current affairs 18 August 2022

Indian Railways launches Operation Yatri Suraksha.

• The Railway Protection Force (RPF) launched a pan-India operation known as Operation Yatri Suraksha to provide round-the-clock security to passengers.
• It facilities surveillance through CCTV, checking on active criminals, presence of a person at different stations to reduce crime.
• The RPF has launched a month-long pan-India drive against criminals who loot passengers in July 2022.
• The RPF caught 365 suspects who were handed over to the concerned GRPs for legal action.

Wholesale price-based inflation declines to 13.93% in July.

• The Wholesale price inflation (WPI) has been declined to 13.93% in July 2022 from 15.18% in preceding month.
• According to the Commerce and Industry Ministry, WPI inflation fell on easing prices of food articles and manufactured products.
• The WPI was at a record high of 15.88% in May 2022 and stood at 11.57 per cent in July 2021.
• The retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) was also declined to 6.71% in July 2022 from 7.01 in preceding month.

India ranks 4th in 2022 Forbes Asia best under a billion.

• The Forbes Asia has published its 2022 edition of the best 200 mid-sized companies in the AsiaPacific region.
• In 2022, India has ranked fourth in the report titled Best Under A Billion with 24 Indian firms, down from 26 in 2021.
• Taiwan has the greatest number of companies listed at 30, followed by Japan with 29 and South Korea has 27.
• China placed 5th in the list with 22 firms.
• The list was compiled from 20,000 publicly traded companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Indian Bureau of Mines to create individual portal for Mines Ministry.

• Ministry of Mines has announced to launch an individual portal of the ministry, will be started soon in the country.
• The portal is being created by the Indian Bureau of Mines under the Prime Minister Gati Shakti National Master Plan.
• The portal will have two data layers, in which the first layer covers the spatial data of Mineral concessions and the second layer includes mineral auction blocks.
• Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Coal and Mines: Pralhad Joshi.

BRO to build first steel slag road in Arunachal Pradesh.

• The Border Road Organization (BRO) will construct a pilot road using steel slag Arunachal Pradesh, which can withstand heavy rains and adverse climatic conditions.
• If this found successful, then this can become a big solution for building durable roads along the strategic areas.
• This project has been initiated after the success of using 100% steel slag on a port connectivity road in Gujarat, which has longer life and built at low cost.
• BRO HQ: New Delhi