TAMILNADU
- Tamil Nadu to raise Rs 500 crore biotech venture fund to back start-ups
- In a move aimed at giving a fillip to the emerging opportunities in biotechnology, the Tamil Nadu government is set to launch a Rs 500 crore Biotech Venture Capital Fund in partnership with TN Infrastructure Fund Management Agency. While the state government will contribute Rs 50 crore, the remaining Rs 450 crore will be raised from the market.
- Funds will be used for incubation and start-up stage biotech projects. The move comes against the backdrop of the state-promoted TICEL Biotech Park II registering 100% occupancy a couple of months ago. Tamil Nadu’s third biotech park is slated to open by January next year in Coimbatore.
- Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation (TNIFMC) is a specialized body created for raising private equity from both India and abroad.
INTERNATIONAL
- International Day of the Tropics observed on 29 June
- The United Nations observe 29 June as International Day of the Tropics.
This day celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the tropics while highlighting unique challenges and opportunities the Tropical nations face. - The Tropics are a region of the Earth defined as the area between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn.
- The other factors contribute to climatic variation, tropical locations are typically warm and experience little seasonal change in day-to-day temperature.
The important feature of the Tropics is the moist inner regions near the equator, and that the seasonality of rainfall increases with the distance from the equator.
The Tropics account for 40 percent of the world’s total surface area
They host to approximately 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity and much of its language and cultural diversity.
NATIONAL
- Sites in Mizoram, UP to get protected status
- Sites from two necropolises – historical cities built around burial grounds in obeisance to the dead – in Mizoram’s Champhai district and Uttar Pradesh’s Sanauli in Baghpat district are set to be granted “protected site” status.
- This includes four sites from Champhai district where menhirs, megaliths and rock engravings dating back to 15-18 AD have been excavated. The site in Sanauli dates back to 2000 BC, where a pre-Iron Age specimen of a chariot was dug up.
- Under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, once a site is granted protected site status, the area around it is developed with signages, better lighting and other facilities and is promoted for tourism.
- Kerala is India’s healthiest state; UP, Odisha worst: Niti Aayog
- Kerala remains at the top of the heap among larger states in terms of various health parameters, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar are the worst performers, according to Niti Aayog’s latest health index released.
- The health index – which took into account 23 health indicators during 2015-16 (base year) to 2017-18 (reference year) – depicts huge disparities across states and UTs. The report, prepared by Niti Aayog in collaboration with the health ministry and with technical assistance from World Bank, has three categories – larger states, smaller states and Union territories – to ensure comparison among similar entities.
- Among the smaller states, Mizoram ranked first in overall performance while Tripura and Manipur were the top two states in terms of incremental performance. Sikkim and Arunchal Pradesh registered the biggest decline in overall health index scores. Among the UTs, Chandigarh ranked first in overall performance, while Dadra and Nagar Haveli improved the most.
- The first round of the Health Index was released in February 2018, which measured annual and incremental performances of states and union territories from 2014-15 (base year) to 2015-16 (reference year).
- Government to set up 51 incubators for aspiring entrepreneurs
- The GoI set up 51 new incubators for startups in the information and communications technology space across India
As part of its Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (Tide) 2.0 scheme - They will offer financial and technical support to incubators supporting ICT startups that are involving usage of deep technologies including artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, and internet of things in the identified areas of societal relevance.
- The scheme categorized the selection of incubators into three categories:
Group 1 Centre (G1C), G2C, and G3C. - More than 270 incubators and accelerators are managed by academic bodies, private players, government, and corporate.
- One nation one ration card’ scheme from July 1, 2020
- Government is all set to implement one nation-one ration card scheme across the country by the end of June 2020.
- This means poor migrant workers will be able to buy subsidised rice and wheat from any ration shop in the country, so long as their ration cards are linked to Aadhaar.
- All the States have been given one more year to use point of sale (PoS) machines in the ration shops and implement the scheme.
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