14th Nov Daily current affairs for UPSC Civil Service Exam

National Conference on BharatNet

• BharatNet aimed at providing broadband connectivity to rural areas.
• Under the phase I, optical Fibre connectivity was made available at 1 lakh Gram Panchayats.
• Department of Telecommunication organized National Conference on BharatNet where MoU was signed for the launching of phase II.
• DoT has initiated discussions on delivering Broadband enabled Citizen Services in 1 lakh gram panchayats.
• Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) is the special purpose vehicle created as a PSU for execution of National Optical Fibre Network.
• It is funded by Universal Service Obligation Fund.
• It will implemented by the respective state government

Grahak Sadak Koyla Vitaran App

• The app is launched by the Union Ministry of Railways and Coal.
• It will benefit customers of Coal India Limited (CIL) lifting coal through road mode.
• It will help in logistics planning and bolster transparency in the system of loading programme and dispatch.

Human Rights Commission

• The NHRC/SHRC is the statutory body responsible for the protection and promotion of human rights.
• "Human Rights" means the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual.
• It is guaranteed by the constitution or embodied in the International covenants and enforceable by courts in India.
• The Madras High Court has recently held that neither the NHRC nor the SHRC are empowered to inquire into complaints lodged against private establishments, including hospitals.
• It held that human rights commissions could probe into complaints made against public servants alone.
• It highlighted the Section 12 (a) of the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993 which empowered the commissions to inquire into

1. violations of human rights or abetment thereof, and
2. Negligence in the prevention of such violation by a public servant.

• The commission could not take on file a complaint made after the expiry of one year since the date on which the act constituting a violation of human rights was allegedly committed.

Nilgiris

• The rare, pale-skinned ‘white’ tiger was recently spotted for the first time in the Nilgiris.
• Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve was constituted by UNESCO in September 1986 under Man and Biosphere Programme.
• It is an International Biosphere Reserve in the Western Ghats and Nilgiri Hills ranges of South India.
• The Nilgiri Sub-Cluster is a part of the Western Ghats, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2012.
• It includes the Mudumalai, Mukurthi, Nagarhole, and Bandipur national parks, as well as the Wayanad and Sathyamangalam wildlife sanctuaries.

Airport Authority of India (AAI)

• AAI, under the Ministry of Civil Aviation is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing civil aviation infrastructure.
• It is India’s state-owned airport agency with “Miniratna” status.
• It is likely to issue bonds to finance airport projects.
• The revenue earned from the bonds will primarily be meant to build seven Greenfield airports and step up the capacity of terminals and runways at existing airports.
• It is implementing the GAGAN project in technological collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• Under GAGAN, the satellite based system will be used for navigation.
• The navigation signals thus received from the GPS will be augmented to achieve the navigational requirement of aircraft.

Louisiana Purchase

• It is a historic land deal signed between the U.S. and France in 1803.
• It was signed during the tenure of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson and Emperor Napoleon in France.
• Under the agreement, France agreed to sell its large North American territory of Louisiana to the U.S. government.
• After this deal, the land territory under the sovereign control of the U.S. government doubled in size.
• It is considered to be a distress sale by Napoleon who urgently needed money to fund his war efforts in Europe.

Source: The Hindu, PIB