Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and MSMEs Shri Nitin Gadkari will lay foundation stone of and inaugurate 35 highway projects in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, the 25th of August, 2020. Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan will preside over the virtual function, to be attended by Union Ministers Shri ThavarchandGehlot and Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, MoSs Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste and Gen (Dr) V K Singh(Rtd), Ministers from the State, several MPs, MLAs and senior officers from the Centre and the State.

These projects for inauguration and foundation laying carry a Road length of 1139 kilometers, involving construction value of over Rs 9400 crore. Paving the way for development of MP, these roads will enhance better connectivity, convenience and economic growth in the State.

Starting from one test in January 2020 through a single lab in Pune, India has exceeded cumulative tests of more than 3.5 crore today. Consistently testing more than 8 lakhs tests since the last six days, with 8,01,147 COVID-19 tests in the past 24 hours, the total has touched 3,52,92,220.

The steep rise in the testing is a result of effective implementation of the aggressive testing strategy of the Centre through a focussed and graded approach.

The rising average daily tests during the past three weeks present a strong depiction of the progress made in enhancement of COVID-19 tests across the country.

A consistently increasing number of recoveries has pushed India’s Recovery Rate amongst the COVID-19 patients to nearly 75%.

With the recoveries of 57,989 COVID patients in the last 24 hours, the total number of recoveries has reached 22,80,566 today.

The Department of Food and Public Distribution under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has sent letters to States Governments/UTs to include all eligible disabled persons under the National Food Security Act 2013. Section 38 of the Act mandates that the Central Government may from time to time give directions to the State Governments for effective implementation if the provisions of the Act. The Department advised all States/UTs to ensure that all disabled persons, who are eligible as per identification criteria of beneficiaries under NFSA, are covered under the National Food Security Act 2013 and they get their entitled quota of food grains under NFSA & PMGKAY as per provisions of the Act.

It is stated that those not already covered should be covered with fresh ration cards to be issued as per the eligibility criteria. It is also reiterated that disability is one of the criteria for inclusion of beneficiaries under AAY households and as disabled persons are vulnerable section of the society. The letter further advised that it is imperative that they are also covered by States/UTs under the priority households as per the criteria of identification evolved by them

The Section 10 of the National Food Security Act, 2013 provides for coverage of persons under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana in accordance with the guidelines applicable to the said scheme and the remaining households as priority households in accordance with such guidelines as the States Government may specify.

The Atma Nirbhar Bharat Package of the Government of India is for the persons, who are not covered either under NFSA or any States Scheme PDS Cards. Hence, the disabled persons without ration cards are also eligible for getting benefits under Atma Nirbhar Bharat package. Since this scheme would lapse on August 31,2020 and there is still one week left for this, the Department requested to all States/UTs, that they may identify such disabled persons who do not have ration cards and provide them benefits under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Package. The letter also mentioned that the scheme started in May 2020 and it was presumed that all eligible beneficiaries without ration cards including the disabled should have been covered. It is understood that the ration lifted so far has been utilized by the States for distributing to eligible beneficiaries without ration cards including the disabled. States are requested to undertake proactive steps in this regard.

The Department of Food and Public Distribution under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has sent letters to States Governments/UTs to include all eligible disabled persons under the National Food Security Act 2013. Section 38 of the Act mandates that the Central Government may from time to time give directions to the State Governments for effective implementation if the provisions of the Act. The Department advised all States/UTs to ensure that all disabled persons, who are eligible as per identification criteria of beneficiaries under NFSA, are covered under the National Food Security Act 2013 and they get their entitled quota of food grains under NFSA & PMGKAY as per provisions of the Act.

It is stated that those not already covered should be covered with fresh ration cards to be issued as per the eligibility criteria. It is also reiterated that disability is one of the criteria for inclusion of beneficiaries under AAY households and as disabled persons are vulnerable section of the society. The letter further advised that it is imperative that they are also covered by States/UTs under the priority households as per the criteria of identification evolved by them

The Section 10 of the National Food Security Act, 2013 provides for coverage of persons under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana in accordance with the guidelines applicable to the said scheme and the remaining households as priority households in accordance with such guidelines as the States Government may specify.

The Atma Nirbhar Bharat Package of the Government of India is for the persons, who are not covered either under NFSA or any States Scheme PDS Cards. Hence, the disabled persons without ration cards are also eligible for getting benefits under Atma Nirbhar Bharat package. Since this scheme would lapse on August 31,2020 and there is still one week left for this, the Department requested to all States/UTs, that they may identify such disabled persons who do not have ration cards and provide them benefits under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Package. The letter also mentioned that the scheme started in May 2020 and it was presumed that all eligible beneficiaries without ration cards including the disabled should have been covered. It is understood that the ration lifted so far has been utilized by the States for distributing to eligible beneficiaries without ration cards including the disabled. States are requested to undertake proactive steps in this regard.

Indian Railways has generated more than 6,40,000 mandays of work under Gareeb Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan in 6 States viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. 

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry is closely monitoring the progress made in these projects and generation of work opportunities for the migrant labours of these states under this scheme. Around 165 Railway infrastructure projects are being executed in these states. 

Till 21 August, 2020, 12,276 workers have been engaged in this Abhiyaan and the payment of Rs 1,410.35 crores has been released to the contractors for the projects being implemented. 

Railway has appointed nodal officers in each district as well as in the States so that a close coordination is established with the State Government. 

Railway has identified no. of railway works which are being executed under this scheme. The works are related to (i) construction and maintenance of approach roads for level crossings, (ii) development & cleaning of silted waterways, trenches and drains along the track, (iii) construction and maintenance of approach road to railway stations, (iv) repair and widening of existing railway embankments / cuttings, (v) plantation of trees at extreme boundary of railway land and (vi) protection works of existing embankments/ cuttings/bridges. 

It may be noted that Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched a massive employment -cum- rural public works campaign named Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan to empower and provide livelihood opportunities in areas/ villages witnessing large number of returnee migrant workers affected by the devastating COVID-19 on 20th June 2020. The Prime Minister announced that an amount of Rs 50,000 crores would be spent for building durable rural infrastructure under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan. 

This Abhiyaan of 125 days, is being undertaken in mission mode, and involves focused implementation of 25 categories of works/ activities in 116 districts, each with a large concentration of returnee migrant workers in 6 states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha. Public works is being undertaken during this campaign will have a resource envelope of Rs. 50,000 crores. 

The Abhiyaan is a convergent effort between 12 different Ministries/Departments, namely; Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport & Highways, Mines, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Environment, Railways, Petroleum & Natural Gas, New & Renewable Energy, Border Roads, Telecom and Agriculture, to expedite implementation of 25 public infrastructure works and works relating to augmentation of livelihood opportunities.

The 58th convocation of IIT Bombay was held today (August 23, 2020) from 1.30 pm onwards in Virtual Reality mode, keeping in view the safety measures during the ongoing pandemic. The Institute thought it best to arrange such a VR-convocation for the graduating students so as not to put their health at risk but at the same time, not deprive them of the sense of achievement and pride of passing out of India’s premier engineering Institute. The personalized avatar of each graduate received the degree certificate from the personalized avatar of the Director Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri. All medal winners received their medals from the personalized avatar of the Chief Guest. The entire event was telecast on DD India and DD Sahyadri channels as well as YouTube and Facebook live.

The convocation is normally a chance for students to socialize with their friends and faculty one last time. This year the institute provided an opportunity for students to do so via virtual presence, allowing students to roam around a virtual campus, visit their hostels and departments virtually, and bump into/meet their friends and faculty.

According to a research paper published in Nature Communications, the concentration of micro-plastics in Antarctica is 10 times higher than assumed, which suggests that there is a presence of 12-21 million of it in the ocean. It is the first study which points towards the issue.

Any plastic which is less than 5 millimetres in diameter comes under micro-plastic and can enter the ocean through various methods in which the most famous are through cosmetic, clothing and industrial processes.

Only three common types of plastic wastes – polythene, polypropylene and polystyrene, used for packaging purposes were studied. As per the studies, across 65 years, 17 million of waste has polluted the ocean covering 10,000 kilometres and currently 80 % of the garbage constitutes micro-plastics.

The research was carried on by researchers of the National Oceanography Center from the UK who used spectroscopic imaging technique for pinpointing the plastic residuals and 200 metres deep water was filtered up for the process. They also raised concern over the issue by indicating towards it that every year 8 million tonnes of micro-plastic invade the ocean and if this keeps going on then the amount will become identical to the number of fishes in the ocean.