Morning Brief: India’s First Rail And Transportation University Set For Launch  In September; Eight-Year-Old Allegedly Raped In Mosque On Eid; And Other News

Here’s your morning news and views brief for today.

India’s First Rail University Ready For 5 September Launch

The National Rail and Transport University (NRTU), a brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which was approved by the government in 2017, is set for launch on Teachers’ Day ( 5 September) next month. For now, the existing land and infrastructure at National Academy of Indian Railways at Vadodara will be put to use. The university, announced in the first Rail Budget of the BJP-led government in 2014, will come up in Vadodara. The Railways has identified a 100-acre plot for the greenfield campus in the city and is currently in talks to acquire it.

The university has shortlisted 103 students for two undergraduate courses - Bachelor of Science in Transportation Technology and Bachelor of Business Administration in Transport Management. Out of these, 17 are girls. While students will come for formal ingratiation on 4 September, classes will start the next day. The government is giving the inaugural batch 50 per cent scholarship.

Eight-Year-Old Allegedly Raped In Mosque On Eid In UP’s Meerut

An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 22-year-old in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh on Bakrid. According to reports, the minor was lured away by the accused, who took her to the roof of a mosque and raped her. A case was registered after the girl went home and told her parents about the incident. The rape accused has been arrested by the police and sent to jail.

This comes just months after a ten-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 17-year-old boy in a madrasa in Ghaziabad after being kidnapped from east Delhi's Ghazipur. A 34-year-old maulvi, identified as Ghulam Shahid, had let out his room to the juvenile. The family of the victim was staying in Ghaziabad before moving to Ghazipur and was known to the family of the accused juvenile.

Congress Gives Twitter A New Set Of ‘Rahul Gandhi Memes’

Twitterati showed off their creativity by coming up with hilarious memes on Thursday after the official handle of the Congress party posted some pictures of its President Rahul Gandhi. In the pictures, which left the twitter-verse erupting with memes and jokes, some said the Congress president looked ‘clueless’. The Congress party had tweeted four similar profile shots of the party president with the caption "The many facets of Rahul Gandhi". The pictures show the Congress president looking in different directions while standing at the same point.

This development came after Gandhi, who is on a four-day tour of the United Kingdom and Germany to hold interactions with the Indian diaspora and meet foreign dignitaries, said that the incidents of lynching in India were due to the "anger" emanating from joblessness. He had blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the Centre for "destruction" of small businesses due to demonetisation and the "poorly implemented" Goods and Services Tax.

Simultaneous Lok Sabha And Assembly Polls? No Chance, Says CEC

Ending speculation of simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls in the country, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O P Rawat on Thursday said that there were no chances of it happening as the country needs a legal framework before such a drastic change in the electoral cycle could be introduced. In the last few weeks, some analysts have said that the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram later this year are likely to be deferred and held simultaneously along with the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Earlier, the Election Commission of India had said that it can, at the most, conduct polls simultaneously in eight states along with the Lok Sabha elections next year. Quoting Rawat, news reports had said back then that the election body has just enough voter verifiable paper audit trail units to hold elections in Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh (whose Assembly is already in sync with the Parliament) and three other states.

Local Mobile Manufacturing: Rs 3 Lakh Crore Saved, 4.5 Lakh Jobs Created

In the last four years, India has saved over Rs 3 lakh crore by not importing completely built mobile phones from other countries and has created 450,000 jobs by manufacturing handsets locally. At least 120 mobile and component manufacturing units have come up in different parts of the country. According to a report by India Cellular and Electronics Association, locally manufactured phones were able to meet 80 per cent demand for handsets in the country in 2017-18. Around 225 million units were manufactured/assembled in this period.

ICEA estimates that India has saved Rs 60,000 crore in foreign exchange as a result of local manufacturing of mobile phones. Its research says that in 2018-19, the number of handsets manufactured or assembled in India may increase to around 290 million units collectively valued at Rs 1,65,000 crore.

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Have a great day ahead!