Daily Current Affairs – 2020

Topic: For Prelims and Mains

Ken Betwa Interlink Project

26^thNovember 2019

Why in news?

Centre nudging M.P., U.P. on Ken-Betwa.

Ken Betwa Interlink Project

• The Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) is the River interlinking project aims to transfer surplus water from the Ken river in MP to Betwa in UP to irrigate the drought-prone Bundelkhand region spread across the districts of two states mainly Jhansi, Banda,Lalitpur and Mahoba districts of UP and Tikamgarh, Panna and Chhatarpur districts of MP.
• Ken-Betwa is one of the 30 river inter linking projects conceived across the country.
• Ken and Betwa rivers originate in MP and are the tributaries of Yamuna.
• Ken meets with Yamuna in Banda district of UP and with Betwa in Hamirpur district of UP.
• Rajghat, Paricha and Matatila dams are over Betwa River.
• Ken River passes through Panna tiger reserve.
• The project has been delayed due to political and environmental issues.

Facts for Prelims

28 Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli to be merged:

• Two Union Territories — Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli — will be merged into one and a bill in this effect will be tabled in Parliament.
• The merger of the two UTs, located along the western coast near Gujarat, will be done for better administration and check duplications of various work.
• At present, the country currently has nine UTs after the creation of the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
• However, with the merger of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the number of UTs will come down to eight.

What is Golden rice?

• It is genetically-engineered rice that contains beta-carotene. Here, the traditional rice is changed by inserting bacteria and daffodil and maize genes into it.
• It is called golden rice because of the golden colour of its grains.
• It was claimed to be able to fight Vitamin A deficiency, which is the leading cause of blindness among children and can also lead to death due to infectious diseases such as measles.