Aims at transforming school students from App users to innovative App Developers Posted On: 11 JUL 2020 4:58PM by PIB Delhi

In a major step towards revving up the Indian Mobile App Development innovation ecosystem,in line with the clarion call for Aatmanirbhar initiatives of the Hon Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) today launched the ‘ATL App Development Module’ for school children all across the country.

The ATL App Development modules have been launched in collaboration with Indian homegrown startup Plezmo with an aim to hone the skills of school students and transforming them from App users to App makers in the times to come under AIM’s flagship Atal Tinkering Labs initiative.

Expressing his views on the said module, CEO NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant said that Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a big disruption, which is being tackled through the use of technology to aid for everyday lives.

“Our honorable Prime Minister has been encouraging the citizens to use technology and innovate for an #AatmaNirbhar Bharat. It is crucial for the young Indians to learn skills at a young age and to enable them to become the next generation of technology leaders. And under the Atal Tinkering Lab initiative, AIM, NITI Aayog is proud to launch the ATL App Development module for our India’s young minds – our dear children,” he said.

The ATL App Development module is an online course is completely Free. Through 6 project-based learning modules and online mentoring sessions, young innovators can learn to build mobile Apps in various Indian languages and showcase their talent. Additionally, to build capacities and acumen for App Development within school teachers, periodic Teacher Training sessions will be conducted on the AIM App Development course.

Speaking on the virtual launch of the module, Mission Director Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog R Ramanan said “we need world class technology solutions and apps from India leveraging the tremendous demographic dividend of our country. The launch of AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge has been inspiring to the young students uniformly at school, university and industry level.

AIM, NITI Aayog is now bringing the skills of App Development to the young tinkerers of Atal Tinkering Labs across the country so that they can integrate their Tinkering Lab innovations with mobile apps enhancing the usability and reach of their innovations. This would be one of the largest App learning and development initiatives at a school level in any country.

“To foster learning and creativity within young minds, as part of the ATL #TinkerfromHome campaign, AIM, NITI Aayog has created a growing state of the art platform for the students and teachers across the country to learn and apply the latest of technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Game Design and Development, 3D Design, Astronomy, Digital Creativity Skills, etc. from the comfort and safety of their homes,” he said.

He further added that as part of this ongoing effort, “AIM, NITI Aayog is proud to launch the ATL App Development module in collaboration with Plezmo, an Indian homegrown startup. I hope all children and teachers make use of this module, #MakeinIndia and become the future technology leaders and innovators of our country.”

Amol Palshikar, CEO, Plezmo said, “After agricultural and industrial revolutions, global economies are being shaped by a Technology revolution. Plezmo’s mission is to enable everyone to learn 21st Century technology skills like coding, computational thinking, design thinking and problem solving. This initiative will empower our young generation in making India a global technology superpower and contribute to the vision of #AatmaNirbharBharat.”

Till date, more than 5100 ATLs are established in more than 660 districts across the country by Atal Innovation Mission with more than 2 million students having access to the Tinkering Labs. The vision is to foster creativity and innovation nationwide through its various integrated initiatives including incubators, Startups, community innovation Centers and Atal New India challenges for product and service innovations enabling socio economic growth of the country .

The Ministry of Jal Shakti is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission in partnership with States since August 2019 with an aim to provide 100% functional household tap connections (FHTC) to every rural household of the country by 2024 to improve their lives and ensure ‘ease of living’ as commitment of the Government is to ensure ‘equity and inclusiveness’, so that none is deprived of basic amenities. Having successfully delivered assured facilities like rural housing, cooking gas, toilet, financial inclusion, basic healthcare, etc., Government is vnow focused upon providing safe drinking water to every household in our villages.

With focus on empowering the rural community as enshrined in 73rd Constitutional Amendment, Jal Jeevan Mission mandates to involve the local community in planning, managing, implementing, operation and maintaining the water supply schemes meant for them, which will not only instil ‘sense of ownership and responsibility’, but will help in long-term sustainability.

In this decentralized, demand driven, community-managed programme, local village community/ Gram Panchayats (GPs) and/ or its sub-committee/ user groups will play a key role in planning, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of in-village water supply systems in villages to ensure long-term sustainability to achieve drinking water security.

Gram Panchayat or its sub-committee i.e. Village Water & Sanitation Committee (VWSC) or Paani Samiti will have of 10–15 members comprising elected members of Panchayat up to 25% of the composition; 50% women members; and remaining 25% may consist of representatives of weaker sections of the village proportional to their population.

For the mission, Gram Panchayat or sub-committee needs to develop the Village Action Plans (VAP) with the support of communities. The Plan is to be prepared for each village by mobilization and participation of local community with focus on strengthening of drinking water sources, in-village water supply infrastructure, grey water treatment and reuse and operation & maintenance of water supply systems so as every family gets assured supply of potable water.

Amidst the current pandemic situation, the Department of Water Supply & Sanitation, Water Supply and Sanitation support organisation (WSSO) and District Water and Sanitation Mission of Osmanabad District (DWSM) with the support of UNICEF Maharashtra and ‘Arghyam’ organised the online workshop during 6-8 July 2020 to prepare the village action plans with technical support from two agencies.

The online training for village action plan preparation exercise was for 100 Gram Panchayats of Osmanabad. Osmanabad is one of the ‘Aspirational Districts’ from the State. The workshop was conducted to enhance understanding and capacities of stakeholders involved in the rural water supply including line departments and Gram Panchayat functionaries (Sarpanch, Gram sevak and Jalsurakshaks).

It was a challenging task to set the framework for training of 100 Gram Panchayats in times of pandemic situation. However, the planning was made possible through digital medium. For that, around 100 Gram Panchayats were identified and a comprehensive list of officials at district level to be trained as Master trainers was also prepared. A group was formed on to keep the participants updated on the details of the workshop. Necessary data support and technological support were provided by the experts and district staff involved in the programme. The Gram Panchayats were given online classes on the overview of Jal Jeevan Mission, importance of Village Action Plan and the process. Besides, the Gram Panchayats were also trained to use the digital platform efficiently, to move ahead with times.

Each session was conducted by using audio-visuals and reference material developed by the resource organisations. The presentations and videos were developed keeping the ethos of JJM guidelines and the Covid-19 protocols. The resource material including presentations and videos were shared with all the participants at the end of the training.

The district has selected 100 GPs from three blocks namely Kalamb (30 GPs), Osmanabad (35 GPs) and Tuljapur (35 GPs). Around 287 Participants including 86 Gramsevaks and 100 Sarpanches & Jalsurakshaks participated in this workshop.

Under Jal Jeevan Mission, Gram Panchayat or its sub-committee is being empowered as a ‘responsible and responsive’ local level ‘public utility’ with focus on ‘service delivery’ i.e. supply of potable water in adequate quantity and of prescribed quality on regular and long-term basis.

“Strategy of putting family planning at the core of the RMNCAH+N programme ensured success”

“Use of contraceptives helped avert 5.5 crore unintended pregnancies, 1.1 crore total births, 18 lakh unsafe abortions and 30,000 maternal deaths in 2019 alone.”

Posted On: 11 JUL 2020 6:25PM by PIB Delhi Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare chaired the virtual meeting on the occasion of World Population Day, here today, in the presence of S

hri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MoS (HFW). Dr. Harsh Vardhan while welcoming everyone on the occasion said, “Commemorating World Population Day is important as it emphasizes the importance of population stabilisation and its vital role in the future of the masses and their health.”It is even more critical now to recognise the importance of providing reproductive health services due to the challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

While highlighting the success of the RMNCAH+N programme, Dr Harsh Vardhan highlighted that the strategy of putting family planning at the core has helped to achieve remarkable results. “In the last decade alone, our Crude Birth Rate (CBR) has reduced from 21.8 (SRS 2011) to 20 (SRS 2018) while the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has declined from 2.4 (SRS 2011) to 2.2 (SRS 2018). And the teenage fertility has halved from 16 (NFHS III) to 7.9 (NFHS IV).” He noted that these efforts have taken India closer to reaching the replacement fertility level of 2.1 and 25 out of 36 States/UTs have already achieved replacement level fertility.

Referring to the Hon. Prime Minister’s commitment to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which transformed into a social movement, he urged everyone to make the population stabilization mission an equally powerful people’s movement. He emphasized that Family Planning provides dignity to women, especially who are poor and marginalized. This needs to therefore be the cornerstone of our efforts for gender equality, maternal and child health, poverty alleviation and propagation of human rights.

Dr Harsh Vardhan also said that India is a fundamental part of the global FP2020 movement, “The Government of India has invested substantial domestic funding to achieve the ambitious FP2020 goals. The major initiatives under Family Planning include Mission Parivar Vikas, Injectable Contraceptive MPA, Family Planning – Logistics Management Information System (LMIS), Family Planning Communications Campaign. The National Family Planning Program has introduced the Injectable Contraceptive in the public health system under the “Antara” program. This contraceptive is highly effective and will meet the changing needs of couples and help women space their pregnancies.” “All this investment has paid us rich dividends in terms of averting nearly 5.5 crore unintended pregnancies, 1.1 crore total births, 18 lakh unsafe abortions and 30,000 maternal deaths as a result of contraceptive use in 2019 alone, as per Track 20 Estimates.”, he added.

Speaking on the benefits accrued through Family Planning, Sh Ashwini Kumar Choubey said, “Family planning not only keeps the population stable but also helps ensure good health for women, families and communities. Population stabilization ensures that resources are available for the development of the maximum population. It is more important for India since at present, about 50 percent of the country's population falls in the reproductive age group of 15-49 years.”

The Health Minister also released the AB-HWC Mobile application developed by Ministry of Health and family Welfare. The App is designed to streamline the process of data reporting at AB-Health and Wellness Centres. It is an extension of AB-HWC Portal which is already used by state, district and AB-HWC facility in-charge to report data pertaining to service utilization at AB-HWCs to enable real time performance monitoring and act as a tool for planning. It shall provide real time information on the people who have been screened, dispensation of healthcare services and drugs, footfalls, and referrals made to PHCs.

Noting that COVID-19 has imposed additional responsibilities on the frontline healthcare workers, Dr Harsh Vardhan praised the HWCs for their tireless services towards COVID-19 and also to ensure that non-COVID essential services are not adversely affected

Ms. Preeti Sudan, Secretary (HFW), Mr. Rajesh Bhushan, OSD (MOHFW), Ms. Vandana Gurnani, Additional Secretary and Mission Director (NHM) and Dr. Manohar Agnani, Joint Secretary (RCH) and other senior officials along were also present in the virtual event. Representatives of development Partners connected with the observance through virtual mediums.

A great moment and a shining example of ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’: Union Environment Minister Posted On: 11 JUL 2020 12:43PM by PIB Delhi

The fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation 2018, results of which were declared to the nation on Global Tiger Day last year by Prime Minister,Shri Narendra Modi has entered the Guinness World Record for being the world’s largest camera trap wildlife survey.

Terming this achievement a great moment, Union Environment Minister,Shri Prakash Javadekar in a tweet message said that this is a shining example of Atma nirbhar Bharat which in the Prime Minister’s own words, was attained through sankalp se siddhi.

Further, the Environment Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, India has fulfilled its resolve to double the tiger numbers four years before the target. The country now has an estimated 2967 tigers as per the latest census. With this number, India is home to nearly 75% of the global tiger population and has already fulfilled its resolve of doubling tiger numbers, made at St. Petersburg in 2010, much before the target year of 2022.

The citation at the Guinness World Record website reads- “The fourth iteration of the survey – conducted in 2018-19 - was the most comprehensive to date, in terms of both resource and data amassed. Camera traps (outdoor photographic devices fitted with motion sensors that start recording when an animal passes by) were placed in 26,838 locations across 141 different sites and surveyed an effective area of 121,337 square kilometres (46,848 square miles). In total, the camera traps captured 34,858,623 photographs of wildlife (76,651 of which were tigers and 51,777 were leopards; the remainder were other native fauna). From these photographs, 2,461 individual tigers (excluding cubs) were identified using stripe-pattern-recognition software.

As well as unprecedented camera trap usage, the 2018 “Status of Tigers in India” assessment also conducted extensive foot surveys that covered 522,996 km (324,975 mi) of trails and sampled 317,958 habitat plots for vegetation and prey dung. It’s estimated that the total area of forest studied was 381,200 km2 (147,181 sq mi) and cumulatively the collection and review of data equated to some 620,795 labour-days.”

The All India Tiger Estimation done quadrennially is steered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority with technical backstopping from the Wildlife Institute of India and implemented by State Forest Departments and partners. The latest results of 2018 had shown that India now has an estimated 2967 tigers out of which 2461 individual tigers have been photo captured, a whopping 83 % of the tiger population, highlighting the comprehensive nature of the survey.

There is hardly any parallel of such a focused species oriented program like Project Tiger across the world, which started with 9 Tiger Reserves, with 50 tiger reserves currently. India has now firmly established a leadership role in tiger conservation, with its bench marking practices being looked at as a gold standard across the world.

Context: Recent killing of Vikas Dubey by the Uttar Pradesh Police in an encounter has brought back the focus on extra-judicial killings and issues associated.

The government has formed a one-member judicial commission to probe this saga. The commission is headed by justice (retd) Shashi Kant.

Laws Dealing with Encounters: At the outset, there is no provision in the Indian law which directly authorizes an official to encounter a criminal irrespective of the grievousness of the crime committed by him/her.

However, there are some enabling provisions that may be construed so as to vest officials with the power to deal with criminals including the power to use force against a criminal.

Section 100 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860: It authorizes any person to exercise his right of private defense which may extend to causing death if there is reasonable apprehension in the mind of the person that there exists a threat to life or limb.

Section 46 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973: It permits a police officer to use all means necessary to effect the arrest of the person.

Section 300 of the Indian Penal Code: It provides that culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, being a public servant acting for the advancement of public justice exceeds the power given to him by law and causes death by doing an act which he, in good faith, believes to be lawful and necessary for the discharge of his duty and without ill-will towards the person whose death is caused.

View of the Supreme Court: The Apex Court has held in: Om Prakash v. State of Jharkhandthat “it is not the duty of the police to kill the accused merely because he is a criminal.” It was further stated that ‘encounters’ amounted to “state sponsored terrorism.”

Sathyavani Ponrai v. Samuel Raj that a fair investigation is mandatory under Articles 14, 21 and 39 of the Constitution of India and that it is not only a constitutional right but a natural right as well.

Nirmal Singh Kahlon v. State of Punjab that the right to investigation and fair trial is applicable to both, the accused and the victim under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

Prakash Kadam v. Ramprasad Vishwanath Gupta that a fake encounter by a police official falls under the category of ‘rarest of rare case’ as laid down in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjaband therefore, the death penalty would be attracted to the concerned police official.

Public Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India that not even State can violate the right to life and obligation to follow the procedure established by law under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. The Court opined that encounter killings by the police must be investigated independently as it “affects the credibility of the rule of law and the administration of the criminal justice system.”

View of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC): NHRC has stated that under the laws of India, the police officials have no right to take away the life of another person.

If by his act, the police official kills a person, he will be booked for culpable homicide unless it is proved to the contrary that such an act did not constitute an offence.

Further, in 2010, the NHRC has laid down guidelines/procedures to be followed in cases of deaths caused in police action. Note: please go through Supreme Court and NHRC guidelines on Encounter.

The National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to access the centralised online database on FIRs and stolen vehicles.

What is NATGRID? First conceptualised in 2009, NATGRID seeks to become the one-stop destination for security and intelligence agencies to access database related to immigration entry and exit, banking and telephone details of a suspect on a “secured platform”.

The project aims to go live by December 31.

Who can access the data? It will be a medium for at least 10 Central agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) to access data on a secured platform. The data will be procured by NATGRID from 21 providing organisations such as the telecom, tax records, bank, immigration etc.

Criticisms: NATGRID is facing opposition on charges of possible violations of privacy and leakage of confidential personal information. Its efficacy in preventing terror has also been questioned given that no state agency or police force has access to its database thus reducing chances of immediate, effective action.

According to few experts, digital databases such as NATGRID can be misused. Over the last two decades, the very digital tools that terrorists use have also become great weapons to fight the ideologies of violence. Intelligence agencies have also opposed amid fears that it would impinge on their territory and possibly result in leaks on the leads they were working on to other agencies.

But, Why do we need NATGRID? The danger from not having a sophisticated tool like the NATGRID is that it forces the police to rely on harsh and coercive means to extract information in a crude and degrading fashion.

After every terrorist incident, it goes about rounding up suspects—many of who are innocent. If, instead, a pattern search and recognition system were in place, these violations of human rights would be much fewer. Natgrid would also help the Intelligence Bureau keep a tab on persons with suspicious backgrounds.

The police would have access to all his data and any movement by this person would also be tracked with the help of this data base.

Context: The recently discovered comet called C/2020 F3, also known as NEOWISE after the NASA telescope that discovered it, will make its closest approach to the Earth on July 22.

On the day, the comet, which takes 6,800 years to complete one lap around its orbit, will be at a distance of 64 million miles or 103 million kilometers while crossing Earth’s outside orbit.

What is Coma? On July 3, the comet was closest to the sun at 43 million km. On this day, the comet cruised inside Mercury’s orbit and, due to its proximity to the sun, its outer layer was released creating an atmosphere – referred to as coma – of gas and dust from its icy surface.

This atmosphere sometimes leads to formation of a bright tail of debris that can extend for thousands or millions of kilometres.

What Are The Differences Between An Asteroid, Comet, Meteoroid, Meteor and Meteorite? Asteroid: A relatively small, inactive, rocky body orbiting the Sun. Comet: A relatively small, at times active, object whose ices can vaporize in sunlight forming an atmosphere (coma) of dust and gas and, sometimes, a tail of dust and/or gas.

Meteoroid: A small particle from a comet or asteroid orbiting the Sun. Meteor: The light phenomena which results when a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes; a shooting star. Meteorite: A meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and lands upon the Earth’s surface.

NASA’s NEOWISE: Launched in December 2009 as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, the space telescope was originally designed to survey the sky in infrared, detecting asteroids, stars and some of the faintest galaxies in space.

It did so successfully until completing its primary mission in February 2011. In December 2013, it was re-purposed for the NEOWISE project as an instrument to study near-Earth objects, or NEOs, as well as more distant asteroids and comets.

Context: The fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation 2018, results of which were declared on Global Tiger Day last year has entered the Guinness World Record for being the world’s largest camera trap wildlife survey.

Camera traps were placed in 26,838 locations across 141 different sites and surveyed an effective area of 121,337 square kilometres.

Tigers in India: The country now has an estimated 2967 tigers as per the latest census. With this number, India is home to nearly 75% of the global tiger population.

It has already fulfilled its resolve of doubling tiger numbers, made at St. Petersburg in 2010, much before the target year of 2022.

4th cycle of all India Tiger Estimation- highlights: Highest number of tigers have found in Madhya Pradesh (526), after that Karnataka has 524 and Uttarakhand is accommodating 442 tigers.

In five years, the number of protected areas increased from 692 to over 860, community reserves from 43 to over 100. While the 2014 census pegged the total number of striped big cats in the country at 2,226, the 2010 census put the figure at 1,706 and the 2006 version at 1,411, indicating that tiger numbers have been on the up.

While Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of tigers, Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu registered the “maximum improvement” since 2014. Chhattisgarh and Mizoram saw a decline in their tiger numbers while tiger numbers in Odisha remained constant. All other states witnessed a positive trend.

All India Tiger estimation: The All India Tiger Estimation done quadrennially is steered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority with technical backstopping from the Wildlife Institute of India and implemented by State Forest Departments and partners.

Conservation efforts- National and Global: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has launched the M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers – Intensive Protection and Ecological Status), a mobile monitoring system for forest guards.

At the Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010, leaders of 13 tiger range countries resolved to do more for the tiger and embarked on efforts to double its number in the wild, with a popular slogan ‘T X 2’.

The Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) program of the World Bank, using its presence and convening ability, brought global partners together to strengthen the tiger agenda.

Over the years, the initiative has institutionalised itself as a separate entity in the form of the Global Tiger Initiative Council (GTIC), with its two arms –the Global Tiger Forum and the Global Snow Leopard Ecosystem Protection Program.

The Project Tiger, launched way back in 1973, has grown to more than 50 reserves amounting to almost 2.2% of the country’s geographical area.

Assam government has decided to upgrade the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary into a national park.

About Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary: Also known as the Jeypore Rainforest is a part of Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve .

Located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts, the 111.19 sq km Dehing Patkai was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 2004. It is home to 47 mammal, 47 reptile, and 310 butterfly species. It forms the largest stretch of lowland rainforest in the country.

Dehing is the name of the river that flows through this forest and Patkai is the hill at the foot of which the sanctuary lies.

What is a National Park? According to the Indian Ministry of Environment & Forests, a national park is “[a]n area, whether within a sanctuary or not, [that] can be notified by the state government to be constituted as a National Park, by reason of its ecological, faunal, floral, geomorphological, or zoological association or importance, needed to for the purpose of protecting & propagating or developing wildlife therein or its environment.

National parks in India are IUCN category II protected areas. India’s first national parkwas established in 1936 as Hailey National Park, now known as Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand.

Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR) at the University of Toronto, Canada, had recently conducted a study on snakebites with Indian and U.K. partners.

The report has been made public now. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognises snakebite as a top-priority neglected tropical disease (NTD).

Key findings: Total deaths caused by snakebites in the 20-year period from 2000 to 2019: 1.2 million. Annual Average: 58,000.

70% of these deaths occurred in limited, low altitude, rural areas of eight States — Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana), Rajasthan and Gujarat. Half of all the snakebite deaths occurred during the monsoon period from June to September.

Most of the envenomation (the process by which venom is injected by the bite or sting of a venomous animal) was by Russell’s vipers followed by kraits and cobras.

Snakebite deaths occurred mostly in rural areas (97%), were more common in males (59%) than females (41%), and peaked at ages 15-29 years (25%). The numbers for annual snakebite deaths were highest in the States of Uttar Pradesh (8,700), Andhra Pradesh (5,200) and Bihar (4,500), it further added.

What needs to be done? Since deaths are restricted mainly to lower altitude, intensely agricultural areas, during a single season of each year, this should make the annual epidemics easier to manage.

Primary victims of snakebites are rural farmers and their families. Experts suggest that targeting certain areas and educating people with simple methods such as ‘snake-safe’ harvest practices — using rubber boots and gloves, mosquito nets and rechargeable torches (or mobile phone flashlights) — could reduce the risk of snakebites.

Improved knowledge of the distribution of venomous snake species as well as the human consequences of bites.

India has sufficient capacity to manufacture large volumes of anti-venom. Better understanding of the distribution of India’s many venomous snake species could help in the design and development of more appropriate anti-venoms.

Itolizumab (rDNA origin), a monoclonal antibody which was already approved for severe chronic plaque psoriasis, has now been granted Restricted Emergency Use authorisation for COVID 19 patients by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) based on clinical trials data.

ATL App Development Module: NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) has launched the ‘ATL App Development Module’ for school children all across the country.

Launched in collaboration with Indian homegrown startup Plezmo It is an online course and is completely Free. Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC):

TIFAC is an autonomous organization set up in 1988 under the Department of Science & Technology.

Its mandate is to look ahead in technology domain, assess the technology trajectories, and support innovation by networked actions in select areas of national importance.

It was conferred with Rani Lakshmibai Award (Nari Shakti Puraskar 2015) for its scheme KIRAN-IPR that is empowering women in R&D through training on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

Also known as Himalayan Viagra, it is the world’s costliest fungus. It has entered the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

IUCN has placed the fungus, known for its aphrodisiac and rejuvenation properties, in the ‘vulnerable’ category.

The fungus, also known as keeda jadi in Uttarakhand because of its caterpillar-like appearance, is endemic to the Himalayan and Tibetan plateau and is found in China, Bhutan, Nepal and India.

In India, it is primarily found in Uttarakhand in the higher reaches of districts like Pithoragarhand Chamoli.

In a first ever cross-border movement for Indian Railways, a special parcel train was sent to Benapole, Bangladesh carrying dry chillies from Reddipalem in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The Guntur Sannam Chilli is a variety which has the Geographical Indication (GI) Tag.

Tiger orchids (Grammatophyllum speciosum) are called so for their large and resplendent flowers which resemble the tiger skin. They flower in alternate years.

These epiphytic plants are not native to India. They, in fact, are endemic to southeast Asia.

The tiger orchid has an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records due to its massive size. Mature plant in its natural habitat weighs up to 2 tonnes.

Eulophia obtusa, a rare orchid species, also known as ‘ground orchid’, has been rediscovered after 118 years in the forests of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.

In India, this species was last sighted in Pilibhit in 1902 and there is a documented record in Kew Herbarium in England.

It is listed as “critically endangered” as per IUCN Red List of endangered species.

CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora) has also included this plan as a rare species and kept it in Tier-2 list and its trade is prohibited.

Farmers in flood-prone areas of Assam have been harvesting the water-resistant Swarna Sub1 rice variety, developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute, since 2009.