ASSAM

The small tea growers of the state have been deprived from getting genuine prices while selling green leaves due to lack of own production factories in the state.The tea growers have exhorted the state government as well BTAD administration to provide financial aid for setting up of tea production factories for self-reliance of the tea farmers.

Tea growers, members both from association and council across the state participated and discused about the daily wages for labour and their welfare initiatives which are to be paid from the concern growers.

There are nearly 3 lakh small tea growers across the state and four districts of BTAD region have over ten thousand small tea growers. Lakhs of labours are working in the small tea growers across the state and they are earning their livelihood. Presently,the small tea growers are offering Rs.135-150 per day as daily wage. The small tea growers alleged that due to lack of production facilities,the tea growers are deprived from getting genuine prices of green leaves.Presently, tea producers are getting only Rs.13-15 per kg green leaf which is not sufficient to run a small tea grower unit.

INTERNATIONAL

· Test-tube embryos may save the northern white rhinos from extinction

Scientists have grown hybrid embryosfrom the sperm of near-extinct northern white rhinoceroses in the laboratory, hoping to save the species.
The northern white rhino is the world’s most endangered mammal. The last male northern white rhino, Sudan is dead and 2 infertile females live in Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
Scientists did manage to collect around 300 milliliters of semen from the last four bull rhinos. They hope to reestablish the species population by In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technique. It is also hoped that this method will lead to a northern white rhino calf being born in 3 years.

· Turkey to sell four corvette warships to Pakistan

Turkey signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build four corvettes for Pakistan under the MiLGEM project in May 2017.
Two of the corvettes will be built in Istanbul while the other two in Pakistan’s Karachi.
Two corvettes will join the Pakistan Navy in 2023 and the remaining two in 2024.

NATIONAL

Rabies is the only disease that had a 100% death rate in India in 2017, compared to 12% for Japanese encephalitis and 6% for H1N1, popularly known as swine flu, according to data from the National Health Profile 2018.

There were 4,370 rabies deaths in India in 2016, which accounted for one in three of the world’s 13,340 rabies deaths.

ISRO carried out a major technology demonstration, the first in a series of tests to qualify a Crew Escape System, which is a critical technology relevant for human spaceflight.

The Crew Escape System is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.

The first test (Pad Abort Test) demonstrated the safe recovery of the crew module in case of any exigency at the launch pad.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has developed and launched a mobile app named ‘GST Verify’ to protect interest of consumers.

The application is to verify if the person collecting GST from the consumer is eligible to collect it or not.

Narla Bambal, a village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, received electricity connection and metalled road for the first time since Independence.
Road for that village was constructed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna.
The electricity is provided to the people of the village under Deen Dayal Upadhyay scheme.
Last month, the Central and State government also constructed ‘pucca houses’in Rajouri, for those living below poverty line, under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation(IRCTC) signed a MoU with the National Security Guard(NSG) at the headquarters of the special force, New Delhi. This system will eliminate the need for carrying railway warrants by the NSG personnel.
The NSG is the first central paramilitary force to opt for e-ticketing instead of the railway warrant under an agreement signed with the IRCTC. The IRCTC is also developing an e-ticketing-cum-warrant management system for the Central Reserve Police Force.

Union Minister of Coal, Piyush Goyallaunched the Coal Mine Surveillance & Management System (CMSMS) and Mobile Application ‘Khan Prahari’, which has been developed by CMPDI, Ranchi, a Subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL) and Bhaskarcharya Institute of Space Application and Geo-informatics (BISAG).
It aims to report, monitor and take suitable action on unauthorised coal mining activities.
For each complaint, the alert will go to the Coal India Offices, State Government Officers, District Magistrate and SP of the district.

The Union Cabinet approved the proposal of renamingAgartala Airportin Tripura as Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore Airport, Agartala.
The decision comes in the demand of both the people of Tripura as well as Government of Tripura for paying tribute to Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore.
Agartala Airport was constructed in 1942 on the land donated by Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore. Due to his initiative, an aerodrome at Agartala was constructed and it has now evolved into the second busiest airport in North East providing crucial air connectivity to Tripura.