ASSAM
Barak Valley no longer lagging behind: Sonowal
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday inaugurated the Bio-Diversity Park at Dholai constituency, which is one among the 24 parks across the state.
Speaking about the need for the bio-diversity park, the Chief Minister said “this will be a major centre of attraction for tourists. The trees planted here will send a message to the youths and students on why people must protect and conserve nature.”
He was quick to inform that the park is dedicated to former Prime Minister Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
According to officials of the Department of Forest, the bio-diversity park is the first of its kind in Cachar district. “The park has been built across seven hectares of land by utilising Rs 21 lakh from the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAMPA).
The park, which is otherwise known as Sahitya Manishi Upavan, will house 1,000 species of herbal trees, 700 of which have already been planted. There will be proper arrangement for keeping animals, including deer and elephants,” said Minister of Forest and Environment Parimal Suklabaidya.
INTERNATIONAL
Japan aerospace agency to launch H3 rocket in 2021
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency- JAXA announced that it will launch its flagship rocket H3 to pave the way for the next generation of transportation technologies.
Japan’s H3 launch vehicle is its new flagship rocket that aims at achieving high reliability, flexibility, and higher-cost performance.
The launch capability of H3 to the geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) will be the highest ever.
As per JAXA, it will be exceeding that of existing H-IIA and H-IIB launch vehicles.
Bangladesh to be country of focus at 51st International Film Festival of India
Bangladesh will be the country of focus at the 51st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) starting at Goa on January 16.
Four films from Bangladesh have been included in this section to recognise the cinematic excellence and contribution of the country.
The country of focus section will include Jibandhuli directed by Tanvir Mokammel, Meghmallar directed by Zahidur Rahman Anjan, Under Construction by Rubaiyat Hossain and Sincerely Yours, Dhaka by Nuhash Humanyun, Syed Ahmed Shawki and 9 other individual directors.
The festival will conclude on 24th January. It is being organised in a hybrid format considering the Corona pandemic.
NATIONAL
Union Minister Harsh Vardhan inaugurates Coastal Research Vessel ‘Sagar Anveshika’
The Union Science and Technology Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan launched state-of-the-art vessel ‘Sagar Avneshika’, at Chennai Port Trust in Chennai.
The vessel ‘Sagar Avneshika’ will enable the scientists to launch deep ocean mission for ocean exploration.
The research ship ‘Sagar Avneshika’ has been developed by the Titagarh Marine Limited, Kolkata for the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai.
It would boost multi-disciplinary research on oceanography along the Indian coast, deepen understanding of the ocean, transform India’s ocean research activities and boost blue economy.
Indian Navy to coordinate largest coastal defence exercise Sea Vigil-21
Indian Navy will coordinate the second edition of its largest coastal defence exercise Sea Vigil-21.
The inaugural edition of the exercise was conducted in January 2019.
The two-day biennial pan-India coastal defence exercise, will be undertaken along the entire 7,516-kilometre long coastline.
The exercise will also include Exclusive Economic Zone of the country and will involve all the 13 coastal States and Union Territories along with other maritime stakeholders.
It will also include the fishing and coastal communities.
The entire coastal security set up was reorganised after the 26/11 Terror attack at Mumbai which was launched via the sea route.
Road Safety Week 2021: 11-17 January
Road Safety Week is observed from January 11th to January 17th every year.
It aims at making the roads and streets in India safer.
During this week-long yearly campaign, the government spreads awareness about how to drive safely in order to avoid accidents and injuries.
The event promotes work that everyone can do to stop the prevalence of needless deaths every day.
This year, we are celebrating 32nd Road Safety Week and its theme is “Safe yourself to save your family”.
ISRO to adopt 100 Atal Tinkering Labs across country to promote education
Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO will adopt one hundred Atal Tinkering Labs across the country to promote education in the field of Space Education and Space Technology related innovations for school students.
This will help in promoting innovation and the spirit of experiential learning among the school kids compared to traditional learning.
This project based learning will improve the attitude towards research right from the school days.
To foster entrepreneurship and innovation, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog has established over seven thousand Atal Tinkering Labs across the country.
Cabinet likely to approve Rs 3,500 crore sugar export incentive
The cabinet is likely to approve the sugar export incentive scheme of approximately Rs 3,500 crore on Wednesday, sources said. They added the government would provide Rs 6 per kg incentive to sugar manufacturers to export about 60 lakh tonnes of the sweetener. This incentive will help sugar millers to release the dues of canbe farmers and the incentive will be linked to clearing such dues.
This will be the third such export incentive by the government in three years in a row to help reduce the glut and prop up local prices. On earlier occasions, the government had made these announcements on October 1.
In the 2019-20 sugar season, an export subsidy of Rs 10,448 a tonne had helped India export a record 57 lakh tonnes of sugar.
Conviction rate for crimes under IPC improved marginally in 2019
The all-India chargesheeting rate for crimes under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that were investigated in 2019 was 67.2%, a slight dip from 68.1% in 2018, while the conviction rate improved marginally to 50.4% from 50% in 2018.
In Uttar Pradesh, which is in the news due to Hathras atrocity, the conviction rate for IPC crimes was 59.2% in 2019, while the conviction rate for crimes against women was 55.2%, best among the bigger states and also higher than the all-India average of 23.7%.
As per the ‘Crime in India’ data for 2019 released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on Tuesday, disposal of crimes registered under the special and local laws (SLL) – such as Dowry Prohibition Act, Excise Act, Arms Act and POCSO Act – in 2019 was better than in IPC crimes with 93.3% all-India chargesheeting rate, up from 92.2% in 2018, and 80.3% conviction rate, down from 81.8% in 2018.
Among the states, the conviction rate for all IPC crimes was highest in Kerala (85.1%), followed by Tamil Nadu (63.2%). The states with a low conviction rate in 2019 were Bihar (6.1%) and West Bengal (13.4%), though the figure for West Bengal pertains to 2018 as the 2019 data was not submitted to NCRB by the state.