GUJARAT
Gujarat women power dairy sector growth
In 2012, Mittal Patel of Borsad taluka’s Kavitha village ventured into dairy business with just
one cow. She along with her husband and brother-in-law increased cattle holding by taking
loans. Now, this 38-year-old is a proud owner of Sargam dairy farm, having nearly 200 cows
including 75 calves. The farm alone supplies around 1,700 litres milk directly to Amul
Dairy on a daily basis.
Women dairy entrepreneurs like Mittal are the backbone of the dairy industry in Gujarat –
the cradle of India’s White Revolution . A study carried out by research scholars of the
Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence (VKCoE) of the Institute of Rural Management Anand
(IRMA) highlights women’s pivotal role in growth of Gujarat’s dairy sector.
A 2018 report by the National Cooperative Union of India, 4.98 million women members
contributed to 30% of the total membership in cooperative societies. In Gujarat alone, out
of 34.94 lakh milk producer members, 36% (12.5 lakh) members are women.
INTERNATIONAL
China Becomes India's Largest Trading Partner
China will once again become India's largest trading partner in 2020.The reason is that India
still relies on heavy machinery, telecommunications equipment and household appliances
imported from China. Highlights:
Provisional data on trade between the two countries in 2020 is $77.7 billion.
However, compared with the total trade volume of USD 85.5 billion in 2019, the trade
volume has declined.
Imports of heavy machinery, etc. have exceeded India’s efforts to reduce its dependence on
trade.
Therefore, the bilateral trade balance between India and China will be $40 billion in 2020.
The total imports from China are 58.7 billion U.S. dollars, higher than India's imports from
the United States and the UAE combined.
The data further highlights that despite the interruption in demand during the coronavirus
pandemic, India is still able to reduce imports from neighboring Asian countries.
NATIONAL
Prakash Javadekar uses Sanskrit for first time at UNSC on climate change
Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on used
Sanskrit for the first time in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Debate on climate
change.
Starting his UNSC debate on climate change, Javadekar addressed other dignitaries with the
Sanskrit hymn from Sukla Yajurveda.
The Union Minister stated that India is the only country on track among the G20 nations to
meet its climate change mitigation commitments.
Centre Launches National Urban Digital Mission to create Digital Infra for Cities
The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Minister of
Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad launched the National Urban Digital Mission’ (NUDM)
The aim of this program is to create a digital infrastructure for cities in India.
The NUDM has been launched jointly by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs along
with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The mission aims to put in place a “citizen-centric” and “ecosystem-driven” approach to
‘urban governance and service delivery’ in cities by 2022, and across all cities and towns by
2024.
The mission has three pillars – people, process, and platform.
Govt issues guidelines and digital media ethics code for OTT, online streaming and social
media platforms
Government issued guidelines and digital media ethics code for Over The Top (OTT), online
streaming and social media platforms.
As per the guidelines, social media platforms have to remove content involving nudity and
morphed pictures of women within 24 hrs to ensure online safety and dignity of users,
specially women users.
The Social Media Intermediaries will have to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer who will be
responsible for ensuring compliance of rules.
The OTT platforms will self-classify the content into five age based categories and
prominently display the classification rating specific to each content together with a content
deor informing the user about the nature of the content.
The platforms will be required to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13
or higher, and reliable age verification mechanisms for content classified as A.
Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation announces selection of 12 iconic sites under
Phase IV of Swachh Iconic Places
Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti has announced the
selection of twelve iconic sites under Phase IV of Swachh Iconic Places.
These sites include Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh,
Kumbhalgarh Fort, Jaisalmer Fort and Ramdevra in Rajasthan, Golconda Fort in Telangana
and Konark Sun Temple in Odisha.
Chandigarh's Rock Garden, Jammu and Kashmir's Dal Lake, Banke Bihari Temple in Mathura,
Agra Fort in Uttar Pradesh and Kalighat Temple in West Bengal are the other sites.
The initiative aims at enhancing the experience of both domestic and foreign visitors by
improving the sanitation and cleanliness standards at and around the sites.
Augmented Reality Head Mounted Display System Indian Army
The Indian Army is purchasing 556 Augmented Reality Head Mounted Display systems
(ARHMD). ARHMD System:
The ARHMD system is considered to be an enhancement to Land Based Air Defence
Weapon Systems (such as the IGLA shoulder-fired Infrared Homing Air Defence Missile
System and the ZU 23mm 2B AD Gun System). It will provide operators with radar and
Thermal Imaging (TI) targeting the output is superimposed.
The proposed system is designed to enhance the ability to participate in night and severe
weather conditions, and participation in the daytime should also be enhanced by increasing
response time, data calculation for decision support, and integration of TI sight output.
