As part of Mission Sagar, Indian Naval Ship Kesari entered Port Louis Mauritius on 23 May 2020. The Government of India is providing assistance to friendly foreign countries in dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic, and towards this Indian Naval Ship Kesari is carrying COVID related essential medicines and a special consignment of Ayurvedic medicines for the people of Mauritius.
In addition, a 14-member Specialist Medical Team comprising Indian Navy doctors and paramedics is also embarked onboard this ship, to work alongside their Mauritian counterparts and together render assistance for COIVD-19 related emergencies. The Medical Assistance Team includes among others, a Community Medicine specialist, a pulmonologist and an anesthesiologist.
An official ceremony for handing over the medicines from the Government of India to Government of Mauritius was held on 23 May 2020. Hon’ble Minister for Health, Dr Kailesh Jagutpal received the consignment on behalf of Government of Mauritius. The Indian side was represented by the High Commissioner of India to Mauritius, H.E Shri Tanmaya Lal. The minister also interacted with Commander Mukesh Tayal, Commanding Officer of Indian Naval Ship Kesari during the handing over ceremony.
The assistance to Mauritius is a part of the Government of India outreach amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ‘Mission Sagar’, is in consonance with the Prime Ministers vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region ‘SAGAR’. This mission highlights the importance accorded by India to relations with the countries of the IOR and builds on the excellent relations existing between the two countries to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. The operation is being progressed in close coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs, and other agencies of the Government of India.
“Biodiversity is an essential part of Indian Culture”: Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat ‘International Day for Biological Diversity’ celebrated yesterday Posted On: 23 MAY 2020 8:20PM by PIB Delhi
The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), along with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), its project partner in the ‘Biodiversity Conservation Initiative Phase II’, celebrated World Turtle Day today, through a Webinar which was widely attended. Shri Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General, NMCG, Dr. Dhananjai Mohan, Director WII, school children, NMCG and WII team members and Ganga Praharis from the five Ganga States and Ganga Prahari mentors participated in the online celebration.
In his special message to the team on World Turtle Day, Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, “Biodiversity is an essential part of Indian Culture and in fact, understanding the importance of Turtles, they have been worshipped in our culture from time immemorial’. He added, “Turtles have been cleaning our water resources and they don’t charge us for doing that job. In order to conserve them and other wildlife, NMCG has taken up several initiatives including establishing conservation centers and creating public awareness about the subject.”
Information about the Ganga Quest quiz, the last date of which has been extended to 30th May 2020, was also shared with the participants in order to maximize the participation of people from different parts of the world. Shri Mishra said, ‘The Ganga Quest quiz is not only a very interesting competition but also a means to create awareness and associate people with the Ganga. I appeal to all those above the age of 10 years to take part in the Ganga Quest.’
On the occasion, winners of the World Turtle Day painting, slogan writing and essay competitions which were conducted using the online platform, were announced. Children from different parts of India and abroad participated in this online competition.
To mark the day, a Children’s story book on turtles, “Bin Vetanke Kare Safai” was released by Shri Shekhawat. This book covers facts about turtles in an interesting story-telling manner. Shri Shekhawat appreciated the innovatively written book which highlights the importance of turtles in maintaining the river ecosystem and appealed to all to contribute to conservation of turtles in our river systems.
The Webinar also saw a poster story on Interesting Facts on Turtles for Children being played. This poster story presents some interesting facts about the turtles and different threats to them.
A documentary on “Turtles of Ganga River Basin” was also showcased for the participants This documentary is made to make people aware about various type of turtles found in the Ganga River.
In his address, Shri Mishra appreciated the efforts of WII and Ganga Praharis for their active participation in making people aware about conservation of Biodiversity. He also appealed to all to come forward and join hands for the conservation of turtles and the biodiversity of the river Ganga. Dr Mohan talked about the significance of celebrating Turtle Day and the role of Ganga Praharis in their conservation.
Given that Biodiversity Conservation of the Ganga river basin is one of the pillars of the Namami Gange programme, the ‘International Day of Biological Diversity’ held yesterday, was celebrated with great enthusiasm by NMCG and WII through a Webinar themed ‘Our Solutions are in Nature’. In order to increase public consciousness about its conservation, Shri Mishra, Dr. Mohan, NMCG team as well as experts from various organisations and Ganga Praharis participated in the event.
Speaking during the celebrations, DG, NMCG said, “We have to make collective efforts to support the rejuvenation of river Ganga. This is possible by making efforts to create better understanding and awareness about the connection between biodiversity and our survival. The conservation efforts have to become a Jan Aandolan”. He added that the NMCG has received substantial success in cleaning the river. “However, in order to ensure the sustainability of water quality, all of us need to make a conscious effort,” he said.
During the event, Director, WII, Dr. Mohan appealed to the Ganga Praharis, other organisations working for the conservation of biodiversity and Media organisations to undertake public awareness initiative to further save the biodiversity of the rivers. “It is easy to say that the ‘solutions lie in nature’, but we have to reduce the negative impact of our activities on nature”.
Padma Vibhushan Dr. Anil P Joshi appreciated the success of Ganga Praharis to further the awareness of biodiversity conservation in villages. He said, “More than 41% amphibian, 31% Coral and 33% fish species are now extinct. We have to take up biodiversity conservation as a very serious subject”.
Ganga Praharis from different parts of the country connected to this programme shared their experience of training in organic farming by WII Dehra Dun and its positive financial and environmental consequences.
Adopt innovative and economically viable business models which can help all the sectors: Shri Nitin Gadkari to Solar Industry representatives Posted On: 23 MAY 2020 7:53PM by PIB Delhi
Union Minister for MSME and Road Transport and Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari today held meeting via video conferencing with the members of Maha Solar Sangathan to understand the opportunities in the solar energy sector.
The Minister highlighted the importance of solar energy and said that the sector has a huge potential and can help to reduce the electricity cost significantly. He further mentioned that sectors such as agriculture, warehousing etc. are energy extensive sectors and proper commercial use of solar energy such as solar water pump for irrigation and solar electricity for cold storage can contribute towards reducing power cost.
The Union Minister emphasized on the need of export enhancement along with import substitution to replace foreign imports with domestic production. He highlighted that India still imports energy efficient solar panels and encouraged the manufactures to make India self-reliant with the help of “Make in India” products.
The Minister mentioned that for providing much-needed impetus to the MSME sector to deal with the current economic instability, the government has announced several measures under Special Economic Package: Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan including collateral free automatic loan, which will allow the MSMEs to enhance working capital by 20% without providing additional collateral.
An ergonomic design for COVID-19 protection mask is essential for its ease of use for long hours: Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST Posted On: 23 MAY 2020 2:25PM by PIB Delhi
A team of researchers at Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bangalore, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, have developed a cup-shaped design (patent filed) of the mask that helps to create enough space in front of the mouth while speaking. It has been transferred to a Bangalore based company for mass production.
This snug fit mask causes no speech distortion, no fogging on glasses, and indeed, packs well all around, leaving practically no room for leakage while breathing. Another important advantage is its high breathability allowing one to wear it without any discomfort. Further, the researchers have chosen the fabric layers such that there is a possibility of deactivating pathogens sheerly by the electric charges that may prevail under mild friction due to the triboelectric nature of the fabric. These advanced-level tests are being carried out.
"While an ergonomic design for COVID-19 protection mask is essential for its ease of use for long hours, it is often not paid much attention beyond a few standard designs. A good design should minimize the feeling of intrusion and leakage around the edges, but maximize the ease of breathing and talking while holding its place," said Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST.
With the increase of active COVID cases in India and other countries, usage of face masks has been advised for the general public. While the healthcare professionals can use the special and high technical quality medical masks, for the general public, a mask with moderate filtering efficiency should suffice. It should be comfortable to wear to encourage public to wear it for long hours.
CeNS has transferred this technology to Camellia Clothing Ltd., a Bangalore based garment company, established a couple of decades ago. The company wishes to produce and sell around one lakh mask per day through different distribution channels throughout India.
UMANG is a Government of India all-in-one single, unified, secure, multi-channel, multi-platform, multi-lingual, multi-service mobile app, powered by a robust back-end platform providing access to high impact services of various organization (Central and State).
Launched in 2017 to bring all government services on a single mobile app, with a larger goal to make the government services accessible on the mobile phone of our citizens. About 660 services from 127 department & 25 states, including utility payments are live and more are in pipeline.
7 services hosted on IMD website have been onboarded to UMANG Application. These include: Current Weather. Nowcast- Three hourly warnings of localized weather phenomena. City Forecast.
Rainfall information. Tourism Forecast. Warnings- It is colour coded in Red, Orange and yellow are the alert levels with Red as the most severe category.
Background: China said the new legislation is aimed at containing the “secessionist” forces in the former British colony who have posed a “grave threat” to the country’s national security and sovereignty.
China has also sent demarches to India and several other countries explaining the reason for the new draft legislation with a reminder that upholding national security” in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is “purely China’s internal affair and no foreign country may interfere in this matter”.
How is Hong Kong currently administered? Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. It has observed a “one country, two systems” policy since Britain returned sovereignty to China on July 1, 1997, which has allowed it certain freedoms the rest of China does not have.
What’s this One Country Two Systems approach? As per the policy, the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions, both former colonies, can have different economic and political systems from that of mainland China, while being part of the People’s Republic of China. It was proposed by Deng Xiaoping with an aim to unify China and Taiwan.
On December 19, 1984, China and the U.K. signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration in Beijing, which set the terms for the autonomy and the legal, economic and governmental systems for Hong Kong post 1997. Similarly, on March 26, 1987, China and Portugal signed the Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau in which China made similar promises for the region of Macau after it was handed over to Beijing.
What’s happening now in Hong Kong? Relentless agitation is carried out by the local Hong Kong people demanding political and administrative autonomy agreed by China when it took possession of the former British colony in 1997.
While the seven-month-long agitation last year in which millions took part subsided during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis from January to April, protesters returned to streets this month, with the pro-autonomy and pro-freedom legislators grappling with the security officials in local legislature protesting against the curbs.