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| Jan 01, 1970 | Daily Report |
| RISING BHARAT | News Count (101854) | |
531. Indian Railways launches ‘Kumki’ campaign for elephant safety in Odisha's Athagarh with IDS
- The Railways department in Odisha has launched a special Kumki campaign to protect elephants from accidents on railway tracks.
- Under the initiative, railway employees will be alerted before elephants approach the tracks, and loco pilots of trains running on those routes will also receive direct messages. For this purpose, the Indian Railways is installing the Intrusion Detection System (IDS).
- To test the IDS system, the Railways has brought a mahout with a trained elephant from Chandaka. The first round of testing is being conducted near the railway line that passes through the forest adjacent to Ghantikhal under the Athagarh Forest Division.
532. NFR to install acoustic-based tech across its railway network to protect elephants
- The Northeast Frontier Railway has decided to roll out a high-end acoustic-based technology in its network by April next year to prevent the death of elephants by speeding trains.
- Trial works of the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) have been successfully commissioned in four important sections. The IDS uses advanced optical fibre sensing technology to detect elephant movement near railway tracks, generating real-time alerts for train drivers and control rooms to take timely preventive action.
- The NFR had first installed IDS at two locations of the Lumding and Alipurduar divisions in 2022. Trial of the IDS has been successfully commissioned in four important sections of NFR.
- These are Madarihat-Nagrakata under the Alipurduar division, Habaipur-Lamsakhang-Patharkhola-Lumding under the Lumding division, the Rangiya division's Kamakhya-Azara-Mirza section and Titabar-Mariani-Nakachari under Tinsukia.
533. Indian Railways expands AI-based intrusion detection to prevent elephant collisions across key routes
- Indian Railways has scaled up the deployment of its artificial intelligence-enabled Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to curb elephant fatalities on rail tracks, with the technology now active across 141 route kilometres (RKms) of the Northeast Frontier Railway and tenders awarded for an additional 981 RKms nationwide.
- The IDS, which uses a Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) system, generates real-time alerts for loco pilots, station masters and control rooms when elephant movement is detected near the tracks. The system is aimed at ensuring timely preventive action and significantly reducing collision risks in vulnerable zones.
- The Railways is concurrently piloting AI-driven predictive maintenance in signalling systems at select stations to assess its effectiveness. Trial results are expected to generate standardised failure prediction and alert mechanisms.
- The national transporter has also adopted technologies such as Online Monitoring of Rolling Stock (OMRS) and Wheel Impact Load Detectors (WILD) for early detection of rolling-stock defects.
534. India, Liberia sign MoU to boost cooperation on medicine quality standards
- On December 11, 2025 in Monrovia, India and Liberia signed an MoU on pharmacopoeia cooperation to promote shared medicine quality standards and regulatory alignment, strengthening bilateral health ties and supporting safer, affordable medicines in Liberia.
- The MoU was signed by India’s Ambassador Manoj Bihari Verma and Liberia’s Health Minister Louise M. Kpoto, enabling Liberia to adopt the Indian Pharmacopoeia as a reference to improve regulatory cooperation and medicine quality control.
- The agreement supports identity, purity, and strength testing of drugs using advanced analytical techniques, with prescribed limits for heavy metals, pesticides, toxins, and microbes, enhancing global health cooperation and access to quality medicines.
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535. Government Expands Startup India Support with Three Flagship Schemes
- On December 12, 2025, the Government told the Rajya Sabha that Startup India schemes nationwide had provided major financial and credit support to women-led startups through FFS, SISFS, and CGSS between 2020 and October 2025.
- The Ministry of Commerce & Industry, through SIDBI, incubators, and NCGTC, supported women entrepreneurs by channeling funds via AIF investments, seed funding approvals, and collateral-free loan guarantees under flagship Startup India programmes.
- FFS invested ₹2,838.9 crore in 154 startups; SISFS approved ₹284.79 crore for 1,635 startups; CGSS guaranteed 24 loans worth ₹33.17 crore. Sector- and state-wise data was shared, but startup success rates are not centrally maintained.
536. Southern Railway achieves electrification of 97.63 per cent of its network
- On December 12, 2025 it was reported that, (Energy Conservation Day), Southern Railway announced that 97.63% of its 5,116-km network across its South Indian jurisdiction has been electrified, aligning with its Mission 100% electrification target by 2030.
- Southern Railway achieved this by expanding electric traction, promoting renewable energy, and implementing energy-saving measures such as LED lighting, BLDC fans, automated sensors, timers, and efficient equipment across stations, offices, workshops, and residential quarters.
- Electrification now covers 4,995 km; solar generation reached 35.81 million units, saving ₹18.94 crore. Five buildings sought BEE ‘Shunya’ certification, highlighting net-zero energy efforts and reduced power consumption for public benefit.
537. Road works of ₹1.50 lakh crore have been approved for Maharashtra: Gadkari
- On December 13, 2025 in Mumbai, Union Minister of Road announced approval of ₹1.50 lakh crore road projects for Maharashtra, with construction beginning in 2026, including expressways and elevated roads across Pune, Mumbai, Sambhajinagar, Nagpur, and Bengaluru corridors.
- Union Minister said projects will be executed through MSIDC, PWD, and central agencies, with DPRs, MoUs, and post-election clearances enabling phased construction, starting within three months for several Pune-region projects.
- Projects include a ₹16,318-crore Pune–Sambhajinagar expressway, ₹4,207-crore Talegaon–Chakan elevated road, ₹15,000-crore Pune–Mumbai parallel expressway, ₹50,000 crore for Pune region, and ₹50,000 crore worth of works allotted to PWD.
Click here to find 423 similar incidents of Make in India / Atmanirbhar -> Roads and Highways
538. Govt approves 100% FDI in aviation, defence
- The Union government on 20 June 2016, made some major changes to FDI policy with the objective of providing major impetus to employment and job creation in country.
- Amendments to the FDI Policy are meant to liberalise and simplify the FDI policy so as to provide ease of doing business in the country leading to larger FDI inflows contributing to growth of investment, incomes and employment.
- The government has allowed 100 per cent FDI in defence, aviation, pharmaceuticals (74%) and broadcast services.
539. India created history, test of indigenous navigation system 'Gagan' was successful
- Airport Authority of India tests navigation system 'Gagan' (GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation) developed in India at Kishangarh airport near Ajmer in Rajasthan. During this time, an Indigo flight was landed with the help of 'Gagan' navigation.
- Authority's this test was successful. With this, India has become the first country in the Asia Pacific region to achieve this feat. IndiGo flight used Gagan (GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation) based landing, officials said. It's a major milestone in the field of Air Navigation Services (ANS) in the history of Indian civil aviation.
- Localizer Performance (LPV) with vertical guidance in Gagan guides aircraft. This eliminates need for ground best navigation infrastructure. Service depends on availability of GPS and GAGAN satellites (GSAT-8, GSAT-10 and GSAT-15) launched from space research organization ISRO.
- Gagan is an Indian satellite based system (SBAS), jointly developed by Airport Authority of India and ISRO. Gagan system was certified by India's civil aviation regulator DGCA in 2015 for approach with vertical guidance (APV 1) and en-route operation.
540. Indian aviation makes history, records 5 lakh passengers in a single day
- Indian aviation made history on November 17, 2024 with airlines carrying over 5 lakh domestic passengers in a single day, for the first time in the history. All airlines together carried 5,05,412 domestic passengers across 3173 domestic departures.
- This marks the steady push for the last two weeks with days of peaks in air traffic, November 08 recording 4.9 lakh passengers, November 09 reporting 4.96 lakh passengers. This was followed by Nov 14 and Nov 15 recording 4.97 lakh, 4.99 lakh passengers, and Nov 16 recording 4.98 lakh passengers until the final mark was made.
- The presents a significant opportunity for the aviation sector to contribute to India's overall growth and development. Traditionally aviation growth is twice the GDP growth. India’s GDP is growing in the range of 6% to 7.5% but the aviation growth has been steady around 5%, largely due to lack of capacity.