TRIUMPH IAS ACADEMY MUMBAI

National Council on Nutrition under Chairmanship of Vice-Chairman of NITI Ayog to report to Prime Minister every six month T he Government has recently approved the setting up of new National Nutrition Mission (NNM) to address the problem of malnutrition in the country at a total cost of Rs. 9046.17 crore for a period of three years i.e. 2017-18 to 2019-20.  The salient features of the Mission are e nsuring convergence - NNM will ensure convergence with various programmes; incentivizing States/ UTs for achieving goals;   IT enabled Real Time Monitoring (ICT-RTM);  Evaluation;  weighing efficiency   and making nutrition visible; Community mobilisation awareness advocacy; IEC ,  Jan Andolan - to educate the people on nutritional aspects, on-line Course on Nutrition for Children, Nutrition message from folk songs and songs on WASH,   sending messages on nutrition and also creating ring-tones, Yoga for children at AWCs;  s trengthening human reso...

Use of Bio-Diesel in Railways Indian Railways has tested the bio-diesel of different feed stock (Jatropha, Mahua, pongamia, waste cotton seed, Fish Oil, Soyabeen oil, Palm stearin etc.) in the different blending ratio such as B5, B10, B20, B50 and B 100 on its 16 cylinder ALCo and EMD engine test beds. The power performance of engine has been found satisfactory without any adverse impact on engine working. Besides, bio-diesel is found to reduce certain emission parameters which would have otherwise caused pollution in environment. Key Advantages of Bio-Diesel: (i) Renewable Energy source (ii) Derived from Vegetable oil (iii) Non-toxic & Biodegradable (iv) Contains no sulphur that causes acid rain (v) Higher Cetane number, better ignition quality (vi) Used directly in unmodified Diesel engines, neat or blended in any ratio with HSD (vii) Higher Lubricity – Can prolong engine life (viii) Flashpoint higher than HSD-safer to store & transport (ix) Environment...

High Ash content Ash content of coal produced in the country is generally 25 to 45 % whereas average ash content of imported coal varies from 10 to 20 %. Indian Coal has comparatively higher ash content than imported coal due to drift theory of formation of coal deposits in India. Coal seams formed due to drift theory contains higher ash as compared to in-situ theory of formation . As per Ministry of Environment and Forest & Climate Change (MOEF&CC) stipulation, coal based thermal power plant (situated beyond 500 km from the pit-head) be supplied with, and shall use, raw or blended or beneficiated coal with ash content not exceeding thirty-four percent, on quarterly average basis.  Coal Companies are supplying coal to their customers maintaining ash percentage below 34% on quarterly average basis as per the aforesaid MOEF&CC stipulation. Coal India Limited has taken following steps to adopt international standards in Coal Mining: Deployment of surface miners (du...

Promotion of North East Indian tribal culture As per information available, an amount of Rs.23.50 crore has been sanctioned for construction of a Regional Convention Centre at North East Zone Cultural Centre (NEZCC) Complex, Dimapur. Out of an amount of Rs.13.00 crore released to NEZCC, Rs.5.72 crore has been spent towards construction of the Convention Centre. Under Tagore Cultural Complex Scheme, from 2013 till date, an amount of Rs.41.65 crore has been allocated and Rs.22.50 crore spent for construction of Tagore cultural complexes at Chedema, Aboi, and Dimapur in Nagaland and at Raga and Upper Subansiri District in Arunachal Pradesh. Government has set up Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs) in Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram during 2016-17 and 2018-19, which,  inter alia , function as a body of knowledge & research and preservation of tribal art and culture. From 2014-15 till date, Rs.86.18 crore have been provided to the TRIs in North East Region to ca...

Cabinet approves restructuring of National Health Agency as "National Health Authority" for better implementation of Pradhan Mantri - Jan Arogya Yojana The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the restructuring of existing National Health Agency as "National Health Authority" for better implementation of Pradhan Mantri - Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY). With this approval, the existing society "National Health Agency" has been dissolved and will be replaced by National Health Authority as an attached office to Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. The existing multi-tier decision making structure has been replaced with the Governing Board chaired by the Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India which will enable the decision making at a faster pace, required for smooth implementation of the scheme. The composition of the Governing Board is broad based with due representations from the Government, do...

Cabinet gives ex post facto approval to India's Approach for COP 24, Katowice, Poland (2-15 December 2018) The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval to the negotiating stand of India at the 24 th  Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Katowice, Poland from 2-15 December 2018.  This is in continuation to the earlier approval dated 28 th  November 2018. The Indian delegation was led by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The key focus of meeting was to finalize guidelines for implementation of Paris Agreement in post 2020 period. India's approach was guided by principles and provisions of UNFCCC and Paris Agreement particularly the principles of Equity and Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capability (CBPR-RC). India reiterated its commitment to Paris Agreement and highlighted its leade...

Cabinet approves first-ever three way merger in Indian Banking with amalgamation of Vijaya, Dena and Bank of Baroda The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the scheme of amalgamation for amalgamating Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank, with Bank of Baroda as the transferee bank and Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank as transferor banks. The amalgamation will be the first-ever three-way consolidation of banks in India, with the amalgamated bank being India's second largest Public Sector Bank. The amalgamation will help create a strong globally competitive bank with economies of scale and enable realisation of wide-ranging synergies. Leveraging of networks, low-cost deposits and subsidiaries of the three banks has the potential of yielding significant synergies for positioning the consolidated entity for substantial rise in customer base, market reach, operational efficiency, wider bouquet of products and services, and improved access for cu...