7 APRIL 2016

Ø  The country’s wait for the first-ever driverless metro ride is soon going to end. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will roll out its swanky new metro trains as soon as October this year. The DMRC on Wednesday unveiled its new age metro trains which have been shipped to the capital from South Korea. The most attractive feature is that they can function without any operator as they are inbuilt with a technology called Unattended Train Operation (UTO) system. However, DMRC chief Mangu Singh said that for safety purposes, trains would run with an operator for at least a year after the opening of a new corridor. “For unattended operation, stringent trials will be held. Internationally, such trials generally take about one to one-and-a half years. So initially, the trains will be operated by train operators. By end of 2017 we expect to run completely on UTO system.”

Ø  The Union Home Ministry had requested Internet companies like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Google to maintain servers in India to help get real time information about accounts, which spread mischievous and incendiary messages, The Hindu has learnt. Almost two months after Home Minister Rajnath Singh waded into the Jawaharlal Nehru University row with terror link claims based on a fake Twitter handle of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed (@HafeezSaeedJUD), Twitter is yet to respond to the government’s request for details of the handle. In February, the Home Ministry asked Twitter India for details of the account.

Ø  The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday appointed a Gujarat-cadre IPS officer, Rakesh Asthana, Additional Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a four-year tern. A 1984-batch IPS officer, Mr. Asthana is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Ø  The One Rank One Pension scheme, brought in last November to benefit more than 2.5 million ex- servicemen and war widows, on Wednesday received ex-post facto approval from the Cabinet. Under the scheme, pension would be revised on the basis of the pension of retirees of calendar year 2013 and the benefit will be effective from July 1, 2014. In future, the pension would be revised every five years.