Krishi Karman awards were instituted in the year 2010-11 to reward the best performing States for raising country’s food grain production.
It is given to States which have increased the production of food grains and individual crops of Rice, Wheat, Pulses and Coarse Cereals.
There are 3 awards for the States with highest food grains production in 3 identified categories such as Category I (production > 10 million tonnes), Category II (production 1-10 million tonnes) and Category III (production < 1 million tonnes).
There are separate five awards for highest production of Rice, Wheat, Pulses and Coarse Cereals. There is no category for this.
In addition to above awards, Commendation Awards were given to States which achieved production and productivity higher over their previous highest in 4/5 years, yet could not qualify for Krishi Karman Awards.
The Award amount will be of Rs. 5 crore for total foodgrains category, Rs. 2 crore for individual crops category and Rs.1 Crore for Commendation Award.
This year, Tamil Nadu State has bagged the award for the production of food grains in the category I during 2015-16.
The award is given by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare.
Khondalite Rocks
Khondalite is a foliated metamorphic rock, named after the Khond tribe of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
The rock is rich in Quartz, Manganese, Schist and Graphite and contains Feldspar in some cases. It is also called Bezwada Gneiss and Kailasa Gneiss.
Khondalite, among the oldest rock varieties of the Eastern Ghat range is found between Vijayawada (A.P) and Cuttack (Odisha).
These rocks were formed when the Eastern Ghat belt was faulted and buried. It was uplifted later, bringing these metamorphic rocks to the surface.
The rock formation is found near the Thotlakonda Buddhist site in Vishakapatnam.
China’s first Cargo Spacecraft
Tianzhou-1 is the china’s first cargo spacecraft launched by Long March Rocket form Hainan province.
SAUNI Yojna
Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation Yojna is a project to divert flood waters of Narmada to Saurashtra region and fill up the reservoirs through giant pipelines.
There are two link canals through which the water is diverted. Link I takes water to Jamnagar and Dwarka districts and Link II to Botad, Bhavnagar and Amreli Districts.
These two pipelines are designed to pump Narmada water in 17 identified dams in the regions such as Krushnasagar dam, Bhimdad dam (Botad), Bhogavo dam etc.
SAUNI project targets to provide irrigation water for 10.22 lakh acres of land in Saurashtra region.
