TAMILNADU

Call to make all future projects in Chennai disabled-friendly

As the deadline — July 2022 — to make all infrastructure and public spaces inclusive is nearing, disability rights groups in the city have called for making all upcoming projects disabled-friendly. This comes at a time when the Greater Chennai corporation plans to lay new roads, set up toilets along ECR road and renovate parks and other public spaces.

Smitha Sadasivan, member, Disability Rights Alliance, Tamil Nadu, said the corporation should involve people with disabilities and disability right groups at the design stage itself. “Chennai metro rail did the biggest mistake of not including any disabled right group at the planning stage,” she said.

In 2014, the civic body had promised to make pavements disabled-friendly but bollards, lack of tactile markings and lack of proper gradient of the ramps have made them unusable, said Vaishnavi Jayakumar, member, Disability Rights Alliance (DRA). She added that by 2018, public transport should have been made disabled-friendly. “We are yet to meet that deadline,” she rued.

As per Rights of Persons With Disabilities Act, the requirements of disabled people should have been aligned with the building code. “So the government doesn’t have any excuse, any new infrastructure should be inclusive,” she said. She explained that basic infrastructure such as e-toilets are not accessible for the disabled. Even for parks, they should be planned in such a way that all parks have at least one equipment that is inclusive to ensure disabled persons mingle with everyone and can lead a normal life, she said.

INTERNATIONAL

PDS 70 – Lunar Formation Around a Planet

For the first time, scientists have discovered a lunar formation around a planet outside the solar system-a Jupiter-like world surrounded by a disk of gas and dust large enough to produce three moons, the size of which is equivalent to one orbiting the earth.

Highlights:

The ALMA observatory in Chile’s Atacama desert was used to detect a disc of swirling material accumulating around one of two newborn planets seen orbiting PDS 70, a young star located 370 light years from Earth.

A light year is the distance that light travels in a year, which is approximately 9.5 trillion kilometres.

Exoplanets, which are planets found outside our solar system, number over 4,400. Until now, no orbiting planetary disks have been discovered, because all known exoplanets are located in the “mature”-fully developed-solar system, except for the two baby gas planets orbiting PDS 70.

NATIONAL

India will Explore Indigenous Phosphatic Rock Deposits

At present, we rely on other countries for raw materials to manufacture DAP (Di-ammonium Phosphate) and SSP (Single Superphosphate). India must reduce its reliance on imports.

To accomplish this goal, India must explore indigenous deposits of phosphoric rock and potash and make them available to indigenous industries.

Rock phosphate is an important raw material in the production of DAP and NPK fertilisers.

Currently, India relies on imports for 90% of its raw materials.

International price fluctuations affect domestic fertilizer prices.

Kandla becomes the First Green SEZ

Kandla, Gujarat, has become the country’s first Green Special Economic Zone.
It has been awarded the CII’s IGBC (Indian Green Building Council) Green Cities Platinum Rating.

About Indian Green Building Council:

The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) is part of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and was established in 2001

Goal: “To provide a sustainable built environment for all, and promote India to become one of the global leaders in a sustainable built environment by 2025.”

The council provides a wide range of services, including the creation of new green building rating programmes, certification services, and green building training programmes.

The Green Building Congress, the council’s annual flagship event on green buildings, is also organised by the council.

The council is based on committees, driven by members and focused on consensus.

National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship & Management Bill

The National Food Technology, Entrepreneurship & Management Act of 2021, was passed by the Parliament

Highlights:

The Bill has been passed by both houses and will become act once the President gives his assent.

Through this bill, 2 educational institutions under the Food Processing and Industry Ministry became National Important Institutions.

Kundali’s National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship & Management (NIFTEM) (Haryana)

Thanjabur’s Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT) (Tamil Nadu)

The bill will give these institutes more autonomy, allowing them to start new and innovative courses while also attracting excellent faculty and students. Global standards can also be used in academic and research work.

Ethanol From Sugarcane and Food Grains – EBP

Under the EBP Program, the government should encourage the use of ethanol produced from sugarcane and food grains.

Highlights:

The Government of India is implementing the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme through Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), in which ethanol is blended into petrol to achieve the goals of reducing import dependence, promoting clean fuel, and boosting agriculture.

The ethanol blended petrol program was launched in 2003 to promote the use of renewable and environmentally friendly fuels and reduce India’s import dependence on energy security.

The government has set a target of 10% ethanol blending by 2022 and 20% blending (E20) by 2030, starting with 5% blending.

The programme is being carried out in accordance with the National Biofuels Policy.

As part of this programme, oil marketing companies (OMCs) will purchase ethanol from domestic sources at government-set prices.

Until 2018, ethanol was produced solely from sugarcane. Now, the government has expanded the scope of the scheme to include maize, bajra, fruit and vegetable waste and other grains to produce ethanol.

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