State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has set up ‘India’s first e-vehicle charging unit’ in Nagpur.
Nagpur is the first city to introduce Electric Public Transportation Model in India.
FAME India
The government has recently invited proposals from cities with population of above 10 lakh for extending grants under the FAME scheme.
FAME – Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles in India
It is a scheme to promote large-scale adoption of Electric vehicles in multi-modal public transport.
The scheme has 4 focus areas i.e. Technology development, Demand Creation, Pilot Projects and Charging Infrastructure.
It is aimed at incentivising all vehicle segments i.e. 2 Wheeler, 3 Wheeler Auto, Passenger 4 Wheeler Vehicle, Light Commercial Vehicles and Buses.
World Economic Outlook
The report “World Economic Outlook” is being published by International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It ranks over 200 countries in terms of per capita GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).
In this year ranking, India has moved up one position to 126 in terms of GDP per capita.
It is still ranked lower than all its BRICS peers.
Qatar remains the world’s richest as per the IMF data.
PPP – It is the rate at which the currency of one country needs to be converted into that of a second country.
It is used worldwide to compare the income levels in different countries.
It is to ensure that the expenditure on a similar commodity must be same in both currencies when accounted for exchange rate.
PowerTex India Scheme
It is a three-year comprehensive scheme for powerloom sector development.
It comprises several schemes of textile ministry such as In-situ Upgradation of Plain Powerlooms, Group Workshed Scheme (GWS), Yarn Bank Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Credit Scheme for Powerloom Weavers etc.
It also includes Grant-in-Aid and Modernisation & Upgradation of Powerloom Service Centres (PSCs).
The textile ministry has recently recommended an increase in capital subsidy for the powerloom sector from 10% to 30%.
It has also sought additional funds to be disbursed to powerloom weavers.
Deformed Amphibians
Scientists have been witnessing frogs with deformities in Western Ghats.
Missing eyes, deformed hind legs, missing limbs, extra limbs, partial limbs, limbs that are bent or bony, and abnormally thin or weak limbs are some of the reported frog abnormalities.
The reason behind this is suspected to be symptomatic of underlying toxicity in the environment and the food chain.
Many amphibians breed in the shallow waters of paddy fields and pesticide applications also coincide with the breeding periods of frogs.
These chemicals ultimately reach the soil and move into the water system where the larval stage (tadpoles) of the frog develops leading to deformities.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin)
The scheme was launched last year with the target of completing one crore new houses by March, 2019.
It aims at helping rural people below the poverty-line (BPL) in construction of dwelling units and upgradation of existing unserviceable kutcha houses by providing assistance in the form of full grant.
It involves local construction material, use of technology through rural mason training, geo-tagging of assets and payment directly into the account of beneficiary through IT-DBT platform.
Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 is used to identify the beneficiary.
It is only the homeless and those living in one kuccha room with kuccha roof or two kuccha rooms with kuccha roof are the beneficiaries.
An allowance of Rs. 120,000 in plain areas and Rs. 130,000 in hilly areas will be provided for construction of homes.
