E - Shakti is a pilot project of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
The project aims at digitisation of Self Help Groups (SHGs).
It was initiated to address certain concerns like improving the quality of book keeping of SHGs and to enable banks to take informed credit decisions.
National Deworming initiative
Health Ministry is going to launch 2nd round of National Deworming initiative to tackle Worm Infections in children
National Deworming initiative aimed to protect children in the ages of 1-19 years from intestinal worms (also known as Helminths).
Albendazole tablets will be given to all targeted children through Anganwadi centres and schools (incl. Private schools).
According to WHO, India has the highest burden of Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH) in the world.
National Deworming Day is organised twice in a year and it is the largest ever single-day public health campaign in the world.
BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise 2017
Recently, the first phase of the First ‘BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise- 2017’ is being organized by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation involving a group of countries in South Asia and South East Asia.
Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand and Bhutan are its members.
Its headquarters is in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The main objective of BIMSTEC is technological and economic co-operation among south Asian and South East Asian countries along the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
The ADB has become BIMSTEC’s development partner to undertake, promote and improve transport infrastructure and logistic among the BIMSTEC countries.
HySIS
Hyperspectral Imaging Satellite (HySIS) is a full-fledged earth observation satellite, going to be launched by ISRO.
Hyperspectral or Hyspex imaging enables distinct identification of objects on earth by reading the spectrum for each pixel of a scene from space.
The satellite has the Hyperspectral imager which can identify 55 spectral or colour bands from 630 km above ground.
It can be used for monitoring of environment, finding oil and minerals apart from military surveillance.
Hyspex was first tried out in Chandrayaan-1 mission which mapped the lunar mineral resources.
Radar Imaging Satellites
About a decade ago, ISRO added earth observation satellite with microwave or radar imaging.
The satellites named “RISAT 1 and RISAT 2” are the first all-weather earth observation satellites from ISRO.
They provide all-weather surveillance using Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR).
Previous Indian observation satellites relied primarily on optical and Spectral sensors which were hampered by cloud cover.
Asia’s 30 largest cities
The recent study by Oxford Economics ranked Asia’s 30 largest cities.
According to it, Delhi will have the fastest growth of any city in Asia, with the economy to be almost 50% larger in 2021 than it was at the end of the last year.
Indian cities are set to expand the most across the region, with growth speeding up from the past 5 years.
Financial and business services are projected to be the fastest growing sector in India.
China’s expansion will be slow and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam was the only non-Indian city in the top 5.
Quality Council of India
Ministry of Drinking water and Sanitation released the Rural Sanitation Survey undertaken by Quality Council of India.
According to it, almost all rural households in Kerala and Haryana had access to toilet while Bihar and UP were among the worst performers in it.
Quality Council of India is the accreditation authority of India.
It is an autonomous body under Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
It was created jointly by Government and Industry bodies such as CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM.
Chairman of QCI is appointed by Prime Minister on the recommendations of Industry to the Government.
Its objective is to establish and operate National accreditation structure, to monitor and administer the national quality campaign.
Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium
The Government established Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) as a Society in 1994 to facilitate agri-business ventures.
It encouraged ventures by catalyzing private investment through Venture Capital Assistance (VCA) in close association with financial institutions.
The setting up of State level SFAC as counterpart agency of Central SFAC for agribusiness projects was part of the Scheme.
One of the main functions of SFAC includes implementation of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Electronic Trading platform.
