1.AP CM lays foundation stone for Polavaram coffer dam.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone on Thursday morning for the construction of coffer dam at the Polavaram project site in West Godavari district. The mega project, being built on the Godavari as a national project, reached a critical stage with the commencement of work on coffer dam on June 8th 2017.
The Chief Minister unveiled a pylon to mark the construction of coffer dam and spill channel iconic bridge to attract tourists.
He said the work on the project had been expedited and the coffer dam would be completed in a year`s time and water would be released into the canals by next June even before the completion of the main dam. He inspected the works on the spillway, the diaphragm wall and the construction of 48 crest gates and expressed confidence that the project would be completed on schedule.
2.Sustainable Action for Transforming Human capital.
NITI Aayog under the SATH initiative plans to identify and build three future ‘role model’ states for health systems. After identification of three states, NITI Aayog will work in close collaboration with the state machinery of these three states. It will help in designing a robust roadmap, develop a program governance structure, establish monitoring and tracking mechanisms, and provide support to the state institutions to achieve the end objectives.
SATH program will be implemented by NITI Aayog along with McKinsey & Company and IPE Global consortium.
Selection of States For selecting three model states, NITI Aayog spelled out three-stage process, namely, expression of interest, presentations by the states and assessment of commitment to health sector reforms. Subsequently, 16 states expressed interest in the initiative out of which 14 states presented their project proposals-Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. From these four states, NITI Aayog has shortlisted 5 states. After subsequent screening and evaluations, three states will be selected. Parameters such as MMR, IMR, incidence of malaria will be considered for determining potential impact, and metrics such as density of doctors and nurses, compliance to IPHS norms will be used to determine likelihood of success. The program will be launched after signing of MoUs with these three selected states.
3.Government to implement India`s first Rural LED Street Lighting Project in Andhra Pradesh
Union Government launched 10 lakh LED street lights to be installed in Gram Panchayats of 7 districts in State namely Guntur, Prakasham, Nellore, Kurnool, Kadapa, Anantapur & Chittoor in the first phase.
This is the first project for rural LED street lighting in the country under the Government of India’s Street Lighting National Project (SLNP).
The entire upfront capital cost of this project is being funded by French Development Agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD).
As per the 18th Electric Power Survey of Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the estimated energy consumption in Indian public lighting sector is 8478 Mega Kilo Watt in 2012-13 and is constantly growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7 percent.
4.Indian Railways introduces Buy Now, Pay Later service for Ticket bookings.
The Indian Railways introduced `Buy Now, Pay Later` service for passengers to book tickets online first and make payment for the reservations within a window of 15 days.
The facility, which allows passengers to travel after five days of booking the ticket, is available for confirmed, waitlisted, and Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) berths.
The new Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) feature is being enabled in partnership with the Mumbai-based ePaylater company.
5. Pension for single-women launched in Telangana.
The Telangana government was the only government in the country to launch welfare schemes such as pension for single women for the betterment of society, said Minister for Finance and Civil Supplies Eatala Rajender.
Distributing pension to single women at a programme in Karimnagar town on Sunday, Mr. Rajender said the government was proving pension to senior citizens, widows, disabled persons, and beedi workers. Following petitions on the plight of single women deserted by their husbands and relatives, the government decided to distribute pension of 1,000 per month to such women on humanitarian grounds.
Stating that the earlier government had spent only 800 crore on pension to 29 lakh beneficiaries, he said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was providing pension to 38 lakh persons spending 5,600 crore per annum. The government had also increased the Kalyana Laxmi and Shaadi Mubarak scheme amount from 50,116 to 75,116.
6. Soon Women to get Combat Role in Indian Army.
women are to be recruited for positions in military police. At present, women are employed in select areas such as medical, legal, educational, signals and engineering wings of the Army but are not offered combat roles due to operational concerns and logistical issues.
As of now, only a few countries such as Germany, Australia, Canada, the U.S., Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, Sweden and Israel have allowed women in combat roles.
The role of military police are as follows:
- Policing the cantonments and Army establishments.
- To prevent breach of rules and regulations by soldiers.
- Maintain the movement of soldiers and logistics during peace and war.
- Handling prisoners of war and Aid the civil police whenever required.