KERALA

With the rising tide of road accidents, the government has been working overtime to find ways to make road travel safe. It might just have succeeded in setting a model with a project that aims to make road travel in Kerala safe by 2020.

The project is proposed to be taken up as part of the UN’s Decade of Road Safety observance that draws to a close in 2020, based on a comprehensive vision document submitted by P.D. Sunilbabu, who was special officer of the Safe Zone Sabarimala Project.

The main goals set out in the vision document are reduction of the dependency on private transport to less than 20% of the total passenger traffic by 2025, introduction of Mass Rapid Transit Systems (MRTS) for urban commuters, development of four to six-lane ring roads and intercity roads on elevated tracks, reduction of private vehicle ownership by introducing measures such as vehicle ownership controls and vehicle usage controls by 2025, with the overall aim of bringing down road accidents by 50% by 2020.

INTERNATIONAL

Despite the government’s emphasis on Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan and Smart Cities project, India continues to be among the top five countries generating e-waste, an ASSOCHAM-NEC recent study said.

The other countries topping the chart of e-waste generation are China, USA, Japan and Germany.

E-waste generated in India is about 2 million TPA, the quantity that is recycled is about 438,085 TPA.

E-waste typically includes discarded computer monitors, motherboards, Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT), Printed Circuit Board (PCB), mobile phones and chargers, compact discs, headphones etc.

NATIONAL

· Maharashtra Government announces financial aid for tur farmers

Maharashtra government will provide a financial grant of 1,000 rupees per quintal to those farmers whose tur and gram could not be purchased by the administration before the May 31 deadline.
The state government had set up tur procurement target of 44.6 lakh quintals.
The government had started purchasing tur from farmers by offering them guaranteed rates following bumper tur production.
Speaking to reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the government will also give a financial aid of 160 crore rupees to farmers whose crops got damaged due to unseasonal rain or hailstorm.
The chief minister also announced a special subsidy for milk producers.

· Union Government forms 3 key panels for museum of Prime Ministers Project

In a major push towards setting up a unique museum in Delhi on the ‘Prime Ministers of India’, the Culture Ministry formed three high-powered panels that will work to implement the project.
The three committees, one will focus on project implementation, while the other two will concentrate on choice and development of content for the one-of-its-kind museum.
The Ministry planning to set up a modern museum that will tell the story of all the Prime Ministers of the country at the premises of the iconic Teen Murti Estate, which was the official residence of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will announce its second bi-monthly Monetary Policy of 2018-19.
The Monetary Policy Committee, headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, began its meeting in Mumbai on Monday, and it will meet today as well before the policy will be announced.
This is the first time the six-member committee is meeting for three days instead of the usual two, due to certain administrative exigencies.
In the first bi-monthly policy of the current fiscal, the central bank had, in April, kept all its key rates unchanged for the fourth time in a row.
The repo rate, at which RBI lends short-term money to other banks, currently stands at 6 percent, while the reverse repo rate, at which it borrows from banks, is 5.75 percent.
The last rate hike was announced by RBI in January 2014 when the repo rate was increased to 8 percent.
Since then, the apex bank has either reduced the rate or maintained status quo.

The Union government announced a package of more than Rs 8,000 crore aimed to provide relief to sugarcane farmers and to clear their dues. According to a government official, the package includes three elements. A buffer stock of 30 LMT (lakh metric tonnes) of sugar will be created with Rs 1,200 crore.
This money will be directly transferred to accounts of sugarcane farmers. Rs 4,400 crore will be used to increase ethanol production to divert sugarcane away from sugar mills which are unable to dispose of their inventories. The government has also decided to ensure a minimum sale price of Rs 29/kg for sugar.