Krishi Karman award
- Krishi Karman awards were instituted in the year 2010-11 to reward the best performing States for raising country’s food grain production.
- It is given to States which have increased the production of food grains and individual crops of Rice, Wheat, Pulses and Coarse Cereals.
- There are 3 awards for the States with highest food grains production in 3 identified categories such as Category I (production > 10 million tonnes), Category II (production 1-10 million tonnes) and Category III (production < 1 million tonnes).
- There are separate five awards for highest production of Rice, Wheat, Pulses and Coarse Cereals. There is no category for this.
- In addition to above awards, Commendation Awards were given to States which achieved production and productivity higher over their previous highest in 4/5 years, yet could not qualify for Krishi Karman Awards.
- The Award amount will be of Rs. 5 crore for total foodgrains category, Rs. 2 crore for individual crops category and Rs.1 Crore for Commendation Award.
- This year, Tamil Nadu State has bagged the award for the production of food grains in the category I during 2015-16.
- The award is given by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare.
Khondalite Rocks
- Khondalite is a foliated metamorphic rock, named after the Khond tribe of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
- The rock is rich in Quartz, Manganese, Schist and Graphite and contains Feldspar in some cases. It is also called Bezwada Gneiss and Kailasa Gneiss.
- Khondalite, among the oldest rock varieties of the Eastern Ghat range is found between Vijayawada (A.P) and Cuttack (Odisha).
- These rocks were formed when the Eastern Ghat belt was faulted and buried. It was uplifted later, bringing these metamorphic rocks to the surface.
- The rock formation is found near the Thotlakonda Buddhist site in Vishakapatnam.
China’s first Cargo Spacecraft
- Tianzhou-1 is the china’s first cargo spacecraft launched by Long March Rocket form Hainan province.
SAUNI Yojna
- Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation Yojna is a project to divert flood waters of Narmada to Saurashtra region and fill up the reservoirs through giant pipelines.
- There are two link canals through which the water is diverted. Link I takes water to Jamnagar and Dwarka districts and Link II to Botad, Bhavnagar and Amreli Districts.
- These two pipelines are designed to pump Narmada water in 17 identified dams in the regions such as Krushnasagar dam, Bhimdad dam (Botad), Bhogavo dam etc.
- SAUNI project targets to provide irrigation water for 10.22 lakh acres of land in Saurashtra region.
