HIMACHAL PRADESH

• Rs 150-crore plan to boost floriculture

 The state government has chalked out a Rs 150-crore five-year plan to boost floriculture in the state.

 The government was providing incentives to farmers, encouraging them to adopt the lucrative venture under the newly launched Himachal Pushp Kranti Yojana. A sum of Rs 10 crore will be spent on the scheme during this financial year.

 The Department of Horticulture has been made the nodal agency for the effective implementation of the scheme, the main objective of which is to encourage the farmers to adopt commercial cultivation of flowers and ornamental crops under a protected environment.

INTERNATIONAL

· Test-tube embryos may save the northern white rhinos from extinction

Scientists have grown hybrid embryosfrom the sperm of near-extinct northern white rhinoceroses in the laboratory, hoping to save the species.
The northern white rhino is the world’s most endangered mammal. The last male northern white rhino, Sudan is dead and 2 infertile females live in Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
Scientists did manage to collect around 300 milliliters of semen from the last four bull rhinos. They hope to reestablish the species population by In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technique. It is also hoped that this method will lead to a northern white rhino calf being born in 3 years.

· Turkey to sell four corvette warships to Pakistan

Turkey signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build four corvettes for Pakistan under the MiLGEM project in May 2017.
Two of the corvettes will be built in Istanbul while the other two in Pakistan’s Karachi.
Two corvettes will join the Pakistan Navy in 2023 and the remaining two in 2024.

NATIONAL

Vaccine-preventable rabies is India’s most fatal infection

Rabies is the only disease that had a 100% death rate in India in 2017, compared to 12% for Japanese encephalitis and 6% for H1N1, popularly known as swine flu, according to data from the National Health Profile 2018.

There were 4,370 rabies deaths in India in 2016, which accounted for one in three of the world’s 13,340 rabies deaths.

Only six persons have survived rabies infection in India since 2010.

Successful flight testing of Crew Escape System – Technology Demonstrator

ISRO carried out a major technology demonstration, the first in a series of tests to qualify a Crew Escape System, which is a critical technology relevant for human spaceflight.

The Crew Escape System is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.

The first test (Pad Abort Test) demonstrated the safe recovery of the crew module in case of any exigency at the launch pad.

launches GST ‘Verify App’

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has developed and launched a mobile app named ‘GST Verify’ to protect interest of consumers.

The application is to verify if the person collecting GST from the consumer is eligible to collect it or not.

It also provides the details of the person / company collecting GST.

· A village in Jammu and Kashmir gets electricity first time since Independence

Narla Bambal, a village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, received electricity connection and metalled road for the first time since Independence.
Road for that village was constructed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna.
The electricity is provided to the people of the village under Deen Dayal Upadhyay scheme.
Last month, the Central and State government also constructed ‘pucca houses’in Rajouri, for those living below poverty line, under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

· NSG becomes 1st central force to opt for eticketing

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation(IRCTC) signed a MoU with the National Security Guard(NSG) at the headquarters of the special force, New Delhi. This system will eliminate the need for carrying railway warrants by the NSG personnel.
The NSG is the first central paramilitary force to opt for e-ticketing instead of the railway warrant under an agreement signed with the IRCTC. The IRCTC is also developing an e-ticketing-cum-warrant management system for the Central Reserve Police Force.

· Piyush Goyal launched the ‘Khan Prahari’ App and Surveillance system for unauthorised coal mining

Union Minister of Coal, Piyush Goyallaunched the Coal Mine Surveillance & Management System (CMSMS) and Mobile Application ‘Khan Prahari’, which has been developed by CMPDI, Ranchi, a Subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL) and Bhaskarcharya Institute of Space Application and Geo-informatics (BISAG).
It aims to report, monitor and take suitable action on unauthorised coal mining activities.
For each complaint, the alert will go to the Coal India Offices, State Government Officers, District Magistrate and SP of the district.

· Cabinet approved renaming Agartala airport

The Union Cabinet approved the proposal of renamingAgartala Airportin Tripura as Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore Airport, Agartala.
The decision comes in the demand of both the people of Tripura as well as Government of Tripura for paying tribute to Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore.
Agartala Airport was constructed in 1942 on the land donated by Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore. Due to his initiative, an aerodrome at Agartala was constructed and it has now evolved into the second busiest airport in North East providing crucial air connectivity to Tripura.

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