HIMACHAL PRADESH
- 50K farmers to be covered under natural farming programme in HP
- Around fifty thousand farmers of Himachal Pradesh would be covered under Subhash Palekar natural farming programme during this financial year, including 2,500 farmers from Sirmaur district.
- Farmers of the state are coming forward to adopt natural farming in a big way and till March 2019, 2669 farmers were engaged in this farming on 252 hectare of land. The training is being imparted to 206 farmers on this model of farming, who are doing natural farming on 552 bigha land.
- Indigenous cow has important role in natural farming and the state government is providing Rs. 25,000 grant for purchasing indigenous cow. Besides, the target has been fixed to make Himachal Pradesh free of chemical farming by 2022.
INTERNATIONAL
- NASA’s PUNCH mission selected Indian Scientist Dipankar Banerjee as its co-investigator
- Dipankar Banerjee A solar physicist from Indian Institute of Astrophysics selected by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for its PUNCH mission.
- He is also the co-Chair of India’s Science Working Group India planning to send up its own satellite Aditya-Ll, A mission to study the Sun’s corona.
- He will study the acceleration of the solar wind. He will focus on the polar regions of the Sun. The team will observe the Sun using joint observations from PUNCH and Indian mission Aditya.
- PUNCH is an acronym for “Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere“, image the Sun.
- The main objective of the mission is to understand the transition of particles from the Sun’s outer corona to solar wind that fills interplanetary space.
- Corona is the atmosphere of the Sun connecting with the interplanetary medium.
The mission is expected to be launched in 2022.
- The missions for Sun’s atmosphere: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA-NASA joint project, Solar Orbiter.
NATIONAL
- Aparna Kumar becomes the first civil servant & IPS Officer to conquer the ‘Seven Summits’ challenge
- Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Aparna Kumar became the first civil servant to scale Mount Denali
- It is the highest peak in North America.She is the first civil servant and IPS officer to achieve this rare feat.
- This was her 7th summit challenge.She became the first woman IPS DIG and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officer to successfully complete the South Pole expedition.
- Asian Development Bank approved $350 Million Loan for Chhattisgarh Road Improvement Project
- Asian Development Bank(ADB)approved $350 million in loans to rehabilitate and upgrade two state highways.
- There are around 23 major district roads totaling about 850 kilometers in
Chhattisgarh.
- They improve the connectivity and access to basic services in the state.
- The overall total cost of the project is $521.69 million.
- The state government of Chhattisgarh to provide $171.69 million.
- Chhattisgarh is rich in natural resources.It is the largest producer of minerals like coal and iron ore.
- Govt extends Kisan Credit Card facility to fisheries, animal husbandry sector
- Government has extended the facility of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers to help them meet their working capital needs.
- The KCC facility will help fisheries and animal husbandry farmers to meet their short term credit requirements of rearing of animals, poultry birds and other aquatic organisms and capture of fish.
- Under the Kisan Credit Card facility, for the existing KCC holders, the credit limit is three lakh rupees to meet their working capital requirements.
- Under KCC, interest subvention is available for animal husbandry and fisheries farmers at the rate of two per cent per annum.
- Odisha to host 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship
- Odisha Government is set to host the 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship at the Jawaharlal Indoor Stadium in Cuttack from 17 to 22 July.
- This championship will see participation from some of the best players from across the globe.
- The tournament has received a good entry with 14 associations, consisting India, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, England, Scotland, Wales, Jersey, Australia, Cyprus, South Africa, Nigeria, Pakistan.
- Uttar Pradesh State govt. has announced piped water for every rural home in the state within two years
- The Uttar Pradesh State governmenthas announced piped water for every rural home in the state within two years. The Yogi Adityanath-led government has already begun its work on the piped water programme.
- The State has planned to divide Jal Nigam’s work into urban and rural areas for better implementation. The works are carried out under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.