Indian Railways, Swachh Bharat Mission - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Saksham

Explanation:
The Indian Railways will launch the country's largest time-bound "upskilling" exercise for government employees to upgrade the skillsets of its 13 lakh-strong workforce with a single drive spanning nine months.

Named Project Saksham, the exercise will start in January 2018 and go on till September, putting through training courses and specially designed skill-upgrade modules.

Employees from the rank of a peon to the Railway Board Members and everyone in between will undergo the training.

The launch date of the project has been tentatively scheduled to coincide with the 155^th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, sources said.

The nature of the short-duration training will range from refresher courses, with an eye on evolved global practices in the respective areas, to skills in the existing lining of functioning, sources said.

With growing services, newer benchmarks of service delivery and higher expectations of the clientele, employees need to build skills to rise to the occasion.

Employees can and do deliver only when they have the right skills, knowledge and the mindset to deliver to the new standards of excellence that we hold from them all.

General Managers would identify training modules, divide their workforce into small groups and communicate the entire plan to the ministry by December 31.

Each will be a five-day on-the-job training, or classroom sessions in Railway Training Centres, depending on the nature of the course. According to the directive, the reporting managers of all employees need to be actively involved in the pre-training and post-training process to ensure that the newly learned skills can be easily integrated into the regular jobs.

Groups of railway officers are going to Japan to train in various processes of the Shinkansen bullet train and heavy haul technologies.

ANSWER: 100

Explanation:
In a major boost to suburban rail services in Mumbai area, Indian Railways is introducing one hundred additional local train services on its Mumbai suburban network of Western Railway and Central Railway zones.

With these additional services, the total suburban services in Mumbai of Western Railway and Central Railway put together will increase from existing 2983 services to 3083 suburban services.

These services will be launched on 29th September 2017.

Out of these 100 services, thirty two new services will be introduced on Western Railway while sixty eight services will be introduced on Central Railway.

‘On Western Railway’, seventeen services will be introduced from 1st October, 2017 in ‘up’ direction and fifteen services will be introduced in ‘down’ direction from 1st October, 2017.

In all, thirty two new services will be introduced in Western Railway.

Western Railway presently runs 1323 sub-urban services. After addition of these services, the total sub-urban services on Western Railway will reach up to 1355.

‘On Central Railway’, fourteen suburban services will be introduced on ‘harbour line’ from 2nd October, 2017, fourteen suburban services will be introduced on ‘trans-harbour line’ from 2nd October, 2017, sixteen suburban services on ‘main line’ will be introduced from 1st November, 2017 and twenty four suburban services on ‘harbour’ and ‘trans-harbour lines’ will be introduced from 31st January, 2018.

In all, sixty eight services will be introduced in Central Railway. Central Railway presently runs 1660 sub-urban services.

After addition of these services, the total sub-urban services on Central Railway will reach up to 1728.

Introduction of these new suburban services will benefit 77 lakh commuters travelling daily over Mumbai suburban network by reducing congestion and providing faster commute.

ANSWER: 6

Explanation:
‘Swachhat Hi Sewa’ campaign at Bhikaji Cama Place in South Delhi was marked by sweeping and collecting the litter. Also inaugurated were modern litter pickers imported by South MCD.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been piloting Swachh Bharat Mission has resulted in an unprecedented ‘individual connect’ with sanitation across the country.

This has led to construction of about five crore toilets across the country including over 38 lakh in urban areas in a short span of three years.

People have a better connect with immediate neighborhood, and so the Ministry unveiled ‘My Home-My Neighborhood’ (Ghar Bi Saaf-Pados Bhi Saaf) campaign with the following six components:

1. Segregation of waste at source
2. Compost making from wet waste within the premisesneighborhood/area
3. Recycling of dry waste
4. Freeing the neighborhood from open defecation and open urination
5. Motivating the residents of neighborhood against throwing garbage in open spaces; and
6. Adopting a near by park or open place for collection and waste segregation.

Neighborhood action plan leads to substantial reduction in the quantum of solid waste sent to landfill besides enabling better performance of Waste-to - Compost and Waste-to-Energy plants. Neighborhood could be a residential housing society, a colony,mohalla, market area etc.

Neighborhood action plan will be launched in all the cities and towns across the country on the occasion of the third anniversary of Swachh Bharat Mission on the second of next month.

ANSWER: Rashtriya Swachhta Kendra

Explanation:
“Rashtriya Swachhta Kendra” will be set up by “Swachh Bharat Mission” Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS), Rajghat by “Swachh Bharat Mission” Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

This is as per the vision of Prime Minister during the centenary year of Champaran Satyagraha and the Ministry of Culture is considering to provide space for the purpose.

This was announced at “Swachhata Pakhwada” of Ministry of Culture.

A total of 275 effort hours for cleanliness and awareness during Swachhata Pakhwada and A total of 82 activities/events were organised by the Ministry and its organizations during the Swachhata Pakhwada aimed to create awareness on “Swachhata”.

Ministry of Culture has developed “e-guide (Audio-Visual) App e3.eguide.net.in” to create awareness for the tourists visiting National Museum.

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is not only the top priority of the Government but it has become a national mission for the people of India and positive results are pouring in from every nook and corner of the country.

Since its launch on 2nd October, 2014, till date more than 4 crore individual household latrines have been built and one lakh, 94,000 villages and 135 districts have become Open Defecation Free, ODF.

Apart from Sikkim, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh which are ODF Sates, 6 to 7 more States will soon declare them ODF as the work is going on a rapid scale.

Budget for Swachh Bharat Mission is now INR 19,300 crore with a Central share of INR 14,000 crore and INR 5,300 crore is the budgetary provision declared by all government departments as they had been asked to make a special mention of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in their budget proposals, besides finalising their ‘Swachhta Action Plan’.

Swachhata Pakhwada

On completion of 3rd year of Swachhata Abhiyan, Ministry of Culture and Tourism organised “Swachhata Pakhwada” from 16th – 30th April, 2017.

During the period, they initiated various Swachhata activities namely;

(i) creating permanent mechanism of cleanliness for all organisations under Ministry of Culture and Tourism ;

(ii) to spread awareness through various cultural activities by involving all their organisations: and

(iii) spread of swachhata awareness through Music, Dance and Drama by its Academies and maintaining cleanliness at all ASI Protected Monuments etc.

ANSWER: India

Explanation:
Indian Railways plans a dedicated train service for domestic and international tourists, catering to customers at different income levels.

This is a part draft tourism policy which IR is bringing out for the first time in a bid to increase private partnership in running tourist trains.

A concept of tourist train with differential tariff will be worked out. The train will comprise different classes of accommodation like Sleeper 3A, 2A and 1A coaches, as per demand.

The IR will operate the train on different circuits with normal tariff or with a mark up. Service providers like Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will manage other services such as hotel accommodation and sightseeing for domestic and international tourists.

The Railways also proposes to reserve special coaches for tourists on trains running through tourist spots across the country.

It will auction such dedicated tourist coaches to tour operators at a premium based on which the tour operator may carry the passengers/tourists to be booked by it.

An effort will be made to involve private participation in operating more (hill tourist) trains and also to improve the financial conditions in hill railways in general through Public Private Partnership.

There will be ‘Bharat Darshan Trains’ catering “for the masses” with sleeper class coaches.

For promoting religious tourism, the IR proposed introducing Astha Circuit Trains and State Tirth Trains.

While the former will be operated by the IR at its own expense, the latter will be run on request from state governments at their cost.

Indian Railways: Know More

• Headquarters: New Delhi
• Number of employees: 1,331,000
• Founded: 16 April 1853
• Revenue: 1.683 trillion INR (US$25 billion, 2015–2016)
• Divisions: 17 Railways Zones

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
The Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu on 30 March 2017 released a book on the Indian Railways - “Indian Railway-The weaving of a National Tapestry.”

The book was jointly authored by Bibek Debroy (Member, NITI Aayog), Sanjay Chadha (Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce) and Vidya Krishnamurthi.

The theme of this book is the historical development of railways in India.

The book is divided into chapters dealing with different periods of development in chronological order.

It builds its foundations from periods prior to 1853, when the first commercial passenger railway was inaugurated.

The authors wanted to create a cross between an academic book and a coffee table book.

The result is a narrative built around a series of anecdotes of railway history. The book manages to convey considerable amounts of information in a conversational manner.

The story begins with the early plans for building railways in the Indian sub-continent in the 1830s, continues with the debates in the 1840s and the advent of the railways in the 1850s and 1860s.

The final chapter, which covers the period of consolidation and change during the 1870s onwards, is the most absorbing.

The last chapter covers the period from the beginning of the 20th century until independence. The book is perhaps best characterised as Indian Railway History - An anecdotal version.

Indian Railways: Know More

• Headquarters: New Delhi
• Number of employees: 1,331,000
• Founded: 16 April 1853
• Revenue: 1.683 trillion INR (US$25 billion, 2015–2016)
• Chief Subsidiary: Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
• Parent organization: Ministry of Railways

ANSWER: Monash

Explanation:
Australian research centre Monash University Institute of Railway Technology and Indian Ministry of Railways Corporation Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited signed an agreement to this effect.

IRT with partners Balaji Railroad Systems Ltd (BARSYL), leading railway consultants in India, PwC, and Indian Institute of Bombay (IITB) were selected as the preferred supplier from a competitive global selection process.

They will provide guidance on the establishment of a new applied research and development institute in India known as SRESTHA (Special Railway Establishment for Strategic Technology & Holistic Advancement).

SRESTHA will be locally engaged, but have a global reach.

It will have the aim to become a world leader in the advancement of rail.

Significantly, the project will provide guidance to the Indian Railways on international models that will be adapted to the Indian railway environment.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• The Minister launched free to use ‘Smart Toilets’ set up by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) under PPP model at National Gallery of Art on Shershah Road, opposite Haryana Bhawan on Copernicus Marg and near Tolstoy Marg Metro Station.
• Each such complex has one WC toilet seat and four urinals for gents, one WC each for women and differently abled, Water ATM, Bank ATM and Digital Health Centres.
• Other facilities are- Mobile Charging and four other Public Toilet Utilities.
• The NDMC will set-up 101 Smart Public Toilets in different areas of the capital out of which five have been constructed and another twelve are likely to be set-up by end of January, 2017. The rest of the Smart Toilets will be completed by June, 2017.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
In a further move to take the Indian Railways at an advanced level, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu in a programme held in Rail Bhawan on 8th Dec launched website of National Rail Plan, 2030.

The website can be accessed at http://www.nationalrailplan.in. This dedicated website for National Rail Plan (NRP, 2030) has been developed for all stakeholders to give their inputs for purposeful study as Railways’ planning cannot be done in isolation.

In order to provide long term perspective to planning for augmenting the railway network Ministry of Railways have decided to develop National Rail Plan (NRP 2030) in consultation with all the stakeholders including State Governments, public representatives and other relevant Central Ministries.

NRP-2030 will endeavour to harmonise and integrate the rail network with other modes of transport and create synergy for achieving seamless multi modal transportation network across the country.

Indian Railways needs to form a concrete plan about its doings in the coming 10-20 years. He said that after receiving ideas Railways will capture all the requirements from the different stakeholders.

Indian Railways- National Rail Plan 2030

• The Indian Railway Network is a key component of the Country’s Transport System. Transporting
• Presently Railway planning is presently not based on some integrated plan.
• The network plan shall take into account connectivity to backward region.
• It will also take up Congestion in the existing network and futuristic development of Industrial corridors.
• Deficits in existing network are to be planned for removal.
• National Rail Plan 2030 has been envisaged which shall not only take care of existing corridors but also the identification and development of new corridors & connections.

ANSWER: Transgender/Third gender

Explanation:
Indian Railways and IRCTC have included transgender as the third gender in the option alongside male and female in ticket reservation and cancellation forms .

Decisions taken on a representation made by a lawyer will include the facilities for reservations and cancellations online as well as offline.

The ministry in its circular referred to the direction of the apex court of April 2014, which had said that hijras, eunuchs, apart from binary gender, be treated as third gender for protecting their rights.

"It has, therefore, been decided to include the third gender/transgender option alongside male/female in reservation /cancellation requisition form. This information will be captured by the system and tickets to transgender will be issued on full fare," the circular stated.