Daily Current Affairs for Law Exams: 03rd October 2019

1. India gets its first-ever floating basketball court in Mumbai

• The National Basketball Association installed India's first-ever floating basketball court in Mumbai.
• The basketball court set up in the Arabian Sea near the Bandra-Worli Sealink.

India’s first NBA Game to be held in October 

• The first NBA game is scheduled to host from October 4 to October 5 in in the SVP Stadium at Dome, NSCI, in Mumbai.
• The matches will be played under the Reliance Foundation Junior NBA program.
• Under this, the match will be played between the Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers.

2. Jaipur topped the list of cleanest railway stations in the country

• According to the ‘Swachh Rail, Swachh Bharat 2019’ report, Jaipur topped the list of the cleanest railway station in India.
• Three railway stations of Rajasthan have been included in the list of top clean railway stations in the country.
• In the Railway Cleanliness Survey conducted by the Ministry of Railways, Jaipur Junction has come first, Jodhpur railway station ranked second and Durgapura railway station ranked at the third spot.
• A total of 720 stations and were included in the survey. 
• Since 2016, cleanliness survey is carried out by the Quality Council of India (QCI), an independent body.

Key points of the report 

• Jaipur ranked first with the overall cleanliness score of 931.75; Jodhpur got the second rank with the score of 927.19 and Durgapura scored 922.50 out of 1,000.
• Anand Vihar Terminal in the national capital stood at 26th place while New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin station were ranked 165th and 241st respectively in the list.

Top 10 cleanest railway station - The top ten railway stations include seven cities of Rajasthan. 

1. Jaipur (Rajasthan)
2. Jodhpur (Rajasthan)
3. Durgapura (Rajasthan)
4. Jammu Tawi 
5. Gandhinagar  (Jaipur district)
6. Suratgarh (Rajasthan)
7. Vijayawada
8. Udaipur (Rajasthan)
9. Ajmer (Rajasthan)
10. Haridwar

Suburban stations

• Suburban stations were included for the first time in this survey.
• Andheri, Virar and Naigaon railway stations were the top three among 109 suburban stations.

Best railway zone

• The North Western Railway (NWR), headquartered in Jaipur, has been ranked the best among the 17 railway zones in the country. 
•  South Eastern Railway ranked at second place was and East Central Railway ranked at the third spot in the list.

3. Singapore is the world's smartest city: IMD Smart City Index

• According to the IMD Smart City Index, Singapore is the smartest city in the world.
• The first edition of the IMD Smart City Index 2019 ranks 102 cities worldwide.
• Zurich ranked second and Oslo is the third smartest city in the world.
• The other smartest cities in the list are Geneva (4^th), Copenhagen (5^th), Auckland (6^th), Taipei City (7^th), Helsinki (8^th), Bilbao (9^th) and Dusseldorf (10^th).
• Singapore is only one of two Asian cities to be in the Top 10 of 102 cities. Taipei is the other at No. 7.
• The index assesses a city’s efforts and success in embracing smart technologies to improve the lives of their citizens, thus being able to rate each city on a certain level of ‘smartness’.

Indian cities in the index

• Indian city Hyderbad ranked 67 in the list, while the capital of India, New Delhi is the 68th smart city in the world.
• On the other hand, Mumbai is the 78th and Bengaluru is the 79th smart city in the world.

Note:

• The SCI is released by the IMD World Competitiveness Center’s Smart City Observatory on 3 October 2019, in partnership with Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi declares India open defecation-free

• On the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared India as Open Defecation Free (ODF).
• On 02nd October, 'Swachh Bharat Divas' program was organized in Sabarmati, Ahmedabad where PM Modi announced the country to be open defecation free.
• During the event, the PM Modi released commemorative Rs 150 coins on Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary.
• The status of Open Defecation Free (ODF) was achieved by India through the massive sanitation programme, Swachh Bharat Mission, under which, crores of toilets were built especially in the poor households. 
• According to the PM Modi, under the massive, Swachh Bharat Mission India has built almost 11 crore toilets for about 60 crore people in just a period of 60 months.

Note:

• Open defecation means defecating outside in the open environment and not in a designated toilet. 

Swachh Bharat Mission

• The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) on 2^nd October 2014 to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage in India and promote access to safe sanitation in India.
• The SBM aims at achieving an Open Defecation Free (ODF) nation by 2^nd October 2019, a befitting tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150^thbirth anniversary.

5. Meghalaya govt. signed agreement with Dalmia Cement to turn plastic waste into Fuel

• The Meghalaya state government signed an agreement with Dalmia Cement a cement company, to make the state plastic-free by 2022.
• The objective of this agreement is to turn plastic waste into fuel for their cement plants and at the same time ensure that all the environmental standards are maintained.
• The agreement was signed during an official programme in Shillong to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

About Meghalaya 

• Meghalaya Capital - Shillong
• Meghalaya Chief Minister - Conrad Sangma
• Meghalaya Governor - Tathagata Roy

6. Palestine issues a commemorative stamp to honour Gandhi on 150th birth anniversary

• Palestine issued a commemorative postage stamp on the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi with an aim of honouring Gandhi's "heritage and values".
• The Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology of the Palestine Authority (PA), Ishaq Sadar, released the ticket in the presence of Sunil Kumar, India's representative in the PA.

Note:

• Palestine capital - Ramallah, East Jerusalem
• Palestine currency - Palestinians have no currency of their own and use the euro, U.S. dollar, Israeli shekel and Jordanian dinar in their daily lives.

7. India's Largest Spinning Wheel made of Waste Plastic inaugurated in Noida

• On the eve of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, India's largest charkha or spinning wheel, made of used plastic waste was inaugurated in Uttar Pradesh's Noida.
• It was inaugurated by Union Minister Smriti Irani, Gautam Buddh Nagar MP Mahesh Sharma, Noida MLA Pankaj Singh and Noida Authority CEO Ritu Maheshwari. 
• The 1,650-kg spinning wheel has been installed in Sector 94 near the Mahamaya flyover. 
• According to officials, the charkha, which symbolises Mahatma Gandhi's dream of Swadeshi (self-sufficing and self-reliance), measures 14 ft by 20 ft by 8 ft and is made of 1,250 kg of used plastic.
• The charkha has been recognised as the largest made of used plastic waste in the country by India Book of Records.

8. Amit Shah inaugurates Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express

• The Vande Bharat Express between Delhi & Katra train was flagged off by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
• The regular operation of this train will start on October 5.
• Significantly, this is the second Vande Bharat Express to run in the country. The first Vande Bharat Express was flagged off by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the New Delhi-Varanasi route on 17 February.

About Vande Bharat Express

• The Vande Bharat Express is also known as Train 18.
• Train 18 has been named the Vande Bharat Express in recognition of the “vandaniya” work done by Indian Railways.
• It was designed and built by Integral Coach Factory Chennai under the government's Make in India initiative over a span of 18 months at a cost of Rs 97 crore.

------------