UTTARAKHAND

· Chief Secretary stresses on special efforts to address skewed sex ratio

ð The Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh has directed all the district magistrates to mark dark areas where the sex ratio is skewed in their respective districts. Special action plans should be drafted for such areas, the chief secretary stressed.

ð The Chief Secretary directed all the officers to ensure that work is done in all the districts according to the annual work plan. The dark areas where the imbalance in sex ratio is more should also be identified and a special action plan for such areas should be drafted. Special awareness programmes should also be undertaken to address this issue, he said. By introducing innovative means, programmes should be organised to encourage girls.

ð The chief secretary also stressed on the need for special efforts to remove imbalance in the sex ratio in Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Pithoragarh, Champawat and aspirational districts. Appreciating the efforts already being undertaken in various districts to address the problem of imbalanced sex ratio, the chief secretary stressed on more efforts to ensure that the targets are achieved in a time-bound manner.

INTERNATIONAL

Bahrain conferred PM Modi “The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance award

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in Manama on various bilateral and regional issues.

The two leaders discussed ways to strengthen the friendship between India and Bahrain, with a focus on business relations and cultural exchange.

The two countries signed a string of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) in the fields culture, space, solar energy and RuPay card.

Mr Modi was also honoured with “The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance.”

· International dialogue on South-South and Triangular Cooperation addressed by Commerce & Industry Minister

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Shri PiyushGoyal addressed the International dialogue on South-South and Triangular CooperationThe event is held in New Delhi. The World Trade Organisation(WTO) is the key topic addressed
South-South and Triangular Cooperation organized by Research and Information System (RIS) and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation(UNOSSC).
The member countries of WTO to engage in rule-based, transparent, and non-discriminatory governance required for free trade in a non-discriminatory manner, keeping in mind the interests of member countries with disparate (essentially different in kind) GDP.
The world economy is likely to fall into a recession followed by the member countries made of trade concession
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for the target year 2030 discussed.
A recession is marked by two consecutive quarters of decline in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Recession result in unemployment. The yield curve indicated the recession which financial crisis similar to the year 2008 is expected.
The term South-South cooperation is used by policymakers and academics to describe the exchange of resources, technology, and knowledge between developing countries, also known as countries of the Global South as it is a broad framework of collaboration among countries in the south.

NATIONAL

PM Modi announced to celebrate September as a month of nutrition

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced to celebrate September as a month of nutrition.

In his Mann Ki Baat programme, Mr Modi laid emphasis on creating awareness to fight malnutrition among children, particularly the girl child.

Last year, Gujarat Government launched a pilot project, Poshan Abhiyan which is a statewide mission to eradicate malnutrition among children.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had also launched ‘Purna’ project to eliminate malnutrition among the girls in the age group of 14 to 18.

PURNA project is also known as Prevention of under Nutrition and Reduction of Nutritional Anaemia among Adolescent Girls.

CBDT says small start-ups with turnover up to Rs 25 cr to continue to get a promised tax holiday

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has clarified that small start-ups with turnover up to 25 crore rupees will continue to get the promised tax holiday as specified in the section of the Income Tax Act.

The Act provides a deduction for 100 per cent of the income of an eligible start-up for 3 years out of 7 years from the year of its incorporation.

According to the Finance Ministry, the CBDT also clarified that all the start-ups recognised by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade-DPIIT which fulfilled the conditions specified in the DPIIT notification did not automatically become eligible for deduction.

· Gujarat topped the CWMI 2.0 report in water management

Gujarat topped thesecond Round of Composite Water Management Index (CWMI 2.0). It was released by NITI Aayog in New Delhi. It measures the performance of states on a set of water indicators. The move comes at a time when various states across the country are facing a shortage in groundwater. The index assesses the performance of States on a comprehensive set of water indicators and reports relative performance in 2017-18 as well as trends from previous years (2015-16 & 2016-17).
Composite Water Management Index was released for the first time in 2018 to instill a sense of cooperative and competitive federalism among the states. It was the first attempt to create a pan-India set of metrics that measured different dimensions of water management and use across the lifecycle of water.

· MoEF is to relax lease rent for wind power projects

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change has announced that it is to relax the mandatory charging of lease rent of 30,000/- per Mega Watt (MW)for wind power projects.

The step by the Ministry aimsto boost investment in wind power projects. It will also help in providing wind power at a cheaper rate. The government aims to meet maximum energy requirement by tapping renewal energy resources. It also plans to achieve the target of clean energy in a time-bound manner, various policies and regulations are being constantly updated.

The Ministry is working towards the establishment of wind power project over forest land, the existing procedurerequires payment of mandatory charges for compensatory afforestation andNet Present Value (NPV). Additional cost for generation of clean energy through wind power will escalate the per-unit cost of power at the consumer level.

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