MAHARASHTRA

Maharashtra govt to monitor 100 more polluting industries in state

Grappling with increasing air pollution, the state government has now taken over 100 more industries under its monitoring ambit. In another new addition, the programme has also included units from the bio-medical waste.
Maharashtra is the first state in the country to launch an industrial star-rating programme jointly run by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC-India) and few other institutes.
Launched in June 2017, the first-of-its-kind programme gives star-ratings to the large industrial plants based on the average concentration of their latest stack samples (emissions from the chimney) for particulate matter.

A widespread air pollutant, it can cause respiratory and cardiovascular morbidity and can also lead to mortality.

Maharashtra, which has the highest number of non-attainment cities and is touted to be the country’s most polluted state after Uttar Pradesh by the World Health Organization (WHO), was monitoring more than 300 industries till now under the programme.

Now, the number has gone up to 414 industrial units across 11 sectors.
Expanding the monitoring purview, the state has now included 103 more industries from different districts. Out of them, about 63% are highly polluting and have been rated one-star, implying that the particulate matter emissions from their stack is 250 milligrams per normal metric cube (mg/NM3) or more.

INTERNATIONAL

· India is the top emitter of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the world :Greenpeace Report

India is the largest emitter of anthropogenic sulphur dioxide in the world as per the data released by environmental NGO Greenpeace 2019. Anthropogenic sulphur dioxide chemical is produced from the burning of coal and it is known to largely contribute to air pollution. The analysis of NASA data released by Greenpeace . India has over 15 per cent of all anthropogenic sulphur dioxide (SO2) hotspots in the world.

The SO2 hotspots were detected by OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) satellite.

The air gets polluted due to the SO2 emission and air pollution occurs. The largest source of SO2 in the atmosphere is the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial facilities.

The main SO2 hotspots in India includes Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh, Korba in Chhattisgarh, Talcher and Jharsuguda in Odisha, Neyveli and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Kutch in Gujarat, Ramagundam in Telangana and Chandrapur and Koradi in Maharashtra.

NATIONAL

Nation pays homage to former PM Rajiv Gandhi on 75th birth anniversary

The nation is paying homage to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 75th birth anniversary on 20 August 2019.

Several programmes are being organised in different parts of the country to mark the occasion.

Rajiv Gandhi served as Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989.

This day is also observed as Sadbhavna Diwas to promote national integration and communal harmony among people of all religion and languages.

· Centre to set up Indias first CICET

The Centre is planning to set upIndia’s first Central Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology (CICET) in Gujarat. The aim is to boost the chemical industry in India.

The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers is also planning to set up a Plastic Waste Management Centre in Ahmedabad. The centre will work to find out solutions to systematic segregation and recycling of plastic waste.

However the other similar institute CIPET – Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology was established in 2017. It is located in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

· State Bank of India aims to eliminate debit cards

State Bank of Indiabank debit cards from the banking system as the bank plans to promote more digital payment solutions and eliminate the plastic cards.
The debit cards by customers of SBI which services a fifth of the population.
Around 90 crore debit cards in the country as against 3 crore credit cards, and pointed out to digital solutions like its own ‘Yono’ platform as the key for achieving a debit card-less country.

The bank already set up 68,000 ‘Yono cashpoints’ and is in the process of scaling it up massively to over 1 million in the next 18 months.which will make the necessity to have a card even less.

· Chandrayaan 2 entered Moons Orbit

Indian’s first-ever mission aimed for a soft landing on the Moon’s south polar region, Chandrayaan-2, was inserted into Moon’s orbit on 20 August. The entry was confirmed by the Indian Space Agency, ISRO. Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22 and had left the Earth’s orbit on August 14. Before reaching the final orbit, the spacecraft will now undergo four-orbit manoeuvres about 100 km from the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-2 was precisely inserted in the defined orbit. Following its entry in the lunar orbit, there will be four more orbit manoeuvres to make the spacecraft enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the moon’s surface.

· Indian Railways planned for 3000th stations to get 1000 Wi-Fi Spots

The Indian railways enabled free Wi-Fiat its 3000th station.The facility went live at Rajasthan’s Ellenabad, with 1,000 stations connected. Ellenabad railway station in Bikaner Division of North Western Railway situated north of the Ghaggar-Hakra river .It serves as a point of entry into the state of Haryana from Rajasthan.
Rajasthan’s Rana Pratap Nagar in the North Western Railway became the 2000th station to have wi-fi facility.
The railways plans to provide free Wi-Fi facility at all its stations, around 6,000.
The railways’ free Wi-Fi facility at stations began from Mumbai Central in January 2016 and within 16 months it was live at 1,600 stations across India. Railway’s telecommunications arm RailTel began the process with a vision to turn stations into a platform for digital inclusion.

· Prasar Bharati introduce 2 awards in honor of Neelum Sharma

India’s largest public broadcasting agency, Prasar Bharti’s Chairman A Suryaprakash.The agency introduces 2 awards namely ‘Neelum Sharma Tejaswini award’ & ‘Achyutananda Sahoo Award’
The award memory of Doordarshan(DD) News (Former anchor), Neelum Sharma.She is a strong advocate for women empowerment. She started her career in Doordarshan in 1995. She associated with the channel for over 20 years.She was known for her programmes like ‘Tejaswini’(Through this show, she focused on women achievers of India) and ‘Badi Charcha’.She was awarded the 2018 ‘Nari Shakti Puraskar’(Highest civilian award for women in India) by the President of India Ram Nath Govind.

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