HEADLINES
- Cabinet nod for 5% stake sale in NLC
NATIONAL
NEWS
- Panel on indecent depiction of women in India
- The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) announced that it had constituted a committee to finalise modalities for a media campaign against indecent portrayal of women in mass media
- The committee will be headed by WCD Additional Secretary K. Ratna Prabha and will comprise senior members from the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting among others. “The committee will work towards finalising modalities of a media campaign, through print and electronic media, to instil a sense of respect for women in all spheres of life
- The group will identify areas of cooperation between the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on all such issues that demand sustained public interest campaigns in print, electronic as well as social media
- Upstaging India, China to get 20% stake in Russian LNG project
- China National Petroleum Corp. on Friday signed an agreement with Russia’s biggest private gas producer Novatek to acquire a 20 per cent stake in the latter’s LNG project in Yamal Peninsular in the Arctic region of northeast Siberia, and to secure long-term LNG supplies from the plant to be built in 2018.
- ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) had bid for up to 20 per cent stake in the Yamal project in a tie-up with Petronet LNG and Indian Oil Corporation.
- Six rajasthan forts in UNESCO heritage list
- The six majestic forts of Chittorgarh, Kumbhalgarh, Jaisalmer, Ranthambhore (Sawai Madhopur), Gagaron (Jhalawar) and Amber (Jaipur)—were recognised as a serial world heritage site in the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in Pnom Penh, Cambodia
- Watershed management programme made flagship scheme
- The Cabinet approved Integrated Watershed Management Programme as a flagship programme of the government.
- The former area development programmes of the Department of Land Resources, including the Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP), the Desert Development Programme (DDP) and the Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP) have been integrated into a single modified programme called Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) and launched in 2009-10.
- Since the IWMP being an area development programme, all the people living in the area shall be benefitted by the program.
- Nearly 60 per cent of cultivated area across India is rain-fed. Further, these areas are also plagued by poverty, water scarcity, low productivity, malnutrition and prone to severe land degradation. The watershed development programme has been adopted as a tool to address problems of the rain-fed or degraded areas in the country.
- While 9 per cent of the project cost is earmarked for development of livelihoods for asset-less people, 10 per cent of the project cost is for productivity enhancement and development of microenterprises for small & marginal farmers
- The cost norm under the IWMP has been enhanced to Rs. 15,000 per ha in difficult and hilly areas, up to Rs. 15,000 per ha. in the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) districts and Rs. 12,000 per hectare in other areas.
- The scheme also entails involvement of primary stakeholders in the form of grassroots community organisations.
- The benefits that are expected to accrue under the IWMP include increase in availability of surface water & groundwater, changes in cropping pattern from one to two crops annually, increase in fodder availability and increase in milk yield, increase in agriculture productivity and increase in employment opportunities and household income.
- Defence and security cooperation high on agenda of talks between India-US dialogue
- Defence and security co-operation, besides energy and higher education, would rank high on the agenda of talks between India and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
- India will also seek from the U.S. information on the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar, besides putting across its concerns about the H1B and L category visas that have been cause for concern among the Indian industry, especially the IT sector.
- The issue of market access, nuclear liability bill and the American National Security Agency’s internet snooping programme are also likely to be discussed
- Pranab for colloboration with Dhaka in power sector
- India and Bangladesh should collaborate in the power sector and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s commitment to friendship with India is important for the progress of the subcontinent, President Pranab Mukherjee said at Palatana, 62 km south of Agartala, on Friday. He lauded Bangladesh for extending help to install a gas-based 726 MW project at Palatana
- OTPC has the privilege to have one of the largest Clean Development Mechanism projects of the world registered with the United Nations, they noted.
OPINION/EDITORIALS
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