The Daily Brief – 20th August 2019

Union Minister of State (MoS) for Chemical and Fertilizers announced that India’s first Central Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology (CICET) will be set up in Gujarat to give boost to the chemical industry. In addition, a Plastic Waste Management Centre might be set up in Ahmedabad to find out solutions to systematic aggregation and recycling of plastic waste.

India’s first National Essential Diagnostics List (NEDL) that will provide guidance to government for deciding kind of diagnostic tests that different healthcare facilities in villages and remote areas require has been finalized by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). With this, India has become the first country to compile such a list. It is aimed at bridging current regulatory system’s gap that do not cover all the medical devices and the in-vitro diagnostic device (IVD).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi inaugurated Mangdechhu hydroelectric power plant in Bhutan, which is one of the major projects under Bhutan’s initiative. It aims to generate 10,000 MW hydropower by 2020 with the support of the Government of India (GOI). The project which costs around Rs 4,500-crore is funded by India through a 70 percent loan and a 30 percent grant.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has added 20 more cities from eight states to the list of polluted cities, which do not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards and, therefore, require focused attention on multiple fronts to deal with the hazards of dirty air. These additions, including eight from Andhra Pradesh and six from West Bengal, have expanded the list of non-attainment cities (NACs) from 102 to 122. Under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), the Centre had set a national target of reducing the key air pollutants PM10 and PM2.5 (particulate matters) by 20-30% by 2024 taking 2017 as the base year.

The Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, has successfully maneuvered Chandrayaan-2 satellite into lunar orbit on 20^th August using the on-board propulsion system. The satellite is placed in 114 kilometres-by-18072 kilometres orbit and the duration of manoeuvre was 1738 seconds. Following this, a series of four-orbit manoeuvres will be performed, including the one tomorrow, to reach an orbit of 100 kilometres over the surface of the moon.

The 28^th Ministerial meeting of the BASIC countries on Climate Change was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In this meeting, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar represented India. They jointly urged developed countries to fulfill their climate finance commitments of mobilizing $100 billion annually by 2020 for developing countries. Established by an agreement in 2009, BASIC is a geopolitical alliance of four advanced developing countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the newly constructed flats for the Members of Parliament in New Delhi on 19^th August, 2019. The aim is to provide the accommodation to the MPs during the Parliamentary sessions. There was a view in the recent budget session that the Parliamentary complex should get a face-lift in terms of facilities.