Ministry of Rural Development signed MoU with NGO Pradan for development in Naxal Areas

The Ministry of Rural Development on 6 August 2013 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pradan, a non-governmental organization. The NGO will serve as a resource and support organisation for the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), with specially focusing on Naxal-affected districts.

The scheme will be implemented in some of the Naxal-affected districts of Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha in the first phase.
Rural development ministry identified three goals in order to help women farmers groups under the Mahila Krishak Sashaktikaran Yojana :

1)Increase their earnings by reducing input costs
2) Training SHGs by focusing on issues such as sanitation and setting up community kitchens to tackle malnutrition
3) Putting an end to trafficking of tribal women by providing them with livelihoods.

In the first project, 18000 families will get help through production and marketing of Tasar silk in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal in the next three years with a budget of 50 crore rupees.

The second project will be Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana and it will be implemented in Rajasthan, Odisha and MP with a budget of 20 crore rupees. The project is likely to be availed by 18000 families, where sustainable agriculture will be promoted through women headed households and it is calculated that there should be an increase of the income of the self help groups by 15 to 20 per cent after reducing the use of harmful chemicals and pesticides.

Third component of the programme will be training of the girls for alternative sources of livelihood.

Pradan’s help is needed in these areas since government agencies often find the in implementation of developmental projects because of threats from Naxals. Pradan, is funded by the Ford Foundation and Gates Foundation. It will extend its support and expertise in the field of livelihood generation. It will be called the NSO or the NRLM Support Organisation.

NRLM is a programme aimed at reducing poverty by promoting livelihood opportunities for the poor so that their access to financial services could be improved. NRLM presides over 25 lakh women Self Help Groups (SHGs). It aims at creating nearly 60 lakh SHGs over the next five years. The NSO will support State and Central NRLM missions to guide these SHGs.

NSDC to open Skill Development Council in Aerospace Aviation in Bangalore

The National Skill Development Council (NDSC) on 5 August 2013 announced about its plans to open a Skill Development Council for the National Aerospace and Aviation Industry at Bangalore. The council would be formed by September 2013. The basic objective behind the creation of the SSC is to bridge the quantitative and qualitative skill gap.

Astronomers Discovered Lowest-Mass Exoplanet Called GJ 504b around the Sun-Like Star

The international team of astronomers, in the first week of August 2013, captured the image of a huge planet around the bright Sun-like star- GJ 504. The image of the exoplanet was captured by making use of the infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii. The newly captured exoplanet was dubbed as GJ 504b. It is the lowest-mass planet ever detected around the star, by making use of the direct imaging techniques. 

Ravindra Jadeja became the first Indian bowler since Kumble to top ICC ODI Bowlers Rankings

Ravindra Jadeja on 4 August 2013 became the first Indian bowler to top the bowlers' chart in the latest ICC ODI Player Rankings after former captain Anil Kumble claimed the top position in the ODI Rankings in 1996.

India’s left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja has joined West Indies’ off-spinner Sunil Narine on top of the bowlers’ rankings in the latest Reliance ICC ODI Player Rankings which were released on 4 August 2013 in Dubai.

Ravindra Jadeja has jumped four places to share the number-one spot with Narine after he claimed five wickets from five matches against Zimbabwe (24 July to 3 August 2013) during India Zimbabwe Bilateral series 2013. 

Overall, Ravindra Jadeja is the fourth India bowler after Kapil Dev (March 1989), Maninder Singh (December 1987-November 1988) and Kumble to claim the number-one spot in ODIs. 

US temporarily closed Diplomatic Missions after intercepting al-Qaeda threats

The US temporarily closed certain embassies and consulates in the Middle East and North Africa from 4 August 2013 to 10 August 2013 as a precaution after it intercepted al-Qaeda's serious threats in recent years to target its embassies. An instruction was passed to US embassies and consulates by the Department of State to remain closed or to suspend operations on 4 August 2013.

The United States initially closed 22 diplomatic posts for the day on 4 August 2013. The State Department last week issued a worldwide travel alert warning Americans that al-Qaeda may be planning attacks in August, particularly in the Middle East. 

The State Department asserted that this was not an indication of a new threat stream, but merely an indication of US commitment to exercise caution and take appropriate steps to protect its employees and visitors to its facilities. 

The US missions in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antanarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali, and Port Louis have been asked to close for normal operations from 5 August to 10 August 2013.

However, the posts in Dhaka, Algiers, Nouakchott, Kabul, Herat, Mazar el Sharif, Baghdad, Basrah and Erbil were closed on 4 August 2013 and are authorised to reopen for normal operations on 5 August 2013.

Employment-Unemployment Situation among Major Religions in India Studied by NSSO

A National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) study revealed in July 2013 that the Christians from the rural areas as well as the Sikhs from urban areas faced highest level of unemployment during 2009-2010, just a year after the global economic crisis. The study was conducted for a period from July 2009 to June 2010. This was the 66th round of National Sample Survey in order to find out about the employment and unemployment situation among major religious groups in India. 

The survey studied the Unemployment Rate. The Rate of Unemployment, also known as Unemployment Rate is defined as the number of persons unemployed per 1000 in labour force. The survey covered 7402 villages as well as 5252 urban areas, thereby including 100957 households and 4.59 lakh people. 

Major highlights of the Survey

• The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) study unveiled that the rate of unemployment in rural India from July 2009 to June 2010 was less than that in the urban areas. This trend indicated that the economic crisis had major impact on the organised sector of urban areas than the rural areas.  
• The 8th quinquennial survey on employment revealed that the rate of unemployment in rural areas was the highest among Christians (3 percent among men and 6 percent among women). 
• In the urban areas, this rate of unemployment was highest among the Sikhs (6 percent among men and 8 percent among women). 
• Among four categories of the workers, i.e., rural females, rural males, urban females and urban males; the urban females were the worst affected with 6 percent unemployment rate. 
• The survey also revealed that maximum number of employed in the rural areas were those who were self-employed. 54 percent of males as well as 56 percent of females were found in this category of unemployed. 
• As far as the rural male workers were concerned, the level of self employment was highest for the Sikhs (55 percent), followed by the Hindus (54 percent). 
• Among the Christians in rural areas, 17 percent of male and 11 percent of female workers were regular wage or salaried employed. 
• In the urban areas, most of the workers were almost equally involved in regular wage or salaried employed as well as in the category of self employment. The proportion of the workers in self employment category were highest among Muslims, followed by the Sikhs. 
• In case of urban Christians, major portion of male workers (45 percent) and female workers (61 percent) were involved in regular wage or salaried employment. 
• Among the urban Hindus, 44 percent of males as well as 40 percent of females belonged to regular wage or salaried employment category. 
• The Worker Population Ratio (WPR) was higher among the male workers than among the female workers in all the religions. The difference was greater in the urban areas. The Worker Population Ratio (WPR) is the number of persons employed per 1000. The male-female differential in WPR was at its lowest among the Christians. WPR was highest among Christians in all categories covered by the survey, except among the urban males. Among the Urban Males, WPR of Hindus was higher.
• The survey also found that in the rural areas, majority of the male workers were from not literate category (28 percent) or the literate and up to primary category (28 percent). Majority of the female workers were from not literate category (59 percent). Proportion of the male workers with the general education level, i.e., secondary and above was highest among the Christians (32 percent) followed by the Sikhs (30 percent). 

Turkey completed a Trial Run of World's Deepest Rail Tunnel

Turkey on 6 August 2013 successfully completed a trial run of a rail tunnel under the Bosphorus Strait connecting Istanbul's European and Asian sides, the first of several planned mega projects in the country's largest city to see the light of day.

The 13.6 km (8.5 mile) tunnel, including a 1.4 km immersed tube tunnel is the deepest of its kind in the world at 56 metres. It passes under Turkey's Bosphorus Strait, the busy shipping channel linking the Marmara Sea to the Black Sea. The tunnel is part of a larger 5 billion US dollars Marmaray project which also includes an upgrade of existing suburban rail lines to create a 76 km line that according to the government will carry 1.5 million people a day across the city's two sides.

Construction on the tunnel began in 2004 by a Japanese-Turkish consortium, with funding coming from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The Marmaray, which has been beset by long delays, is now slated to open to the public on Oct. 29, the anniversary of modern Turkey's founding, making it the first of Istanbul's planned mega projects to be completed.

Erdogan has proposed several major construction projects for Istanbul, some of them facing stiff public opposition, including a canal parallel to the Bosphorus to ease shipping traffic, one of the world's largest airports, a third bridge spanning the Bosphorus and a large mosque overlooking the city. The most controversial project put forward by the Turkish leader was the redevelopment of a central Istanbul park, which included the construction of an Ottoman-era military barracks and a mosque.

The plans sparked weeks of countrywide demonstrations when diggers moved in to uproot the park's trees. The protests mushroomed into a wider opposition to Erdogan and what protesters said was his increasingly authoritarian rule.

Scientists Unveiled World’s First Lab-Grown Beef Burger

Scientists from the Maastricht University in the Netherlands, on 5 August 2013, unveiled the first lab-grown beef burger of the world, depicting the food revolution. The world’s first lab-grown beef burger was served to the volunteers in London. 

Features of the world’s first lab-grown beef burger project

• The world’s first lab-grown beef burger has the 140g or around 5 ounce patty. The cost of production of this patty is 250000 Euros or 330000 US dollar.
• The patty is made by making use of the strands of meat grown from the stem cells extracted from a living cow. 
• The scientists claimed that when mixed with breadcrumbs, egg powder and salt, for improving its taste; as well as coloured with red beetroot juice and saffron; it will taste very much like a usual burger. 
• The meat for the burger was developed in the lab of Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. 
• The burger is absolutely safe.
• It also has the capability of replacing the normal meat in diets of people.
• One of the founders of Google- Sergey Brin is one of the financial backers of this project. 
• 50 people in all were involved in the research across the world, but primarily in North America and Netherlands. 

The patty was served to Austrian food researcher Hanni Ruetzler and US-based food author Josh Schonwald, who were the volunteers. There have been rising concerns about the increasing demand of meat, which in turn puts pressure on the Earth. The cultured beef can therefore be used for solving this problem. 

Health Outcome Indicators

The Eleventh Plan document states that though considerable achievements have been made to improve health standards, problems exist. Malnutrition affects a large population of children.  An unacceptable high proportion of the population continues to suffer and die from new diseases that are emerging; apart from continuing and new threats posed by the existing ones.  Pregnancy and child birth related complications also contribute to the suffering and mortality. The details of select Health Indicators are as under :

Health parameters	Year 2005 #	Year 2011$
Crude Birth Rate (per 1000)	23.8	21.8
Crude Death Rate  (per 1000)	7.6	7.1
Infant Mortality Rate  (IMR)  (per 1000 live births)	58	44

Source:   #11^th Five Year Plan,   

$ Sample Registration System, 2011

(a)    The performance of  health indicators of Jharkhand during 10^th  and 11^th Plan  period are as under :

Health parameters	Year 2006 #	Year 2011$
Crude Birth Rate (per 1000)	26.2	25.0
Crude Death Rate (per 1000)	7.5	6.9
IMR (per 1000 live births)	49	39

Source :   # Sample Registration  System 2006,

                 $ Sample Registration System 2011

Setting up of Plastic Clusters/Parks

The Government has approved a Scheme for setting up of need based Plastic Parks with requisite state of the art infrastructure and enabling common facilities to assist the sector move up the value chain and contribute to the economy more effectively. The objective of the scheme, inter-alia, is to increase competitiveness and investments, achieve environmentally sustainable growth and adopt the cluster development approach to consolidate the capacities in plastic sector. The Scheme Steering Committee, the designated institutional mechanism for implementation of the scheme for Setting up of Plastic Parks, has granted “in principle” approval to the 4 proposals received from the State Government/its agencies for setting up of the plastic parks in Assam, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. 

Development of Small Scale Industries in the Country

A Prime Minister's Task Force on MSMEs, constituted under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, looked into the constraints which were affecting the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. To overcome these constraints, the Task Force gave recommendations in various areas like credit, taxation, labour, infrastructure, technology, skill development, marketing etc. Many of the recommendations of the Task Force have been implemented for further development of the MSME sector. This Task Force made 85 recommendations of which 77 were accepted and 8 were dropped/ delinked by the Steering Group. Out of these 77 recommendations, action on 39 recommendations has been completed. 

The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is implementing Technology and Quality Upgradation Support to MSMEs (TEQUP) scheme under National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP) in order to equip this sector with high technological development in the field of Energy Efficiency. Under this scheme, the Government is providing 25% of subsidy subject to maximum of Rs.10.00 lakh per project for implementation of energy efficiency technologies in MSME sector. Further, Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) being implemented by the Ministry facilitates technology upgradation by providing 15% upfront capital subsidy for inclusion of well established and improved technology in specified sub-sector/ products. Besides, 10 Tool Rooms and 8 Technical Development Centres are also providing technology support services to MSMEs and conducting technical training programme for providing skilled manpower to industries. 

Mother and Child Health Status of the Country

As per the estimates brought out by the Registrar General of India, Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in the country was 212 per 100,000 live births during 2007-09, theInfant Mortality Rate (IMR), female IMR and male IMR  in 2011 were  44, 46 and 43 per 1000 live births respectively. Taking into account the figures of MMR, IMR, midyear Population and Birth Rate for the corresponding period, it is estimated that about 56, 000 maternal deaths in 2008 and 11.64 lakhs infant deaths in 2011 would have occurred in the country.

The Neo-natal mortality rate of India was 31 per 1000 live births in 2011 indicating thereby deaths of 3.1 percent new born babies within first month of their birth.

As per the National Family Health Survey -3  ( 2005-06) report, the nutritional status  among children under 5, and anaemia among adolescent are given below:

Indicator	% of children / adolescent
Children - under 5
Stunted	48.0
Wasted	19.8
Underweight	42.5
Severely malnourished	15.8
Adolescent (15-19 years)
Any Anaemia - boys	30.2
Any Anaemia - girls	55.8

Innovation Centre for Climate Change

Government of India has proposed to set up the National Institute for Climate Change Studies and Actions (NICCSA) under Climate Change Action Programme (CCAP) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests with a view to carry out analytical studies of scientific, environmental, economic development and technological issues related to climate change. This was stated by Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. NICCSA will be set up during the 12th Five Year Plan Period.

Indo-Australian Joint Naval Exercise

India and Australia have agreed to continue bilateral Naval exchanges between Navies of both countries, including working towards a bilateral naval exercise in 2015 in order to build confidence and familiarity between both Navies. Such exercises are planned as per felt need and mutual convenience of both sides. The government also proposes to hold joint exercises with countries with whom it has relevant agreements. 

Hassan Rouhani sworn in as the new President of Iran

Hassan Rouhani on 4 August 2013 took oath as the new President of Iran in the ceremony held at the Iranian Parliament in Tehran. The 64 year old Rouhani, kissed the Quran and took his oath to the office before the countries senior politicians, foreign dignitaries and MPs. The newly elected, Iranian President began his four-year mandate to the office from 3 August 2013 after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme leader certified his victory in the Presidential election that was conducted on 15 June 2013. 

Rouhani is the seventh (different) President of Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He secured a little over 50 percent votes to win the election and has succeeded Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the President.
    
Earlier, he defeated Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf of Islamic Society of Engineers party. The Presidential elections in Iran took place on 14 June 2013.