7. POSOCO-IMD Weather Portal & Web Portal ‘MERIT’ launched.
Union Minister of State for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal has launched Weather Portal for Power Sector & Web Portal ‘MERIT’ (Merit Order Despatch of Electricity for Rejuvenation of Income and Transparency).
The weather portal has been developed in association with POSOCO and IMD. The portal will have information regarding weather forecast to the state Discoms.
The weather variations have an impact on load demand, energy production, transport and distribution management, as well as on energy prices.
Extreme events associated with weather like heat waves or cold waves, windstorms or floods can have adverse impacts on the production and can inflict physical damage to the infrastructure.
8.NITI Aayog Selects CCMB as Incubation Centre for Biotech Start-ups.
NITI-Aayog has chosen the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad for hosting the ?10-crore Atal Incubation Centre for biotechnology start-ups.
The centre will identify promising start-ups and create facilities for them to succeed in the field of biotechnology. The CCMB is one of the 10 organisations that have been identified to host the ‘Atal Incubation Centre’.
The government will release a Grant-in-aid of Rs 10 crore for a maximum of 5 years. After that, it is expected that the Centre would become self-sustainable. The CCMB is a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
It is the only one in the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to be chosen as an incubation centre under Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).
9. Government launches VAJRA Scheme.
Department of Science and Technology has launched VAJRA (Visiting Advanced Joint Research) Faculty scheme that enables NRIs and overseas scientific community to participate and contribute to research and development in India.
on 8th January 2017, during the 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention, Prime Minister had announced that a new scheme called VAJRA (Visiting Advanced Joint Research) Faculty scheme would be launched by the Department of Science and Technology.
10. Power Minister Piyaush Goyal launches portal on weather information.
Shri Piyush Goyal Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal , New & Renewable Energy and Mines launched Weather Portal for Power Sector in association with POSOCO and IMD at the meeting of the Forum of Regulators here today .
Day to day weather variations have an impact on load demand and energy production, transport and distribution management, as well as energy prices. Extreme events such as heat waves or cold waves, wind storms or floods can of course have dramatic consequences on the production means or the electrical grid of a country including physical damage to the infrastructure.
The information available in the Portal regarding weather forecast shall help State Discoms to take pro-active steps regarding short term and medium term management processes and supply planning requirements and also for better planning for infrastructure availability to ensure cost effective and reliable supply.
11. Maharastra Government to launch My Plant app to create database on tree plantation.
Maharashtra forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar onFriday announced that a mobile app named ‘My Plant’, which would help in recording data about tree plantations in the state, would be launched on July 1.
Using this app, people and organisations can feed the data about the saplings they have planted with the forest department, which would help it in creating a database of trees.
The forest department has set a target of planting four crore saplings through public participation between July 1 and 7.
Mungantiwar said, “This app makes it possible to upload information of all the tasks given to the government departments in the tree plantation programme, the name of the tree species being planted and the status.”
12. ONGC and UNESCO join hands to get chilaka lake heritage site tag.
Bhubaneswar, June 21 (IANS) A joint team of the ONGC and Unesco has carried out a preliminary survey for the conservation of Chilika Lake to help the country’s largest coastal lagoon secure the world heritage site tag, said an official on Wednesday.
“With the objective to declare Chilika Lake as a Unesco World Heritage Site, both Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) will work together,” said Shigeru Aoyagi, Unesco Chief Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka.
“In order to get world heritage site recognition, it should have outstanding global value in terms of biodiversity and eco-system. The state government has assured us to provide full support to conserve the lake,” he added.
During their visit to the periphery areas of the lake, they interacted with various stakeholders in the village and local officials, where certain focal areas were identified to begin with, so that the efforts could finally lead to the declaration of Chilika Lake as a heritage site.
13. Palbinder Kaur Shergill becomes first turbaned Sikh woman to be appointed as Judge in Canada Supreme Court.
Palbinder Kaur Shergill has become the first turbaned Sikh woman to be appointed as Canad’s Supreme Court judge.
The announcement was made by the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould. The appointment of Shergill as Supreme Court Judge of Canada is considered as a milestone for the Sikh community in Canada.
Justice Palbinder Kaur Shergill was born in Rurka Kalan in Jalandhar district. At the age of four, justice Shergill had migrated to Canada.
Justice Shergill has fought various cases and has actively represented the interests of Canadian Sikh community including the right of Sikh students to wear a ‘kirpan’ in schools.
14. Quality of Life: Government launches Index to Rank 116 Cities.
The index named ‘City Liveability Index’ will cover cities with a population above one million, including the capital cities. The index will help cities to analyse where they stand in terms of the quality of life.
It will help them to come up with interventions required to improve it. The index will assess cities based on a comprehensive set of 79 parameters such as availability of roads, education, healthcare, mobility, employment opportunities, emergency response, grievance redressal, pollution, availability of open and green spaces, cultural and entertainment opportunities etc.
The rankings based on the index would be released in 2018. Soon, the government will select the agency for undertaking the assessment and data collection for the rankings would be completed in the next 6 months.
15. India-Russia Signs Roadmap for Defence Cooperation.
India and Russia have finalized a roadmap to further boost bilateral defence cooperation during the 17th India-Russia intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation held at Moscow.
The meeting was co-chaired by defence minister Arun Jaitley and his Russian counterpart General Shoygu. The agenda for the discussion ranged from joint development of futuristic weapon systems to a major upgrade of military-to-military ties.
India and Russia had signed a protocol that aims to enhance cooperation between both the countries in the field of political and military dialogue, exercises, exchange of visits, military cooperation and training.
16. Union Minister inaugurated commemorative postage stamp released on completion of 50 years of Passport Act.
The Minister for Communications Shri Manoj Sinha launched Passport Seva Project (PSP) in India with its successful implementation in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
To extend passport services to our citizens on a larger scale and to ensure wider area coverage, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Department of Posts (DOP) have agreed to utilize the Head Post Offices in the country as Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) for delivering passport related services to the citizens of our country.
The Passports Act provides issue of passports and travel documents and regulation of the departure from India of Indian citizens.