ASSAM
Pig farming crisis in Assam
Assam is a well known place for all the pork lovers. If we only talk about north-east, there are many star entrepreneurs residing in this area because of pig industry. Therefore, the state is now the pioneers of pig and pork production making it the largest pork yielding state, not just in the Northeast, but also in India.
The future of pork industry is very bright. This industry has soul potential especially in this region where people consume lots of pork. The birth of many “solopreneurs” or small scale businesses run by a single entity.
It is a mater of satisfaction because women living in various remote areas earn through this business for their day-to-day expenses like education, healthcare and other belongings which indirectly contributes in their empowerment.
Everything was going good, out of nowhere pandemic COVID-19 happened and like as all sort of business, pig industry suffered a lot. The sudden onset of the deadly and highly contagious African Swine Fever (ASF) poses a serious threat to not only the pig industry in the North-eastern states but the entire economy of this region as pig breeding is the principal source of income for the rural inhabitants in Assam and other states of Northeast India region.
The ASF is said to have originated in Tibet; the virus reached India primarily via Arunachal Pradesh and Assam wreaking havoc on the pig industry. It spreads due to close contact with infected pigs, food waste, garbage, and biological carriers like ticks. Thankfully, the disease doesn’t pose any threat to humans but it is highly fatal and contagious for pigs (alive or dead). Usually, the animals symptoms are nausea, diarrhoea, hemorrhaging of the skin, poor appetite and many others.
The major problem at hand for the Assam state government of late is the ire it faces from the local pig farmers. The reason being the government banning the transportation, buying and selling of livestock for farming, pork and other meats to prevent transmit of the fatal virus (ASF) to stop the contagion to other North-eastern states.
The joint pig population of Punjab and Haryana is over 1.5 lakh. Assam’s pig production is the highest in India which is over 21 lakh. The total pig production of the Northeast (excluding Sikkim) is over 42 lakh which is almost 50 per cent of India’s entire pig population. And the entire pig population of the rest of India (excluding Punjab and Haryana) is more than 89 lakh, according to The 20th Livestock Census of India, 2019.
One can infer that the nations entire pig population is at risk due to fulfilling the interests of a few farmers of Punjab and Haryana. So the feeling of being ignored by the Central government gives us an insight into the heart-wrenching scenario of the helpless pig breeders in the Northeast.
The floods in Assam have undone all the good work to curtail the outbreak of ASF as incessant rains have made it very tough to completely discard the contaminated corpses of the livestock.
It won’t be wrong to say that a complete ban is essential on movement of pigs to the Northeast with immediate effect to prevent it from further escalating into a national crisis along with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The developed world has also struggled to control ASF. Bio-security and culling is the most common method. The right infrastructure is must to carry out culling efficiently as expenses are there and many farms are in remote areas; so they don’t have access to medical care. There is a plan in place with the right technical ability to check the culling process.
Assam and the other North-eastern states have faced unemployment since very long time. But the news of pig supply to this region from other states has created a sense of disgrace to all the small-scale pig farmers. Fact of the matter is we are heading towards large-scale unemployment.
Steps should be taken to overcome ASF as well as COVID-19 by government so that up to some extent our indigenous people can survive and this industry can revive it’s own potential in NE region.
NORTH-EASTERN STATES
Assam, Mizoram CMs talk about amicably resolving border standoff
Chief ministers of Mizoram and Assam talked about amicably resolving the inter-state border standoff.
Sources said Union home minister Amit Shah had asked both states to ensure peace and sort things out amicably. The clashes in which six Assam policemen died had erupted days after Shah discussed the inter-state border disputes in the Northeast with the chief ministers of the region.
The border dispute between Assam and Nagaland dates back to 1963 when Nagaland was carved out of Assam.
Sources said an agreement on the lines of the Assam-Nagaland pact, where the state forces would withdraw and their space would be taken up by neutral force to maintain order, might be reached. Both states will also maintain status quo on the border, not allowing any fresh encroachment or construction till a final decision is taken.
Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts of Assam share a border with Mizoram’s Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts. The border dispute started after Mizoram was carved out of Assam in 1972. The length of the border is 164km.
While Mizoram claims the inner-line reserve forest area as the actual boundary between the two states, Assam relies on the constitutional boundary drawn by the Survey of India in 1933. Mizoram says the 1933 boundary had been “imposed” on it.
The inner-line reserve forest was notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873. It was demarcated by the British to protect tribal land and not allow non-tribals to intrude.
INTERNATIONAL
World Breastfeeding Week – 1st Week of August
The World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is marked once a year within the initial week of August, between one to seven August, to lift awareness on the importance of breastfeeding for mothers and infants.
Highlights:
The theme of the planet Breastfeeding Week 2021 is “Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility”. The annual week is organized by WABA, the UN agency and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund since 1991. Breastfeeding provides each kid with the most effective potential to begin in life. It delivers health, biological process and emotional advantages to each youngster and mother. And it forms a part of a property food system. However, whereas breastfeeding could be an action, it’s not continually simple. Mothers would like support – each to urge started and to sustain breastfeeding.
NISER – Joint Mission of ISRO and NASA
The ISRO-NASA joint mission NISER (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite, aimed at making international dimension of land floor adjustments using superior radar imaging, is proposed to be launched in early 2023.
dual-band (L-band and S-band) radar imaging mission with the functionality of full polarimetric and interferometric modes of operation to have a look at minor adjustments inland, vegetation and cryosphere.
NASA is creating L-band SAR and related structures, whilst ISRO is creating S-band SAR, spacecraft bus, the launch automobile and associated launch services. The essential scientific goals of the mission are to enhance the perception of the influence of local weather trade on Earth’s altering ecosystems, land and coastal processes, land deformations and cryosphere. NISER is one of the integral collaborations of the ISRO and NASA. India and the U.S. had agreed upon this mission in then-President Barack Obama’s go-to India in 2015.
NATIONAL
First Indian Women to Win Two Olympic Medals
PV Sindhu, a 26-year-old badminton player, has turned out to be the first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals after defeating ‘He Bingjiao’ of China.
Highlights:
♦ Sindhu defeated ‘He Bingjiao’ via 21-13, 21-15 in the women’s singles bronze medal match at Tokyo Olympics 2020.
♦ She is the 1st Indian girl to win Olympic silver and the first Indian girl to finish on the podium two instances at the Olympics.
♦ At the Rio Olympics, Sindhu had won women’s singles badminton silver in her Olympics debut.
Operation Blue Freedom – Team CLAW
The Government of India has accorded sanctions to Team CLAW to steer a team of individuals with disabilities to scale Siachen ice mass and make a replacement record for the most important team of individuals with disabilities.
This is the land record expedition a part of ‘Operation Blue Freedom Triple World Records’ being undertaken.
Triple Elemental World Records could be a series of world records being tried by the team in 2021 of collectives of individuals with disabilities achieving nice feats toward land, in air and underwater.
Team CLAW: Team CLAW (Conquer Land Air Water) could be a team of ex-Indian Special Forces commandos.
Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana by Government of India
A ‘Samajik Adhikarita Shivir’ for distribution of aids and helpful devices to ‘Divyangjan’ beneath the ADIP theme and to Senior voters beneath the ‘Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana’ was unionized by the Ministry of Social Justice and authorisation, Government of India.
Key Points:
♦ Objective: To help the impoverished disabled persons in procuring sturdy, refined and scientifically factory-made, modern, customary aids and appliances which will promote their physical, social and psychological rehabilitation, by reducing the consequences of disabilities and enhancing their economic potential.
♦ Implementation: Through implementing agencies like NGOs, National Institutes beneath the Ministry of Social Justice & authorisation and ALIMCO (a PSU that manufactures artificial limbs).
Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana:
Coverage: Senior voters, happiness to BPL class and full of any of the age-related disability/infirmity Low vision, disability, Loss of teeth and locomotive incapacity.
Assistance is provided within the type of distributing Assisted-living devices which may restore close to normalcy in their bodily functions, overcoming the disability/infirmity manifested free-of-cost.
Funding: Central Sector theme. The expenditure for implementation of the theme are met from the “Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund “.