Madhya Pradesh
- Government gears up to tackle flood, erosion
- The state water resources department (WRD) has geared up to combat flood and erosion caused by major and minor rivers flowing through the state, especially in northern plains.
- Fifteen of the 38 districts have been identified as high flood-prone and 13 districts as flood-prone. Although rainfall was normal last year, floods caused by rivers like Sone, Punpun and Falgu wreaked havoc in south Bihar.
- The forecast of the Indian Meteorological Department that the country will record normal rainfall this year has alarmed the WRD officials. Heavy rainfall in catchment areas of Nepal results in floods in north Bihar region almost every year. Sudden release of water into the Sone from Vansagar dam in Madhya Pradesh and high rainfall in the catchment areas in Jharkhand had resulted in floods in Gangetic basin.
- Madhya Pradesh to scale up solar power capacity to 50K KW this year
- The state has an ambitious objective cut out for itself. It is working on a plan to install rooftop solar power plants of 50,000 kilowatt capacity this year. With this, it aims at reducing 86,500 tons of carbon emissions in the environment.
- Official sources say with solar power plants of 10,000 KW capacity have been installed on buildings across the state and another 10,000 KW are near completion. The rooftop solar plants are not only good for environment.
- The renewable power generation capacity of state has gone up by more than 20 times in past six years.
- With setting up of world’s largest solar park of 750 MW capacity in Rewa district, which is likely to start production by end of 2018, the solar power capacity of the state will get doubled in next one and a half years.
- From 2012, when the solar power capacity was barely 37 MW, it went up to 800 MW by the end of year 2016.
- The solar rooftop plant installed on the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) at an investment of Rs 84 lakh will help save an equal amount of money by cutting power bills in around 4 years.
INTERNATIONAL
- Liu Xiaobo, Chinese dissident who won Nobel prize, dies.
- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, China’s most prominent political prisoner, died on Thursday at a hospital in the country’s northeast, officials said. He was 61.
- Chinese literary critic, writer, human rights activist who called for political reforms and end of communist single-party rule. He is also known for his role in 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing.
- Liu is the third person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention, after Germany’s Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi (1991).
NATIONAL
- New rules to protect policyholders.
- The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) has notified new rules to protect policyholder’s interest.
- If an insurer delays claims payments, it has to pay a penalty that’s 2% over the bank rate, which is specified by the Reserve Bank of India, as on 1 April of that fiscal.
- It has to do so within 30 days from when the decision to pay was taken.
- National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination in India (2017-22)
- The Strategic Plan gives year wise elimination targets in various parts of the country depending upon the endemicity of malaria in the next 5 years.
- Highlighting the salient features of the NSP, Shri Nadda stated that the strategies involve strengthening malaria surveillance, establishing a mechanism for early detection and prevention of outbreaks of malaria, promoting the prevention of malaria by the use of Long Lasting Impregnated Nets (LLINs), effective indoor residual spray and augmenting the manpower and capacities for effective implementation for the next five years.
- India to host 8th Edition of Theatre Olympics ‘The Biggest Theatre Celebration of the World’
- India will host the 8th edition of Theatre Olympics in 2018, the biggest theatre celebration of the world.
- The eight edition of the greatest carnival will start from February 17-April 08, 2018.
- The Theatre Olympics will take place simultaneously in various cities across the country.
- There will be five hundred plays and seven hundred ambience performances from across the world.
- Delhi government to start online RTI portal
- Delhi became the second state to launch e-RTI portal that will enable citizens to file online Right to Information (RTI).
- The Central government had launched its own online RTI application portal in 2013, which allowed users to file queries, pay application fee and submit requests for appeal.
- The Central government had urged the States to set up their own online application portals. Maharashtra had followed suit in 2015 with its own RTI portal.
- Dumping in Ganga will be fined from now.
- Penalty of Rs 50, 000 will be imposed on those dumping waste in the stretch between Haridwar and Unnao of River Ganga, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said.
- No waste dumping should be allowed within 500 meters from the edge of the Ganga. Also, 100 meters from the edge of the river should be declared a “no-development zone.
- The Tribunal directed the concerned authorities to complete the setting up of a sewage treatment plant and cleaning of drains within two years.
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