Rapid Fire Current Affairs | 21 Oct 2023

Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the first leg of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) also known as Namo Bharat, in the National Capital Region (NCR), India’s first mass rapid system dedicated to regional connectivity.

RRTS is capable of running at speeds up to 180 km/hour.
The idea of such a network lies in a study that the Indian Railways was commissioned to carry out in the year 1998-99. The proposal was re-examined in the year 2006 with the extension of the Delhi Metro lines to some NCR towns.
The RRTS seeks to “unlock the entire potential” of the NCR in various ways in addition to enhancing multi-modal connectivity at the existing transportation hubs within it.

Mahsa Amini Awarded EU Human Rights Prize

Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran in 2022, sparking worldwide protests against the country’s conservative Islamic theocracy, has been awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize.

Amini died after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf law which triggered a women-led movement and the world heard the chants of ‘Women, Life, Liberty.'
- Other finalists of 2023 includes Vilma Núñez de Escorcia and Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez — two emblematic figures in the fight for the defense of human rights in Nicaragua — and a trio of women from Poland, El Salvador and the United States leading a fight for “free, safe and legal abortion.
The EU award, named for Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honor individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sakharov, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died in 1989.
Last year's prize was awarded to the people of Ukraine and their representatives for their resistance to Russia’s invasion and defiance during the ongoing war.