The Daily Brief – 11th August 2019

World Biofuel Day is observed every year on 10^th August to create awareness about the importance of non-fossil fuels as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels and to highlight the various efforts made by the Government in the biofuel sector. The Day is being observed by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas since 2015. The theme of the World Biofuel Day 2019 is “Production of Biodiesel from Used Cooking Oil (UCO)”.

The fourth edition of Women Transforming India (WTI) Awards has been launched by the NITI Aayog with the theme ‘Women and Entrepreneurship’. WhatsApp has collaborated with NITI Aayog for WTI Awards 2019 and will provide a support amounting to US $100,000 to award winners. The awards have been launched under Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP). The WTI Awards, since its inception in 2016, has been recognizing and celebrating stories of exemplary women from across India.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will release a book titled “Listening, Learning & Leading”, chronicling the two years in office by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on 11^th August in Chennai. The book captures the glimpses of the Vice President’s 330 public engagements across the country in the last two years. It details his important diplomatic engagements, including his visits to 19 countries across 4 continents.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will leave for Beijing for a three-day visit to China on 11^th. During the visit, he will hold bilateral meetings with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. He will co-chair the second meeting of the India-China High Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu launched the Jharkhand government’s ‘Mukhya Mantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana’. Under this scheme, money will be directly transferred into the bank accounts of the farmers in the state. Beneficiaries having farm land of one acre to five acres will get 5,000 to 25,000 rupees in their bank accounts. Under the Mukhya Mantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana, approximately 35 lakh farmers will benefit and by October, 3,000 crore rupees will be sent in the accounts of the beneficiaries.

Congress Working Committee (CWC), during its meeting in New Delhi on 10^th August, adopted three resolutions including to make Sonia Gandhi has been named as interim Congress President. Rahul Gandhi had stepped down from the post of Congress President at the CWC meeting on 25 May, taking moral responsibility for the party’s drubbing in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the extension of Child Care Leave (CCL) benefits to single male service personnel and certain relaxations of it, in case of women officers in defence forces. Currently, CCL is being granted to woman officers in defence forces. The age limit of 22 years prescribed earlier in the case of a child with 40 per cent disability has been removed for the purpose of availing CCL. The minimum period of CCL that can be availed at a time, has been reduced to five days instead of 15 days.