Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited

• European Investment Bank (EIB) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) Ltd. have signed a loan agreement for a second line of credit (LoC) of Euro 150 million on non-sovereign basis.
• Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA) is a Mini Ratna (Category – I) Government of India Enterprise under the administrative control of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
• IREDA is a Public Limited Government Company established as a Non-Banking Financial Institution in 1987 engaged in promoting, developing and extending financial assistance for setting up projects relating to new and renewable sources of energy and energy efficiency/conservation with the motto: “ENERGY FOR EVER”.

National Crime Records Bureau

• NCRB is the Nodal Agency for authentic source of Data on crime, accidents, suicides, and prisons for policy matters and research. It was set-up in 1986 to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators.
• It was set up based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the MHA’s Task force (1985).
• It was set up by merging the Directorate of Coordination and Police Computer (DCPC), Inter State Criminals Data Branch of CBI, Central Finger Print Bureau of CBI, and Statistical Branch of BPR&D.
• Bureau is implementing & monitoring agency for implementation of Crime & Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS), a Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan of Government of India. The project aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing in the country.
• NCRB also imparts training in Information Technology (IT) and Finger Print Science for Indian Police Officers as well Foreign Police officers.
• Central finger print bureau is under the administrative control of NCRB.

Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership

• On March 8th trade ministers from 11 countries gathered in Santiago, the capital of Chile, to sign the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP.
• The CPTPP, also dubbed the TPP-11, was negotiated by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
• The revived deal will look to reduce tariffs in economies that together represent 500 million people and account for 13.5 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) – equivalent to a total of US$10 trillion.

Letters of undertaking 

• Technically, Letter of Undertaking is a bank guarantee under which a bank allows its customer to raise money from another Indian bank’s foreign branch in the form of short-term credit.
• The loan is used to make payment to the customer’s offshore suppliers in foreign currency.
• The overseas bank usually lends to the importer based on the LoU issued by the importer’s bank.
• LoUs are important instruments that allow those in the import trade to transact their business.
• As an importer in India cannot simply buy dollars and send it abroad to make payments to his supplier, various instruments such as LoUs and Letters of Credit are required to carry out the transaction.
• LoUs, which are essentially a form of guarantee, have come to be a far cheaper and convenient way for importer to raise credit.

National Academy of Coastal Policing 

• The Union home ministry has sanctioned the launch of the National Academy of Coastal Policing (NACP) from a campus of Gujarat’s Fisheries Research Centre located in coastal Okha in the newly created Devbhoomi Dwarka district.
• It will be the country’s first national academy to train police forces in effectively safeguarding the Indian shoreline. It will sharpen the response and skills of the marine forces of multiple states which have sea lines.
• The first-of-its-kind institution of the country will be created and run by a multi-agency team of paramilitary and defence forces.
• The Union home ministry’s policing think tank — the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) — will pilot the establishment and running of the academy.
• The Border Security Force (BSF), that guards the Indian frontier in Gujarat with Pakistan, the navy and the Coast Guard will form the core to run the academy. The BSF will also provide security to the campus which on the Arabian Sea coast and is at a flying distance from the Pakistan coast.

Project UNNATI

• Project UNNATI was launched by the Ministry of shipping in 2014.
• In nutshell it is a port transformation project.
• Under the project, the global benchmarks were adopted to improve the efficiency and productivity, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of major ports.

The aims and objectives of Project, which is focused on 12 major ports, are as follows:

1. Benchmark operational and financial performance of the major ports
2. Undertake capability maturity assessment for key processes and functional capabilities
3. Detailed diagnosis and root cause analysis for the identified opportunity areas to understand underlying reasons for performance bottlenecks.
4. Develop practical and actionable solutions on the basis of root cause findings, and develop a comprehensive improvement roadmap.

Pre-Iron Age Artifacts

• Archeological Survey of India discovered pre-iron age artifacts in Prachi valley, Jalalpur village, Cuttack District, Odisha, that sheds light on a cultural continuity from Chalcolithic to early Iron Age period.
• The discovery includes faunal remains, carbonized grains and stone and bone tools of early Iron Age to prehistoric period.
• In case of potteries the following were discovered: red ware, red slipped ware, grey and black wares, pots of different shapes, bowls.
• Prachi Valley civilisation predates that of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro civilizations.
• The Prachi River, a tributary of river Mahanadi, is along the eastern coast of India is an important topographical as well as cultural landscape.
• Presently the parts of the modern day districts of Puri, Khurda, Cuttack and Jagatsingpur comprise the Prachi valley region
• The Prachi River is also called as the ‘eastern Saraswathi’.

Ex Samvedna

• A Multilateral Air Force exercise, ‘Ex Samvedna’, is being spearheaded by Indian Air Force and conducted by Southern Air Command (SAC).
• It is the first composite HADR Air exercise in the South Asian region and would be focused on practicing Air Force centric HADR solutions in a Multi-national cooperative Disaster Management environment.
• It is aimed at setting up a scenario of pre and post Tsunami disaster requirements and guide participants to work out Air Force Centric HADR solutions.

Bodi Hills

• A massive forest fire in Tamil Nadu’s Theni district has claimed ten lives of trekkers who had gone mountain trekking in Kurangani hills in Bodi foothills.
• Bodi hill is located in the Theni district, Tamil Nadu bordering the state of Kerala.

• It is part of the southern Western Ghats.
• Munnar, the popular hill station is near to this region.
• West Bodi hill was selected as the site for the India’s ambitious INO project.

Ionizing Radiation

• Ionizing radiation is radiation with enough energy so that during an interaction with an atom, it can remove tightly bound electrons from the orbit of an atom, causing the atom to become charged or ionized.
• Ionizing radiation is a permanent feature of the upper atmosphere.
• At airlines’ cruising altitude, particles periodically ejected by the sun and cosmic radiation coursing through the universe are 100 times more potent than down below.
• The protection at these altitudes is thinner compare to the natural protection at the ground.
• Airline employees face more radiation exposure than radiology workers or nuclear power plant engineers, according to the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.
• Ionizing radiation exposure is measured using the Sievert