Chhattisgarh Affairs
Farmers to get zero interest loan for lac cultivation
The Chhattisgarh government will encourage farmers to go for lac cultivation and provide them lac crop loan with zero interest through the District Cooperative Bank.
A loan limit of Rs 5,000 has been fixed for rearing lac on Kusum tree, Rs 900 for Ber (Indian Jujube) and Rs 500 for Palash (Tesu) tree, an official Communication said on Saturday.
The Chhattisgarh State Minor Forest Produce (Trading and Development) Cooperative Federation has taken the initiative to increase lac production.
Chhattisgarh is one of the highest producers of lac in the country. It produces 4,000 tonnes of lac at an estimated value of Rs 100 crore.
The production target is 10,000 tonnes, which will generate an income of Rs 250 crore to the farmers.
The rates for procurement of Bihan lac (seeding lac insects) have been fixed. The farmers can procure Kusumi Bihan lac (obtained from Ber tree) at Rs 550 per kg and Rangini Bihan lac (obtained from Palash tree) at Rs 275 per kg.
Lac production clusters have been formed with three to five primary committee areas in 20 districts.
Lac production occurs twice a year — in summer and winter.
National and International Affairs
FinMin finalises framework for sovereign green bonds
The Finance Ministry has finalised the framework to issue sovereign green in line with global standards, according to sources. The government intends to mobilise Rs 16,000 crore from the issuance of green bonds during the second half of the current financial year. It is a part of the borrowing programme for the second half of this fiscal.
These rupee-denominated papers will have long tenure to suit the requirement of green Infrastructure projects.
The government is planning a total borrowing of Rs 5.92 lakh crore during the October-March period of the current fiscal.
The government had in the Budget for 2022-23 projected a gross market borrowing of Rs 14.31 lakh crore.
MoHUA launches the Transport 4 All Challenge Stage-2 and Citizen Perception Survey-2022
The Transport4All Challenge is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, that aims at enhancing the mobility experience of citizens. The Challenge focuses on digital innovation and invites cities, citizens, and innovators to join hands to develop contextual digital solutions to improve formal as well as informal public transport to better serve the mobility needs of all citizens.
Three Stages of the Challenge
The Transport4All through Digital Innovation Challenge comprises three stages:
Stage I PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION: Cities, with the support of NGOs, identify key recurring problems that citizens and public transport operators face
Stage II SOLUTION GENERATION: Startups develop prototypes of solutions to improve public transport with inputs from cities and NGOs
Stage III PILOT TESTING: Cities engage Startups for large-scale pilots and refine the solutions based on citizen feedback.
MoHUA launched the Urban Outcomes Framework 2022 in April, 2022 as an initiative to undertake a transparent and comprehensive assessment of cities based on cross-city outcomes across major sectors. The Framework also includes the third round of Ease of Living Index. The Ease of Living Index, as a 360-degree assessment, aims to evaluate cities across India based on the Quality Of Life, Economic Ability, and Sustainability.
Methane Alert and Response System
Recently theUnited Nations(UN)has decided to set up asatellite-basedmonitoring systemMARS: Methane Alert and Response Systemfor trackingmethane emissionsand alerting governments and corporations to respond.