TAMILNADU

Tamil Nadu lost Rs 2,577crore central grants due to failure to hold local body polls, govt white paper says

The failure of the previous AIADMK regime to hold the local body elections in Tamil Nadu cost the exchequer badly. In all, the state lost Rs 2,577.29 crore of central grants in the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, according to the white paper released by finance minister Palanivel Thiagarajan.

The grants, even those recommended by the Finance Commission, were not released in time for a variety of reasons. “The non-release of substantial portion of grants to local bodies recommended by the 14th Finance Commission in the three fiscal years due to the failure to hold local body elections in time is a case in point.

INTERNATIONAL

Wildfires in Algeria: Highlights

President of Algeria, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, expressed condolences for 25 soldiers. They lost their life while rescuing people at the epicentre of the blazes.

Areas of Bejaiea and Tizi Ouzou are epicentre of the blazes. Dozens of fires started in Kabyle region also.

The Kabyle region is located 100 kilometres east of capital city Algiers. Area comprises of difficult-to-access villages and limited water.

Algeria joins the string of countries like Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and western United States that were hit by major blazes recently.

Wildlife Fires

Forest fires are also called as bush or vegetation fire or forest fire. It can be defined as uncontrolled and non-prescribed combustion or burning of plants in natural setting like forest, brush land or tundra, grassland. It consumes natural fuels and spreads in accordance with environmental conditions such as wind or topography. Such fires can be incited by human actions like land clearing or extreme drought or by lightning.

NATIONAL

AL-MOHED AL-HINDI 2021 exercise between India & Saudi Arabia

To participate in the exercise, India’s guided-missile destroyer INS Kochi reached Saudi Arabia.

The joint naval exercise will showcase the reflection of growing defence and military cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia.

INS Kochi reached to Saudi Arabia after conducting a naval exercise with the UAE Navy off the coast of Abu Dhabi.

Harbour phase of the exercise

Harbour phase of the Al-Mohed Al-Hindi 2021 exercise started on August 9, 2021. Sea-based drills started from August 11. After INS Kochi arrived at the Jubail port, it was given a warm welcome by officials of Royal Saudi naval forces.

India-USA: agreement on Monsoon Data Analysis

MoU was signed by Ambassador of India to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Acting Administrator of NOAA, Dr Neil A Jacobs.

The agreement seeks to improve weather forecasting in Indian region.

Under the agreement, scientific groups from India and the US have decided to put their expertise together.

Both the countries seek to gain some new understanding on monsoon by collecting data and analyze it.

Under it, both the countries would enhance technical cooperation in development of the Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) as well as the Ocean Moored buoy Network in northern Indian ocean (OMNI) in order to improve weather and monsoon forecasts between NOAA and Ministry of Earth Sciences, India.

Delhi Airport among world’s top-50 best airports in 2021

Delhi Airport emerged as best airport in India for the third consecutive year.

Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru have also found a rank among world’s 100 best airports.

Airport ranking list

According to Skytrax 2021 world airport’s awards list, Delhi has been ranked at 45th position. Ranking has improved by five places as compared to number 50 in 2020. Delhi airport is first Indian airport to achieve this mark.

Hyderabad has been ranked at 64^th Its raking has been improved by seven places against 71st in 2020.

Mumbai is at 65^th number, 13 places down from 52^nd position in 2020.

Bengaluru is at 71^st number, 3 places down from 68th rank in 2020.

Ranking of airports globally

World’s top-5 airports include:

Doha Hamad International Airport
Tokyo Haneda airport
Changi airport Singapore
Seoul Incheon International Airport and
Tokyo Narita

National Council for Older Persons

It was constituted under the Chairpersonship of Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.

The council look after the implementation of the Policy and advise the Government to formulate and implement policy and programmes for senior citizens.

Reconstitution of NCOP

NCOP was reconstituted in 2012 to encourage more participation from every region. Council was renamed as National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSrC).

Meeting of NCOP

Third meeting of the Council was held in June, 2018.

Issues like Schemes, Programmes and Act were discussed in the meeting for the welfare of Senior Citizens.

Status or action taken by the Government is listed below:

Council suggested to strengthen the “Amendments to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (MWPSC) Act, 2007”. Following it, government introduced “Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019” in the Lok Sabha.

Council suggested to organise more distribution camps under Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RYY). Based on this, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment revised RVY to cover all the districts across country.

Council also advised to simplify the process of registration of NGOs following which, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has been running a simplified Online NGO portal called e-Anudaan.

It suggests to provide financial assistance to senior citizens who are cancer patients from Senior Citizen’s Welfare Fund (SCWF). In line with the suggestion, government is providing financial assistance of up to Rs 2 lakh under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme.

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