NORTH-EASTERN STATES

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address elections rallies at Sonamura & Kailasahar in Tripura

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address rallies at Sonamurain Sipahijala districtand Kailasahar in Unakoti district.
Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader Sarbanand Sonowal addressed public meetings in Teliamura and Majlishpur yesterday.
Assam’s former Chief Minister and Congress leader Tarun Gogoi campaigned in Badarghat constituency.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar addressed rallies in Kumar ghat and Kailasahar of Unakoti district. The state will go to polls on the 18th of this month to elect a new assembly.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing rallies in Sonamura of Sipahijala and Kailasahar of Kailasahar districts. In view of PM’s rally, the security arrangement has been beefed up in the state.
Also, yesterday addressing a rally in Teliamura, Assam’s Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to develop each and every state of the country.

INTERNATIONAL

· Forbes Releases Its First-Ever Cryptocurrency Rich List

Business magazine Forbes released its first-ever Crypto Rich List, comprising 20 wealthiest peoplein the cryptocurrency space.
The list was topped by Ripple Co-founder Chris Larsen, who is estimated to have a crypto net worth of $7.5-8 billion.
He is followed by Ethereum Co-founder Joseph Lubin ($1-5 billion) and Founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance Changpeng Zhao ($1.1-2 billion).

· Bermuda Becomes first Country In World To Abolish Same-Sex Marriage

Bermuda becomes the first country to legalize and then repeal same-sex marriage.
Bermuda’s governor John Rankin approved a bill reversing the right of gay couples to marry, despite a supreme court ruling last year authorizing same-sex marriage.

NATIONAL

· Google and NCERT Join Hands To Teach Students Digital Safety

Google and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)signed a pact to integrate a course on ‘Digital Citizenship and Safety’ in information and communication technology curriculum.
It was signed on the occasion of Safer Internet Day (06th February).
The curriculum developed by NCERT in collaboration with Google will be used to train students from class I – class XII across 1.4 million schools in India where they will learn how to become good and responsible digital citizens. The curriculum is spread into four themes – being smart, being safe, being a digital citizen and being future ready.

· HAL Develops First Hawk-I Flight

The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited developed the first flight of Hawk-i with indigenous Real Time Operating System (RTOS).
Hawk-i is the first indigenous RTOS developed in India from scratch and certified by Center for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC).
The RTOSis the system software which provides a standard run-time environment for real-time applications execution in a safe and reliable manner.

· Fifth South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference Held In New Delhi

The Fifth edition of South Asia Region Public Procurement Conferencewas held in New Delhi.
It was hosted by Public Procurement Division (PPD) of Ministry of Finance and All India Management Association (AIMA).
It was held under auspices of South Asia Region Public Procurement Network (SARPPN),which is sponsored and facilitated by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Islamic Development Bank.
The theme this edition of the conference was “Public Procurement and Service Delivery”.

· Union Cabinet approves implementation of PMRF scheme gives nod to enhance beneficiaries under Ujjwala Yojana from 5 to 8 crores

Union Cabinet approved implementation of Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF) schemeat a total cost of 1,650 crore rupees for a period of seven years beginning 2018-19. The scheme was announced in the Union Budget for 2018-19.
Under this scheme, the best students who have completed or are in the final year of B. Tech or Integrated M.Tech or M.Sc. in Science and Technology streams from IISc or IITs or NITs or IISERs or IIITs will be offered direct admission in the Ph.D. programme in the IITs or IISc.
Such students, who fulfill the eligibility criteria, and are shortlisted through a selection process, as laid down in the PMRF Guidelines, will be offered a fellowship of 70 thousand rupees per month for the first two years, 75 thousand rupees per month for the 3rd year and 80 thousand rupees per month in the 4th and 5th years.

· Defence Ministry constitutes a 13-member advisory committee to expedite capital acquisition for Armed Forces modernisation

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharamanconstituted a 13-member advisory committee to monitor and expedite capital acquisition projects for the modernization of the armed forces.
In a statement, the Ministry said, the committee will undertake an independent review and check the status of ongoing critical projects worth more than 500 crore rupees.
The panel will suggest measures to improve the capital acquisition process.
The committee, headed by Vinay Sheel Oberoi, will have to present an initial status report on identified projects to the Defence Minister by March 31.

Centre to link driving licence with Aadhaar

The Centre is in the process of linking driving licences with Aadhaar number to weed out fake licences and a software for this covering all states on a real time basis is under preparation, the Supreme Court was told.

A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta was informed about it by a court-appointed committee on road safety headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice K S Radhakrishnan.

This assumes significance as a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra is currently hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme and the enabling 2016 law.

ISRO sets up 473 Village Resource Centres for rural development

To demonstrate the potential of satellite technology for development of rural areas, ISRO established Village Resource Centres (VRCs) on a pilot scale, in association with selected NGOs, Trusts and State Government Departments.

VRCs have provided various space technology enabled services such as tele-healthcare, tele-education, natural resources information, advisories related to agriculture, career guidance to rural students, skill development and vocational training etc.

About Rs 18 crores was spent for establishing 473 VRCs.

· Development of Solar Cities scheme: 60 Solar Cities to be developed

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)under its “Development of Solar Cities” scheme sanctioned the development of 60 Solar Cities including 13 Pilot and 5 Model Cities up to 12th Five-year Plan period (2012–2017).
So far, master plans of 49 Solar Cities have been prepared.
Under it, local Governments are motivated for adopting renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency measures.
Solar City developed under this scheme will have all types of renewable energy based projects like solar, wind, biomass, small hydro, waste to energy.

· Nuclear-Capable Prithvi-II Missile Successfully Test-Fired

India successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable Prithvi-II missile as part of a user trial by the Army from Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, in Odisha. It is a surface-to-surface missile and has a strike range of 350 km.
Prithvi-II is capable of carrying 500-1,000 kilogram of warheads and is thrust by liquid propulsion twin engines.
Inducted into the Armed forces of the country in 2003, the nine-meter-tall, single-stage liquid-fuelled Prithvi-II is the first missile to have been developed by the DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).

Jhulan Goswami first female cricketer to take 200 ODI wickets

India’s veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami has added another feather to her illustrious cap by becoming the first female cricketer to take 200 ODI wickets.

Goswami achieved the feat during the second ODI between India and South Africa.

The 35-year-old, playing her 166th ODI, dismissed opener Laura Wolvaardt for her 200th scalp.

She was adjudged ICC Women Cricketer of the Year in 2007.

Fishing in Meghalaya

Meghalaya, with its vast inland fishery resources in the form of rivers, reservoirs, lakes and ponds and an average rainfall of 1200 mm, offers tremendous scope for developing the fisheries sector, but lags behind in harnessing the potential of these natural resources. The available land in most parts of Meghalaya is uneven in terrain which makes it somewhat difficult to develop fisheries on commercial lines. However, rain water can be impounded in small ponds for the production of fish and inland fisheries therefore, offering a potential that can be successfully exploited by the people of the state. Furthermore, creation of additional water area for fish culture will lead to a transformation in the rural economy and improve the livelihoods of the poor tremendously.

The Government of Meghalaya has identified fisheries as a key sector and decided to assist the people to develop fish ponds. It has launched the Meghalaya State Aquaculture Mission (MSAM) co-terminus with the Twelfth Five Year Plan period (20 12-13 to 20 16-17).

Meghalaya State Aquaculture Mission (MSAM)

The Aquaculture Mission is divided into six Mini Missions for better focus and ease of implementation. Mini Mission I is related to “Area and Productivity Expansion”, which will be achieved through four sub components, viz., individual pond construction, community pond construction, development of marshy and swampy areas and bheels and reservoir fishery development. Mini Mission II is for “Critical infrastructure development”, which has five components: fish seed production, fish feed production, fish disease management, pre and post harvesting infrastructure and creation and strengthening of fishery and multi-purpose cooperatives. Fish seed production will be achieved through Government and private hatcheries and utilizing FRP technology as also inducting Israeli technology.

Establishing sanctuaries for conserving indigenous and endemic species of fish is the focus of Mini Mission III. Surveys for identifying the endangered species, orientation workshops and media campaigns will be organised under the Mission. The Mission will collaborate with the Department of Tourism for boosting the objectives and targets of the Mission related to Mahaseer and other native species conservation. Mini Mission IV is for “Capacity Building” of farmers as well as officials, programme managers, multi-service providers, co-operators, etc. Mass mobilization campaigns and skill trainings for unemployed youth will be organised under this mini mission. Mini Mission V is titled “Mass media campaigns, documentation and outreach”, which will take care of two important activities, viz., awareness building about the Mission and publicity among the public and process documentation of the implementation and preparation of success stories.

Mini Mission VI deals with “Emerging opportunities in the fisheries sector”, which is an exclusive visionary component envisaged for tapping the emerging opportunities and addressing them with scientific backstopping. Ornamental fisheries, trout farming, introduction of freshwater prawn culture and new table species of fish and aqua tourism/ aqua parks/ sport fisheries will be the components under this mini mission.

Other Initiatives

Water development

The Department of agriculture has given emphasis in utilizing micro-watershed irrigation projects towards development of fisheries to optimize production of fishes from such rain water harvesting projects. Training and demonstration has been disseminated at the fisheries training institute to villagers 12 Small Reservoirs Multipurpose Development Projects and other communities who own these watershed project for utilizing modern technologies and identification of fish species which are suitable for culturing in these small reservoir. Fishing in Meghalaya

Sustainable diversification

Fish species diversification is a common practice by the fish farmer of the state and has been carried out in an extensive way with or without any assistance from the Government. It has been noted that this has helped the farmer particularly in Ri Bhoi District and in Garo hills District having the favourable climatic condition that culture of Air breathing fishes as other minor carps like Labio Gonious, Labio Bata, Cirhinus Cirhosa and others have improved the livelihood condition of the farmer in these regions.

Seeds

Seeds are the major requirement by the fish farmer of the state. Since time immemorial the state is dependent on neighbouring state of Assam and West Bengal and this is a major drawback as the seeds supplied are not upto the desired quality. Looking into this sector with serious concern the state fisheries Department during the 12th Plan period has established 12 nos. of Circular Eco-Hatcheries and 14 nos. of FRP hatcheries to augment fish seed production and to supply good quality seeds to the fish farmers. These hatcheries have been established in the private sector with 60% subsidy to the total unit cost. Further, under the funding of RKVY and NFDB schemes the Department is able to upgrade several Departmental fish farms which will serve the purpose of producing quality seeds in the state. The problem encountered in this field is the high mortality during fry stage which ultimately leads to low production of fingerling stage.

Livestock and fishery

The state has so far developed an approximate area of about 2500 hectare to support fish culture and production form individual as well as community fishery project. An approximate 8000 MT of fishes is being locally produced and consumed. Apart from this the state also has various fishery resources in the form of rivers and lakes which offers tremendous scope for developing the fishery sector but harnessing the potential of these natural resources is a major problem. The topography of the region makes it somewhat difficult to develop fishery on a commercial line. However rain water is being impounded through development of Rain water harvesting structures and small ponds for the production of fishes in the state. There are number of bheels and wetland in the plain areas of Garo Hills that have great potentiality for increasing the fish production.

Research and Extension

The State Department has one Research and Training Institute which carries out Extension and Training to Fish farmers as well as Fishery Supervisors and Demonstrators. However, various problems arise due to the absence of advance instruments in detecting and to carry out research in fish diseases. It is suggested that the State should have mobile laboratories so that analysis of water and soil may be carried out at the village level to upgrade and to standardize fish culture for optimum growth and production. One laboratory is also required for Fish disease management and Research and Analysis Unit for identification of Fish Genetics.