Idea of forming a green belt from Porbandar to Panipat will not only help in restoring degraded land through afforestation along the Aravali hill range that spans across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, but also act as a barrier for dust coming from the deserts in western India and Pakistan.
The development marks an important breakthrough in India’s efforts to track down black money stashed abroad. India is amongst 75 countries with which Switzerland’s Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has swapped intelligence on the financial details of people.
Notably, a model of this plant had been placed for a demonstration before PM Modi when he had arrived in Mathura some time back as a part of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. This model is now working on a full scale at the Mathura Municipal Corporation’s (MMC) trenching grounds.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the national body that frames quality norms for products and services and works under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, has set standards for the drinking water but are voluntary in nature.
The agency has claimed in its supplementary charge sheet that the Pakistan High Commission’s role has been established in supporting separatist and other networks through transfer of funds via financial conduits and in providing directions on continuing to foment unrest in Kashmir.
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.
