In a fillip to Prime Minister Narendra Modi”s Swachh Bharat Mission, Google Maps now lists over 57,000 public toilets in over 2,300 cities across the country, the company announced on the eve of Mahatma Gandhi”s 150th birth anniversay, fulfiling a key aspiration of the Father of the Nation.
Under the world’s largest streetlight replacement programme being implemented by state-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), these streetlights are illuminating 2.7 lakh km of roads, resulting in annual energy savings of 6.71 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) and helping reduce 4.63 million tons of carbon dioxide emission.
In the Modi 2.0 PMO, the work allocation has not only been confined to officers but also personal office staff. After principal secretary to PM Nripendra Misra demitted office on August 30, all the personal office staff (some with over a decade in a particular office) of all top officers have been rotated for more transparency.
At present, India is third on the charts, only behind the US and the UK, with a green footprint of 7 billion square feet (sft). Its target: 10 billion sft in the next three years.
“Government agencies, along with BIS, are formulating the Act. The draft has been made and BIS has already made 1,325 standards for more than 1,000 product lines,” added the official. NITI Aayog is also involved in the process.
National Resource Efficiency Policy has been drafted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change with the aim to double the recycling rate of key materials to 50 per cent in next five years and also enable upcycling of waste.
“Under the ‘Siachen Swachhta Abhiyan’, Indian Army has managed to clean 130 tonnes of garbage from the Siachen Glacier since January 2018,” Indian Army officials said on Tuesday. Out of the 130.14 tonnes brought down, 48.14 tonnes is non-biodegradable while 40 tonnes include plastic and glass waste. The metallic content including shells of ammunition is around 41.45 tonnes.
According to the Indian officials, ISI prepared a dossier on fictitious terror activities of Dongara including FIRs, photos, and other fake evidence. He was portrayed as a financier and weapon suppliers of several anti-Pakistan groups including Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Tariq Gidar Group, TTP, ISIL and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Supported by China, this listing was a desperate attempt by Islamabad to link India and terror, and also embarrass India at a time when the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a high-profile visit to the US, where he will also speak at the UN General Assembly.
Amit Shah said the fact that this would be the first Census where data would be collected digitally would have wide-ranging ramifications and uses. For instance, “can’t we link the registration of birth and death with the country’s voter list,” he said. This way, he argued, no one would have to apply for a voter card when they reach the voting age – it would happen on its own. Similarly, if someone dies, the voter list would be updated on its own.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Wednesday conferred the “Global Goalkeeper” award by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by his government.
