* Amit Shah (Union Home and Cooperation Minister) inaugurated the 48th All India Police Science Congress at the Central Police Training Academy, Bhopal. Dr. L Murugan (Union Minister of State for I&B) will also attend the event.

* He also attends the conference of forest committees and bonus distribution program to the Tendupatta pluckers at Jamboori Maidan, Bhopal.

* He will also start the process of transformation from forest village to revenue village.

* Mr. Shah also disclosed various programs like Police Technology Mission, Forensic Science University, and Finger Print Based NAFEES system launched for modernization of police..

Source : News On Air

Every year, April 22th is celebrated as International Mother Earth Day. The day is observed to create awareness about the rampant increase in pollution and other activities which directly or indirectly harm the environment and result in the destruction of the planet. The idea about the day came into existence after several challenges like pollution, and smog became major reasons for environmental damage. In the 1970s, EarthDaywas founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson to promote ecology and raise awareness of the concerns surrounding the earth.

History : Senator Gaylord Nelson was concerned about the deteriorating conditions of the planet so he decided to combine the student anti-war protest energy with an emerging public consciousness regarding air and water pollution. Senator Gaylord Nelson thought about coining Earth Day after he, just like the rest of the world, saw the horror of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.

 

Significance : The day is celebrated to shed light on the environmental issues which are surrounding our planet and take actions to save the environment.

 

International Mother Earth Day 2022 Theme :  The theme for this year’s International Mother Earth Day - ‘Invest in our Planet.’ Given that the time is short, the theme highlights the need for people to come together and start taking measures to protect biodiversity and the planet. Climate change is no longer a distant thing of the future and with increasing incidents of floods and fires, it is important to take stock of the situation and act accordingly..

Source : News18

California-based Biliti Electric Inc (Biliti) announced that it intends to setup the world’s largest electric three-wheeler factory in India’s "Telangana" state, with a production capacity of 240,000 electric vehicles each year. The new plant is estimated to drive private investment of $150 million and expected to create over 3,000 jobs in the State.

 

Biliti currently operates through an exclusive manufacturing partnership with Hyderabad- based Gayam Motor Works (GMW) for manufacturing its three-wheelers. 

 

Biliti’s Taskman is a popular last-mile delivery vehicle which is deployed in 15 countries across the globe including Japan, USA, UK, France, Portugal, Germany, Lebanon, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, Nepal, Bangladesh, Dubai and India, and has covered over 20 million miles. 

 

In addition to the manufacturing facility, it has assembly plants in the US, Portugal, and Kenya. Taskman is being used by Amazon, IKEA, Wasoko (Sokowatch), BigBasket (Tata), Zomato, Flipkart (Walmart), Grofers among others.

 

The facilities will be built in two phases over an area of 200 acres. Phase I will be developed over 13.5 acres with the capability to produce 18,000 vehicles per year and is expected to be operational in early 2023. 

 

The larger facility spread across 200 acres will be operational in 2024 and have the capability to produce 240,000 vehicles per year..

Source : Live Mint

Senior IAS officer "Naresh Kumar" has been appointed as the chief secretary of Delhi, a home ministry order issued on Tuesday(19th Apr 2022) said.

 

Kumar, a 1987-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer, has been transferred from Arunachal Pradesh to Delhi. He was holding the post of chief secretary of Arunachal Pradesh before the transfer.

 

"Consequent upon voluntary retirement of Vijay Dev, IAS (AGMUT:1987) , Naresh Kumar IAS (AGMUT:1987) is hereby appointed as chief secretary of GNCTD with effect from April 21, 2022 or with effect from date of joining, whichever is later," stated the order.

 

Kumar had earlier held the posts of chairman of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and managing director of the Delhi Transport Corporation(DTC) in his previous stint in Delhi.

 

Dev, who took voluntary retirement from the post of Delhi chief secretary, will take charge as the State Election Commissioner of Delhi on April 21.

 

The Home ministry order also said that Puduchery Chief Secretary Ashwini Kumar (Arunchal Goa Mizoram Union Territories (AGMUT): 1992) had been transferred to Delhi..

Source : India Today

Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, and AYUSH, said that the 1st Incredible India International Cruise Conference-2022 will be hosted in Mumbai.

 

The two-day event in Mumbai is being organised by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Mumbai Port Authority, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

 

The Minister noted during a news conference in Mumbai that the Indian cruise market had the potential to develop tenfold over the next decade, owing to increased demand and disposable incomes.

 

According to the minister, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Sagarmala programme connects the ports of Chennai, Vizag, and Andaman with Goa, which attracts the most tourists.

 

Sarbananda Sonowal also revealed the Conference’s brochure, logo, and mascot, Captain Cruzo. During the press conference, he also launched the event website, www.iiicc2022.in. The focus of the conference will be on Developing India as a Cruise Hub.

Source : Times Of India

The 3-day “Smart Cities, Smart Urbanization” conference had a grand opening in "Surat" 18th April 2022. The event is being organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India with Surat Smart City Corporation Development Ltd., under the clarion call of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM), given by Hon’ble Prime Minister to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Independence.

 

* The event’s chief guest was Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs. Gujarat’s Chief Minister, Shri Bhupendrabhai Patel, delivered a video message to the audience.

* Shri Kaushal Kishore, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Ms Darshana Jardosh, Shri Vinod Moradiya, Minister of Urban Development and Urban Housing, Government of Gujarat, Dr Audimulapu Suresh, Minister of Education, Andhra Pradesh, Shri C.R. Patil, MP, and Smt. Hemali Kalpeshkumar Boghawala, Mayor, Surat, were among those who attended the inaugural session.

* The event was attended by all key urban stakeholders from the Central and State Governments, including Secretary, MoHUA Shri Manoj Joshi, Principal Secretaries of States/UTs, Municipal Commissioners of Cities, MDs/CEOs of 100 Smart Cities, State Level Nodal Agencies/ Mission Directorates, professionals, industry representatives, media, and members of academia.

* During the inaugural, award winners of the India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) 2020 were honoured with an awards distribution ceremony. In 2021, these prizes were first announced during a virtual conference.

Source : PIB

The Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, "Jammu and Kashmir", under the e-governance initiative has launched an app ‘Jan Nigrani’, intended to help people lodge their complaints related to various schemes online. The Jan Nigrani app is a 24×7 internet-based platform aimed at reporting and resolving the grievances of the residents of J&K, against various government schemes launched by the department.

 

 

* The app would act as a single link between the residents and the officials by mapping concerned authorities related to the complaint about faster grievance redressal. The app has been developed as an e-governance initiative to provide a 24×7 platform to the people for redressal of their grievances.

* The application has been set at the block level with a seven-day time slot to redress any particular grievance. It will also check bogus or false complaints and can be downloaded from the Google play store of android software.

* The app would also facilitate accurate reporting of grievances using customised scheme-specific input forms to ensure minimal rejections on account of incomplete information.

Global FMCG firm Procter & Gamble on Tuesday(19th April 2022) announced the appointment of L V Vaidyanathan as the Chief Executive Officer for its operations in India from July 1, 2022.

 

Vaidyanathan will take over from Madhusudan Gopalan, who will be taking up a leadership role within P&G as Senior Vice President Grooming & Oral Care, P&G Japan and Korea, the company said in a statement.

 

Currently he is leading P&G business in Indonesia as CEO where he has been "responsible for industry-leading growth and value creation for the company", it added.

 

"Under his leadership, the Indonesian business has transformed to become value accretive for the parent company and has overtaken a formidable competitor in the market by turning around the share gap in the last four years," P&G said..

Source : Business Standard

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday(19th April 2022) inaugurated the new dairy complex and a potato processing plant at Diyodhar in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district, built at a cost of more than Rs 600 crore. 

 

According to a PMO release, the new dairy complex is a Greenfield project and will enable processing of approximately 30 lakh litres of milk, produce around 80 tonnes of butter, one lakh litres of ice cream, 20 tonnes of condensed milk or khoya and 6 tonnes of chocolate on a daily basis.  

 

While inaugurating, PM Modi said that while the expansion of activity at the dairy is extremely vital for the dairy sector, the project has also proven that other resources can be used for increasing the income of local farmers. 

 

He also said that milk production of 8.5 lakh crore rupees, dairy is emerging as a bigger medium of farmers income than traditional foodgrains, especially where landholdings are small and conditions are tough, according to the release.

 

Besides, potato processing can produce various types of processed potato plants like French fries, potato chips, aloo tikki, patties and others, most of which will be exported. The Prime Minister said that potato, honey and other related products are changing the destiny of the farmers..

Source : Business Today 

India’s first 99.999% pure Green Hydrogen pilot plant has been commissioned by the Oil India Limited (OIL) at its Jorhat Pump Station in Assam on April 20, 2022. The plant has an installed capacity of 10 kg per day. The plant produces Green Hydrogen from the electricity generated by a 500kW Solar plant using a 100 kW Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) Electrolyser array. The use of AEM technology is being used for the first time in India.

 

This plant is expected to increase its production of green hydrogen from 10 kg per day to 30 kg per day in future. The company has initiated a detailed study in collaboration with IIT Guwahati on the blending of Green Hydrogen with Natural Gas and its effect on the existing infrastructure of OIL. The company also plans to study use cases for commercial applications of the blended fuel.