TAMILNADU

Tamil Nadu salt makers urge govt for policy change

Salt manufacturers in Tamil Nadu have urged the union government to re-implement the zonal marketing scheme for the commodity which was scrapped in 2015. They claim that TN based salt manufacturers have been incurring losses ever since the zonal marketing scheme was abolished as Gujarat based corporate salt manufacturers are pushing everyone out of the market.

Under the scheme, the country was divided into three zones for selling salt. Producers from one zone could not sell their salt in another which ensured that locally produced salt was consumed. However, this was abolished in 2015 to create one national market.

In Tamil Nadu, salt pans exist over 45,000 acres with an annual production of 30 lakh tonnes and which employ about 60,000 people.

With the modern mechanised techniques, it takes just ₹250 for producing one tonne of salt for Gujarat manufacturers. However, in TN it takes ₹450 for producing one tonne of salt. We still use manpower. Since the production cost is less for Gujarat salt makers, they are selling per tonne of salt at ₹400 in the market. But we have to sell itat ₹550 per tonne,” said V Rajendran, another office-bearer.

INTERNATIONAL

· UN member states approved USD 6.69 billion for 13 peacekeeping operation

The UN member stateshave approved a 69 billion USD budget for 13 peacekeeping operations for the year 2018-19. It is the second year in a row, the committee has made significant cuts to the overall peacekeeping budget.
The Committee also approved significant management reforms including the creation of two new departments focused on political and peacebuilding affairs and four stand-alone divisions for Africa. The United States is the biggest contributor to the United Nations.

‘The English Patient’ voted best-ever Man Booker Prize winner in 50 years

Michael Ondaatje’s ‘The English Patient’ was named the greatest-ever winner of the Man Booker Prize at an event celebrating five decades of the prestigious literary award.

‘The English Patient’ won the Booker in 1992 and was made into a 1996 movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche that won nine Academy Awards.

· HRD Minister inaugurated 17th World Sanskrit Conference in Canada

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar inaugurated the 17th World Sanskrit Conference held at Vancouver, Canada, from July 9-13, 2018.
There will be a special panel discussion on topics such as – History and Education of Women in Vedic Literature, Sanskrit Buddhist Manus, Mimamsa Beyond the Yagasala, the Yuktidipika forging a place for Sankhya, introducing Bhagavata Purana Commentaries and research on the Gargiyajyotisa.
The World Sanskrit Conference is being held in various countries across the globe once in every three years and so far it has been held thrice in India.

NATIONAL

· BSNL unveiled internet telephony service ‘Wings’

ð Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will roll out its new internet telephony service with brand name “Wings” from August 1.

ð Those subscribing to “Wings”, entailing one-time registration fee of Rs 1,099, will be able to make calls using any internet connection including broadband, WiFi, 3G or 4G data network of any operator, thus overcoming connectivity problems even in areas having patchy signals.

ð Those subscribers can avail free domestic calls for one year, while the overseas calls will be priced as per international tariffs of BSNL landline.

· National Human Rights Commission announced winners of its silver jubilee logo, slogan tagline contests

Bansi Lal Ketkifrom Mumbai in Maharashtra won the first prize of Rs 50,000 along with a certificate in the logo design contest.
His design artistically adds the numerals ’25’ to the existing logo of the NHRC, using the theme of the tricolour.
Tabrej Qureshi from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh has bagged the top prize in the slogan/tagline
His tagline entry was: ‘Awaaz Aapke Adhikar Ki’and slogan — ‘Desh may vikas ki aayge bahar, jab hoga surakshit manav adhikar.
The NHRC was established on October 12, 1993, under the Protection of the Human Rights (PHR) Act, 1993.

· Narendra Modi to inaugurate the ‘Statue of Unity’ on 31st October

The Statue of Unity, being built near the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river, at a cost of Rs 2,989, in memory of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
On 31st October, the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the “Statue of Unity“, the tallest statue in the world.
Memorials, museums and research centres were built where the statue is installed.
The Statue of Unity is being built with 5,700 Metric tonne structural steel, 68,000 Metric tonne of concrete and 1,900 MT of bronze.

· East Coast Railway built 6 limited height subways in less than 5 hours, sets Record

With the aim of eliminating all unmanned Level Crossing Gates over Sambalpur Division, East Coast Railwaylaunches highest ever 6 (six) Limited Height Subways (LHS) in Sambalpur Division and completed it in a single block of four and half hours.
As a result these 6 LHS, seven unmanned Level Crossing gates will be totally closed in Bhawanipatna-Lanjigarh Road Section of Kalahandi area of Odisha.
This achievement has set up a new mile stone in the history of Indian Railways.

· NITI Aayog proposed National Health stack

NITI Aayog has disclosed the blueprint of National Health Stack (NHS), a shared digital healthcare infrastructureusable by both the Centre and states across public and private sectors. The aim is to implement the scheme ‘Ayushman Bharat’ and other public healthcare programmes in the country.
It also includes electronic health registries, coverage and claims platform, digital health ID cards, federated personal health records (PHR) framework and the National Health Analytics Framework.
Otherkey benefits of NHS are:
♦ It allows states to incorporate the horizontal and vertical expansion of the scheme,
♦ Avoids duplication of efforts
♦ Enables ease of adoption for those without systems or with dysfunctional systems in place,
♦ To continue using their own state system while integrating with Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Mission (RSSM) via Application Programming Interface (APIs).

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