1. Shaheed Udham Singh Memorial to be set up in Sangrur

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Punjab Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister Charanjit Singh Channi inaugurated the construction work of Shaheed Udham Singh Memorial in Sangrur on the 80th martyrdom day of the freedom fighter.

Life History of Shaheed Udham Singh

• Shaheed Udham Singh (26 December 1899 – 31 July 1940) was a revolutionary belonging to the Ghadar Party, best known for his assassination in London of Michael O’Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of the Punjab in India, on 13 March 1940. 
• The assassination was in revenge for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919 for which O’Dwyer was responsible. Singh was subsequently tried and convicted of murder and hanged in July 1940.
• Udham Singh was born as Sher Singh on 26 December 1899 into a Kamboj Sikh family of Jammu gotra (subcaste of Kamboj) at Sunam, Sangrur district of Punjab, India.
• His father, Sardar Tehal Singh Jammu, was a farmer and also worked as the railway crossing watchman in the village of Upalli.
• After his father’s death, Singh and his elder brother, Mukta Singh, were taken in by the Central Khalsa Orphanage Putlighar in Amritsar. At the orphanage, Singh was administered the Sikh initiatory rites and received the name of Udham Singh.
• Shaheed Udham Singh is also referred to as Shaheed-i-Azam Sardar Udham Singh (the expression “Shaheed-i-Azam”, means “the great martyr”).
• A district (Udham Singh Nagar) of Uttarakhand was named after him to pay homage in October 1995 by the then Mayawati government.

2. Gautam Ganguly appointed as security adviser to Punjab Police gets DIG rank

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The Punjab government has appointed Brig. (Retd) Gautam Ganguly as Security Advisor (Training & Operations) in the rank and pay of DIG for three years. This is an attempt to strengthen the Special Operations Group (SOG) of State Police with improved training and equipping skills.

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• Gautam Ganguly has served more than 33 years in the armed forces, including four years as the NSG force commander handling counter-terror and anti-hijacking operations.
• He had also conducted numerous operational deployments in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat, including execution of Operation Dhangu Suraksha (attack on Pathankot IAF Base).
• The retired brigadier has specialised in the training of special forces and has been involved in many capacity building programmes. His vast operational expertise would benefit the operations and training of the SOG, the counter-terror force of Punjab.

Special Operations Group(SOG)

• Punjab is the first state in India to have its own Special Operations Group (SOG), which has been formed on the lines of Force-1 of Maharashtra and Organisation for Counter Terrorist Operations (OCTOPUS) of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana. The SOG is specially handled to handle the most dangerous counter-terrorism operations.
• The SOG will replace the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), a police armed unit.
• The main objective of the SoG was to counter the efforts of Pakistan to intensify the terrorist offensive in Punjab through a series of targeted killings in 2016 and 2017.

3. Amritsar Partition Museum shortlisted for heritage award

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The Partition Museum in Amritsar has been shortlisted for the 2020 Museums + Heritage Awards for its 2019 collaborative exhibition ‘Jallianwala Bagh 1919: Punjab Under Siege’ with the Manchester Museum under the category of “International project of the year.”

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• The Partition Museum is a public museum located in the town hall in Amritsar, India. The museum aims to become the central repository of stories, materials, and documents related to the post-partition riots that followed the division of British India into two independent countries: India and Pakistan.
• The government of Punjab founded this museum with The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust of the United Kingdom as a way to memorialize those who were affected by the partition. The museum was inaugurated on 25 August 2017.
• This is the first time that the association between two museums has been recognised. “Jallianwala Bagh 1919: Punjab under Siege” included archival and audio-visual material, which shared the narrative of massacre through eyewitness accounts, photographs and official documents.

4. Asia’s first-ever Continuous Galvanized Rebar manufacturing facility launched in Punjab

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Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Steel & Petroleum and Natural Gas virtually inaugurated the Asia’s first Continuous Galvanized Rebar (CGR) Production Facility near Gobindgarh, Punjab. It is a joint collaboration launched by Madhav KRD Group in association with International Zinc Association(IZA) with the support of Hindustan Zinc Limited.

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• The new plant is a first-of-its-kind facility in Asia to apply CGR technology that will increase life span of these rebars thereby reducing the overall maintenance cost.
• The facility has been developed by International Zinc Association (IZA), in collaboration with Madhav KRG Group. The project will be supported by Hindustan Zinc Limited.
• The Continuously Galvanized Rebar (CGR), are value added rebars for higher life and low maintenance of infrastructure to provide significant cost savings compared to other corrosion resistant rebar systems.
• It is estimated that the plant will produce an annual capacity of over 30,000 tonne of ZnCoat Temp Core TMT bars, under the brand name ‘Jyoti’.
• The facility is a lot important as the demand of Zinc in India grew 4-5 % CAGR(compounded annual growth rate) in the last 10 years.
• There has also been an announcement to upgrade and build infrastructure with an expense of around 1.5 Trillion USD over the next 5 years to enhance the economic growth and usage of zinc galvanised steel to prevent corrosion.

Meaning of Galvanised Rebar

• Galvanized reinforcing steel is bare reinforcing steel coated with a protective layer of zinc metal. The zinc coating serves as a barrier to corrosive elements that the rebar is exposed to when embedded in concrete.

5. Fund Allocated for Canal Based Water Supply Project

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The Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday approved a US$ 285.71 million project for canal based water supply for Amritsar and Ludhiana cities under World Bank financing.

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• The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) would finance US$ 200 million (70%) and Punjab Government US$ 85.71 million (30%), as per the proposal.
•  The project would have four components including:

1. Strengthening urban and water supply service management with total cost of US$ 11.61 million,

2. Improving water supply infrastructure at US$ 240.38 million

3. Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement involving cost of US$ 15.62 million,

4. COVID crisis response to the tune of US$ 10 million and project management at US$ 7.6 million, in addition to Front End Fee of US$ 0.5 million.

• A fair process will be put in place for acquiring land and for compensating those adversely impacted due to replacement cost as described in ESS5 of World Bank, so as to improve or at least restore their livelihoods and standards of living to pre-project levels.
• According to World Bank’s ESS5, involuntary resettlement instruments, i.e. the compensation, will be based on the replacement cost. For the vulnerable groups, additional support in terms of skill development/training will also be provided.
• The entire engagement would be under the framework of the State Partnership between the Punjab Government and the World Bank.
• The project would invest in bulk water infrastructure, establish new institutional models for Water Supply & Sanitation (WSS) service delivery, and also strengthen financial sustainability and customer orientation in WSS delivery.
• Additionally, the project would extend flexible just-in-time resources and capacity support to the Punjab government and Municipal Councils across the state to tackle some of the critical challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially strengthening city-level response and focusing on frontline service providers.

6.  IIT Ropar and Punjab Government sign MoU for Skill Development

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The Punjab government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU)  with the indian Institute of Technolgy, Ropar, in the area of skill development.

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• The MoU provides for the IIT’s Technical education department to become an academic mentor for the state’s engineering colleges and at Gurdaspur and Ferozepur, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Skill Institute at Chamkaur Sahib, five government polytechnics and 10 government ITIs.
• The institute will help the state in developing a model ITI and a model polytechnic.
• IIT-Ropar Director S K Das suggested that the state should take the initiative of setting up a defence manufacturing corridor with the institute’s support.
• Also, Indian Institute of Management, Amritsar, extended support to the state government in promoting skill development.

7.  Sahitya Akademi Awardee Baldev Singh Sadaknama Authored a book ‘Suraj Kade Marda Nahi’ (sun never dies)

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Sahitya Akademi Awardee Baldev Singh Sadaknama has authored a book ‘Suraj Kade Marda Nahi’ (sun never dies). The book portrays many aspects of freedom fighter Udham Singh. The book is published by Unistarbooks.

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• The book portrays some facts pertaining to Colonel Reginald Dyer, also known as butcher of Jallianwala bagh.
• It also covers how Udham Singh killed Michael O’ Dwyer, former lieutenant governor of Punjab on March 13, 1940, at Caxton Hall, London for which he was hanged on July 31, 1940
• It also states about how bravely he faced trial.
• Baldev Singh Sadaknama was born in the village Chand Nawaan in Moga district, Punjab in 1942. He began his career as a teacher.
• His novel ‘Suraj Di Aakh’, which was about the life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh won Dhahan Prize, which carries a cash award of 25,000 Canadian dollars (over Rs 13 lakh
• He received the Sahitya Akademi Award 2011 for his novel Dhaahwan Dilli De Kingre.
• His other novels include Sadaknaama, Laal Batti among others.

8.  Registrar General’s Sample Registration System (SRS) indicates that India’s maternal mortality ratio declined to 113 in 2016-18

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The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in India has declined to 113 in 2016-18 from 122 in 2015-17 and 130 in 2014-2016 and almost 100 deathslesser than in the period of 2007-2009. This is a report named the “Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India 2016-18”, which is released by the Office of the Registrar General’s Sample Registration System (SRS).

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• States have been categorized into three groups namely, Empowered Action Group (EAG) States, Southern States and Other States during the survey.
• In the category of other states Punjab has a maximum MMR of 129.
• The Office of the Registrar General, India works under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
• Registrar General & Census Commissioner is Dr. Vivek Joshi.
• ORGI also released its SRS bulletin based which has presented the estimates of Birth Rate, Death Rate, and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) for the year 2018 for India and its States/UTs.
• Infant Mortality Rate:  India’s infant mortality rate (IMR) has improved very marginally from 33 per 1,000 live births in 2017 to 32 in 2018.
• Death Rate: The death rate of India has witnessed a significant decline over the last four decades from 14.9 in 1971 to 6.2 in 2018.
• Birth Rate: There has been about an 11% decline in birth rate in the last decade, from 22.5 in 2009 to 20.0 in 2018.

What is SRS Bulletin ?

The Sample Registration System (SRS) is a large-scale demographic survey for providing reliable annual estimates of Infant mortality rate, birth rate, death rate and other fertility & mortality indicators at the national and subnational levels.

Office of Registrar General, India

With a view to generate reliable and continuous data on these indicators, the Office of Registrar General, India, initiated the scheme of sample registration of births and deaths in India popularly known as Sample Registration System (SRS) in 1964-65 on a pilot basis and on full scale from 1969-70.

9. Appointment of New PSEB Chief

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• Dr Yog Raj Sharma, a professor at Punjabi University, Patiala, has now been appointed the Chairman of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB).
• The professor at the Punjabi Languages Department was recently appointed as the university registrar as well.
• He is also functioning as the Director, Human Resource Development Centre at the university.
• He is a member of the Punjabi Sahit academy, Ludhiana, and Kendriya Lekhak Sabha, Jalandhar.

10. Mother and Child Healthcare hospitals get named

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• The Punjab Government has decided to name the 37 Mother and Child Healthcare (MCH) Hospitals being set up in the state after ‘Mai Daultan’, who took care of Guru Nanak Dev at the time of his birth.

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