KERALA

Marine fish landings have shown signs of revival. The fish catch report during 2017 released by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) here on Tuesday showed that landings went up by 5.6% when compared to the previous year.

For fishermen and fish-lovers in Kerala there is good news. Indian oil sardine harvest has revived by 176% on Kerala coast. Oil sardine, which was showing a decreasing trend for the past few years, topped the list of marine fishery resources this time with a landing of 3.37 lakh tonnes (8.8 per cent of the total landings) registering an increase of 38 per cent all over India.

The year 2016 was the record low within the last two decades for oil sardines. The catch of Indian mackerel also increased whereas the landings of Hilsa shad, threadfin breams and tuna dropped this year.

Indian mackerel, ribbon fishes, lesser sardines, penaeid prawns and non-penaeid prawns are the other major resources with landings of 2.88 lakh tonnes (7.5%), 2.39 lakh tonnes (6.2%), 2.27 lakh tonnes (5.9%), 2.10 lakh tonnes (5.5%) and 2.03 lakh tonnes (5.3%).

The total marine fish landings in India (excluding Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands) in 2017 was 3.83 million tonnes, with Gujarat in the top position for the fifth consecutive year with 7.86 lakh tonnes (20.5%) of total landings followed by Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

However, the east coast witnessed a decline in the oil sardine catch with 83% drop in Andhra Pradesh and 36% in Tamil Nadu compared to 2016. A total of 788 marine fish species landed this time along the Indian coast with maximum numbers along the Tamil Nadu coast followed by Kerala and Maharashtra.

The state was in the fourth spot last time. The other major resources appeared in the topmost list were penaeid prawns (43,468 tonnes), scads (43,463 tonnes), cephalopods (43,213 tonnes) and threadfin breams (41, 841 tonnes).

Catch of ribbon fish increased nearly 63% in Kerala with a landing of 20,729 tonnes which also helped the State to improve its total marine fish production this year.

INTERNATIONAL

· UNESCO may drop the Mesoamerican Reef, Belize from threatened sites list

The Mesoamerican Reefwas marked as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1960. It was placed on endangered status in 2009 because of Belize’s plans to allow oil exploration.
To protect the site a number of measures were taken by the Belizean government and the activists.
Now, UN body is considering to remove the reef from the UNESCO’s list of threatened World Heritage sites.

· India gifts aircraft, Do-228, to Seychelles

India gifted a Dornier maritime patrol aircraft, Do-228 to Seychelles as an act of India’s firm commitment and cooperation towards Seychelles.
The Dornier is equipped with a 360-degree surveillance radar, a forward-looking Infra-red system, satellite communication, a traffic collision, and avoidance system and an enhanced ground proximity warning system, among others. It can be used for EEZ monitoring, Maritime surveillance, Pollution monitoring and control, search and rescue and commuter services.
This is the second Dornier aircraft to be gifted by India to Seychelles. The first onewas given in January 2013.
PM Narendra Modi has also announced a $100 million credit for Seychelles to buy military hardware from India.

Indian Commerce Ministry official at the joint secretary level is meeting with United States Trade Representative (USTR) including Assistant Trade Representative Mark Linscott to discuss ways forward to resolve the escalating trade issues between the U.S. and India.
India’s notified tariffs on U.S. imports and duties on medical devicesare the key issues discussed in this meeting.

Ministers from France, Germany, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia, Spain and Portugal signed a letter of intent in Luxembourg, to establish a joint European military intervention force.
The campaign to establish an autonomous European defence force was spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron.

To help deliver passports to applicants at their residence, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj launched the “mPassport Seva” mobile application on the occasion of ‘Passport Seva Divas’.
She also scrapped the marriage certificate’s compulsion, required for obtaining passports.
In total, there are 260 working passport centres, which will be expanded to all Lok Sabha constituencies in the near future.

The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has announced an equity investment of $100 million in India`s National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) to help various development projects in this country.

The NIIF is a collaborative investment platform for international and domestic investors keen on investing in commercially viable Indian infrastructure projects.

NATIONAL

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj launched a Passport Seva app for seamless application and issue of passports.

Ms Swaraj said that in total, there are 260 working passport centres, which will be expanded to all Lok Sabha constituencies in the near future.

Pallavi Durua, who belongs to Odisha’s Koraput district, was crowned as the first Tribal Queen at the Adi Rani Kalinga Tribal Queen competition held at Utkal Mandap.

Panchami Majhi of Titlagarh and Rashmirekha Hansdah of Mayurbhanj were declared as the first and second runners-up of the beauty pageant respectively.

Oil India Limited (OIL) discovered second hydrocarbons in the onland KG Basin NELP VI Block KG-ONN-2004/1.
The first high pressure-high temperature (HP-HT) well was built at Thanelanka-1 by OIL. On testing, the HP-HT zone in the depth range 4,912 – 5,159m in Golapalli Formation produced gas at 300 scmd through 16/64” bean choke.
In 2017-2018, OIL India produced 3.3- metric million tonnes (MMT) of crude oil and 2.93 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas.