Cabinet approves policy on
Promotion of City Compost
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The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given
its approval for a Policy on Promotion of City Compost.
Features of the Policy:
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A provision has been made for Market development assistance of Rs. 1500 per
tonne of city compost for scaling up production and consumption of the product.
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Market development assistance would lower MRP of city compost for farmers.
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Compost from city garbage would not only provide carbon and primary/secondary
nutrients to soil but also help in keeping the city clean.
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Composting can reduce the volume of waste to landfill/dumpsite by converting
the waste into useful by-products. This also prevents production of harmful
greenhouse gases (especially methane) and toxic material that pollutes
groundwater apart from polluting the environment. City Waste composting would
also generate employment in urban areas.
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A joint mechanism will be set up by Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of
Urban Development and Department of Agriculture to monitor and facilitate
availability of adequate quantity of City Compost at terms mutually agreeable
between compost manufacturers and Fertilizer Marketing companies.
ISRO-KISR joined hands cooperation
in the area of outer space
Memorandum
of Understanding has been inked between the Department of Space / Indian Space
Research Organization (DOS/ISRO) and Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research
(KISR) to cooperate & use of outer space for peaceful purposes.
Key facts:
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It will help in terms of building and launching of remote sensing and
communication satellites on commercial terms.
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It will enable to use the data from Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites by
KISR for initiating research and application project.
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Formation of Joint Working Group will also be set-up, consisting of
members from ISRO and KISR to work on the plan of action related to space
technology for the sake & benefit of humanity.
>>
Core areas of the MoU:
1.
Exploration of remote sensing of the earth,
2.
Satellite communication
3.
Satellite navigation and space science.
CCEA approves 5000 MW of
Grid-connected Solar PV Power Projects
Cabinet
Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given its nod for setting up over 5,000
MW of Grid-Connected Solar PV Power Projects on build, own and operate
basis.
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Under Batch-lV of Phase-ll of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission
(JNNSM), the projects will be executed by solar Power Developers (SPDs)
with Viability Gap Funding (VGF).
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Expected cost of the project: Rs 30,000 crore
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The project will be set up in 4 trenches of 1,250 MW capacity of each viz.
2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.
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The project will facilitate employment to 30,000 people in rural and urban
areas and thereafter will generate 8,300 Million units per year benefiting
about 2.5 Million households.
Himalayan Forest Thrush: New
bird species found in India
A
new species of birds has been discovered in the snow-capped mountains of the
Himalayas.
Key Points:
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The new bird has been named as the Himalayan Forest Thrush.
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The scientific name of the bird is Zoothera salimalii. The name 'salimalii' is
commemorative of the great Indian ornithologist Salim Ali.
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It is mostly found in the northeastern India and parts of Tibet, Nepal and
China.
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The Himalayan Forest Thrush is a variant of the Plain Backed Thrush and the
European Alpine Thrush.
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Professor Per Johan Alstrom, a former member of the Uppsala University in
Sweden, first noticed the distinctive call of the Himalayan Forest Thrush back
in 1999, during a trip to Arunachal Pradesh.
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Alstrom, along with his Indian colleague Shashank Dalvi, noticed the two
distinctive variants of the Plain Backed Thrush that occurred at different
elevations of the mountains.
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One set of the bird sang a harsh tune sitting above tree line of the forest,
while the other set of the bird churned out a tuneful call sitting below the
tree line.
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Unable to find any physical distinction between the two sets of birds, Alstrom
spent several years defining the difference.
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He collected samples of birds of India and China from the 15 museums around the
world and studied them for several years.
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The study of birds also included DNA tests that confirmed the difference
between the two species. The two species evolved differently to adapt with the
different conditions of the peaks and the mountain forests.
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During their trips to India and China, Alstrom has also found a Chinese
sub-species of the Himalayan Forest Thrush and named it as the Sichuan Forest
Thrush.
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