17-05-23 Daily-Kerala-KPSC Current Affairs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a two-day visit to Kerala, flagged off the state’s first Vande Bharat Express train from here on Tuesday.

Modi flagged off the train from the Thiruvananthapuram Central RAILWAY station here at 11.10 AM.

Prior to flagging off the Vande Bharat Express from platform 1 of the railway station, he interacted with a group of school children inside one of the coaches of the train.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor were also present with the PM as he interacted with the students inside the train.

The children showed Modi paintings and sketches of him and the Vande Bharat train made by them.

Hundreds of people also gathered on the opposite side platform to see the PM flag off the train.

The Vande Bharat Express, which will connect the state capital with the northern-most Kasaragod district of Kerala, has been projected by many as an alternative to the LDF government’s ambitious semi-high speed rail corridor, SilverLine.

The Ministry of <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture in its third advance estimates, released on Thursday pegged Indias overall foodgrains output at a record 330.53 million tonnes in the 2022-23 crop year, as against the actual output of 315.61 million tonnes in the previous crop year.

The wheat production is also estimated to set a record at 112.74 million tonnes in the ongoing 2022-23 crop year (July-June), higher by five million tonnes from the previous year on increased acreage and yield despite unseasonal rains.

Besides wheat, a record output has been estimated in rice, maize, oilseeds, and sugarcane.

The foodgrain basket comprises wheat, rice, nutri-coarse and pulses. The production of wheat in the country is estimated at 112.74 million tonne, which is higher by 5 million tonne as compared to previous years production, the agriculture ministry said.

Wheat production had declined to 107.74 million tonnes due to heat wave in key growing states in 2021-22 crop year. The previous record of 109.59 million tonnes in wheat output was achieved during the 2020-21 crop year.

For the first time, Union Ministry of Minority Affairs has come forward to take steps to boost the Unani system of medicine in the country as it cleared a Rs 45 crore worth proposal envisaging upgradation and establishment of various facilities of the alternate medicine system at major metros Hyderabad, Lucknow, Chennai and Bengaluru and Silchar in Assam.

The Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) has been sanctioned a total amount of Rs. 35.52 crores while National Institute of Unani Medicine (NIUM), Bengaluru has been allocated Rs. 9.81 crores for the task to be executed under Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK), a centrally sponsored scheme (CSS). A centre for fundamental research in Unani Medicine at National Research Institute of Unani Medicine for Skin Disorders, Hyderabad will be established at a cost of Rs. 16.05 crores while a Rs. 8.15 crores preclinical laboratory facility has been planned at Regional Research Institute of Unani Medicine, Chennai.

In a landmark technological advancement using (AI), researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) have developed a possible solution to traffic snarls on Indian roads through the use of a probe-based approach for real-time re-timing of traffic signals. This is probably the first time a probe-based, demand-responsive signal control has been developed for Indian conditions.

The researchers conducted a study in which travel-time data from four sample-probe vehicles were used to calculate Green and Red timings for each signal cycle. A signal cycle is the time between one green signal to the next green signal or one red signal to the next red signal for a selected movement.

The traffic composition in India is very different from that in the Western countries. In India, the traffic is usually referred to as belonging to the category of mixed traffic conditions, with a variety of vehicle classes juxtaposed with lane-free movement.