BirdLife International has recognised three new sites in Goa as hotspots for protection. The sites have been added to their list of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA).
Now, seven areas in Goa have been termed important biodiversity areas by BirdLife.
Goa harbours a good population of the lesser adjutant and the Nilgiri wood pigeon in certain pockets of the State apart from the identified sites.
An IBA is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are over 12,000 IBAs worldwide.
Tele-Law
In its effort to make legal aid easily accessible to the marginalized communities and citizens living in rural areas, the Government of India has launched the ‘Tele-Law’.
The Ministry of Law and Justice partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), to provide legal aid services through its Common Service Centres (CSC) at the panchayat level, spread across the country.
Under the scheme, a portal called ‘Tele-Law’ will be launched, which will be available across the CSC network.
This will connect the citizens to legal service providers with the help of technology enabled platforms.
‘Tele-Law’ will enable people to seek legal advice from lawyers through video conferencing available at the CSC.
The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) will provide a panel of lawyers from State capitals, who will be available through video conferencing to provide legal advice and counselling to the applicants.
A robust monitoring and evaluation system is also being designed which will help in assessing the quality of legal advice provided and the ensuing benefit to those accessing it.
Why Arunachal Pradesh CM is demanding separate timezone for northeastern states?
The longitudinal difference between India’s easternmost point Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh and the westernmost point int Gugariyana, Gujarat is is almost 30 degrees — a time difference of two hours.
In the event of a single time zone, like in India, with the country spread over areas wider than the one hour mark, some areas see early sunrise and sunset and the opposite extreme ends see them late.
So, one of the arguments that the states advance is that the early sunrise means that by the time they start their day, almost half the day has passed. This means an early sunset which requires extra use of lights in both homes, offices and public places.
Their demand is essentially called daylight saving and Arunachal Pradesh CM Khandu has demanded that the northeastern states be allowed to advance their clocks by some time (0.5-1 hour approx) to save more daylight hours.
For those living in northeastern states, a change in time would mean a delayed sunset. This will allow the citizens to make use of added daylight hours.
For the most part, it benefits the people of the region. If the demand is approved, the region is expected to be put on the timezone of GMT+6 hrs.
A separate chai bagan (tea garden) time zone was raised by Mr Khandu. This time zone is ahead of the Indian Standard Time by an hour and it was present in the British colonial era as well.
Anuyatra
It is an initiative of the Social Justice Department and the Kerala Social Security Mission, aimed at making the State disabled-friendly.
It focuses on several interventions from disability prevention to self-reliant rehabilitation.
