Current Affairs Question - 17 October 2019

Explanation :

• Maritime States Development Council (MSDC) is an apex advisory body for the development of the maritime sector and aims to ensure integrated development of both Major and non-Major Ports.
• It was constituted in May, 1997 to assess in consultation with State Governments, the future development of existing and new Minor Ports by the respective Maritime States either directly or through captive users and private participation.
• Further, MSDC also monitors the development of minor ports, captive ports and private ports in the Maritime States with a view to ensure their integrated development with Major Ports and to assess the requirements of other infrastructure requirements like roads/rail/IWT and make suitable recommendations to the concerned Ministers.

Explanation :

• NSG was established in 1986 by an act of Parliament- ‘National Security Guard Act, 1986’, to protect states against internal disturbances and terrorism. It is under administrative control of Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
• It is a Federal Contingency World Class Zero Error Force to deal with anti-terrorist activities in all its manifestation.
• The NSG was modelled on the pattern of the SAS of the UK and GSG-9 of Germany.
• It is a task-oriented Force and has two complementary elements in the form of the Special Action Group (SAG) comprising Army personnel and the Special Ranger Groups (SRG), comprising personnel drawn from the Central Armed Police Forces / State Police Forces.
• It is trained to conduct counter terrorist operations including bomb disposal, counter hijacking tasks on land/sea/air as well as Post Blast Investigation (PBI) and Hostage Rescue missions.

Major Operations till date:

• Operation Black Thunder (Golden Temple, Amritsar, 1986 & 1988)
• Operation Ashwamedh (Indian Airlines Flight-IC427 hijacking, India, 1993)
• Operation Thunderbolt or Vajra Shakti (Akshardham Temple attack, Gujarat, 2002)
• Operation Black Tornado (Mumbai Blasts, 2008)