MADHYA PRADESH

State government’s aim is de-addiction, not prohibition
The Madhya Pradesh cannot seem to make up its mind over prohibition. After tomtomming for months its aim for ‘phased prohibition’, the government on Thursday said it would go for de-addiction instead.

The cash-strapped government can ill afford to forgo the Rs 7,547 crore revenue from liquor sales, and has in fact raised its target to Rs 8,600 crore for the next fiscal.

CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave the first indication of his government’s anti-liquor stand during the Narmada Yatra in January, banning liquor shops within 5km of the river. He followed it up a ‘nashamukti’ campaign and on April 10 announced at a rally in Narsinghpur that “liquor shops would be closed in a phased manner”.

Surprisingly, however, the excise revenue from the sale of liquor is growing by more than 14% to 17 % every year.

INTERNATIONAL

· Facebook Co founder Saverin becomes richest man in Singapore

Facebook Co-founder Eduardo Saverin has become Singapore‘s richest person with a net worth of $10.4 billion.
Saverin became a Singapore resident after giving up his US citizenship in 2012.

· UAE launches its first astronaut programme

Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has launched the UAE’s first astronaut programme.
Earlier this year, the UAE had announced plans to send an unmanned probe to Mars by 2021.

South Koreaannounced it will have 85 robots at the 2018 Winter Olympics, as volunteers.A humanoid robot has the ability to walk and will bear the Olympic torch in South Korea on December 11.
2018 Winter Olympics will start on February 9, 2018 in PyeongChang, South Korea.
When the next Summer Olympics roll around, Japan hopes to have an entire “robot village” ready to aid and assist humans.

NATIONAL

Kacheguda railway station in Hyderabad division of the SCR (South Central Railway), becomes India’s ‘First’ Energy-Efficient ‘A1 Category’ Railway Station.
It has achieved 100 per cent energy efficiency by replacing 1,312 conventional lights with light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, 370 ceiling fans with Brushless DC Electrical (BLDC) motors energy-efficient fans and 12 air conditioners with energy efficient inverter type ACs.

India’s ‘first’ mobile food testing laboratory, which will enable on-the-spot food safety tests to be conducted in Goa, would be launched by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikaron December 10, 2017.
“This is the first ever ‘Food Safety on Wheel’ mobile laboratory in the country.
The vehicle is equipped to conduct on-the-spot tests to check the food quality. It will also check the hygiene level of water, he said adding that the results can be received within15 minutes.
The mobile laboratory costs Rs 45 lakh and it has been fully funded by the Centre.

The Global Partnership Summit (GPS) 2017 is scheduled to be held at Aerocity, New Delhi from 11th to 14th December 2017.

India Center Foundation (ICF), a not for profit and non-governmental organisation, which has been working for over two decades towards nation’s socio-economic development, will organise it in India for the first-time ever.

The GPS will focus on clean energy, healthcare, infrastructure and logistics, energy, tourism, art and culture, agro economy, banking and finance, education and skill development and information communication technology.

The First International Conference on Sports Medicine and Sports Sciences SAICON 2017 was inaugurated in New Delhi by the Minister of State (I/C) Youth Affairs and Sports Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore.

He said contribution of Sports Science will become important under the Khelo India Programme launched by his ministry.

He said in accordance with the intentions of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi of empowering youths, ‘Khelo India’ programme has been chalked out to tap talent at the school and college level.

Actor Shah Rukh Khan has been named the top Indian actor of 2017 by Internet Movie Data Base(IMDb).
Aamir Khan and Salman Khan occupied the second and third spots respectively.