Assam Current Affairs – June 01-07, 2020

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Assam Current Affairs & GK – June 1 - 7, 2020

( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the week of June 1 – 7, 2020 )

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June 01, 2020

Centre sanctions Rs 1,407 crore to Assam under Jal Jeevan Mission
  • The Government of India has sanctioned Rs 1,407 crore for 2020-21 under the Jal Jeevan Mission, in response to a proposal submitted by the Assam government to provide tap connection to 13 lakh households.
  • Realisation of the goal of Jal Jeevan Mission in Assam is not difficult taking into account the abundant water resources in the State, both ground water and surface water.
  • The State government plans to immediately provide household tap connection to remaining households belonging to weaker and marginalised sections on priority.
  • A detailed road map has also been prepared giving priority on covering households in quality-affected habitations, aspirational districts, SC, ST dominated villages and habitations.
Asiatic Lion population increased by 29% in last five years
  • The population of the Asiatic Lion, the pride of Gujarat, has grown from 523 in 2015 to 674 in 2020, a growth of about 29% as per the latest census. The territory of the big cat has also increased by 36% from 22 thousands square kilometre to 30 thousands km during the same period.
  • The Forest Department conducted an exercise ”Poonam Avlokan” on June 5 and 6, during the two-day census, the department counted a total of 674 lions. Among them are 161 males and 260 female adults and 45 male and 49 female along with 22 unidentified sub-adults. Plus, 137 cubs were also identified.
  • The lion census in Gujarat is conducted every five years.
  • There has been a steady growth in lions” population from 284 in 1990 to 359 in 2005. But from there, it just climbed with 411 in 2010 to 524 in 2015 and 674 in 2020.
  • The growth in population is directly related to the expanding distribution area or the territory of beasts. During 1990, the area was around 13,500 sq.km, which is expanded to around 30,000 sq.km across nine districts of Saurashtra, in 2020.
  • The Forest Department used the ”Direct Beat Verification” method, also known as Block Count Method. The exercise was carried out exclusively by the Forest Department’s staff from 13 administrative divisions, involving around 1,400 personnel.
  • During the 2-day census, data was recorded using modern technology such as GPS for location, time, number of individuals, individual identification marks, radio collar numbers, images and forest data. The collected data was extracted and analysed using GIS and statistical software.

 FACTFILE – Asiatic lion

  • The Asiatic lion is a Panthera leo leo population found in India’s Gir National Park and environs of Gujarat.
  • The lion is one of five pantherine cats inhabiting India, along with the Bengal tiger (P. tigris tigris), Indian leopard (P. pardus fusca), snow leopard (P. uncia) and clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa).
  • On the IUCN Red List, it is listed under its former scientific name Panthera leo persica as Endangered because of its small population size and area of occupancy.
  • Until the 19th century, it occurred in Saudi Arabia eastern Turkey, Iran, Mesopotamia, and from east of the Indus River to Bengal and Narmada River in Central India.
  • Since the turn of the 20th century, it is restricted to the Gir Forest National Park and surrounding areas.
  • This lion population has steadily increased since last couple of decades.
  • In June 2020, an estimation exercise counted 674 Asiatic lions in the Gir forest region, an increase of 29 per cent over the 2015 census figure.
SGPGIMS develops cheaper, faster test for COVID-19
  • The Department of Molecular Medicine and Biotechnology at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) has developed a faster and much cheaper test for COVID-19 infection.
  • The technology is the first rapid RNA (Ribonucleic acid)-based test that can detect COVID-19 infection within a lab time of 30 minutes and will cost only around Rs 500.
  • The test is a single-tube lab test which takes less than 30 minutes of laboratory time and has high specificity and sensitivity. It does not require sophisticated instrumentation or any expertise for result interpretation.
  • This point-of-care test will have a direct impact on mass screening, and will especially benefit the people in screening/holding areas of various service centres such as hospitals and airports.
Union Cabinet approves distressed asset fund of Rs 20,000 crore for MSMEs
  • The Union Cabinet approved a distressed asset fund for MSMEs to facilitate provision of Rs 20,000 crore as subordinate debt.
  • The scheme was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month under the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ economic package.
  • The government contribution to the distressed asset fund is Rs 4,000 crore through its investment in the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) set up by it along with SIDBI.
  • Functioning MSMEs which have become non-performing assets or are stressed will be eligible for access to the fund.
  • Under the scheme, the Centre will provide guarantee coverage of up to 85 per cent for loans up to Rs 5 lakh and 75 per cent for loans beyond Rs 5 lakh to MSMEs from financial institutions.
  • It provides a debt facility of up to 15 per cent of promoter contribution or Rs 75 lakh to the promoters, who, in turn, will infuse the amount in the MSME unit as equity.

June 02, 2020

Assam CM forms 3-member panel on State’s economy
  • The Advisory Committee for revitalization of economy of Assam in the backdrop of the situation arising out of COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown submitted its report to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
  • The Chief Minister announced constitution of a three-member ministerial committee under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma to study the recommendations of the report and suggest broad roadmap for their implementation.
  • Industry Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary and Agriculture Minister Atul Bora will be its members.
  • The Advisory Committee with seven members, headed by retired IAS officer Subash Chandra Das, assessed the macro-economic and socio-economic impact as well as sector specific impact of COVID-19.
  • The committee made the sector specific recommendations on agriculture and allied sector, industries, trade and commerce, transport, tourism and hospitality, construction sector, employment including migrant labours.
  • The committee observed that as the economy needs to be made fully functional gradually, standard operating protocols, rules and guidelines need to be made for the sectors which are still closed with special emphasis on the opening of tourism and hospitality industry including hotels, restaurants with other personal care services and industries.
CCEA clears 50-83% MSP hike for 14 kharif crops
  • The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), approved 50-83 per cent rise in the minimum support price (MSP) of 14 kharif crops for the 2020-21 marketing season.
  • The highest MSP rise was proposed for nigerseed (Rs 755 per quintal), followed by sesamum (Rs 370 per quintal), urad (Rs 300 per quintal) and long staple cotton (Rs 275 per quintal).
  • The increase was in line with the 2018-19 budget announcement of finalising MSPs at least 1.5 times of the All-India weighted average cost of production (CoP) to allow reasonably fair return to farmers.
  • The expected returns for farmers will be the highest for bajra (83 per cent), followed by urad (64 per cent), tur (58 per cent) and maize (53 per cent). For other crops, the return is estimated to be at least 50 per cent.
  • The MSP for common grade of paddy has been set at Rs 1,868 a quintal and grade-A paddy, Rs 1,888 per quintal for the crop year 2020-21 (July-June). Similarly, the MSP for jowar hybrid is Rs 2,620 per quintal and other jowar Rs 2,640 per quintal.
  • The MSP for tur (pigeon pea) has been finalised at Rs 6,000 per quintal, moong (Rs 7,196 per quintal), urad (Rs, 6,000 per quintal), groundnut (Rs 5,275 per quintal), sunflower (Rs 5,885 per quintal), soybean (Rs 3,880 per quintal), sesame (Rs 6,855 per quintal) and nigerseed (Rs 6,695 per quintal).
  • The MSP for medium-staple and long-staple cotton have been set at Rs 5,515 and Rs 5,825 per quintal, respectively. The new MSP for bajra is Rs 2,150 per quintal, ragi Rs 3,295 per quintal and maize Rs 1,850 per quintal.
Moody’s downgraded India’s sovereign rating to Baa3
  • Moody’s Investor Service downgraded India’s sovereign rating to Baa3 from Baa2, with a negative outlook.
  • The rationale for Moody’s first such downgrade in two decades was “policy-making institutions will be challenged in enacting and implementing policies which effectively mitigate the risks of a sustained period of relatively low growth, significant further deterioration in the general government fiscal position and stress in the financial sector”.
  • The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth in FY20 is estimated at 4.2 per cent, the slowest rate since FY09. For FY21, Moody’s expects India’s economy to contract 4 per cent.
  • Incidentally, Moody’s had upgraded India’s rating to Baa2 in November 2017 on expectation that the government would effectively implement key reforms.
Highest ever allocation of fund worth Rs 1,01,500 crore in MGNREGS for FY 2020-21
  • A provision of Rs 1,01,500 crore has been made under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the current financial year 2020-2021. Out of which, a sum of Rs 31,493 crore has already been released.
  • A total of 60.80 crore person days has been generated so far and work has been offered to 6.69 crore persons. And total of 10 lakh works have been completed so far during the current Financial Year 2020-2021.
  • A sustained focus is on taking up works related to water conservation and irrigation, plantation, horticulture and Individual Beneficiary works for livelihood promotion.

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  June 03, 2020

Assam Govt appoints Samudra Gupta Kashyap as SIC
  • The Assam government appointed Samudra Gupta Kashyap as the State Information Commissioner (SIC), a first time the coveted post going to a journalist.
  • A well-known name in Assam’s journalism, Kashyap has also been working as a State resource person for the RTI Act. He retired as a senior assistant editor from The Indian Express and is a regular columnist in many newspapers.
  • As a journalist, he had also efficiently used the RTI Act as a tool to gather information in the last part of his career.
Govt transfers Rs 53,000 crore under PMGKP
  • The Finance Ministry said, around 42 crore beneficiaries have been directly given cash support through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) amounting to Rs 53,248 crores under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP).
  • The government has transferred Rs 8,488 crore into the bank accounts of PM Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries.
  • Also, 8.58 crore free Ujjwala cylinders have been delivered while a total of 9.25 crore cylinders have been booked, under which, the government has decided to distribute free cooking gas cylinders to Ujjwala beneficiaries for three months till June 30.
  • The government has also released First instalment of PM-KISAN (Rs 16,394 crore) and transferred it to 8.19 crore identified farmers who got Rs 2,000 directly in their account.
  • The government has also disbursed Rs 20,344 crore to women Jan Dhan account holders till June 2. A sum of Rs 10,029 crore was disbursed to 20.05 crore Women Jan Dhan account holders (98.3 per cent beneficiary as first instalment of Rs 500 payment.
  • Moreover, Rs 10,315 crore has also been credited to 20.63 crore women Jan Dhan account holders (100 per cent beneficiaries) as second instalment payment.
  • The government has also released Rs 2,814 crore to about 2.81 crore old age persons, widows and disabled persons. Each beneficiary received an ex-gratia cash of Rs 500 under the scheme as the first instalment and another Rs 500 as second instalment.
Union IT Ministry launches schemes to boost electronic manufacturing
  • Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad launched three major schemes to boost manufacture of electronics in the country. These schemes are expected to attract substantial investments, increase production of mobile phones and their parts or components to around Rs 10 lakh crore by 2025, and generate around 5 lakh direct and 15 lakh indirect jobs.
  • The Minister launched the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for large-scale electronics manufacturing, Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS), and Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) Scheme.
  • The PLI Scheme will extend an incentive of 4-6 per cent on incremental sales of goods manufactured in India and covered under the target segments to the eligible companies for five years subsequent to the base year.
  • The SPECS will provide financial incentive of 25 per cent on capital expenditure for the identified list of electronic goods, including electronic components, semiconductor, and display fabrication units, among others.
  • The EMC 2.0 will provide support for the creation of world-class infrastructure along with common facilities and amenities, including Ready Built Factory (RBF) sheds or Plug and Play facilities for attracting major global electronics manufacturers, along with their supply chains.
  • The government aims to increase the domestic value addition for mobile phones by 35-40 per cent by 2025.
  • According to the government the schemes will help offset the disability for domestic electronics manufacturing and hence strengthen the electronics manufacturing ecosystem in the country.
Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra topped FSSAI food safety index for 2019-20
  • Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have topped an index that ranked states ensuring food safety in 2019-20, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
  • The index ranks states on five parameters of food safety: human resources and institutional data, compliance, food testing facility, training and capacity building besides consumer empowerment.
  • Among the smaller states, Goa came first followed by Manipur and Meghalaya.
  • Among Union Territories, Chandigarh, Delhi and Andaman Islands secured top ranks.

  June 04, 2020

IIT Guwahati project on bamboo furniture designing for use at health centres
  • The Department of Design of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, has carried out a project involving designing of bamboo furniture for use in hospitals and health centres.
  • The project is mainly aimed at strengthening sustainable infrastructure facilities and meeting the requirements of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) located in the rural areas of the State.
  • It also aimed for a sustainable and participatory design approach by utilisation of locally available materials and craft skill manpower led by active participation of local government departments.
  • The current pandemic crisis has brought to the fore the need for seeking self-reliance of sustainable solutions that are contextually appropriate for meeting the needs of the community.
  • The designs developed by the department’s team could provide a sustainable solution to meet local infrastructure needs of PHCs and added that they are also cost-effective.
  • Besides, it could also be an ideal way of creating employment opportunities for crafts persons who can use locally available bamboo and cane in this region.
  • The design team is already in touch with two local entrepreneurs who have agreed to undertake the manufacture of a simpler version of the hospital bed. Around 200 beds can be manufactured per day.
Bengal to plant 5 crore mangrove trees in Sundarbans
  • West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the state government will plant 5 crore mangrove trees in Amphan-hit Sundarbans region within one month.
  • Banerjee said that it is important to protect the natural mangrove cover in the region that protects people and the wildlife living in the biodiversity reserve.
  • The state environment department would carry out the plantation of 5 crore mangrove trees in the region within one month starting from the World Environment Day observed on June 5.
  • A large part of Sundarbans, spanning across Kolkata’s adjoining South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas district, was severely battered due to cyclone Amphan on May 20.
EESL, GAIL India sign MoU for ‘trigeneration’ projects
  • Natural gas Company GAIL India and Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), for development of ”trigeneration” projects in India, with the aim to build a closer strategic partnership by jointly exploring business opportunities in ”trigeneration” segment in India.
  • Under the MoU, GAIL and EESL shall jointly undertake studies and if found viable, 50:50 joint venture will be incorporated for undertaking trigeneration projects.
  • The ”trigeneration” or ”combined cooling, heat and power” project involves natural gas-fired generators to produce electricity. Under this, the waste heat from fuel gas is recovered to produce steam, which is used for heating and also in absorption chillers for cooling.
Cabinet approves ordinance for ‘One India, One Agriculture Market’
  • The Union Cabinet approved the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, which will pave the way for creating ‘One India, One Agriculture Market’.
  • Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, said the ordinance will create an ecosystem where farmers and traders will enjoy freedom of choice of sale and purchase of agri-produce.
  • It will also promote barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade and commerce outside the physical premises of markets notified under the state Agricultural Produce Marketing legislations, and this is a historic step in unlocking the vastly regulated agriculture markets in the country.
  • There are restrictions for farmers in selling agri-produce outside the notified APMC market yards. The farmers are also restricted to sell the produce only to the registered licensees of the state governments.
  • Barriers exist in free-flow of agricultural produce between various states owing to the prevalence of various APMC legislations enacted by the state governments.
  • The ordinance basically aims at creating additional trading opportunities outside the APMC market yards to help farmers get remunerative prices due to additional competition.
New Microsoft programme to empower agritech startups in India
  • Microsoft launched a new programme to help agritech startups in India build industry-specific solutions, scale and grow with access to deep technology, business and marketing resources.
  • The three-tier programme offers tech and business enablement resources to Series C startups that can boost their businesses with Azure benefits (including free credits), unlimited technical support and help with Azure Marketplace onboarding.
  • Startups with enterprise-ready solutions can scale quickly with joint go-to-market strategies, technical support and new sales opportunities with Microsoft’s partner ecosystem.
  • Lastly, agritech startups that are looking to create digital agriculture solutions have the opportunity to co-build customized solutions with Azure FarmBeats without investing in deep data engineering resources.
  • Available on the Azure Marketplace, Azure FarmBeats enables aggregation of agricultural datasets across providers and generation of actionable insights by building artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) models based on fused datasets.
  • Using Azure FarmBeats, startups can acquire, aggregate and process agricultural data and rapidly develop their own AI/ML models.
  • Agritech startups in the country received more than $248 million funding in the first half of 2019, a growth of 300 per cent as compared to the same period in the previous year.
  • Bringing together startups, corporates, industry bodies, governments and venture capital firms, the programme aims to create a shared platform for learning and innovation.

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June 05, 2020

NGO Help Earth launched website on Guwahati’s biodiversity
  • NGO Help Earth has developed a website, wildguwahati.com, highlighting Guwahati city’s urban biodiversity.
  • The website will be formally launched on the occasion of World Environment Day which it will celebrate in a digital way due to the ongoing lockdown restrictions and norms for social distancing.
  • Going with the theme of this year’s World Environment Day ‘Time for Nature’, They have developed the website based on our comprehensive study on urban biodiversity of Guwahati spanning over six years, and which is still continuing.
  • They have catalogued the vertebrate biodiversity of Guwahati which is now presented in a form of website and is freely accessible to all.
  • The main aim of the initiative is to popularise and highlight the importance of urban biodiversity. The website presents a checklist of terrestrial vertebrates of Guwahati consisting of 26 species of amphibians, 57 species of reptiles, 214 species of birds and 36 species of mammals.
Gairsain declared the summer capital of Uttarakhand
  • Gairsain town in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand was officially declared as the new summer capital of the hilly state.
  • Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya gave her nod to the state government’s move declaring Gairsain or Bhararisen as the new summer capital of the state.
  • The Uttarakhand state is divided into two divisions Garhwal and Kumaon, with a total of 13 districts.
  • The winter capital of Uttarakhand is Dehradun, the largest city of the state.
IIT-BHU develops anti-microbial mask
  • The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has developed an anti-microbial multilayer face mask.
  • The face mask has been developed to annihilate pathogenic micro-organisms stuck to the outer surface of the mask and limit further spread of secondary infections.
  • The mask currently being sold in the market act as a filter to stop the entry of microbes to oral and nasal airways but are not effective on the microbe stuck to the mask surface.
  • The mask has been developed by doctor Marshal and his team at the School of Biomedical Engineering in the IIT-BHU. According to Marshal, this shortcoming of masks could be very dangerous for medical and paramedical staff due to the presence of higher viral or bacterial load on their outer surface. They addressed this problem by stacking different layers of nano-metal conjugated with protonated amine matrix.
  • Earlier, the institute had developed a prototype of UV-C light-based surface-cum-room sanitizer, full body sanitization device and several other innovations to fight against coronavirus.
Andhra Pradesh deploys IBM Watson chatbot to answer Covid-19 queries
  • The Andhra Pradesh National Health Mission portal has integrated the IBM Watson virtual agent to help the residents quickly get answers to their queries about Covid-19.
  • The chatbot is designed to understand and respond to common questions about Covid-19 in English, Telugu and Hindi.
  • The objective of this type of advanced technologies — chatbots or virtual agents — is to help reduce the waiting times for calls that users make to the telephone lines of state services relating to the novel coronavirus.
RBI announces creation of Payments Infrastructure Development Fund
  • The Reserve Bank announced the creation of a Payments Infrastructure Development Fund with an initial contribution of Rs 250 crore and contribution of same amount will be from card issuing banks and card networks operating in the country.
  • The fund has been created to encourage the adoption of ‘Points of Sale’ machines by businesses in tier-3 to tier-6 centres and Northeastern states.
  • The PoS machines allow businesses to accept e-payments, thereby, mitigating the need to deal in cash.
  • The PIDF will also receive recurring contributions to cover operational expenses from card issuing banks and card networks. RBI will also contribute to yearly shortfalls, if necessary.
  • The PIDF will be governed through an Advisory Council and managed and administered by the Reserve Bank.

June 06, 2020

Assam Governor launches project ‘Hariyali’ in BTAD
  • Assam Governor Professor Jagdish Mukhi launched a project titled, ‘Hariyali’ by planting 1500 saplings at the headquarters of 15 Battalion of Shashtra Seema Bal (SSB) at Kajalgaon in the district.
  • Under this project, a total of four lakh saplings will be planted in all the four districts (one lakh for each district) of BTAD till the month of August to enrich the green cover which is 36.5 per cent at present.
  • Mukhi said, Although three protected areas – Manas National Park, Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary and Chakrasila Wildlife Sanctuary have the potential to sustain wide varieties of flora and fauna, we have to work assiduously for the protection of the environment and our natural legacy of rich biodiversity.
  • About 40 lakhs plants, including flowering, fruiting, medicinal and other plant varieties are to be planted in the BTAD areas within August.
  • As a part of the above initiative, 10 lakh saplings will be planted in each of the four BTAD districts – Udalguri, Baksa, Kokrajhar and Chirang.
India ranks 168th on Environmental Performance Index
  • India has been ranked 168th out of 180 countries in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), according to researchers at Yale and Columbia universities.
  • Denmark has ranked first in the world, followed by Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Germany in the top 10 countries in the 2020 EPI, a biennial scorecard of national results on a range of sustainability issues.
  • The EPI report has become the premier metrics framework for global environmental policy analysis, ranking 180 countries on 32 performance indicators across 11 issue categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality.
  • India struggles to perform well on several of the 2020 EPI”s environmental issue categories. For air quality, India and Pakistan both rank at the very bottom of the 2020 EPI, at 179th and 180th places, respectively.
  • On biodiversity and habitat, India places 148th in the world, failing to maximize the conservation potential of its protected areas, especially in marine ecosystems.
  • Perhaps most critically, India places 106th in the world on climate change mitigation.
  • Low EPI scores for India suggest a need for national sustainability efforts on a number of fronts, including air and water pollution, biodiversity protection, and the transition to a clean energy future.
President Kovind promulgates ordinances for agriculture market reforms
  • President Ram Nath Kovind promulgated the ordinances for major agricultural reforms which aim to give freedom to the farmers to sell their agriculture produce anywhere in the country and pave the way for contract farming.
  • The Union Cabinet had cleared Farmers” Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020 and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance 2020 which were notified.
  • The amendment of essential goods act has also been given approval following which the agriculture commodities like onion, potatoes, oilseed, edible oil and cereals have been removed from the list of essential commodities.
  • The President has promulgated the two ordinances with the aim of giving a boost to rural India for farmers engaged in agriculture and allied activities.
  • By recognizing the bottlenecks preventing the holistic development of marketing of the agriculture produce, the Government drafted and circulated the Model Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing (APLM) Act 2017, and also the Model Agriculture Produce and Livestock Contract Farming Act of 2018, for adoption by the states.
Indian Railways has installed bio toilets across 68,000 coaches
  • As part of its “Swachh Rail-Swachh Bharat” initiative, the Indian Railways has installed bio toilets across 68,000 coaches.
  • A total of 49,487 bio-toilets have been installed in 14,916 coaches during 2019-20.
  • This takes the cumulative number of bio-toilets to more than 2,45,400 fitted in 68,800 coaches with a coverage of 100 per cent.
  • Integrated mechanised cleaning is also being provided at 953 railway stations pan India.
  • More than 1,100 pairs of trains, including Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto and other important long distance mail/express trains, have been equipped with the facility of Onboard House Keeping Service (OBHS) for cleaning of coach toilets, doorways, aisles and passenger compartments during the run of the trains.
  • The Railways also informed that the OBHS service is also supported by SMS-based on demand “Coach-Mitra” service to cover over 1060 pairs of trains.
  • At present, around 315 PBCMs have been installed at 229 stations including several district headquarters railway stations.
  • Automatic coach washing plants (ACWP) have been installed in eight locations while quick watering facility at 29 locations have also been installed in order to reduce water filling time at the stations.
Centre to develop 200 ‘urban forests’ in five years
  • On the occasion of the World Environment Day on June 5, the Central government announced the implementation of ”Nagar Van” scheme to develop 200 Urban Forests across the country in the next five years.
  • World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5 every year. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change celebrates the day by focusing on the theme declared by the United Nation’s Environment Programme and organises several events.
  • India has eight per cent of world’s biodiversity, despite having many constraint like only 2.5 per cent of the world’s landmass, has to carry 16 per cent of human as well as cattle population and having only four per cent of freshwater sources.

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June 07, 2020

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw named EY World Entrepreneur of the Year
  • Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon Limited, has been named EY World Entrepreneur of the Year for 2020.
  • The BioconMD was picked from among 46 nominations from 41 countries.
  • She also becomes the second woman to hold the title, following Olivia Lum of Hyflux Limited from Singapore in 2011.
  • Kiran, 67, founded Biocon, a bio-enzymes company, in 1978 with just two employees and $500. The company is now employs more than 11,000 people.
  • She is the third award winner from India. Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Uday Kotak (2014) and Infosys founder Narayana Murthy (2005) are the former recipients.
India to host 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup
  • Asian Football Federation (AFC) has awarded the hosting rights of the 2022 Women’s Asian Cup for the second time to India.
  • India had hosted the AFC Women’s Asian Cup for the first time in 1979.
  • As hosts, India will get an automatic qualification to the tournament. Although India had not yet bagged an AFC Women’s Asian Cup till now, it had finished as runners-up in 1981 and 1983 and won a bronze medal in 1981.
  • This year, the AFC committee has also decided to expand the Asian Cup from eight teams to 12.
ISRO signs MoU with ARIES for space situational awareness
  • Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Aryabhatta Research Institute (ARIES) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in the field of Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Astrophysics.
  • This MoU will pave the way for future collaborations between ISRO and ARIES in establishing optical telescope observational facilities for space object tracking, R&D studies in space weather, astrophysics, and Near Earth Object (NEO).
  • The MoU was signed by R. Umamaheswaran, Scientific Secretary, ISRO and Prof (Dr) Dipankar Banerjee, Director, ARIES.
  • Space objects” orbital tracking, analysis and space weather studies are important aspects in Space Situational Awareness and Management to safeguard Indian space assets from critical conjunction threats like space debris.
  • Future endeavours in space exploration depends on research and development (R&D) in astrophysics, solar sciences, and space environment.
National Digital Library caters to students in all languages
  • A National Digital Library has been set up by the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry for all students in the country.
  • This portal covers all subjects from primary to post-graduate level, includes subjects such as elementary education, law, medicine and engineering. It provides more than 4.5 crore text resources.
  • A major feature of this library is the diversity of its text content. Students from each state can study books in their own dialect or language. The library is essential for students engaged in research.
  • Online books are also being provided to students pursuing higher education through another digital platform ”Shodh Sindhu”, which provides high quality research material. It provides 10,000 national and international journals as well as 31 lakh and 35,000 books to the students through the e-platform of the HRD ministry.
Union Finance Ministry releases Rs 36,400 crore as GST compensation to states
  • The finance ministry has released Rs 36,400 crore to states as compensation for their revenue loss in the goods and services tax (GST) regime for the period from December, 2019 to February, 2020.
  • With this the Centre has released its entire GST compensation due to states for financial year 2019-20 and also given extra compensation for February that is accounted for in the current fiscal FY21.
  • GST compensation is released at the end of every two months’ period. So, for FY20, dues are actually paid only upto January with compensation for the February-March period getting settled in next fiscal.
  • After the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime was put in place, the Centre assured the states, through legislation, that the revenue shortfall will be compensated fully for first five years. 2015-16 was assumed to be the base year for calculating the compensation amount for a financial year.
  • The growth rate of revenue for a state during the five-year period is assumed at 14 per cent per annum. Any shortfall in this growth number is to be compensated by the Centre.

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