France and India
2) INDRA is a joint, bi-annual military exercise conducted by India and Russia
3) Exercise Malabar is a trilateral naval exercise involving the United States, India, and Japan
4) Simbex – Indian Navy with Republic of Singapore Navy
Indian Air Force Joint Exercises
1) Indradhanush is the the joint India-UK air exercises
2) Avia Indra  the India-Russia aerial exercise
3) Garuda India-France Air Exercise
Indian Army Joint Exercises
1) Hand-in-Hand. -India-China joint military training exercise
2) Exercise Shakti – India and France armies
3) Exercise Yuddh Abhyas is a series of joint exercises between the Indian and United States Armies since 2005
4) LAMITYE- India and Seychelles
Source: TheHindu
Fine proposed for wrong India map
The government has proposed a law where wrong depiction of the map of India could land the violators in jail with a maximum term of seven years and fine up to Rs. 100 crore.
The move has come against the backdrop of instances where some websites have shown a different depiction of the boundaries of India, China and Pakistan. Recently, Twitter had shown the geographical location of Kashmir in China and Jammu in Pakistan triggering protests from the Indian government after which it was corrected.
The draft ‘The Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016,’  will make it mandatory to take permission from a government authority before acquiring, disseminating, publishing or distributing any geospatial information of India.
The draft Bill will ensure that online platforms like Google will have to apply for a licence to run Google Maps or Google Earth in India.
Breakthrough Prize for LIGO
LIGO team’s detection of gravitational waves has won the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
The $3 million award will be shared between two groups of laureates: the three founders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), who will each equally share $1 million (Rs. 6.65 crore); and 1012 contributors to the experiment, who will each equally share $2 million (Rs. 13.31 crore).
The founders are Ronald W.P. Drever; Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss. The 1012 contributors include 1,005 authors of the paper and seven others. K.G. Arun of Chennai Mathematical Institute, is among the 1012 contributors,
Analysis
What is INDIGO? – Â IndIGO, the Indian Initiative in Gravitational-wave Observations, is an initiative to set up advanced experimental facilities, with appropriate theoretical and computational support, for a multi-institutional Indian national project in gravitational-wave astronomy. Since 2009, the IndIGO Consortium has been involved in constructing the Indian road-map for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and a phased strategy towards Indian participation in realizing the crucial gravitational-wave observatory in the Asia-Pacific region.
LIGO-India is a planned advanced gravitational-wave detector to be located in India, to be built and operated in collaboration with the LIGO USA and its international partners Australia, Germany and the UK. The project recently received the in-principle approval from the Indian government.
What is the Breakthrough Prize? – The Breakthrough Prizes honor important, primarily recent, achievements in the categories of Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics.
The prizes were founded by Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Jack Ma and Cathy Zhang. Committees of previous laureates choose the winners from candidates nominated in a process that’s online and open to the public.
Laureates receive $3 million each in prize money.
Source: TheHindu, INDIGO.org
Income Tax dept can reveal taxpayers details
The Income tax department can reveal information related to taxpayers disclosing previously concealed income under the Budget’s Income Declaration Scheme, if it is deemed to be in public interest.
An amendment to this effect has been made in the Finance Bill of 2016 approved by the Lok Sabha. Tax experts said the amendment is aimed to allay any misconceptions that the government would keep such taxpayers’ details confidential under any circumstance.
Analysis
What is the Income Declaration Scheme? –  is a new scheme under which those with undisclosed income and assets located in India can come clean by paying a  penal tax of 45%. Unlike a scheme giving opportunity to those with undisclosed foreign assets to come clean, which is largely seen to have failed, this plan provides immunity from prosecution. As per the scheme, anyone who is non-compliant can come clean by paying tax at 30%, a surcharge of 7.5% plus penalty of 7.5%, taking it to a total tax rate of 45%.
Source: TheHindu
Floor Test in Uttarakhand
The Supreme Court ordered a floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly on May 10, 2016 in an attempt to “end the controversy over the proclamation of President’s rule in the State.â€
It held that the nine Congress MLAs disqualified by the Speaker would not be able to vote.the apex court has differed from the Uttarakhand High Court judgment of April 21, which had restored Mr. Rawat as Chief Minister even before the floor test initially scheduled on May 29.
If Mr. Harish Rawat fails to prove his majority, the Governor can invite the leader of the majority group to form a new government.
Analysis
What is floor test? – Floor test means test of majority of a government. it comes from the Westminster system of “majority party rule” that is only a party or coalition above the halfway mark in parliament/legislative assembly is allowed to stay in government.
Source: TheHindu
Bird Flu alert in Karnataka
An alert has been sounded across Karnataka after a suspected outbreak of bird flu in a private poultry farm at a village in Humnabad taluk of Bidar district.
In the case of infection of virus, scientists have advised farm owners not to sell or move any of the birds/eggs and material out of the farms.
Analysis
What is Bird Flu? – Bird flu, or avian influenza, is a viral infection spread from bird to bird. Currently, a particularly deadly strain of bird flu H5N1 continues to spread among poultry in Egypt and in certain parts of Asia.
Technically, H5N1 is a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus. It’s deadly to most birds. And it’s deadly to humans and to other mammals that catch the virus from birds. Since the first human case in 1997, H5N1 has killed nearly 60% of the people who have been infected.
Some people have caught H5N1 from cleaning or plucking infected birds. In China, there have been reports of infection via inhalation of aerosolized materials in live bird markets. It’s also possible that some people were infected after swimming or bathing in water contaminated with the droppings of infected birds. And some infections have occurred in people who handle fighting cocks.
People don’t catch the virus from eating fully cooked chicken or eggs.
Source: TheHindu
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