23-24.01.22

Meghalaya Living Root Bridges

by

A living root bridge is suspension bridge across small streams. They are built using living plant roots. These root bridges are common in Meghalaya. They are hand made. They are built using rubber of fig trees. They are built by the local Jaintia and Khasi people. Recently, the India has sought UNESCO World Heritage Tag for these bridges.

The bridges are locally calledjingjieng jri.These bridges are 50 metres to 1150 metres above the sea level. Their maximum length is around 50 metres. Their width is around 1.5 metres. They are strong to stand for 500 years! The bridges are healthy as long as the trees from which the bridges are made are healthy.

Root Bridges in other regions

Root bridges are also built by the Nagaland people. Also, the root bridges are built by Baduy people of Java.

Fall in eastern swamp deer count at Kaziranga National Park

by

Floods have reduced the number of vulnerableeasternswamp deer inKaziranga National ParkandTiger Reserve(KNPTR), which has been counted for the first time in the whole KNPTR on January 10 and 11.

Prior to this, the process was only done in Kaziranga National Park.

The official said this is mainly due to two high floods in the intervening period, that is, 2019 and 2020. Territory wise, 786 undereastern Assamdivision, 62 under Biswanath wildlife division and 20 under Nagaon wildlife division have been recorded by experienced and trained wildlife experts from outside the forest department. In the field exercise for census of the vulnerable eastern swamp deer, 29 enumerators and 112 forest personnel were directly involved.
On the other hand in the fourth wetland bird estimation 2021-2022, carried out from December 21 to 27, encompassing the whole tiger reserve, a total of 66,776 birds of 126 species were enumerated using point count method.

Bloomberg Challenge: R’kela in Top 15 Cities

by

Smartcity Rourkela ranks among the Top 15 Cities of the world under the Bloomberg Global Mayors Challenge 2021.

This makes the city eligible for a grant of USD 1 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies and technical assistance to carry out innovation over the next three years.

Rourkela, one of the five Municipal Corporations and a leading industrial town of Odisha, is the only Indian city to make the honour.

Under Global Mayors Challenge, Rourkela has developed a sustainable model which augments the income of women and small time traders of the city while promoting the use of technology.

As part of the project, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) has developed a cold storage facility at the local Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) Market in partnership with a NIT Rourkela based startup and managed by women self help group members.

With the solution, the local farmers and fruit traders have been able to enhance their income by preserving their produce and preventing any wastage.

In addition, fresh vegetables and fruits are delivered to people’s doorsteps, especially in times of Covid 19. All of this is being managed by members of women self help groups using mobile apps.

While developing the ecosystem and helping all the stakeholders, the model helps the women largely in augmenting their livelihoods.

Notably, 99 countries from around the world took part in the Global Mayors Challenge held in June 2021. At a critical time such as the Covid pandemic, the competition focused on proposals from 630 cities on economic recovery and overall growth, health and welfare, climate and environment, and good governance and equality. Of these, 50 cities, including Rourkela, were finalists among proposals for innovative and modern projects. Currently, Rourkela is the only city from India to have made the cut among top 15 cities globally.

Tamil Nadus Republic Day tableaux for Centre get ready for statewide display

by

Owing to the controversy surrounding rejection ofTamil Nadus Republic Daytableauxfeaturing freedom fighters, public interest around them has increased. Now, artisans and officials are striving to make a good tableaux that will be paraded in Chennai on January 26.

Three floats on Tamil Nadu in freedom struggle will feature icons such as Subramania Bharati, V O Chidambaram, Velu Nachiyar and Maruthu Pandiyar brothers.

One of the floats will have Velu Nachiyar, the first queen to fight the British, riding a horse with a sword with women soldiers holding spears.
Police and other uniformed personnel conducted rehearsals on Kamarajar Salai.

Govt plans law to rein in private deemed varsities

by

State government is planning to bring in a piece oflegislationas part of exploring limited options to maintain control over thedeemed to be universitiesthat are about to come up in the state inprivate sectorsooner than later.

As part of the move, the state higher education department has issued an order early this month engaging theKerala state higher education council(KSHEC) to prepare and submit to the government a detailed report on the broad outline within which the deemed to beuniversities can be allowed to function. The order clearly mentions what triggered the department to order an immediate study by the council.

The UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations 2019 leaves little elbow to the state government to exercise discretionary powers to resist or deny eligible institutions from seeking and obtaining deemed to be university status from the UGC. According to the regulations, an institution applying for the deemed to be university status should satisfy a set of eligibility conditions such as it should have been in existence for not less than 20 years, should have NAAC accreditation with at least 3.26 CGPA for three consecutive cycles. In case of technical institutions, two-third of the eligible programmes should be accredited by NBA.

Data gaps threaten states fight against air pollution

by

An analysis of winter air pollution in South India, conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE, New Delhi), has revealed thatKarnatakashows major data gaps from the automated air-quality monitoring stations in the region under Continous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) program of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The analysis, covering 63 CAAQMS spread across the 39 cities in five southern states, has observed challenge of data gaps and data quality despite automation in Karnataka andTamil Nadu. The situation relatively better in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala. Among Bengaluru stations,Silk Boardhas only 61% while Peenya andJayanagarwith 64% and 68%. Only 12 out of 21 stations of Karnataka outside Bengaluru meet the minimum requirement of 75%. Its not clear why these stations have such poor data availability, this requires additional assessment, the analysis stressed.

Analysis has also stated that data availability calculated as number of days with adequate PM2.5 data for computation of a valid 24hr-average has been low in 19 of 39 cities of 5 states.

Telangana begins fever survey, to distribute 1 crore home isolation kits

by

Authorities inTelanganabegan a fever survey across the state on Friday to identify people with Covid-19 symptoms and distribute home isolation kits free of cost.

The state government said it has a crore home isolation kits ready for distribution among those who either tested positive for Covid or are having symptoms.

With the number of Covid cases rising in the state for the last three weeks, the medical and health department in coordination with municipal administration, panchayat raj and other departments launched the door-to-door survey.

Meanwhile, hundreds of workers are working round-the-clock to prepare home isolation kits for distribution across the state. Authorities were using playgrounds or other spacious premises in Hyderabad to prepare the kits.

Andhra Pradesh: Decision to merge schools leaves parents & teachers in a quandary

by

The state government’sdecisionto merge government schools in line with the Centre’s New Education Policy (NEP) is creating ripples among parents and teachers.
The government directed that the schools with Classes III, IV and V be mapped for merger with the high schools within 3-km.

Academicians say the decision is likely to increase the dropout rate among girls from rural areas as it would be difficult for them to go up to 3 km for a public school.

The state government said that children from Class-III to V crossing the man-managed railway level crossing gates to reach the schools should not be treated as barriers for merger.

Covid-19: At 45%, North Goa ranks 10th on all-India district positivity list

by

NorthGoas weeklypositivity rateat 45.09 is the 10th highest among all districts in the country for the week January 13 to 19.SouthGoas weekly positivity rate for the same period is relatively lower at 35.95% and ranks 38th among all districts.

North Goa, which welcomed tourist revellers during the festive season flouting allCovidprotocols, now has a weekly positivity rate higher than districts in Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, etc.

Only one district each in Nagaland, Himachal and Tamil Nadu, four in Arunachal Pradesh as well as Haryanas Faridabad and Keralas Thiruvananthapuram, have higher weekly positivity rates than Goa.
For months after the second wave save for a few occasions in September, October and November both Goas districts reported positivity rates below 2%.

Maharashtra issues maximum BH-series number plates

by

Maharashtrahas recorded maximum registrations — around 34% — of the total BH (Bharat)-series number plates registered around the country, latest statistics showed.

Said state transport commissionerAvinash Dhakne, This special number plate is beneficial for vehicle owners who have to move from one state to another which includes government as well as private jobs. It enables vehicle owners to avoid various registration issues faced earlier due to the inter-state shifting. In fact, the BH-series number plate registrations crossed the 1,000 mark in the state this week.

While Maharashtra issued 1,017 BH-number plates since it launched in October end last year,Odishaissued 444, Delhi 382, Rajasthan 326 and Uttar Pradesh 229. The total number of number plates issued in the country were 2,960, the statistics showed.

Until now, according to the Motor Vehicle Act 1988, a vehicle registered in a state when kept in another state for a period of more than 12 months is subject to the assignment of new registration. The registration process which was tedious in nature, has now been done away with after the launch of BH-series.