7-8 Sept 2015
8 sept
International Literacy Day 2015 celebrated across the world
The International Literacy Day was celebrated on 8 September 2015 across the world. The theme of International Literacy Day 2015 is Literacy and Sustainable Societies.
The theme was chosen to highlight the fact that literacy is a key element in achieving sustainable societies.
Further, the theme assumes significance as the world is gearing up to adopt the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN General Assembly meeting scheduled to be held in September 2015.
About International Literacy Day
• First World Literacy Day was celebrated on 8 September 1966 and it was proclaimed by UNESCO in 1965.
• Every year a theme is chosen to highlight the importance of literacy associated issues.
• The theme for 2014 was Literacy and Sustainable Development.
• On this day, the UNESCO presents International Literacy Prizes at its headquarters in Paris.
• Literacy Prizes consists of five prizes viz., International Reading Association Literacy Award, Noma Literacy Prize, UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, The Malcolm Adiseshiah International Literacy Prize and UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy.
Maharashtra government to abolish LBT on petrol and diesel within 15 days
Maharashtra government on 7 September 2015 decided to abolish the Local Body Tax (LBT) within 15 days on petrol and diesel. The decision was taken to end the disparity between fuel dealers and other traders.
The decision came after discussions were held between the state government and petrol/diesel pump owners over its imposition. Abolishing LBT will cost the government exchequer 280 crore rupees.
However, the government will impose an alternate tax in place of LBT.
Besides, the State Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar claimed that the fuel dealers are ready to accept the imposition of an alternate tax in lieu of LBT. All they want is parity between all pump owners.
North, South Korea agreed to resume family reunions
North Korea and South Korea on 7 September 2015 agreed to resume family reunions that were halted since February 2014.
The resumed reunions will take place between 20 October and 26 October 2015 in North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort.
A decision in this regard was taken at the working-level Red Cross meeting of both the countries at the border village of Panmunjom in North Korea.
The meetings were an outcome of the bilateral agreement reached on 25 August 2015 that aimed at defusing tensions along the border.
The decision to resume reunions will benefit thousands of Koreans who were separated due to the division of the Korean peninsula in to two separate countries in the aftermath of the 1953 war.
Anirban Lahiri became first Indian golfer to qualify for Presidents Cup
Anirban Lahiri on 7 September 2015 became the first Indian golfer to qualify for a Presidents Cup. He will be part of the International Team in the 2015 championship.
The championship is scheduled to be held at Incheon in South Korea between 2 October and 4 October 2015.
Lahiri qualified for the event as he is part of the top 10 international players (excluding those eligible for the European Ryder Cup team) from the official world golf ranking as the conclusion of the 2015 Deutsche Bank Championship.
About Anirban Lahiri
• He is an Indian professional golfer and hails from Pune, Maharashtra.
• He became the second Indian golfer to make the cut at the Masters next to Jeev Milkha Singh.
• He has two European Tour wins and seven Asian Tour wins including the Malaysian Open and the Hero Indian Open in 2015.
• At present he is positioned at number 40 overall as per the official world golf ranking.
• So far, he won 11 titles in India including Haryana Open and Ahmedabad Masters.
• He received the Arjuna Award that recognizes achievement in national sports in September 2014.
About Presidents Cup
• It is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the USA and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe.
• Europe competes against the USA in a similar but considerably older event, the Ryder Cup.
• The biennial event started in 1994.
• While the 2013 event was held in Ohio, the USA, the 2015 championship will be held for the first time outside Asia at Incheon in South Korea.
Brij Raj Sharma appointed as Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir
Brij Raj Sharma was on 7 September 2015 appointed as the Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir. His appointment was approved by the state government. Sharma succeeded Muhammad Iqbal Khandey, who chose to seek voluntary retirement (VRS) three months prior to his superannuation.
However, he will continue to hold the charge of the post of Administrative Secretary, Planning and Development Department till further orders. He will serve as the Chief Secretary of the state till 2020.
Sharma has held various important positions in the State Administration before including the posts of Principal Secretary Home, Principal Secretary Planning and Development Department, Chief Electoral Officer, Chief Executive Officer of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and Excise Commissioner.
Sharma is a 1984 batch IAS officer.
Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit of South Africa selected for 2015 UNEP Champions of the Earth award
Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit (APU) of South Africa was on 7 September 2015 selected for the 2015 UNEP Champions of the Earth award in the inspiration and action category.
The Black Mamba APU was selected for its courage in comabatting poaching and community led initiatives in protecting wildlife in the Balule Private Game Reserve of South Africa.
The award will be conferred during the Sustainable Development Goals summit that is scheduled to be held on 27 September 2015 in New York.
About Black Mamba APU
• It is a unit of 26-members of which majority of women.
• It was founded in 2013 to protect wildlife in the Balule private game reserve. It is part of the Greater Kruger National Park that is spread over 2 million hectares of protected areas.
• The area that they protect is home to an abundance of wildlife - including not only rhino but leopards, lions, elephants, cheetahs and hippos.
• Due its efforts, not a single rhino was poached in the reserve in over ten months compared to the death of 23 rhinos in the neighbouring reserve in the same period.
About UNEP Champions of the Earth Award
• It is United Nation's top environmental accolade awarded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• It recognizes visionary people and organisations all over the world that exemplify leadership and advocate action on sustainable development, climate change and a life of dignity for all.
• The annual award was established in 2004.
• The awards are conferred in four categories viz., policy leadership, entrepreneurial vision, inspiration and action and science and innovation.
UNEP released Global Waste Management Outlook
The Global Waste Management Outlook was released on 7 September 2015 in the Belgium capital Antwerp. It was a first of its kind report on waste management at the global level.
It was jointly prepared by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA).
The purpose of the report is to generate awareness among policy makers and public in general about different sources of wastes, their impact on health and environment and finally, solutions to mitigate the associated problems.
Highlights of Global Waste Management Outlook
• Total global arisings of municipal solid waste (MSW) is around 2 billion tonnes per annum.
• A broad grouping of ‘urban’ wastes, including MSW, commercial and industrial (C&I) waste, and construction and demolition waste (C&D), is estimated at around 7 to 10 billion tonnes per annum.
• Around 3 billion people worldwide lacking access to controlled waste disposal facilities.
• Extending MSW collection to 100% of the urban population is a public health priority and eliminating uncontrolled disposal is a priority for protecting the environment.
• E-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream all around the world due to increased consumer demand, perceived obsolesce, and rapid changes in technology and inventions of new electronic devices.
• A 2015 report by the United Nations University (UNU) estimated that 41.8 million tonnes (Mt) of e-waste was generated in 2014, almost 25% more than the 2010 figure of 33.8 Mt.
• Major constituents of e-waste are: rare earth metals like lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, gadolinium and dysprosium; precious metals such as gold, silver and palladium; or other metals such as copper, aluminium or iron, which have a high intrinsic value.
• The 3 R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle- should be employed to transform the problem of waste into a resource for economies.
• It also calls for a major shift away from the linear take-make-use-waste economy and towards the circular reduce-reuse-recycle approach to the lifecycle of materials.
Report with respect to India
• It identified India as one of the major dumping sites in the world as it has become a major destination for unused ship breaking, outsourcing polluting industries, etc.
• It surveyed various sources of waste in urban areas including waste generated from hospitals, industries and household.
• It cautioned India about the growing tendency of increasing per capita waste generation as a negative consequence of improving life style and economic development.
Doha Bank tied up with Reliance ADA Group to generate business opportunities
Doha Bank on 7 September 2015 tied up with Anil Ambani-led Reliance ADA Group to generate business opportunities in the Gulf Cooperation Council nations and India. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The MoU is envisaged to provide tangible business opportunities and further prospects for expansion for Doha Bank and Reliance Group. It will also provide synergy in product development and congruence in mutual infrastructure support.
This tie-up will open new horizons for business reciprocity in financial services. It will include financial services initiatives with Reliance Capital in the areas such as asset management, life and general insurance and distribution of financial services.
The scope of the partnership will strengthen Doha Bank's presence in India and the bank's strategic role in trade finance, banking and financial services across the region. Doha Bank has a robust presence in financial services, telecom, infrastructure, entertainment, power, health care and defence industries.
About Doha Bank
• Incorporated in 1978, Doha Bank is one of the largest commercial banks in the State of Qatar. It commenced its domestic and international banking services in 1979.
• The Bank enables customers to do their banking and investing whenever, wherever and however they choose through an extensive network and multiple access channels.
Haryana Assembly passed Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2015
Haryana Assembly on 7 September 2015 passed the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2015. The Bill seeks to amend the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 and fixes matriculation as minimum educational qualification for elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
With this, Haryana became the second state after Rajasthan to fix educational and other qualifications for the candidates contesting Panchayat elections.
Highlights of the Bill
• It makes it mandatory for the candidates to have functional toilets.
• It fixes, matriculation as essential qualification for general candidates contesting the Panchayat elections.
• The qualification for the women (general) and Scheduled caste candidate will be middle standard or class 8th.
• It provides that persons against whom charges have been framed by the competent court for grave criminal offences punishable by not less than 10 years of imprisonment will not be allowed to contest the elections till they are acquitted by the court.
• Defaulters of cooperative loans will be debarred from contesting the elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions.
The bill was rolled on the floor of the Assembly by the state’s Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar.
BSNL to upgrade Broadband speed to minimum 2 Mbps at no additional cost
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on 7 September 2015 decided to upgrade Broadband speed to minimum 2 Mbps at no additional cost for all its Broadband customers. The service will be effective from 1 October 2015.
Under this scheme, BSNL is upgrading the speed of existing Broadband plans of 512 Kbps and one Mbps to two Mbps speed. The speed up-gradation will benefit all the existing and new Broadband customers of BSNL.
This plan of BSNL was formally announced by the Information Technology (IT) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at a function in Gurgaon.
With this upgradation, BSNL customers will be able to access/surf the internet including social network websites like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. at high speed.
Earlier in April 2015, BSNL launched the scheme of offering free night calling from its landline to all operator networks. In June 2015 it also provided free incoming roaming services for its customers.
Background
BSNL is the first service provider to provide the Broadband Access to the country. BSNL launched the Broadband services over its landline in India in 2005 with speed of 256kbps and above over the state of art Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) based IP infrastructure in urban as well as rural areas.
BSNL is one of the largest Telecom Service providers in India with more than 77 Million Mobile customers, more than 16 million wired line telephone connections and around 10 million wired Broadband connections.
WEF released The Inclusive Growth and Development Report 2015
The World Economic Forum on 7 September 2015 released its maiden Inclusive Growth and Development Report.
The report seeks to improve our understanding of how policy incentives and institutional mechanisms can be used to make economic growth more socially inclusive without dampening incentives to work, save and invest.
Highlights of the report
• There is considerable diversity in the achievement of inclusive growth not only across but also within countries.
• There is no inherent trade-off in economic policymaking between the promotion of social inclusion and that of economic growth and competitiveness and it is possible to be pro-equity and pro-growth at the same time.
• Larger fiscal transfers are not necessarily incompatible with growth and competitiveness, but nor are they always the primary or most effective available option for broadening socioeconomic inclusion.
• Policies and institutions supporting social inclusion are not solely a luxury of high-income countries.
• The current debate on inequality and social inclusion is unduly narrow and unnecessarily polemicized. It is possible, indeed essential, to be pro-labor and pro-business, to advocate a strengthening of both social inclusion and the efficiency of markets.
Report with respect to India
• Sustained strong growth has lifted many out of absolute poverty but improvements in living standards have not kept pace with GDP growth or been evenly distributed.
• Among the lower middle income countries it ranked in the bottom half of the 38 countries in terms of overall inclusive growth.
• In terms of fiscal transfers it ranked 37th out of 38, 32nd for Tax Code and 36th for social protection.
• In the small business ownership category India was placed at the bottom (38th position).
MCX Ltd, IamSMEofIndia signed MoU to unveil benefits of Commodity Price Risk Management
The Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) and Integrated Association of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises of India (IamSMEofIndia) on 7 September 2015 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at creating awareness among Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs) on the benefits of commodity price risk management.
This collaboration will encourage them to hedge on exchanges and face competition adroitly. It will also disseminate in-depth knowledge about the derivatives market and its benefits among MSMEs will lead to their growth and development.
The small businesses are hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship, they provide a varied range of products, but bear the brunt of international commodity price movements. However, this collaboration will enable and empower them to effectively manage their risks amidst unprecedented uncertainty.
First-ever Census on India’s Leopard presented
Lead scientist of the tiger census Yadvendradev V Jhala in first week of September 2015 presented first ever data on India’s leopard. The team shows availability of around 7910 of leopards across India, except the northeastern region of India.
Based on the data covered, the team estimates leopard population to be around 12000 to 14000.
The very first leopard count of India was presented by Jhala at Wildlife Institute of India's annual research seminar in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Process undertaken to count India’s Leopard population
The leopards of India were counted in the similar manner as the tigers were counted. They were counted alongside the 2014 tiger census. In the process, the team counted the pictures of leopards which were captured using camera-trapping and other evidences of their presence.
The exercise covered 350000 square kilometer of forested habitat across the Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains along with central India and landscape in Western Ghats.
The lead Scientist Jhala says that the species is well distributed across India, which means that the animal is quite healthy. Their population according to the study
• Madhya Pradesh – an estimated population of 1817
• Karnataka - an estimated population of 1129
• Maharashtra - an estimated population of 905
• Chhattisgarh - an estimated population of 846
• Tamil Nadu - an estimated population of 815
• Uttarakhand - an estimated population of 703
• Kerala - an estimated population of 472
• Odisha - an estimated population of 345
• Andhra Pradesh - an estimated population of 343
• Uttar Pradesh - an estimated population of 194
• Rajasthan - an estimated population of 171
• Goa - an estimated population of 71
• Bihar - an estimated population of 32
• Jharkhand - an estimated population of 29
Arun Jaitley launched digital version of Mahatma Gandhi's collected work
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley on 8 September 2015 launched the e-version of the 100 volumes of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG) in New Delhi.
The works of Mahatma Gandhi compiled by a team of Scholars includes historic speeches of Gandhi. The collection provides varied, numerous and logical profiles of Gandhi’s life and thought, action and engagements.
The CWMG was published by Publications Division. Electronic Master Copy of CWMG (Volumes 1 to 100) is in the form of a searchable PDF beta version.
Authentic documentation of Mahatma Gandhi's available writings was carried out under the CWMG project. The project commenced on September 1956 and concluded on 2 October 1994, with the publication of the 100th volume.
Himachal Pradesh organised organic fair and food festival to boost organic farming
To promote organic farming in the state, the Himachal Pradesh Government on 8 September 2015 organised a three-day organic fair and food festival in the state. The organic fair and food festival was organised in Shimla, the capital city of Himachal Pradesh.
The fair was organised by the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture (ICCOA), Bengaluru. It was inaugurated by State Agriculture Minister Sujan Singh Pathania.
The fair was organised with an aim to popularise organic farming in the state where 90 percent of the population is residing in rural areas and 79 percent families are dependent on agriculture. At present the organic farming is being done on nearly 16 thousand hectare land in the state.
At the fair, scientists and agricultural experts also advised the participating farmers to adopt new techniques and methods for the farming.
Farmers from all over the state have put their different products in the exhibition, a part of this fare in capital Shimla. The farmers are demanding proper marketing facilities for their organic produces in the state.
Andhra Pradesh Government launched e-Pragati project to provide Integrated One Governance
The Andhra Pradesh government on 5 September 2015 launched theAP State Enterprise Architecture (APSEA) e-Pragati project to bring all the government services under one roof. The APSEA is a comprehensive architecture to leverage the latest advances in e-governance tools.
The project is aimed at bringing together 745 government to businesses, government to citizens, government to employees and government to governments services offered by 33 departments and more than 300 government agencies.
e-Pragati has been designed with an estimated investment of 2358 crore rupees of which the State will share 1528 crore rupees over a period of three years.
The basic objective of this project is to move away from the piecemeal approach and provide an integrated One governance that will be citizen-centric, transparent and effective.
The project is envisaged to be implemented in three phase and set for completion by December 2017.
Major components of e-Pragati
The project revolve around 7 missions, 5 grids and 5 campaigns including:
• AP Fibre Grid (to all gram panchayats)
• AP State Data Centre (to host all the data and applications)
• e-Highway (to seamlessly connect all the departments digitally)
• People Hub (to house all the socio-economic data of the citizens of the state which will be used to implement welfare schemes and development programs)
• Lab Hub (that contains details of all types of land parcels in the state)
• Dial AP (a unified contact/call centre that the citizens can use to access a wide range of services)
• e-Learning platform (that provides learning and online material/education aid to enhance quality of education)
• Social benefits management system (that includes all benefits schemes)
• APcan (comprehensive system for management of cancer)
• mSeva (a platform for providing a wide range of citizen services on mobile)
• e-AgriMarket (a platform that enables farmers to sell their produce online to get the best price)
• e-Panchayat (enhances efficiency of Panchayat Raj institutions)