18TH JULY
Contents
MAHARASHTRA GOVT. LAUNCHED NEW EV POLICY 2021
KERALA GOVT. LAUNCHED CAMPAIGN ‘MATHRUKAVACHAM’
INDIA, SRI LANKA & MALDIVES VIRTUAL TRILATERAL EXERCISE
KISAN SARATHI LAUNCHED TO FACILITATE FARMERS
AI BASED GRIEVANCE ANALYSIS APP ‘CPGRAMS’
FIRST GREEN HYDROGEN MOBILITY PROJECT
INDIA’S FIRST POD TAXI TO BE OPERATED IN NOIDA
MAHARASHTRA GOVT. LAUNCHED NEW EV POLICY 2021
- The Maharashtra state government has launched the new Electric Vehicle Policy-2021.
- The policy announced by the State Environment Minister, Aaditya Thackeray aims to accelerate the adoption of Battery Electric Vehicles in the country.
- The new EV policy introduced in Maharashtra is a revision of the 2018 policy. It is introduced with an aim to make Maharashtra the “topmost producer of battery-powered electric vehicles in India.”
- The policy also aims for electric vehicles (EVs) to make up 10 percent of all new vehicle registrations, by 2025.
- For this ambitious mission, the state government has rolled out an Rs. 930 crore policy, valid up to 31st March 2025. To make this successful, EVs will be exempted from road tax and registration charges.
- Maharashtra Governor: Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
- Maharashtra CM: Uddhav Thackeray.
(SOURCE: JAGRAN JOSH)
KERALA GOVT. LAUNCHED CAMPAIGN ‘MATHRUKAVACHAM’
- The Kerala government’s campaign ‘Mathrukavacham’ to vaccinate all the pregnant women in the state against COVID-19 infection was inaugurated at the district level recently.
- Spot registrations for vaccination of pregnant women would be carried out at various government hospitals.
- Pregnant women can receive the COVID vaccine at any time during their pregnancy. The special vaccination drive comes as a strong defence to protect pregnant women.
- About the campaign: Vaccination will be made available in all district hospitals as part of the model program. In the beginning, the covid vaccine will be given to 100 pregnant women through spot registration.
- The State Health Ministry assured that in the coming days, covid vaccination for more pregnant women will be made accessible in all hospitals, depending on the availability of the vaccine.
(SOURCE: NEWS INDIAN EXPRESS)
INDIA, SRI LANKA & MALDIVES VIRTUAL TRILATERAL EXERCISE
- Top defence officials from India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives participated in a virtual trilateral tabletop exercise “TTX-2021”.
- The exercise focused on maritime crimes like curbing narcotics and assistance in maritime search and rescue in the region.
- The two-day exercise, TTX-2021 aimed at enhancing mutual understanding and exchange of best practices procedures for countering common transnational crime was coordinated by the Maritime Warfare Centre, Mumbai.
- About the exercise: TTX-2021 exemplifies the deep trilateral engagement between India-Maldives-Sri Lanka which has strengthened immensely in the maritime domain over the past years.
- Interaction between the three neighbouring countries in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has also grown significantly in recent years, in consonance with India”s policy of ‘Neighbourhood First” and vision of ‘Security and Growth for all in the Region (SAGAR).
(SOURCE: LIVE MINT)
KISAN SARATHI LAUNCHED TO FACILITATE FARMERS
- In order to facilitate farmers to get ‘right information at right time’ in their desired language, a digital platform namely ‘KisanSarathi’ was launched jointly by Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
- This initiative of KisanSarathi empowers farmers with technological interventions to reach farmers in remote areas.
- The ICAR Scientists to take-up research on new technological interventions in the area of transportation of farmer’s crop from their farm gate to warehouses, markets and the places where they want to sell with minimum damage.
- Union IT Minister assured that Ministry of Electronics and IT and Ministry of Communications will always be ready to provide all necessary support to Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying for Empowerment of Farmers.
- He also mentioned that the Ministry of Railways is making a plan to minimise the time taken for the transportation of crops.
(SOURCE: FINANCIAL EXPRESS)
AI BASED GRIEVANCE ANALYSIS APP ‘CPGRAMS’
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has launched a mobile application, called CPGRAMS to lodge grievances using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools.
- The Raksha Mantri was briefed that this AI-powered application will automatically handle and analyse the complaints of the people and would reduce human intervention, save time and bring more transparency to their disposal.
- This is the first AI-based system developed to improve grievance redressal in the Government. The AI tool developed as part of the initiative has the capability to understand the content of the complaint based on the contents therein.
- As a result, it can identify repeat complaints or spam automatically. Based on the meaning of the complaint, it can categorise complaints of different categories even when keywords normally used for such search are not present in the complaint.
- It enables geographical analysis of complaints in a category including analysis of whether the complaint was adequately addressed or not by the concerned office.
- Easy user-friendly search enables the user to formulate his own queries/categories depending on management requirements and seek performance results based on the query.
(SOURCE: THE HINDU)
FIRST GREEN HYDROGEN MOBILITY PROJECT
- NTPC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the UT of Ladakh and the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) to establish India’s first Green Hydrogen Mobility project.
- Leh will be the first city in India to implement a zero-emission green hydrogen mobility project. In the beginning, NTPC intends to operate 5 hydrogen buses.
- The first solar installations by NTPC in Leh, in the form of solar trees and a solar carport, were also unveiled.
- About Green Hydrogen: Color tabs categorise the sources and processes used to produce hydrogen. Grey hydrogen is hydrogen derived from fossil fuels, and it accounts for the vast majority of hydrogen produced today.
- Blue hydrogen is hydrogen that is produced from fossil fuels and has carbon capture and storage capabilities.
- Green hydrogen is hydrogen that is produced entirely from renewable energy sources. Renewable energy electricity is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
(SOURCE: JAGRAN JOSH)
INDIA’S FIRST POD TAXI TO BE OPERATED IN NOIDA
- Indian Port Rail and Ropeway Corporation Ltd (IPRCL) has prepared a Detailed Project Report or DPR for the pod taxi service between Noida Airport at Jewar and Film City.
- There are plans to run a driverless taxi between the two destinations. This will cost about Rs 862 crore, according to the detailed project report (DPR) submitted to the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida).
- This is a 14 km stretch. This will be India’s first pod taxi service. Pod taxis can accommodate four to six passengers per car.
- This important project will provide smooth connectivity to residential and industrial areas falling between film city and the Noida International Airport.
- As per the DPR, the corridor will pass through various sectors such as 21, 28, 29, 30 and 32, among others, falling under the Yeida region.
(SOURCE: TIMES OF INDIA)