ODISHA

BDA’s no to projects in eco-sensitive zones

In the wake of waterlogging in many low-lying areas across the city, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has decided to restrict development work in environmentally sensitive zones (ESZ) demarcated in the Master Plan of Bhubaneswar.
The BDA would also ask the builders and real estate developers to stop construction activities without complying with adequate drainage support for their projects, even if, they have the approval with them.

It is decided to invoke the provisions of newly-amended BDA (Planning and Building Standards) Regulations, 2018, regarding development activity near notified wetlands, lakes, reservoir, low-lying areas, environmentally sensitive zone and water bodies where the building and layout plan approval could only be given if the overall plan has sustainable drainage and low ecological impact based development.

As per the general regulations specified for ESZ, the minimum area for approval is 1 acre with maximum ground coverage of 40 per cent and there should be an approach road of 12 metres width.

It can be mentioned here that the ESZs are not only contributing immensely for the recharge of the underground water table, but also helping in containing the excess rainwater when the city was experiencing more and more rainfall.

Majority of the eco-sensitive zones were previously used as agricultural land. However, with the changed land use practices, the eco-sensitive zones have suffered a lot. Areas beyond Nandankanan like Khairapada, Barimund and parts of Maridia near Barang are also coming under ESZ. Apart from these areas, river banks and part of embankments are also coming under the ESZs.

INTERNATIONAL

· India and Ghana signed two Memorandum of Understanding

India and Ghana signed two agreements in an effort to enhance the bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar announced that two MOUs on Cultural Exchange Programme and on cooperation between Bureau of Indian Standards and Ghana Standards Authority.

· WhatsApp Messenger limits forwarding messages to five users

Whatsapp Messengerdecided to tackle the spread of fake news on its platform, instant messaging application and has limited the users can forward messages to only five people at a time.
The Facebook-owned application believes that these changes will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be a private messaging app.

· Two Plus Two Dialogue Between India and USA to Be Held In New Delhi

US State Department announced that the inaugural ‘two-plus-two dialogue’ between India and the United States will be held in New Delhi in September 2018.
Recently, the US had postponed the dialogue due to ‘unavoidable reasons’.
The Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis will travel to India for the dialogue with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

NATIONAL

Samagra Shiksha Scheme to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education
The Department of School Education and Literacy has formulated the Samagra Shiksha – an Integrated Scheme for School Education as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme and it is being implemented throughout the country with effect from the year 2018-19.

This programme subsumes the three erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).

It is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education.

Setting up of National Resource Centres for preparing online training material

The Government has proposed to set up National Resource Centres (NRCs) to prepare online training material with focus on latest developments in the discipline, new & emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum.

Under this initiative, all in-service teachers, irrespective of their subject and seniority have an enabling opportunity to keep abreast of the latest developments in their disciplines through the technology based online refresher course, through SWAYAM platform.

· Wildlife scientists has satellite collared a Dhole

A team of wildlife scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India(WII) have collared a dhole, the Indian wild dog, with a satellite transmitter. It is a measure taken to study and track the habits of the endangered species.
It took over 10 days for the scientists to track down a pack of 14 dholes in Bishanpura meadow in the Mukki range of the Kanha National Park. An adult female was tranquilised and tested for its health. The scientists then fixed a tracking collar around its neck. Conservation ecologists believe such efforts can help protect dholes.

· Purandara Mantap in Hampi submerged

Due to the heavy discharge of water from Tungabhadra river, the Purandara Mantap, one of the monuments in the world heritage site Hampihave been submerged.
Other monuments like Salu Mantap, Koti Linga, Vedic Mantap and Stone mantapwhere last rites are performed have also been submerged. The authorities have issued flood alerts to the people nearby to take precautionary measures.

· NMCG organises Ganga Vriksharopan Abhiyan in five Ganga Basin states

National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)is running “Ganga VriksharopanAbhiyan”in five main stem Ganga basin states namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The drive was launched on the 9th July and the week upto 15th July was observed as ‘ShubharambhSaptah’.
State Forest Departments of these states have been made the nodal agencies for the smooth and effective execution of the campaign.
The participation from Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), Ganga VicharManch (GVM), NGOs and educational institutions are encouraging.
The campaign has been initiated as part of the Forest Interventions in Ganga (FIG) component of Namami Gange Programme.

National Mission for Clean Ganga is the implementation wing of National Ganga Council which was set up in October 2016 under the River Ganga.

· $39 billion export opportunities for Indian firms by 2022

Rising digitization will unlock a potential $39 billion worth of export opportunities for Indian businesses in select verticals by 2022—up from $16 billion in 2017.

The verticals that provide high-potential export opportunities are travel, media and entertainment, Software-as-a Service (Saas), consumer brands and real estate.

Asia-pacific is one of the most attractive region for expansion by Indian players

with China, Malaysia and Indonesia as key target countries. Digitally mature

geographies such as the US and the UK are other lucrative geographies which can be

tapped through digital channels.

For travel, Asia-pacific and West Asia are the broad focus markets with UAE, Indonesia as very high potential markets for Indian online travel agencies.

For the media and entertainment vertical, markets like the US, the UK, the UAE and mobile-first markets like Brazil are extremely lucrative for video consumption.

In music, growing markets like South-east Asia, Malaysia and the Philippines offer new opportunities for the players. The industry is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37% to $3.46 billion by 2022 from a $0.71 billion in 2017.

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