The application was launched recently by the Ministry of Water Resources during India Water Impact Summit, 2018.
It was developed by Remote Sensing Centre of ISRO.
It is used for geo-tagging of saplings and delineation of plantation boundaries under ongoing afforestation activities of Namami Gange programme.
Namami Gange Programme
It is a flagship programme to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.
The 8 Main Pillars of the programme are,
Sewerage Treatment Infrastructure
River-Front Development
River-Surface Cleaning
Bio-Diversity
Afforestation
Public Awareness
Industrial Effluent Monitoring
Ganga Gram
Agriculture Export Policy
Union Cabinet has recently approved the Agriculture Export Policy, 2018.
The policy aimed at doubling the agricultural exports and integrating Indian farmers and agricultural products with the global value chains.
Its objectives are
Doubling agriculture exports from present $30 billion to $60 billion by 2022.
Diversify export basket, destination and boost high value added agricultural exports.
Promoting novel, indigenous, organic, ethnic, traditional and non-traditional Agri products exports.
Providing an institutional mechanism for pursuing market access, tackling barriers and deal with sanitary and phyto-sanitary issues.
Striving to double India’s share in world agri exports by integrating with global value chain at the earliest.
Enabling farmers to get benefit of export opportunities in overseas market.
Cyber-Physical Systems
Union Cabinet has recently approved the launching of “National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems”.
The mission aims at establishment of Technology Innovation Hubs (TIH), Application Innovation Hubs (AIH) and Technology Translation Research Parks (TTRP).
It is a Pan India mission covering Central Ministries, State Governments, Industry and Academia, to effectively use Cyber Physical System (CPS) technologies.
CPS is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the deployment of computer-based systems that do things in the physical world.
Smart grids, where electricity is optimally distributed on the basis of calculations in real time by micro-processors and autonomous unmanned vehicles and aircraft navigation systems qualify as ‘cyber physical systems.’
Artificial Intelligence (Al), Internet of Things (loT), Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning (DP), Big Data Analytics, Robotics, Quantum Computing, Quantum Communication, Quantum encryption (Quantum Key Distribution) are associated technologies of CPS.
Tribal Circuit : Peren-Kohima-Wokha
The project of development of Tribal Circuit “Peren-Kohima-Wokha” was recently sanctioned by the Ministry of Tourism under Swadesh Darshan Project.
This is the first project to be implemented in the State of Nagaland under Swadesh Darshan.
It is one among the flagship schemes of the Ministry of Tourism for development of thematic circuits in the country in a planned and prioritised manner.
It is focusing on development of quality infrastructure with objective of providing better experience and facilities to the visitors and fostering the economic growth.
Leprosy
Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is a bacterial disease.
It affects skin and nerves which can lead to physical deformity and disability if left untreated.
It is not hereditary and completely curable, as opposite to general public views on leprosy.
It is only mildly infectious (i.e) more than 85% of cases are non-infectious and over 95% of the population has a natural immunity to the disease.
Leprosy colonies in the country still faces stigma and government’s attention towards it is also going down.
This is mainly because of WHO declaration of the elimination of leprosy as a public-health concern in India in 2005.
This has diluted the international funding and reduced attention and made life difficult for the people living in the colonies.