Places In News – Current Affairs

NATIONAL

Adichanallur

• Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lays foundation stone for Adichanallur museum. (August 5,2023)
• Adichanallur is located on the lower valley of the Tamirabarani river in Srivaikuntam taluk in present- day Thoothukudi district in southern Tamil Nadu.

Byculla Railway station 

• Byculla Railway station of Mumbai received UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage conservation. (July 24, 2023)
  
• Around 169 year old railway station is Asia’s oldest railway station.
• Apart from Byculla station, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum (Mumbai), Stepwells of Golconda (Hyderabad) and Domakonda Fort (Telangana) were also winners of this award (under different categories) in 2022.

Zanzibar 

• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will open its first-ever overseas campus in Tanzania’s Zanzibar in October 2023.
  
• The new IIT campus will be set up in Zanzibar under the name IIT Madras at Zanzibar.
  
• Zanzibar will be one of three campuses outside of India, with the others located in Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur.
  
• The new IIT campus in Tanzania will be the first in itself to be led by a woman director Preeti Aghalayam.

Ahilya Nagar

• Maharashtra government has announced that Ahmednagar would be renamed ‘Ahilya Nagar’ (May, 2023).
• The announcement came on the 298 birth anniversary of 18th century Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar.

Srinagar

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah laid the foundation stone of Balidan Stambh’ in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir (June, 2023).
  
• It is to show external gratitude to the martyrs of various wars fought in J&K since independence.
• Balidan stambh is India’s first wart memorial.

Kondakal

• India’s largest private rail coach factory inaugurated at Kondakal village in Rangareddy district, Telangana (June, 2023).

Surat

• Surat has set a ‘new Guinness World Record’ for the largest gathering of people for a yoga session at one place (June, 2023).
  More than one lakh people took part 21 June.
  

Ratnagiri

• The Maharashtra government has started soil testing to establish Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (RRPCL) (25 April, 2023).
• The project is touted as world’s largest single location refinery complex.

Visakhapatnam

• India’s first integrated data centre and technology business park is being built by Adani group at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh (03 May, 2023)
  
• The Park will host a 300+ MW of data centre capacity, powered by renewable energy.

Dawki

• The 10 Landport between India and Bangladesh has inaugurated at Dawki in Meghalaya (04 May, 2023)
• It will serve as an important economic and transportation hub between India and Bangladesh.

Mumbai

Mumbai is soon to get India’s first-ever undersea tunnels (May, 2023)
The 2.07 km twin tunnels are a part of the Mumbai Coastal Road Project (MCRP).

Rudraprayag

• The famous Tungnath temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, is located in Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand.,
  In a study, the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) has found that the Tungnath temple tilted by five to six degrees. (May, 2023)
  

Bhopal

• Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) has become first city in India to join global movement on the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• M.P. CM Shivraj Chouhan launched ‘An Agenda for Action: Sustainable Urban Transformation in Bhopal’ India’s first city-level Voluntary Local Review (VLR) (12 May, 2023)

Punjab

• Punjab has become first state to implement ‘right to walk’. (10 May, 2023)
• All road owning agencies will have to provide footpath and cycletrack.

Thiruvananthpuram

• 5th Global Ayurveda Festival (GAF) – 2023 will be
  hosted in Thiruvananthpuram (Kerala) between 01- 05 December, 2023.
  

Churachandpur

• The Manipur violence had begum from Churachandpur district on May 3, 2023.
• More than one thousand Meitei people had to fled the Kuki-dominated Chaurachandpur district.

Devbhumi Dwarka

• The Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah has laid the foundation stone for the permanent campus of National Academy of Coastal Policing (NACP) at Okha in Devbhumi Dwarka district of Gujarat. (May 20, 2023)

Chennai

• ‘India-Israel Centre of Water Technology’ is going to be set up at IIT, Madras Campus. (09 May, 2023)
  
• It is a joint initiative of IIT Madras and government of Israel.

Hingoli

• The Union Cabinet has approved an advance gravitational wave detector in Hingoli district, Maharashtra. (April 6, 2023)
  
• The observatory will be third of its kind.
  
• Other two Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatories (LIGO) are in Louisiana and Washington in the USA.
  

Bengaluru

• Bengaluru inagurated India’s first 3D-printed post office. (August, 2023)
• The post office building is constructed by L&T Construction.
  
• The project is design and build using 3D concrete Printing Technology.
  

Zemithang

• A major Buddist conference was organized at Zemithang in Arunachal Pradesh. (16-17 April, 2023)
• The conference was organized by the Indian Himalayan Council of Nalanda Buddhist Tradition” (Held – New Delhi)

Varanasi

• The 12 days long Pushkaralu festival of Telugu- speaking people has commenced in Varanasi. (April 22, 2023)
• The festival is being organized in Varanasi after a gap of 12 years due to special combination of planetary transits.

Thrisur

• The tallest Hanuman statue of Kerala has been unveiled by PM Modi at the Sri Seetharamaswamy- temple in Thrissur. (April 25, 2023)
• The statute in 35 ft tall and has a 20 ft. tall base. Altogether it is 55 ft tall.

Thanthai Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary

• The Tamil Nadu Government in its state budget announced the notification of Thanthai Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, making it the 18 wildlife sanctuary in the state (March 20, 2023).

Dibang Multipurpose Project

• The Indian Government has approved its largest ever hydropower project in the mountainous northeastern region- Dibang Multipurpose Project (MPP) (February, 2023).
• The project will generate 2,880 MW of hydropower.

Yamunotri Dham

• The state government of Uttarakhand has inked a contract, to construct a 3.38 km ropeway from Janki Chatti in Kharsali to Yamunotri Dham (February 23, 2023).
• Yamunotri Dham is part of Char Dham – the four famous Hindu pilgrimages.

Byndoor, Udupi district

• Karnataka is set to get India’s 1st Marina which will be constructed at Byndoor in the Udupi district. (February, 2023)

Shivamogga Airport

• The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the newly constructed Shivamogga Airport (Karnataka). (February 27, 2023)

Tashigang

• Tashigang (Lahaul & Spiti”), has world’s highest polling station at 15,256 ft & 52 registered voters.

Kameng Hydro Power Station

• Prime Minister of India Dedicates 600 MW Kameng Hydro Power Station (Arunachal Pradesh) to the nation.

Srinagar

• Kashmir’s first Technology Business Incubation Centre named as ‘Greenovator Incubation Foundation’ (GIF) is coming up in Srinagar. (October, 2022)

Indore

• An International Seminar on ‘Road Safety: Current Scenario & Way Forward’ was organized in view of problem of road safety (October 28-29, 2022)

Sikkim

• India’s first avalanche monitoring radar has been installed in North Sikkim. (September, 2022)

Bhavnagar

• PM Modi laid the foundation stone for the world’s first CNG terminal’ at Bhavnagar, Gujarat. (September, 2022)

Varanasi

• Varanasi nominated as the first ‘Cultural and Tourism Capital of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) for 2022-23. (September, 2022)

INTERNATIONAL

Nigeria

• Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu declared a national emergency on food security, as record inflation has made basic foods unaffordable for many:( July 13, 2023) Abuja is the capital of Nigeria.

Ubinas Volcano

• Peru has imposed a state of emergency in Moquegua region due to explosions in Ubinas volcano. (July, 2023)
• Ubinas is the most active volcano in the country, forming part of the “Ring of Fire”, an area of seismic activity that surrounds the tectonic plate underneath the Pacific Ocean.

Orkney Islands

• Orkney council to look at proposals to become territory of Norway (July 2023)
• The Orkney Islands could change their status in the UK or even become a self-governing territory of Norway under new proposals.
• Orkney is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Kilauea Volcano

• Kilauea Volcano of Hawaii island has erupted recently (June, 2023)

Gabon

• Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has flagged off Gabon’s first Agri-SEZ project from New Delhi JJune, 2023).

Anak Krakatau

• Indonesia Anak Krakatau Volcano has erupted (June, 2023).
• The volcano island located in Indonesia Sunda strait between the main Java and Sumatra islands.
• Anak Krakatau means ‘Child of Kratakau’.

Estonia

• Estonia has become first central European country to legalise same-sex marriage (June, 2023).

Sittwe Port

• Inaugural cargoship to Myanmar’s Sittwe port has flagged off from Kolkata. (04 May, 2023)
• The port has built with assistance from India in Rakhine State in Myanmar.

Portugal

• Portugal has legalised the euthanasia, after a long battle. (12 May, 2023)
• In 2002, Netherlands became the first country to ligalise the euthanasia.

Finland

• Europe’s most powerful nuclear reactor kicks off in Finland. (April, 2023)
• The Olkiluoto 3 reactor has 1600 MW capacity.

Rooppur

• Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant is being constructed at Rooppur in Pabna district.

Ghana

• Ghana becomes first country to approve Oxfords Malaris vaccine. (April, 2022)
  
• The R21/Matrix-M vaccine will be administered to children aged 5-36 months.
  

Sudan

• Indian Air Force has brought back Indian citizens from war-hit Sudan under operation Kaveri. (April, 2023)
  

Pennsylvania

• US State Pennsylvania declares Diwali as an official holiday. (April, 2023)
  

Dubai

• A majestic Hindu temple has been inaugurated in Jabel Ali Village, Dubai. (October, 2022)
  

Norway

• On the shore of Norway’s North Sea Coast, on as Island, Norway is building a carbon storage site. (September, 2022)
  
• It is the World’s First Open access transport and carbon storage infrastructure.