Page 499 - Environment
67 lakh household toilets in Delhi by 2019-end: Minister
Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that Delhi's civic bodies will construct five lakh community and 67 lakh household toilets by the end of 2019.
Paddy farmers in C'garh to get bonus alongwith MSP this time
In a major decision ahead of the coming Assembly elections, the BJP government in Chhattisgarh Tuesday decided to pay a bonus of Rs 300 per quintal alongwith the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to paddy farmers. In the last Kharif season, farmers had received the bonus later, after the procurement process was over, but this time the whole amount will be paid at once, Chief Minister Raman Singh told reporters here. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Singh at his official residence, he said. "Paddy procurement for Kharif season 2018 will start from November 1. Farmers will be given a bonus of Rs 300 per quintal along with the MSP," Singh told reporters. For 2018-19 Kharif season, the NDA government at the Centre has announced MSP of Rs 1,770 per quintal for A-grade paddy and Rs 1,750 per quintal for common grade paddy. With bonus, the Chhattisgarh government will be paying farmers Rs 2,070 per quintal for A-grade paddy and Rs 2,050 for common grade paddy, ...
190 countries aim to broker pact on climate rules
Negotiators from nearly 190 countries, including India, gathered here on Tuesday for the six-day resumed sessions of the UNFCCC's subsidiary bodies and the Ad Hoc Working Group on the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement amid strong calls for progress.
J-K revenue officials booked for fraudulent withdrawal of compensation
The Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) Tuesday lodged an FIR against revenue officials in Kishtwar district for reportedly preparing fraudulent papers for the withdrawal of undue compensation to the tune of over Rs 7.24 lakh. The case has been registered against three officials, only one of whom is presently serving, after a preliminary investigation revealed that they prepared papers to confer undue pecuniary benefits upon five persons while preparing a list of persons whose land had come under road construction in the district nine years ago, an official spokesman said. The preparation of "fake and fraudulent" papers resulted in the loss of Rs 7,24,500 to the state exchequer and corresponding wrongful gain to the beneficiaries including three brothers, he said. The officials, one of whom has expired and another has retired from service, allegedly prepared the fraudulent compensation papers in league with the beneficiaries by showing forest land under the possession
Jharkhand CM invites China to farm & food summit
Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday invited Chinese companies to participate in the Global Agriculture and Food Summit due in November this year.
Drumlines killing endangered sharks in Great Barrier Reef: Experts
Protectionist groups on Tuesday warned that Australia's use of drumlines under the country's Shark Control Programme in the Great Barrier Reef is killing endangered shark species.
India To Generate 100 GW Solar Energy By 2022
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U'khand moves SC, seeks vacation of order staying construction activities
The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking vacation of its order staying construction in some states and union territories saying it was facing a "crisis situation" due to artificial lake formation in Tehri Garhwal area after huge landslides. It told the court that it has framed a revised policy and this would be placed before the cabinet for approval. The apex court had slapped a cost of Rs 3 lakh on the Uttarakhand government on August 31 for not framing the state policy under the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. The state told a bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that due to the apex court's order, construction activities have stopped at a time when the state was facing crisis due to rains and landslides. The counsel, appearing for Uttarakhand, told the bench that due to landslides, an artificial lake has been formed in the state and stay on construction activities should be vacated so that relief measures could be undertaken as lives of ..
Kejriwal to visit South Korea
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit Seoul in South Korea for three days from September 12, during which various agreements will be signed, government sources said on Tuesday.
NGT refers plea challenging Chardham highway project to larger bench
The National Green Tribunal Tuesday referred to a larger bench a petition dealing with the environmental clearance issue related to the Chardham highway project for providing all-weather connectivity to four holy towns of Uttarakhand. A bench of justices Jawad Rahim and S P Wangdi and expert member Nagin Nanda said that as the Supreme Court has noted in its order that the matter is complex one, it should be heard by a larger bench. The green panel said that the bench would be decided by the NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and posted the matter for hearing on September 6. "In view of the directions of the Supreme Court and noting the complexity of the issue involved, we are of the opinion that the matter be heard by a larger bench," the bench said. Advocate Sanjay Parikh, appearing for petitioner NGO 'Citizens for Green Doon', said that under "no circumstance" the matter can go to a different bench if the judgement has been reserved in the matter. He said that as per the apex
Paddy farmers in Chhattisgarh to get bonus
In a major decision ahead of the coming Assembly elections, the BJP government in Chhattisgarh Tuesday decided to pay a bonus of Rs 300 per quintal in addition to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to paddy farmers. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Raman Singh at his official residence here. "Paddy procurement for Kharif season 2018 will start from November 1. Farmers will be given a bonus of Rs 300 per quintal along with the MSP," Singh told reporters. For 2018-19 Kharif season, the NDA government at the Centre has announced MSP of Rs 1,770 per quintal for A-grade paddy and Rs 1,750 per quintal for common grade paddy. With bonus, the Chhattisgarh government will be paying farmers Rs 2,070 per quintal for A-grade paddy and Rs 2,050 for common grade paddy, Singh said. The state cabinet approved a provision of Rs 2,400 crore for payment of bonus, he said. The decision is significant as Assembly elections are due in the state by year-end. The
Scientists pioneer novel model to turn sunlight into fuel
In a breakthrough move, British scientists have used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen by mixing biological components and man-made technologies.
Mekedatu reservoir: TN opposes Karnataka's 'unilateral' action
The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday opposed Karnataka's "unilateral" action to seek the Central Water Commission's clearance to a feasibility report for a Rs 5,912-crore reservoir at Mekedatu on Cauvery river. Approaching CWC was in violation of the final order of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Palaniswami said the upper riparian state had not approached Tamil Nadu seeking its concurrence for the Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir-cum-drinking water project. He sought Modi's intervention to stop forthwith further processing of the feasibility report. "I would like to point out that this action of Karnataka is in violation of the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court and also in contravention to the directives of the Government of India to share the plans with the co-basin States for their consent before proposing any new schemes," Palaniswami said. Karnataka's proposal to build .
Shared responsibility essential for conserving migratory species
Since migrating animals are shared heritage, a new study has noted that tracking marine migrations across geopolitical boundaries can contribute to their conservation.The study uses tracking data for 14 species of migratory marine predators, from leatherback turtles to blue whales and white sharks, to show how their movements relate to the geopolitical boundaries of the Pacific Ocean.The results provide critical information for designing international cooperative agreements needed to manage these species.Daniel Costa, co-author said, "If a species spends most of its time in the jurisdiction of one or two countries, conservation and management is a much easier issue than it is for species that migrate through many different countries.""For these highly migratory species, we wanted to know how many jurisdictional regions they go through and how much time they spend in the open ocean beyond the jurisdiction of any one country," Costa added.Under international law, every coastal nation ...
Revised DPR for Pancheshwar dam sent to project development authority
A revised second detailed project report for the multi-purpose Pancheshwar dam project has finally been sent to the development authority, which will soon be forwarded to the Indian and Nepalese governments for clearance. The approval of the two stakeholder countries will pave the way for the works to start on the long-awaited project which is expected to fulfill power andirrigation requirements for both countries. A fresh,updated version of the secondDPR, prepared by WAPCOS, was sent last month to Pancheshwar development authority (PDA) which will now forward it to the Indian and Nepalese governments for approval, " a WAPCOS official at Pancheshwar site said Tuesday. India and Nepal are the two stakeholders in the ambitious project and WAPCOS is the Indian company entrusted with the task of preparing the DPR. The fresh DPR is therevised versionof the second report sent to the PDA in June, 2017, about which both countries had some reservations. PDA, which has representatives from both
Semi-artificial photosynthesis creates fuel from water
Scientists have developed a semi-artificial photosynthesis system that uses sunlight to produce hydrogen fuel from water. Photosynthesis is the process plants use to convert sunlight into energy. Oxygen is produced as by-product of photosynthesis when the water absorbed by plants is 'split'. It is one of the most important reactions on the planet because it is the source of nearly all of the world's oxygen. Hydrogen which is produced when the water is split could potentially be a green and unlimited source of renewable energy. Researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK used semi-artificial photosynthesis to explore new ways to produce and store solar energy. They used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen using a mixture of biological components and manmade technologies. "Natural photosynthesis is not efficient because it has evolved merely to survive so it makes the bare minimum amount of energy needed - around 1-2 per cent of what it could ...
Russia says space station leak could be deliberate sabotage
Russia launched checks Tuesday after its space chief said an air leak on the International Space Station last week could have been caused by deliberate sabotage. Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said the hole detected Thursday in a Russian space craft docked at the orbiting station was caused by a drill and could have been done deliberately, either back on Earth or in space. Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening. "There were several attempts at drilling," Rogozin said late Monday in televised comments. He added that the drill appeared to have been held by a "wavering hand." "What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?" he asked. "We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space." A commission will seek to identify the culprit by name, Rogozin said, calling this a "matter of honour" for Russia's Energiya space manufacturing
China soybean imports from U.S. to plunge in 2018/19 - Jiusan exec
HARBIN, China (Reuters) - China will almost entirely replace its soybean imports from the United States with Brazilian beans and other origins in the upcoming season, but may run out of the oilseed in early 2019, said an executive with a top crusher on Tuesday.
India's Jan-Aug coffee exports flat at 2.62 lakh tonne
Coffee exports from India remained flat at 2,62,764 tonne in January-August 2018 on fall in shipments of robusta varieties and instant coffee, according to the Coffee Board. The country had shipped 2,63,269 tonne of coffee in the same period of 2017. India is Asia's third-largest producer and exporter of coffee. As per the Board's data, the coffee exports remained flat both in terms of volume and value. In value terms, total coffee exports were at Rs 4,243.77 crore during January-August 2018 as against Rs 4,360.34 crore in the year-ago period. The unit per value realisation was also lower at Rs 1,61,504 per tonne as against Rs 1,65,623 per tonne in the said period. Much of the shipments were for Italy (62,937 tonne), Germany (22,339 tonne), Belgium (15,571 tonne) and Russia (14,927 tonne) and Indonesia (11,961 tonne), the data showed. Of the total coffee shipments, the export of robusta varieties dropped 11 per cent to 1,38,317 tonne from 1,55,474 tonne in the year-ago period. Even ...
Bangkok climate conference sounds alarm ahead of UN summit
Time is running out to save the Paris Agreement, UN climate experts warned Tuesday at a key Bangkok meeting, as rich nations were accused of shirking their responsibility for environmental damage. The six-day UN conference opened with an urgent plea from delegates to finalise a "rule book" governing the Paris Agreement, the most ambitious global pact yet, to address the impacts of climate change. The rule book will have guidelines for the treaty's 197 signatories on how to provide support to developing countries worst affected, and manage the impact of climate change. If nations cannot reach an agreement by a December summit in Poland -- known as COP24 -- the Paris Agreement, carved out in 2015, will be at risk. "The credibility of the process... is at stake," Michal Kurtyka, president designate of COP24, said at the opening of Tuesday's meeting. "We are not moving as swiftly as we can," he added. "We need concrete propositions and solutions now." Money is at the heart of issue. The ..
