KERALA

Steps to assess crop loss in floods
With high incidence of plant diseases and pest attacks reported from the flood- affected areas in the State, the government has initiated steps for a detailed study of the impact of the floods on various crops.

Fungal and bacterial infections of crops have surfaced in the flood- hit areas. Most crops, including paddy, coconut, pepper, rubber, nutmeg and cardamom, have been affected.

According to preliminary estimates, the floods have affected a cropped area of 57,000 hectares, causing a loss of ₹1361.73 cr. As many as 3.14 lakh farmers have been adversely impacted.

Krishi Vigyan Kendras have been directed to estimate the impact of the floods on different socio- economic categories of farmers and design special intervention strategies. Regional Research Stations of KAU have also started consultancy services to address the problems faced by farmers.

INTERNATIONAL

INDO-MONGOLIA joint exercise Nomadic Elephant-2018

Indo-Mongolia joint exercise Nomadic Elephant-2018, commenced at Mongolian Armed Forces (MAF) Five Hills Training Area, Ullanbaatar, Mongolia with a brief but impressive opening ceremony.

The 12 days long joint exercise will be conducted from 10 Sep to 21 Sep 2018.

Exercise Nomadic Elephant is an annual, bilateral exercise since 2006 which is designed to strengthen the partnership between Indian Army and Mongolian Armed Forces.

· NASA’s Dawn mission is about to end

Dawn, NASA’s only robot exploring the Asteroid Belt, is about to die. The spacecraft is likely to run out of a key fuel knwon as hydrazine— which keeps it oriented and in communication with Earth — between September and October.
Launched in September 2007, Dawn was majorly tasked to study two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt Vesta and Ceres.

· India to work with Africa to keep oceans open for all

India will work with Africa to keep the oceans open and free for the benefit of all nations

India’s vision of Indian Ocean Security is cooperative and inclusive, rooted in security and growth for all in the region.

The Indian Ocean has been witnessing a growing presence of China. The African continent too has been witnessing increasing presence of Beijing.

NATIONAL

· Jammu and Kashmir becomes 3rd State to adopt RADMS software

The Road Accident Data Management System(RADMS) software is a geographical information system (GIS) solution for identification of black spots, wrong driving practices, overloading issues, driver issues and other factors causing or related to road accidents.
In 2015, the ‘Supreme Court committee on road safety’ had mandated all states to use RADMS.

· Delhi launched government services at doorstep delivery

Delhi governmentlaunched a new project to deliver public services at the doorstep of residents. As per the project, the people in Delhi can now apply for 40 government documents to be delivered to their homes for a fee of 50 per service. Delhiites can utilise the facility to apply from driving licences to marriage certificates.
The customer should dial 1076 and fix an appointment with a Mobile Sahayak, who will go to their home and help with filling forms, payment of fees and collection of documents.
The Mobile Sahayak would then submit the documents to the concerned government officials, which would post the certificate or licence once issued. So far 2,728 callswere connected and 1,286 were answered by the operators. The calls that were attempted but were unable to connect would be returned by the operators.

· Bengaluru International Airport first in country to roll out facial recognition facility from 2019

Bengaluru International Airport announced that roll out facial recognition facility for the passengers of some select airlines from 2019.
The first few airlines involved with this are Jet Airways, Air Asia and SpiceJet.
This makes BIAL the first aerodrome in the country to implement paperless air travel.
It has inked a pact with the Lisbon-based digital and biometric solutions services provider Vision-Box to implement the technology.
This is a part of the Digi Yatra project to make boarding process paperless.

· Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana to Cover Child Cancer Treatment

The child cancer will be treated under the Ayushman Bharat scheme and the rate in this regard is fixed.
According to the announcement made, 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres will be opened across India by 2022 under the scheme.
The centres will provide comprehensive health care for diseases like diabetes, cancer, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.

· Digital push to bring lower courts online

The government expects to bring online connectivity to 2,992 more district and lower courts across the country by the year-end as part of the Supreme Court-monitored ‘e-courts’ project aimed at improving access to justice through digitisation.

Of these, 547 court complexes — mainly lower courts that are often the first point of litigation — still have no digital connectivity.

The e-courts programme seeks to enable litigants to track their case status, access ‘cause lists’, daily orders as well as verdicts online. A ‘cause list’ is a schedule of cases to be heard by a court.

According to the Economic Survey 2017-18, the average pendency of tax cases is nearly 6 years per case. Further, the survey states that the average pendency of civil suits at the Delhi high court is 5.84 years, while at lower courts of Delhi, it is 3.66 years.

The NJDG (National Judicial Data Grid)is an online platform that now provides information on proceedings and decisions of 16,089 computerised districtlevel courts

Under the latest phase of the e-courts programme, the staterun Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will connect subordinate courts with ‘wide area network’ connectivity or WAN at a cost of ₹167 crores. WAN is a technology that links computer networks across large geographic areas.

Final Destination for Kerala PSC Notes and Tests, Exclusive coverage of KPSC Prelims and Mains Syllabus, Dedicated Staff and guidence for KPSC Kerala PSC Notes brings Prelims and Mains programs for Kerala PSC Prelims and Kerala PSC Mains Exam preparation. Various Programs initiated by Kerala PSC Notes are as follows:-

For any doubt, Just leave us a Chat or Fill us a querry––