GOA
- State asked to create books with regional folk tales for schoolkids
- Goa education officials have been asked to collaborate with the state council of educational research and training (SCERT) and prepare local booksfor the state’s libraries to promote regional folk tales among schoolkids.
- The Centre had last year given Goa a grant of Rs 35 lakh to encourage reading among students of government schoolsby setting up schools and libraries. The grant has been extended to this year now. Meanhile, an age-appropriate series of books is being published by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) especially for procurement under the Samagra Shiksha. States, thus, would have to place their orders with the NCERT. Once delivered, the books would then be distributed to schools.
- States/UTs may make guidelines for use of libraries, including number of periods to be earmarked as library periods in govt. schools.
- One teacher per school may be entrusted with the safekeeping, issuing and receiving of library books. This teacher will be relieved of teaching for two periods a week.
INTERNATIONAL
- Vietnam opens Southeast Asia’s largest solar power farm
- Vietnam has inaugurated Southeast Asia’s largest solar power farm which has the capacity to produce 688 million kWh of electricity annually.
- The Dau Tieng Solar Power Complex, a joint venture with the Thai industrial group B.Grimm Power Public Company, occupies 540 hectares in Tay Ninh province.
- The complex was constructed on the Dau Tieng Reservoir – the largest artificial lake in Vietnam – and is expected to generate 10 per cent of the country’s solar energy to guarantee supply to 320,000 homes.
- It will also prevent the emission of 595,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.
NATIONAL
- DRDO successfully flight-tests indigenously developed MPATGM missile
- In a major boost for Indian Army, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested indigenously developed low weight, fire and forget Man-Portable Antitank Guided Missile (MPATGM) in the ranges of Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.
- The missile was launched from a man-portable Tripod launcher and the target was mimicking a functional tank.
- The missile hit the target in top attack mode and destroyed it with precision. All the mission objectives were met.
- This is the third series of successful testing of MPATGM.
- The missile is incorporated with state-of-the-art Infrared Imaging Seeker along with advanced avionics.
- India’s 2nd Scorpene-class submarine to be commissioned on September 28
- India’s second Scorpene-class attack submarine INS Khanderi will be commissioned into the Navy by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Mumbai on September 28.
- The conventional diesel-electric submarine has been manufactured by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd in Mumbai.
- The first Scorpene-class submarine INS Kalvari had been commissioned into the Indian Navy on December 2017.
- Under the Project 75 programme, India is committed to building six Scorpene-class submarines that also includes INS Kalvari and INS Khanderi.
- Madhya Pradesh govt to allow people to adopt cows online
- The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to turn to the state’s people to seek donations for its ‘Project Gaushala’ by letting them adopt cows online.
- People can adopt a cow for a minimum of 15 days and can go on supporting it till the animal’s lifetime.
- While a lifetime adoption costs Rs 3 lakh, those willing to adopt a bovine for a year will have to pay Rs 21,000.
- Those adopting for a month will have to pay Rs 2,100 and those willing to adopt for 15 days will have to pay 1100.
- Multilingual Mobile App launched for farmers
- Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Parshottam Rupala launched a multilingual Mobile App called ‘CHC Farm Machinery’ for the farmers during a conference onNational Conference on Crop residue Management held in New Delhi. Minster also sought ideas from farmers to ensure zero burning in all villages and also thanked farmers for bringing down incidents of stubble burning.
- It connects farmers with Custom Hiring Service Centers (CHC) in their area.
- It will allow farmers to avail custom hiring services of CHCs located in a radius of 50 km.
- It can be downloaded on any android phone from Google Play Store.
- National Genomic Grid (Cancer)
- Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare announced that government plans to set up a National Genomic Grid, so as to take cancer research to the next level and make treatment viable for people of different economic classes. This National Genomic Grid will study genomic data of cancer patients from India.
- The National Genomic Grid for India-specific cancer research will collect samples from cancer patients from India to study genomic factors influencing cancer and identifying the right treatment modalities for Indian population.
- The grid to be formed will be in line with National Cancer Tissue Biobank (NCTB)set up at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. NCTB functions in close association with Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and has the capacity to stock 50,000 genomic samples from cancer patients.