GUJARAT

Vadodara Municipal Corporation To Launch Municipal Bonds In January

Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) is expected to launch municipal bonds in January 2021. Municipal bonds are a debt instrument in which investors provide loans to local governments.

In this way, it will become the third Urban Local Body (ULB) in Gujarat to use this method to raise money to fund development work approved under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).

It has sought approval from the state government.

Ahmedabad is the first city in South Asia to issue a municipal bond of Rs 1 billion in 1998.

The Surat Municipal Corporation is the second city in Gujarat to announce the issuance of bonds in 2018

Municipal bonds are a debt instrument in which investors provide loans to local governments.

They are issued by private groups for specific projects, usually for a period of ten years.

ULB pays investors the annual interest of the bond at a determined interest rate.

INTERNATIONAL

India to replace UK as fifth-biggest economy in 2025

A UK based think-tank, the Centre for Economics and Business Research has said that Indian economy will again overtake the UK to become the fifth largest economy in 2025 and race to the third spot by 2030.

India had overtaken the UK in 2019 to become the fifth largest economy in the world but has been relegated to 6th spot this year.

The UK appears to have overtaken India again during 2020 as a result of the weakness of the rupee.

The Research organisation forecasts that the Indian economy will expand by 9 percent in 2021, and another 7 percent in 2022.

NATIONAL

National Consumers Right Day: 24 December

The National Consumer Day is observed every year on December 24 to spread awareness about consumer importance, their rights, and responsibilities.

On December 24, 1986, Consumer Protection Act 1986, regarded as the ‘Magna Karta’, received the approval of the President of India.

The main objective of the Consumer Protection Act is to provide consumers with effective safeguards against different types of exploitation such as defective goods, unsatisfactory services, and unfair trade practices.

CoWIN Launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

The Minister of Electronics and Information Technology announced the launch of the “Grand Challenge” to strengthen the COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) system.

CoWIN is a Grand Challenge to strengthen the COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) system. CoWIN is a digital platform that can be used to effectively promote and expand the mechanism of the COVID vaccine distribution system nationwide.

It was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The challenge invites talented innovative startups and emerging technology experts to participate in order to expand the CoWIN platform.

It will be launched on the MSH (MeitY Startup Hub) portal (the portal is a collaboration platform developed with the support of MeitY to create meaningful synergy in the field of Indian technology startups).

MoHFW identified seven key areas of technology development to comprehensively address possible constraints related to a complete and effective vaccine distribution system (VDS) and its seamless management in India.

Memorandum of Agreement signed Aquifer Mapping & Management

The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research–National Geophysical Research Institute, recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to use advanced heliborne geophysical survey (via helicopter) and other Scientific studies under the Aquifer Mapping Programs.

Geophysical data is used to provide information about the physical properties of the earth’s surface and underground. As a result, geophysical data can help locate hydrocarbons, minerals, aggregates and other natural resources. For example groundwater mapping, mineral mapping.

The main advantages of the Heliborne geophysical survey are that it is fast, data-intensive, accurate and economical.

– Create 3D geophysical models, horizontal and vertical plain geophysical maps.
– Aquifer Geometry of principal aquifer with the demarcation of de-saturated and saturated aquifers.

PM to Launch Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY SEHAT

The Prime Minister of India launched the Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY SEHAT to extend coverage to all residents of J&K via video conference.

The SEHAT scheme stands for Social, Endeavour for Health and Telemedicine, which is a health insurance scheme for the Union Territory.

The scheme provides free insurance to all the residents of the UT of J&K.

It provides financial protection of up to Rs.5 Lakh per family to all residents of the UT of J&K by means of floating cash.

It provides for an operational extension of PM-JAY to 15 lakh (approximately) additional families.

PM-JAY is a type of health insurance, fully funded by the central government. The scheme provides insurance coverage of 500,000 rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary medical inpatients in public and private hospitals in India.

PM-JAY provides cashless access to health care services for beneficiaries at service points (i.e, hospitals). PM-JAY’s vision is to help alleviate catastrophic medical expenditures, which will plunge nearly 60 million Indians into poverty every year.

Most of Districts in India Hotspots Of Extreme Climate Events

According to a study by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW), more than 75% of districts in India are home to 63.8 crore people and are hotspots for extreme climate events such as cyclones, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and cold waves.

This is the first time that extreme weather event hotspots in the country have been mapped.

In recent decades, the frequency, intensity, and unpredictability of these extreme events have continued to increase.

Although India witnessed 250 extreme weather events in 35 years between 1970 and 2005, 310 such weather events have been recorded in only 15 years since then.

In the past 50 years, the frequency of flood events has increased almost eight times.

Flood-related events, such as landslides, heavy rain, hailstorms, thunderstorms, and cold bursts, increased by more than 20 times.

In the past ten years, six of the eight most flood-prone areas in India were located in Barpeta, Darrang, Dhemaji, Goalpara, Golaghat, Sivasagar- are in Assam.

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