UTTARAKHAND

· State govt employees to get cashless health insurance facility from Vajpayee’s b’day

The State Government employees would get the gift of cashless health insurance facility under Atal Ayushman Yojana (AAY) from December 25, the birth anniversary of the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Mention worthy, the State Government had decided to merge the existing U-health card scheme to cover over 2.6 lakh State Government employees and to launch it on the occasion of the State foundation day (November 9) this year.

However, the procedural delays on the part of state health department coupled with the enforcement of the model code of conduct in the state in view of the urban local body polls had put a roadblock in the launch of the scheme on November 9.

Launched in the year 2010, the U–health card scheme was implemented to provide unlimited cashless health insurance cover to the State Government employees. The scheme is at present optional for the employees and just 18000 employees have registered themselves for the scheme.

Under the scheme, an annual premium of Rs 5000 is charged from the employee having grade pay in excess of Rs 6600 while those getting a grade pay of Rs 4200 to Rs 5400, a sum of Rs 3500 is charged.

INTERNATIONAL

· India recorded highest average real wage growth in South Asia during 2008-17: ILO report

According to an annual report named “Global Wage Report 2018/19: What Lies behind Gender pay gaps”, released by International Labour Organisation (ILO), India recorded the highest average real wage growth in South Asia during 2008-17.
The Global wage growth in 2017 was not only lower than in 2016, but fell to its lowest growth rate since 2008.
In emerging and developing countries of the G20, real wage growth has fluctuated in recent years, rising from 2.9 percent in 2015 to 4.9 percent in 2016, and then falling back to 4.3 percent in 2017.
The countries with the lowest levels of wage inequality are found among the high-income group, whereas countries with the highest levels of wage inequality are found in the low- and middle-income groups.

Sustainable Blue Economy Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya

The first Sustainable Blue Economy Conference was held in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. It was organized by Kenya and cohosted by Japan and Canada.

The theme of this conference was ‘The Blue Economy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Blue Economy is economic benefit and value that is realized from Earth’s coastal and marine environment. Sustainable Blue Economy is marine-based economy that provides social and economic benefits for current and future generations, restores, protects and maintains diversity, productivity of marine ecosystems.

NATIONAL

International Gita Festival, 2018 to be held in Kurukshetra

The International Gita Festival 2018 will be organised in Kurukshetra in Haryana from December 7 to 23, 2018. This year it is third year of this mega cultural event, where Mauritius is partner country and Gujarat is the partner state.

Gita festival will also be organized in Mauritius next February. The objective behind this event is to spread the message of Gita to world.

It is being organized to commemorate birth of ‘Srimad Bhagwat Gita’, the sacred scripture containing invaluable advice of Lord Krishna that he proffered to Arjuna.

It is held mainly on 11th day on Shukla Paksha of Margashirsh month (November – December).

· ISRO to launch HysIS on 29th November

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned to launchHysIS, the country’s first hyperspectral imaging satellite for advanced earth observation, on 29th November from Sriharikota.

PSLV-C43mission will launch 31 satellite in total into 2 orbits

Slated to last just under 2 hours, it will be ISRO’s 3rd longest mission

30 co-passengers include a microsatellite (100-kg class) and 29 nanosatellites (under 10 kg). They are from United States of America (23), Australia, Canada, Columbia, Finland, Malaysia, Netherlands and Spain (one each satellite)

The foreign satellites together weigh around 261 kg.

Their launches were booked with ISRO’s arm Antrix Corporation

· Govt proposes Rs 13 crore subsidy for hybrid cars in India

The Department of Heavy Industry has proposed a subsidy of ₹13 croreto promote hybrid cars in India.
The move follows lobbying by automobile manufacturers including Toyota, Maruti Suzuki and Honda.
The incentives have been sought by the department for potential buyers of 10,000 hybrid carsfitted with lithium-ion batteries of 0.5-2 kilowatt-hour (kWh) in a meeting with the committee for the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid vehicles (FAME) scheme.

· Health Ministry Launches Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme IDSP

Union Government soft-launched the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) segment of the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) in seven states.
The path-breaking initiative will provide near-real-time data to policymakers for detecting outbreaks, reducing the morbidity and mortality and lessening disease burden in the populations and better health systems.

Donbass wins the Golden Peacock at IFFI 2018

Donbass’ directed by Sergei Loznitsa has won the coveted Golden Peacock Award at the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which concluded in Goa on November 28, 2018.

The Golden Peacock Award carries a cash prize of Rs 4 million (Rs 40 lakhs) to be shared equally between the Producer and the Director, Trophy and the citation.

Donbass is the official submission of Ukraine for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category at the 91st Academy Awards in 2019.

Donbass tells the story of a hybrid war taking place in a region of Eastern Ukraine, involving an open armed conflict alongside killings and robberies perpetrated on a mass scale by separatist gangs.

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