28.08.21

The Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) has launched a regular Jungle Tea Toy Train Safari on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Route.

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Toy-train safari will run from Siliguri junction to Rongtong station in West Bengal.

This is the NRFs second attempt to attract tourists and improve tourism business in Darjeeling Himalayan RAILWAY (DHR).

Existing direct DHR Toy train service was discontinued for one and a half years due to covid-19 pandemic.

An Assam Assembly Committee found that the state Excise Department has not taken “sufficient steps” to prevent illegal liquor business along border areas and suggested forming an armed battalion of its own to control “accelerating” unlawful activities.

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The Departmentally Related Standing Committee on Development (A) Departments of Assam Legislative Assembly in its report for Excise Department for 2021-22 also said that many “set rules are being flouted” and asked the authorities to enforce them strictly.

The Committee observes that sufficient steps have not been taken by the concerned department in the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh in case of influx of liquor.

The state government has decided to introduce Chief Minister’s Medal For Excellence in Investigation for police officers and vigilance sleuths. In the first batch, 64 cops have been selected to receive the medals, which will be given under the governments 5T (transparency,teamwork,technology,timeframeand transformation) initiative.

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It must be noted the conviction rate in Odisha is one of the lowest in the country. As per the national crime records bureau (NCRB), the states conviction rate stood at 9.5% in 2015, 10.4% in 2016, 9.3% in 2017, 5.7% in 2018 and 21.5% in 2019.

E-Source will be used to tackle e-waste by linking stakeholders of the formal and informal economy.

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e-Source will act as an exchange platform to serve as an online marketplace for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).

It will also act as a formal supply chain between several stakeholders, including buyers and sellers.

This initiative is being headed by Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS).

According to IGCS team, problem of E-Waste can be resolved by connecting buyers and sellers of Used and Waste electronic equipment without compromising their interests.

To formalize e-waste handling and management, a novel open-source solution is needed which is data enriched and leveraging the potential of transparency because, e-waste either completely stripped down to get precious metals and other high-value materials or are dumped in landfills, without exploring potential re-use. Such unscientific recycling methods e-waste are harmful for waste handlers as well as Environment.

As per a study, world generates 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste annually. This amount is expected to double in next 16 years. Such waste is pressing issues in India as well. India is the worlds third-largest producer. It generated 38 percent more e-waste in between 2019-2020.

Indias first sea-goingsolarfishingboatswill be ready by Dec 2021 at Vypeen and Munambam inKerala. Funded by Shell Foundation, the independent charity arm of British-Dutch petroleum company, five boats are in various stages of development and the works are done by a startup named NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats.

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NavAlt made headlines when it launched a solar water taxi and the countrys first solar ferry in Kerala. As per estimates, a conventional small boat will consume 2,500 litres of fuel/year, which results in 5-6 tonnes of carbon emissions/year. Multiplied by 2.5 lakh boats in India, it gives the size of Carbon Emission, which is massive in terms of environmental impact.

The state government plans to introduce an amendment bill to formalise its decision of reducing stamp duty from 5 per cent to 3 per cent for flats priced between Rs 35 lakh and Rs 45 lakh. The cut was announced earlier.

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TheKarnatakaState Stamps (Amendment) Bill, 2021, is ready and it will be tabled in the legislative assembly and council in the monsoon session thats scheduled to begin on September 13, according to officials in theparliamentary affairs department.

The cabinet cleared the amendment for the stamp duty reduction last month and chief minister Basavaraj Bommai reportedly asked officials to bring the bill to the House on priority.

The Telangana government officials on Wednesday walked out from theKrishna River Management Board’s (KRMB) meeting after its chairman MP Singh reportedly asked them to stop power generation from Srisailam hydel power generation units.

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Singh said power generation from Srisailam would be allowed after meeting the water requirements for Irrigation and drinking water purposes in the basin.
The meeting was attended by irrigation officials from and Andhra Pradesh.

According to Telangana irrigation officials, irrigation special chief secretary informed the Board that earlier water allocations 512: 299 tmcft of total 811 tmcft in Krishna waters between AP and Telangana was temporary and applicable for only 2015-2016.

Asserting that freepowersupply to theagriculturesector will continue without any riders, chief ministerY S Jagan Mohan Reddysaid farmers of the state are not against fixing of meters to agriculture pumpsets as they have realised the meters will help them get better service from power utilities.

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He said farmers would not be required to pay a rupee during the entire transaction. The fixing of meters would enhance accountability and make discoms provide better Services. The meters would help officials keep track of the usage and shift load to new transformers or plan alternatives as and when required, Jagan said.

The CM also wanted Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture officials to encourage farmers to cultivate and discourage cultivation of paddy in areas where there is no canal to provide water. He also asked them to encourage farmers to switch to organic mode wherever possible.

Goa will become the first state in the country to supply freewaterto 60% of its citizens from Wednesday onwards, chief minister PramodSawantsaid. He launched the Save Water to GetFreeWater scheme on Tuesday under which households will not be charged for consumption of up to 16,000 litres.

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From September 1, 60% of the people of the state will not get water bills. Free water means zero water charges, zero meter rent and zero bills. Those covered under this will also not get sewerage bills.

Those living in housing societies would also be benefited as the water consumption of one meter would be divided among the total number of flats in the complex.

Advances in technology come with their own set of challenges. One such challenge is when miscreants use these advancements to suit their vested interests: case in point being the forging of paper-based documents using sophisticated graphics tools.It is in this context that the move by the Maharashtra government to partner with LegitDoc, an Indian blockchain start-up, signals intent on part of the authorities to tackle such misuse of technology. With this partnership, the Maharashtra government has reposed faith innew-age blockchain solutionsto fight fraud. The tie-up with LegitDoc will help the government issue tamper-proof diploma certificates.

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This bold step by the Maharashtra government comes at a time while the Union Government is yet to take a call on legalizing or banning cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. This new-age technology sidesteps solutions built on centralized architecture such as DigiLocker, that have a single point of failure irrespective of the protection levels that go into it.