1. Ministry of Rural Development launches SAMANVAY portal
(i) Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh launched SAMANVAY on Tuesday.
(ii)
SAMANVAY is a compilation of schemes of both the Centre
and state governments at the gram panchayat level.
(iii) Singh said that this move will help the MPs to utilise relevant schemes to plan and implement Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY). He added that more than 1800 state schemes across India have been documented in SAMANVAY.
(iv) The SAGY was launched in October 2014 under which the MPs are to develop three ‘adarsh’ gram panchayats (model villages) by 2019.
2. Government launches 3 websites for farmers
(i) The Government launched three web portals for farmers, including Participatory Guarantee System-India (PGS-India), Fertiliser Quality Control System (FQCS) and Soil Health Card (SHC).
(ii) The Participatory Guarantee System-India (PGS-India) will ease the process of certifying organic products in accordance with the laid down standards and ensure active participation of stakeholders including producers/farmers, traders and consumers in the certification system.
(iii) The Fertiliser Quality Control System (FQCS) portal is an application developed for processing of fertiliser sample collection, testing and generation of analysis reports.
(iv)The Soil Health Card (SHC) web portal with following modules in the interest of farmers (a) Soil Samples Registration (b) Test Result Entry by Soil Testing Labs (c) Fertiliser Recommendations based on STCR and GFR among other things. (d) Soil Health Card generation. (e) MIS module for monitoring progress.
3. Russia bids for vast Arctic territories
(i) Russia recently attempted to lay claim on vast territories in the Arctic. The nation submitted a bid to the UN, claiming 1.2 million square km of Arctic sea shelf extending more than 650 km off the shore.
(ii) Russia was the first country to submit its claim in 2002, which was rejected by the UN for lack of evidence.
(iii) The Arctic is believed to hold a quarter of the planet’s undiscovered reserves of oil and gas. Several countries including Russia, US, Canada, Denmark, among others have been claiming jurisdiction over parts of it.
4. Australian court rescinds environmental nod for Adani’s coal mine project
(i) Australia’s Federal Court formally set aside the approval of the Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Project.
(ii) Adani took over the Carmichael coal project in 2010 to develop a coal mine and connecting rail link and port to transport the coal to India.
(iii) Approval for the proposed mine, which is one of the biggest in the world, was opposed by environmentalists for posing a threat to the Great Barrier Reef.
5. Indian diplomat spearheads UAE’s first blood donor registry initiative
(i) Tiju Thomas, Consul for Economic & Education, Press & Information is spearheading an initiative in the UAE to make blood from rare blood groups accessible to those who need it, making his registry the nation’s first and biggest donor registry.
(ii) Though Thomas’s website www.blooddonors.ae was started on
World Blood Donor Day (June 14), it was formally launched on June 21 coinciding
with the International Day of Yoga.
(iii) Thomas decided to open the registry when he observed that blood shortage was a major problem in the UAE where close to 42 per cent of the units of blood collected is required by thalassaemia patients.
6. Mobile app to fight plant diseases
(i) Increasing usage of smartphones by farmers has encouraged agricultural scientists to develop an Android application to help farmers.
(ii) Reddi Kumar, Plant Pathologist at the Regional Agricultural Research Station’s (RARS) Institute of Frontier Technology has developed an android application named ‘Greeshma’ that highlights various diseases affecting crops and measures to control them.
(iii) Kumar said, “We have included the information about 5 major crops in Andhra Pradesh such as groundnut, paddy, sugarcane, sunflower and maize. Besides, we have also incorporated details about ‘mushroom cultivation’ as several farmers are growing them on a small scale.”
7. Kashinath Singh chosen for UP’s highest literary award
(i) Renowned Hindi litterateur Kashinath Singh was conferred Uttar Pradesh’s highest literary award — Bharat Bharti.
(ii) The award was presented by UP Hindi Sansthan with a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh.
(iii) Among Singh’s several novels and stories, ‘Kashi ka Assi’ was the most famous and captured the hues of Varanasi city. The upcoming movie ‘Mohalla Assi’ is inspired by Singh’s book.
(iv) Some of the other prominent awardees who were honoured by the UP Sansthan are:
* Mridula Garg (Lohia Sahitya),
* Vinod Kumar Shukla (Hindi Gaurav),
* Krishna Bihari Mishra (Mahatama Gandhi Sahitya Samman),
* Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra (Deendayal Upadhaya Sahitya Samman),
* Ramkrishna Rajput (Avantibai Sahitya Samman).
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