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Showing posts from July, 2022

Srebrenica massacre

  The  Srebrenica massacre  ( Serbo-Croatian : Masakr u Srebrenici /  Масакр у Сребреници ), also known as the  Srebrenica genocide  ( Serbo-Croatian : Genocid u Srebrenici /  Геноцид у Сребреници ), was the July 1995  genocidal  killing of more than 8,000  Bosniak   Muslim  men and boys in and around the town of  Srebrenica , during the  Bosnian War . The killings were perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb  Army of Republika Srpska  (VRS)  under the command  of  Ratko Mladić . The  Scorpions , a paramilitary unit from  Serbia , who had been part of the Serbian Interior Ministry until 1991, also participated in the massacre. Prior to the massacre,  United Nations  (UN) had declared the  besieged enclave of Srebrenica , in eastern  Bosnia , a " safe area " under UN protection. However, the UN failed both to demilitarize the  Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina  (ARBiH) within Srebrenica and to force withdrawal of the VRS surrounding Srebrenica.  UNPROFOR 's

India’s largest floating Solar Power Project operational in Ramagundam, Telangana

  The 100-MW Floating Solar project at Ramagundam is endowed with advanced technology as well as environment friendly features. Constructed with financial implication of Rs. 423 crores through M/s BHEL as EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract, the project spreads over 500 acres of its reservoir. Divided into 40 blocks, each having 2.5 MW.  Each block consists of one floating platform and an array of 11,200 solar modules. The floating platform consists of one Inverter, Transformer, and a HT breaker. The solar modules are placed on floaters manufactured with HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) material. The entire floating system is being anchored through special HMPE ( High Modulus Polyethylene)  rope to the dead weights placed in the balancing reservoir bed. The power is being evacuated up to the existing switch yard through 33KV underground cables.  This project is unique in the sense that all the electrical equipment including inverter, transformer, HT panel and SCADA

Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)

  In 1837, concept originated by Rowland Hill with his postal reforms, which included uniform rates across United Kingdom and prepayment by sender via postage stamps. Universal Service is a key objective of the Universal Postal Union. The Constitution of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Article 1(d), provides that one of the purposes of the Union is to promote the extension of the benefits of the new telecommunication technologies to all the world's inhabitants. The New Telecom Policy (NTP) 1999 of Department of Telecom, GoI had Universal Service as one of its main objectives, as reproduced below - Strive to provide a balance between the provision of Universal Service to all uncovered areas, including the rural areas, and the provision of high-level services capable of meeting the needs of the country's economy and encourage development of telecommunication facilities in remote, hilly and tribal areas of the country The NTP 1999 provided that the resources for m

Ranking of States’ on Support to Start-up Ecosystems

  The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) conducted the 3 rd   edition of the States’ Start-up Ranking Exercise with the key objective to promote India’s vision of competitive and cooperative federalism. The exercise was launched in 2018 to encourage states and union territories to work towards easing regulations for the growth of start-ups and strengthening the support to the start-up ecosystem. A total of 24 States and 7 Union Territories participated in the exercise this year, an increase from 25 last year and the highest till date. As India becomes one of the leading start-up nation globally, the growth of the entrepreneurship in Tier-II and Tier – III cities in the country has become necessary. There were 4 states/UTs with start-up policies in 2016. Today, there are over 30 states/UTs who have start-up policies, and 27 states/UTs have their own state start-up portal. This edition had  7 broad Reform Areas consisting of 26 action points which are essenti

Mission Amrit Sarovar

It was launched in  24 th  April 2022.  The Mission is aimed at developing and rejuvenating 75 water bodies in each district of the country as a part of celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.In total, it would lead to creation of 50,000 water bodies of a size of about an Acre or more. This Mission has been launched with a whole of Government Approach in which 6 Ministries/Department namely Dept of Rural Development , Department of land resources, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Department of Water resources, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate changes. Also BhaskaracharyaNational Institute for Space Application and Geo-informatics(BISAG-N)has been engaged as Technical partner for the Mission. The Mission works through the States and Districts, through refocusing of various schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, XV Finance Commission Grants, PMKSY sub schemes such as Watershed Development Component, Har Khet Ko Pani besides States’ own sc

Digital India Bhashini, Digital India GENESIS, Indiastack.global, MyScheme and Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme

Digital India Week 2022 ( Theme : 'Catalyzing New India’s Techade’ ): Initiatives to be launched in this programme : ‘Digital India Bhashini’: It enable easy access to the internet and digital services in Indian languages, including voice-based access, and help the creation of content in Indian languages. The key intervention in building AI based language technology solutions for Indian languages will be the creation of multilingual datasets. Digital India Bhashini will enable massive citizen engagement to build these datasets through a crowdsourcing initiative called BhashaDaan. ‘Digital India GENESIS’ (Gen-next Support for Innovative Startups) : It is a National Deep-tech Startup Platform, to discover, support, grow and make successful startups in Tier-II and Tier-III cities of India.  A total outlay of ₹750 Crore has been envisaged for the scheme. ‘Indiastack.global’ : It is a global repository of key projects implemented under India Stack like Aadhaar, UPI, Digilocker, CowiN Va