Facts in News

                              Facts in News

Bilimora-Waghai Train

• It is a 63-km narrow gauge train connecting Bilimora in Navsari district with Waghai in Dang district in Gujarat.
• It was started by rulers of the Gaekwad dynasty of the princely state of Baroda in 1913.
  • The Gaekwad jurisdiction was spread across parts of Saurashtra, Mehsana in north Gujarat, and Bilimora in South Gujarat.
• The British laid railway tracks and it was operated by Gaekwad Baroda State Railway (GBSR) owned by Sayajirao Gaekwad III.
• After Independence the Western Railway took charge of the train from GBSR.
• In 1994, the original steam engine was put on display at Churchgate Heritage Gallery in Mumbai.
• The Indian Railways had proposed to preserve its route as “industrial heritage” in 2018.
• Usage
  • Transportation of sag timber from deep forest areas.
  • Used by the tribals for going to study, work & to sell their agriculture produce as interior villages had no road connectivity to towns.

World Radio Day (WRD)

• It is celebrated on 13th February, every year.
• It was proclaimed in 2011 by the Member States of UNESCO and adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2012 as an International Day.
  • 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of the proclamation.
• 2021 Theme: “New World, New Radio” which is divided into three main sub-themes.
  • EVOLUTION: The world changes, radio evolves.
    • Refers to the resilience of the radio, to its sustainability.
  • INNOVATION: The world changes, radio adapts and innovates.
    • Radio has had to adapt to new technologies to remain the go-to medium of mobility, accessible everywhere and to everyone.
  • CONNECTION: The world changes, radio connects.
    • Highlights radio’s services to society, natural disasters, socio-economic crises, epidemics, etc.

Chardham Pariyojana

• Ministry of Road Transport & Highways launched this project to improve connectivity for Char-Dham namely Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri & Gangotri in Uttarakhand.
• The length of  889 km is to be covered under the project.
• This project is being implemented in the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode of contract.
• This project is being implemented by three different executing agencies of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, namely, Uttarakhand State PWD, Border Road Organization(BRO) and National Highway & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).

Coelacanth Species

• Coelacanths are elusive, deep-sea creatures, living in depths up to 2,300 feet below the surface
• It is believed to be 66 million years old belonging to the Cretaceous era
• It has been regarded as a ‘living fossil.
• They first evolved 400 million years ago.
  • It had long been believed to be extinct, but in 1938, a living coelacanth was found off South Africa
• Scientific name: Latimeria chalumnae
• Distribution: Comoros, Indonesia, South Africa (ex)
• Protection Status:
  • IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
  • Sulawesi Coelacanth is listed as ‘Vulnerable’.
• CITES Status: Appendix I

Visva-Bharati

• It was founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1921 at Santiniketan, Bolpur in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.
• It is also the oldest Central University in the country and an Institution of National Importance by an Act of Parliament in 1951.
• It brings a synergy between the country and the rest of the world therefore it is called Visva-Bharati.
•  It consists of two campuses one at Shantiniketan and the other at Sriniketan.
• Sriniketan focuses on agriculture, adult education, village, cottage industries and handicrafts.

Rabindranath Tagore

• He was born on 7 May 1861 to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi in Kolkata (Calcutta).
• He is popularly known as ‘Gurudev’.
• He was primarily known as a writer, poet, playwright, philosopher and aesthetician, music composer, choreographer, a painter.

• Contributions made- He released his first collection of poems under the pen name ‘Bhanusimha’ at 16 years of age.
• He wrote the National Anthems of India and Bangladesh.
• He wrote the song Banglar Mati Banglar Jol (Soil of Bengal, Water of Bengal) to unite the Bengali population after the Bengal partition in 1905.
• He also wrote the famed ‘Amar Sonar Bangla which helped ignite a feeling of nationalism amongst people.
• He started the Rakhi Utsav where people from Hindu and Muslim communities tied colourful threads on each other’s wrists.
• He rejected violence from the British as well and renounced the knighthood that had been given to him by Lord Hardinge in 1915 in protest of the violent Amritsar massacre in which the British killed unarmed Indian citizens.

• Awards– In 1913, he became the first Indian to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel ‘Geetanjali’.