First Water Bodies Census: The Ministry of Jal Shakti has released the report of India’s first water bodies census, a comprehensive data base of ponds, tanks, lakes, and reservoirs in the country.The census was conducted in 2018-19, along with the sixth Minor Irrigation (MI) census and enumerated more than 2.4 million water bodies across all states and Union Territories.
The census defines a water body as all natural or man-made units bounded on all sides with some or no masonry work used for storing water for Irrigation or Other purposes (example industrial, pisciculture, domestic/drinking, recreation, religious, groundwater recharge, etc). A structure where water from ice-melt, streams, springs, rain or drainage of water from residential or other areas is accumulated will also be treated as a waterbody.Water stored by diversion from a stream, nala or river will also be treated as water body. Water bodies excluded:Oceans and lagoons;Rivers, streams, springs, waterfalls, canals, etc. which are free flowing, without any bounded storage of water;Swimming pools; Covered water tanks created for a specific purpose by a family or household for their own consumption; A water tank constructed by a factory owner for consumption of water as raw material or consumable;Temporary water bodies created by digging for mining, brick kilns, and construction activities, which may get filled during the rainy season; and Pucca open water tanks created only for cattle to drink water. West Bengal’s South 24 Pargana has been ranked as the district having the highest number of water bodies followed by Andhra Pradesh’s Ananthapur and West Bengal’s Howrah.
India-UK ‘NET Zero’ Innovation Virtual Centre: In the recent India-UK Science & Innovation Council meeting, India and the United Kingdom announced the establishment of a ‘NET Zero’ Innovation Virtual Centre aimed at addressing climate change and environmental targets.
It is to enhance their cooperation on science and technology, especially on climate change and environmental issues. It will provide a platform to bring stakeholders from both countries together to work on some of the focus areas such as the decarbonization of manufacturing process and transport systems, and green hydrogen as a renewable source. It will support the goal of achieving net zero emissions balancing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted and removed from the atmosphere.It will also facilitate knowledge exchange, innovation, research and development, capacity building, and policy dialogue between the two countries.
Key Highlights: India-UK Science and Technology Cooperation: The UK has emerged as India’s 2nd largest international research and innovation partner. India’s Economic and Technological Capabilities: Energy efficiency and renewable energy are central pillars where India has already taken the lead through various initiatives like the India Solar Alliance and Clean Energy Mission.
Industry-Academia Collaboration:The cooperation will provide an opportunity for Indian and UK academia and industry to develop newer products/processes together for the economic growth of both nations.
City Beauty Competition:Initiative of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.Aim: To encourage and recognize the transformational efforts made by cities and wards in India to create beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces. Wards and public places of cities would be judged against the five broad pillars (i) accessibility, (ii) amenities, (iii) activities, (iv) aesthetics and (v) ecology. Participation in the City Beauty Competition is voluntary. The City Beauty Competition would facilitate the most beautiful wards and beautiful public places at the city level.
Promoting Millets in Diets: Best Practices across States/UTs of India Report: The report was released by NITI Aayog.The report presents a set of good and innovative practices adopted by states governments and organizations in various aspects of millet value- chain especially production, processing and consumption. The report in three themes i.e. (a) State Missions and initiatives to promote millets; (b) Inclusion of millets in ICDS; (c) Research and development and use of technology for innovative practices. The report will serve as a guiding repository to revive and mainstream millets in our diets.
National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts (NTCWPC): Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways will inaugurate (NTCWPC) at IIT Chennai. It is being set up under the Shipping Ministry’s flagship Sagarmala Programme.
Location: It has been established in IIT – Discovery Campus at Chennai in Tamil Nadu.It works as the technology arm of the Ministry of Shipping and provides the needful technological support to ports, IWAI and other institutions. Mandate: To develop cutting-edge technologies and application products to provide solutions to various challenges faced by the Ports and Shipping Sector. It has world-class capabilities for undertaking 2D and 3D investigations of research and consultancy nature for the Port, Coastal, and Waterway sector across all disciplines.
