UTTARAKHAND
- Centre gives nod to sea plane operations on Tehri lake
- Almost a year after chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat announced that seaplanes will be operated on the Tehri lake as part of the state’s strategy to develop the artificial reservoir as a tourist destination, the union civil aviation ministry and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) gave their go ahead to the proposal in Delhi.
- The signing of MOU between the state and central government would soon take place in Dehradun in presence of CM Trivendra Singh Rawat.
- Notably, Uttarakhand cabinet gave its nod to seaplane operations in Tehri Lake in December last year.
INTERNATIONAL
- World Environment Day: 05 June 2019
- World Environment Day is observed every year on the 5th of June.
- The day is celebrated every year to raise global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature and the planet Earth.
- This year the theme of Environment Day is ‘Air Pollution’.
- Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on the eve of world environment day launched a people’s campaign #SelfiewithSapling urging all to join and plant a sapling and post the selfie with the sapling on social media.
- ICA issues first UAE Permanent Residency ‘Golden Card’ in Abu Dhabi
- UAE’s Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICA) has issued the first Golden Residence Permit in Abu Dhabi.
- It has been provided as a part of the Investors Permanent Residence System aimed to attract investors, entrepreneurs and qualified individuals who meet its criteria.
- Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit held at Mecca
- The 14th summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)held in Mecca, Saudi Arabia was hosted by Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. The official agenda of the meeting was to address current issues in the Muslim world and recent developments in a number of OIC member states. Also, amid soaring tension between Iran and the US and its Gulf allies the OIC summit discussed the regional security issues. The Mecca summit supported Palestinians and backed Saudis in Iran standoff.
- OIC holds an Islamic Summit once every three yearsat which heads of state discuss ways to achieve OIC’s charter’s objectives and make policy decisions that concern its member states. OIC has permanent delegations to the UN and the European Union (EU)
NATIONAL
- Modi 2.0 scheme to create more Greener Roads across India
- Modi 2.0a scheme which is carried out taking more innovative and constructive decisions and finally started to craft in cabinet meetings.
The government is the most efficient and performance driven ministry is transport and road ministry. - Union transport minister Nitin Gadkariroads greener across and the main aim is to impart a major ‘green’ boost to even bigger infrastructure building targets
They set to plant 125 crore trees along the national highways which is equal to the total population of the nation. - This initiative is also designed to benefit greatly to the environment.
The estimated project completion will be around 3 years.
Delhi-Mumbai Expressway moving ahead at a fast pace with around 60% of the contracts.
- AYUSH Ministry launches an app to help people locate yoga centers, instructors
- International yoga daycelebrated on June 21, the ministry of AYUSH launched“yoga locator”an app to locate yoga events and centers providing training and instructor within the user’s range.
- It is a map-based application which allows the instructor to register themselves and work accordingly with the usage.
- An international day for yoga was declared unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly.
- The International Yoga Day is celebrated on June 21 every year.
Yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual practice originated in India.
- Army commissions air quality monitor at Fort William
- As part of it’s countrywide ‘Go Green’ initiative, the Indian Army commissioned a “Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS)” at Fort William Military Station, Kolkata.
- The CAAQMS at the Eastern Command headquarters will measure air pollution, including particulate matter throughout the year.
- In addition, it also displays wind speed, direction, ambient temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, barometric pressure and rain gauge.
- Non-ODF areas 13 times more prone to ground water pollution’
- Villages where people still defecate in open face nearly 13 times higher risk of faecal contamination of ground water as compared to open defecation free (ODF) villages, says a study by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
- The study, which was released on World Environment Day, is based on an assessment of 725 samples collected from 12 ODF and another 12 non-ODF villages across West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha during December-January.
- The report comes at a time when the government is giving final push to achieve 100% toilet coverage months before the October 2019 deadline to declare the nation free from open defecation.
- The UNICEF report indicates that systems for solid and liquid waste management, including faecal sludge and drainage, need to get more focus to prevent faecal contamination in the environment.