CHHATTISGARH

The IT and Electronics Department of the Chhattisgarh Government intends to launch a unique mobile application for early identification of disability.

The app will be loaded with a set of easy questions which will provide a response upon feeding answers by the users. The app can be used by parents, Anganwadi workers, school teachers and any other person contributing to a child’s upbringing.

They can observe the action of the child and feed it in the app. Based on their answers, the app can suggest whether there are chances of the child being disabled.

This will help in early screening of the Children with Disability who can be referred to a doctor for further investigations and to determine the exact extent of the disability.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the Government of India has brought up a new Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016, which has provision for equal opportunities and facilities to everyone, irrespective of any disabilities they might suffer from. This Act has replaced The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995.

Many new provisions have been made under the new Act, most notable of which is inclusion of new types of disabilities. The earlier Act covered only seven types of disabilities whereas in the new Act, this has been extended to twenty-one types.

This is a revolutionary step towards inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) which were excluded due to limitations of the previous Act.

The Government of India and Chhattisgarh have introduced various schemes and policies for the welfare of the PwDs which are being primarily implemented through the Social Welfare Department.

One of the major focus areas of the Department is early identification of disability as many cases of disability can be treated and overcome if they are identified in early stages of life.

INTERNATIONAL

· India and Nepal Sign MoU On Preliminary Survey Of Railway Line Between Raxaul and Kathmandu

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri and Nepal’s Secretary of Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, Madhusudan Adhikari signed the MoU in Kathmandu.
India and Nepal agreed in April 2018 to construct a new electrified rail line with India’s financial support connecting the border city of Raxaul in India to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.

· India Along With 23 Other Nations Participates In Tsunami Mock Drill

The exercise, known as ‘IOWave18’, is being organized by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, which coordinated the setting up of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) in the aftermath of December 2004 tsunami.

A primary objective of IOWave18 exercise is to enhance tsunami preparedness at community level. The purpose of exercise is to increase tsunami preparedness, evaluate response capabilities in each state and improve coordination throughout the region.

Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), based out of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, is an autonomous institution under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.

NATIONAL

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will conduct 19 missions, including 10 satellitesand nine launch vehicles, in the next seven months between September and March.
It will include the launch of India’s second moon mission Chandrayaan-2.
ISRO planned to launch two satellites within 30 days consecutively for months.
The services would be resumed on September 15 with the PSLV C42 mission, which will carry UK satellites – Novasar and S1-4– as the main payload.
Then, ISRO will launch GSLV Mk III-D2, also known as ‘Bahubali’.

Ukrainehas launched joint military exercises with the U.S.and a string of other NATO countries. The annual Rapid Trident military exercises are to happen in the western Ukrainian village of Starychi until September 15, involve some 2,200 soldiers from 14 countries. This is because of the rise in tension with Russia remains high over the Kremlin-backed insurgency in the country’s east.
The event will start a week before Russia holds its biggest military exercises, Vostok 2018, since the Cold War, with the participation of China and Mongolia. It is expected that around 350 pieces of military equipment will be used during the exercises.

Taking a cue from global uncertainties, market volatility, and rising interest rates in the US, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has added 46 tonnes of goldduring the financial year 2017-18, taking the level of gold reserves to 566.23 tonnes as on June 30, 2018.
RBI last purchased 200 tonnesof gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in November 2009.

Centre to hold consultations on Western Ghats after NGT order
The Centre is again going to consult six the Western Ghats to form a consensus on the draft notification that has demarcated 56,825 sq.kms as ecologically sensitive area (ESA) across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala
Alterations in ESA areas would seriously impact the environment and, therefore, should not be allowed, NGT said in view of Kerala floods. This would be the fourth time that the draft notification needs to be republished since 2014.
The Kasturirangan report also speaks on providing incentives to states in lieu of the restrictions it has imposed on certain activities such as mining, constructions and tourism.