GUJARAT
- Gujarat’s cotton output to hit one-decade low this year
ð Despite sowing cotton on a higher-than-normal acreage, production of the fibre crop in Gujarat is estimated to plummet to a one-decade low in 2018-19, largely on account of a decline in per hectare yield following scanty rainfall in cotton growing regions of the state.
ð The latest crop estimate by the Cotton Association of India (CAI) puts production in Gujarat — the largest producer of the natural fibre in India — at 82.5 lakh bales (one bale is 170kg) in 2018-19. Production was 105 lakh bales in 2017-18.
ð This year cotton production in Gujarat is expected to be the lowest since 2008-19. BT cotton usually needs more water and the lower irrigation availability this year has taken its toll on the yield.
Data from the state agriculture department shows that cotton acreage in Gujarat increased to 27.12 lakh hectare in 2018-19 from 26.02 lakh hectare in 2017-18. Lower production in Gujarat has also brought down overall production in India, which is also estimated to hit a one-decade low at 321 lakh bales in 2018-19 against 365 lakh bales the previous year.
INTERNATIONAL
- BSE, India INX become first Indian exchanges to sign MoU with Moscow Exchange
- BSE and India International Exchange (India INX) have signed a memorandum of understanding with Moscow Exchange (MOEX).
- The MoU has been signed to connect investor community and companies in both countries besides allowing a capital formation platform.
- BSE and India INX are the first Indian exchanges to enter into the MoU with Moscow exchange.
- The exchange companies have agreed to the secondment of senior personnel to enhance understanding of activities in each other’s market.
- Japan space probe drops explosive on an asteroid to make a crater
- Japan’s space agency JAXA,has said its Hayabusa2 spacecraft released an explosive onto an asteroid.
- The explosive was used to make a crater on its surface and collect underground samples to find possible clues to the origin of the solar system.
- Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on a tiny flat surface on the boulder-rich asteroid in February 2019.
NATIONAL
- Praful Patel becomes 1st Indian to be elected as member of FIFA Executive Council
- Praful Patel is the current president of All India Football Federation (AIFF).
- He got 38 out of 46 votes.
- His membership in the council will be for four years, from 2019 to 2023.
- Patel was accompanied by AIFF general secretary Kushal Das and senior vice-president Subrata Datta.
- FIFA Council member election was held during the 29th Asian Football Confederations (AFC) Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- Small tea growers to get app based training
- The Indian tea industry in association with Solidaridad, a global sustainability organisation, has launched an app that will act as a digital training tool for these growers while helping establish traceability for the segment, promoting quality and safe-farm practices. The small tea growers’ share in India’s total tea crop is hovering at about 50%.
- Digital traceability has already been established for 2,500 such growers in Assam, West Bengal and the southern States. This will now be gradually extended to 70,000 small tea growers by 2019.
- Trinitea is an initiative by Indian Tea Association and Solidaridad for small tea growers. It has proposed a Rs.8 crore investment till 2021, in these efforts.
- Dhanush Artillery Gun inducted into Indian Army
- Dhanush, the first indigenous long-range artillery gun has been inducted into the Indian Army.
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