E -Shakti
- E - Shakti is a pilot project of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
- The project aims at digitisation of Self Help Groups (SHGs).
- It was initiated to address certain concerns like improving the quality of book keeping of SHGs and to enable banks to take informed credit decisions.
National Deworming initiative
- Health Ministry is going to launch 2nd round of National Deworming initiative to tackle Worm Infections in children
- National Deworming initiative aimed to protect children in the ages of 1-19 years from intestinal worms (also known as Helminths).
- Albendazole tablets will be given to all targeted children through Anganwadi centres and schools (incl. Private schools).
- According to WHO, India has the highest burden of Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH) in the world.
- National Deworming Day is organised twice in a year and it is the largest ever single-day public health campaign in the world.
BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise 2017
- Recently, the first phase of the First ‘BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise- 2017’ is being organized by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
- Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation involving a group of countries in South Asia and South East Asia.
- Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand and Bhutan are its members.
- Its headquarters is in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
- The main objective of BIMSTEC is technological and economic co-operation among south Asian and South East Asian countries along the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
- The ADB has become BIMSTEC’s development partner to undertake, promote and improve transport infrastructure and logistic among the BIMSTEC countries.
HySIS
- Hyperspectral Imaging Satellite (HySIS) is a full-fledged earth observation satellite, going to be launched by ISRO.
- Hyperspectral or Hyspex imaging enables distinct identification of objects on earth by reading the spectrum for each pixel of a scene from space.
- The satellite has the Hyperspectral imager which can identify 55 spectral or colour bands from 630 km above ground.
- It can be used for monitoring of environment, finding oil and minerals apart from military surveillance.
- Hyspex was first tried out in Chandrayaan-1 mission which mapped the lunar mineral resources.
Radar Imaging Satellites
- About a decade ago, ISRO added earth observation satellite with microwave or radar imaging.
- The satellites named “RISAT 1 and RISAT 2” are the first all-weather earth observation satellites from ISRO.
- They provide all-weather surveillance using Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR).
- Previous Indian observation satellites relied primarily on optical and Spectral sensors which were hampered by cloud cover.
Asia’s 30 largest cities
- The recent study by Oxford Economics ranked Asia’s 30 largest cities.
- According to it, Delhi will have the fastest growth of any city in Asia, with the economy to be almost 50% larger in 2021 than it was at the end of the last year.
- Indian cities are set to expand the most across the region, with growth speeding up from the past 5 years.
- Financial and business services are projected to be the fastest growing sector in India.
- China’s expansion will be slow and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam was the only non-Indian city in the top 5.
Quality Council of India
- Ministry of Drinking water and Sanitation released the Rural Sanitation Survey undertaken by Quality Council of India.
- According to it, almost all rural households in Kerala and Haryana had access to toilet while Bihar and UP were among the worst performers in it.
- Quality Council of India is the accreditation authority of India.
- It is an autonomous body under Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
- It was created jointly by Government and Industry bodies such as CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM.
- Chairman of QCI is appointed by Prime Minister on the recommendations of Industry to the Government.
- Its objective is to establish and operate National accreditation structure, to monitor and administer the national quality campaign.
Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium
- The Government established Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) as a Society in 1994 to facilitate agri-business ventures.
- It encouraged ventures by catalyzing private investment through Venture Capital Assistance (VCA) in close association with financial institutions.
- The setting up of State level SFAC as counterpart agency of Central SFAC for agribusiness projects was part of the Scheme.
- One of the main functions of SFAC includes implementation of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Electronic Trading platform.
