G O V E R N M E N T Simultaneous flag hoisting at most forts On the occasion of the 371st anniversary of Hindavi Swarajya Oath by Chhatrapati Maharaj in 1645, around 1,350 volunteers from Maharashtra-based Sahyadri Pratishthan carried out conservation activities including cleaning and restoration at 300 forts in the state on March 30, 2016. They also hoisted the Bhagwa jhanda (a saffron flag that served as the flag of the Marathas) simultaneously on all the 300 forts at 4.00 pm on the same day, making it the largest such event.

Largest hoisted National Flag To celebrate the second anniversary of Telangana State formation, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao hoisted the largest National Flag on a tall flag pole at Sanjeevaiah Park on the banks of the Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad on June 2, 2016. The flag measured 108 × 72 ft (32.92 × 21.95 m) and weighed 65 kg while the 291 ft (88.7 m) high flag pole weighed 40 tonnes. The flag was designed by Mumbai Flag Tallest flag pole with the National Flag Shop and Philvex Hobby Society. To pay tribute to national heroes, Pahari Mandir Vikas Samiti in Ranchi, The project was undertaken by Jharkhand erected the tallest flag pole on which a 99 × 66 ft (30.17 × the Roads and Buildings 20.12 m) National Tricolour was hoisted by Union Defence Minister Department, Govt of Telangana. Manohar Parrikar on Jan 23, 2016, the birth anniversary of Netaji . The 293 ft (89.3 m) flag pole stands on Pahari Mandir hill and the flag flutters at 493 ft (150 m) above the ground level. The project was executed by a team led by Deepak Varthuar of Urmila RCP Project Private Ltd.

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govt 2017.pmd 142 29-03-2017, 11:38 G O V E R N M E N T WR: Largest diaspora With over 1.6 crore of its population living outside the country, the Indian Diaspora remained the largest in the world, according to a 2015 survey by the United Nations. Mexico came second with a 1.2 crore migrants. International migrations in the world stood at 24.4 crore people in 2015 marking a 41% increase compared to 2000. Two-thirds of these migrants live in 20 countries, with the USA hosting 19% of all migrants at 46.6 million, followed by Germany, Russia, Saudi Arabia, UK and UAE. According the govt estimates, the size of Indian Diaspora including both Non-resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) has crossed the 2 crore mark.

Largest Africa Summit The third edition of India Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-III) held in from Oct 26-30, 2015 was the biggest such diplomatic outreach by India with a participation of 54 African nations, including leaders of 41 African nations for the first time. The five- day summit, aimed at deepening India-Africa ties, started with official level consultations, followed by a heads-of-states level meet and ended with bilateral meetings between the Prime Minister of India and visiting African leaders.

WR: Fastest growing large economy With the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growing at 7.4%, India retained the world’s fastest growing large economy status in 2015-16, bettering the previous year’s figure of 7.2%. In September 2015, India also overtook China and the USA to become the world’s top foreign direct investment destination.

Most travelled Most unsuccessful parliamentarian candidate (living) Dr Mahendra Prasad, The never-say-die ‘election Rajya Sabha MP from king’ Dr K Padmarajan Bihar has visited 210 (b May 15, 1959) of Mettur, countries/ Salem, Tamil Nadu has independent contested and lost 176 territories as of June elections since 1988! Presidents, vice presidents, 30, 2016. His travel prime ministers, chief ministers, central ministers, list includes all UN state ministers, film stars… thus goes the list of member countries except VVIPs he has contested in the past. He says he has one and 19 other territories, lost about Rs 20 lakh in deposit money but that the latest being South Sudan. however does not stop him from entering the fray.

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govt 2017.pmd 143 29-03-2017, 11:38 G O V E R N M E N T

First state assembly to invite questions online The Maharashtra State Legislature launched the country’s first online facility that enables Members of Legislative Assembly and Council (MLAs and MLCs) to send their questions and move different motions in the House through its website http://mls.org.in on Dec 7, 2015. The legislators started using it with the winter session of the State Legislature held in . It was designed by the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd as a part of the state government’s Digital MLAs initiative with the aim to bring the paper work to minimum.

First digital state President Pranab Mukherjee declared Kerala a digital state on Feb 27, 2016. High internet penetration, nearly 100% mobile phone density (over 3.1 crore out of 3.3 crore population), high e-literacy level (75%), highest digital banking rate, setting up of two state-of-the art government data centres and a state-wide area network (KSWAN) connecting over 3,000 government offices contributed to the making of Kerala as the first complete digital state. Kerala emerged as the first e-literate state  largely through its Akshaya and IT@School projects, both launched in 2002. More than 33 lakh people benefited from Akshaya project while around 39 lakh students from 12,600 schools were trained under the IT@School project. First state to complete the National Optic  Fibre Network (NOFN) project, started in 2011, Kerala is equipped to provide high-speed internet via optic fibre in all grampanchayats. The state also holds the distinction of having issued over one crore e-certificates and over 3.29 crore Aadhaar enrolments.

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govt 2017.pmd 144 29-03-2017, 11:38 G O V E R N M E N T First smokeless village Vyachakurahalli village in Karnataka was declared the first smokeless village in the country by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Govt of India on Dec 8, 2015. Following the Mission Smokeless Village project, undertaken by Indian Oil Corporation with the objective of helping rural women regain their health and to make cooking easier, all 274 households in the village had shifted to LPG stoves.

First fully organic state Sikkim was formally declared the country’s first fully organic state on Jan 18, 2016. By the end of December 2015, the state succeeded in converting around 75,000 hectares of its agricultural land to certified organic land by implementing organic practices and principles as per guidelines of the National Programme for Organic Production. Sikkim had actually started RTI activist rewarded by government the process with a declaration in the legislative On Oct 16, 2015, Right-to-Information (RTI) assembly in 2003. activist Prashant Ashok Burge (39) of Galatga in Belagavi, Karnataka was rewarded by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) under Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for exposing the toll fee overcharge scam at Hattargi Plaza on National Highway-4 along the Karnataka - Maharashtra border. Using the citizen’s right to know, provided under the RTI Act Largest survey on LPG 2005, he had brought The Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under Ministry to the notice of the authorities in the ministry that of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Govt of India conducted the the toll fee collecting agency was actually largest exclusive survey on usage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas overcharging the users during the five months (LPG) and energy access in the country, which covered 120 from November 2012 to March 2013. Acting on districts in 13 states – Assam, Bihar, , Gujarat, his complaint, the authority imposed a penalty of Jharkhand, MP, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tripura, Rs 1,82,73,000 in addition to the extra collected UP and West Bengal – and collected primary data from 1.03 lakh amount of Rs 15,95,825 with interest to be unconnected LPG households in over 53 days from September – recovered to the government. NHAI also issued a December 2015. In addition to households, the exercise also demand draft worth Rs 10,000 to Prashant as a interviewed or surveyed 1,418 grampanchayats in the 120 reward for exposing the corruption, even in the districts to seek their views on drivers and barriers for the use of face of tempting offers and life threats from vested LPG as a clean cooking fuel. interests.

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govt 2017.pmd 145 29-03-2017, 11:38 G O V E R N M E N T First state to provide social welfare benefits Most obsolete laws repealed to transgender community Thanks to the initiatives taken by the Union Ministry of Law & On May 29, 2016, the State Govt of Odisha decided Justice during the first two years of the present government, the to extend its social welfare benefits such as free or Govt of India repealed a total of 1,175 obsolete and redundant heavily subsidized foodgrains, pension, health, acts which had lost their significance. Four Acts were enacted education and housing to the transgender community to effect this: (i) The Repealing and Amending Act, 2015 by including them in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) resulted in repealing 35 such Acts; (ii) The Repealing and category. The step is aimed at empowering an Amending (Second) Act, 2015 repealed 90 Acts; (iii) The estimated 40,000-strong transgender community in Appropriation Acts (Repeal) Act, 2016 repealed 756 Acts and the state. (iv) The Repealing and Amending Act, 2016 repealed 294 Acts.

Most RTI replies to a single petition Akhand, a social worker from Kamala Sagar Patana, Puri, Odisha filed a petition under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI) with the Department of Posts, Govt of India on Jan 22, 2016. In less than three months from Feb-April 2016, he received 333 replies from the Department, making it the highest number of such replies received from a single organisation on an RTI petition. He received 162 replies in February, 157 in March and 14 in April. His petition sought information regarding formation of Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at various divisions of the Department and other details related to it.

First/largest bugle drill on the move The Central Training College of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Gwalior, MP conducted the largest Bugle Drill in which 127 CRPF personnel including 12 women blew the instrument in synchronization for 10 min 15 sec while on the march at Phool Bag Ground, Gwalior on August 10, 2015. They played different bugle calls while moving in different formations. (Bugle is one of the most difficult musical instruments to play and is usually blown in standing position for a very short duration, not more than a minute). It was the first such mass performance of bugle blowing on the move. For the first time, the drill also featured 12 women buglers.

Largest recovery of stolen goods by police The largest recovery of stolen electronic goods worth Rs 26,14,23,415.39 was accomplished by the Delhi Police South-East District teams on April 2, 2015. Under the supervision of Mandeep Singh Randhawa, DCP, South East district, the teams led by ACP Nidhin Valsan were able to recover the stolen goods in such a short time as 34 hr 35 min of registering the case. The accused had robbed and fled away with a container carrying Samsung mobile phone components but the police teams apprehended the accused along with the entire goods from a place about 230 km from Delhi.

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Oldest serving ceremonial parade commander At 60 years, Deputy Superintendent of Police Raghubir Singh Kalra (b August 8, 1955) of Police commanded the Independence Day parade of district Police held at Pandit Ravishankar Shukla Stadium, Jabalpur on August 15, 2015, becoming the oldest serving ceremonial parade commander. He retired from service shortly after on August 31, 2015.

First transgender Sub Inspector K Prithika Yashini (25) of Chennai, a transgender who fought her way to become a Sub Inspector (SI) of Police in Tamil Nadu, finally received her appointment letter from the Chennai City Police Commissioner on Feb 15, 2016. Prithika, born and brought up as a boy (named Pradeep Kumar), later underwent a sex change surgery, thus became the country’s first transgender SI. Earlier, her application had been rejected by the state police recruitment board as it did not have a third gender category. Unwilling to give up, she approached the legal courts and obtained a favourable verdict from the Madras High Court in November 2015. The court also directed the recruitment board to effect necessary changes to draw transgenders to the state police force.

Largest cash recovery by police The largest cash recovery of Rs 22,49,89,500 was accomplished by a team of Delhi Police South-East District on Nov 27, 2015. The driver of a cash van carrying nine currency chests containing Rs 22.5 crore from Axis Bank had fled away with the vehicle and the incident was reported to Okhla Industrial Area police station at 5.48 pm the previous day. An intense operation launched by the police succeeded to apprehend the accused and recover almost the entire amount (except Rs 10,500 which the accused had spent) within 10 hours of reporting the case. Under the overall supervision of DCP Mandeep Singh Randhawa and supervision of Addl DCPs Vijay Kumar and Pranav Tayal, various investigation teams were formed. The team members comprised ACP Jasbir Singh, Inspectors Naresh Solanki, Yudhveer Singh, SIs Gurjeet Singh, Sanjeev, Rajender Dagar, Jitender Malik, Manmeet Malik, HCs Yatender, Jitender and Ct Rahul. Other teams were led by Inspectors Naresh Kumar, Arvind Kumar, Maninder Singh and Mukesh Kumar.

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govt 2017.pmd 147 29-03-2017, 11:38 G O V E R N M E N T Most prison transfers on recommendations Generally prisoners are transferred on security / disciplinary grounds or on request. Not so in the case of Rohit Pagare, an inmate of Gurgaon District Jail in Haryana and his team! He along with team member Anoop Singh has been transferred to various prisons in the state as many as 11 times – but always on recommendation by Superintendent of Prison and approved by Director General of Prisons, Haryana! Balwant and Ajit Singh, two other members of the team also joined them thrice in the transfer. What earned them those unusual recommendations ? Rohit was part of the team of inmates that initially designed the Phoenix Software for digitization of prisoner records. After success of the software in Gurgaon, Rohit selected a team of inmates who were sent to other prisons in the state to install the software and carry out similar computerization projects there. They also trained the prison staff in handling the software. Their first transfer was from Gurgaon to Karnal on Jan 10, 2015 and the latest was Yamuna Nagar to Gurgaon on Jan 13, 2016.

First all-woman police patrol wing In 2016, Udaipur City Police in Rajasthan opened the first Lady Patrol Wing with 23 specially trained women personnel for the task. The wing started operation with two cops each on 10 motorcycles patrolling the city throughout the day in 8-8 hour shifts. The city has been divided into five beats with a women’s patrol team of two officers for each beat.

WR: Largest police force under a single command Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police, formed in 1863, is the single largest police force in the country with a force of over 2.5 lakh personnel under the command of the Director General of UP Police. Headquartered in , it is divided into eight zones and 18 ranges spread over 75 districts. It has 33 armed battalions and 19 specialised wings such as intelligence, investigation, anti-corruption, technical, training, forensic science etc.

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