(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
1. JAITLEY INAUGURATES TELANGANA SOLAR PLANT, KARNA WINDMILL
i. Defence Minister Arun Jaitley has inaugurated a solar
power plant of 16 MW capacity at the Ordinance Factory in Telangana’s Medak.
ii. The solar power plant at Medak has been set up at a cost
of Rs 105 cr by Bharat Electronics Limited. A9 MW capacity windmill project has
installed at Dammur in Karnataka at a cost of Rs 53 cr by BEML.
iii. Jaitley has also presented an excellence awards to
various defence PSUs:
a) The excellence award in the institutional category for
2014-15 was given to Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad. The award for 2015-16
was conferred on Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bengaluru.
b) The best performance award in exports for 2014-15 was
given to Goa Shipyard Limited. The award for 2015-16 was conferred on Bharat
Electronics Limited, Bengaluru.
2. DELHI TO HOST 3-DAY INDIAN MOBILE CONGRESS IN SEPTEMBER
i. Union Minister for Communications Manoj Sinha has
announced that the Mobile Congress 2017 will be held in New Delhi.
ii. This is the first time India is all set to host its own
mobile mega show. It is a 3 day programme and is scheduled from 27th to 29th
September.
iii. The Indian telecom market is the 2nd-largest in the
world after China. India has a total subscriber base of over 1.18 billion
subscribers.
3. MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES TO LAUNCH ‘DEEP OCEAN MISSION’ BY
JANUARY 2018
i. Secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences, M Rajeevan has
announced that India is all set to launch ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ by January 2018.
ii. ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ will improve India’s position in
ocean research field. Seven premier science agencies including NIO, DRDO and
ISRO will participate in this Ministry
of Earth Sciences to launch ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ by January 2018 venture.
iii. India has now designated an area of 75,000 sq km for
deep sea exploration. This area has an estimated resource of about 100 mn tons
of strategic metals such Copper, Cobalt, Nickel besides Manganese and Iron.
4. 70TH EDITION OF WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY HELD IN GENEVA
i. 70th World Health Assembly was held from 22nd to 31st May
in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr Margaret Chan gave her last address as
Director-General of the WHO, with her tenure coming to an end.
ii. Member States of WHO, elected Dr Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus as the new Director-General of WHO.
iii. Delegates at the World Health Assembly approved the
organization’s proposed programme budget of US$ 4421.5 million for the
biennium, which includes a 3% increase in Member State assessed contributions
for 2018–2019.
iv. Discussions were held on implementation of the
International Health Regulations, and improving the prevention, diagnosis and
treatment of sepsis.
v. The World Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making
body for WHO. It generally meets in Geneva in May each year, and is attended by
delegations from all 194 Member States. Its main function is to determine the
policies of the Organization.
5. ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK & PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK SIGN $100
MILLION LOAN TO FINANCE SOLAR ROOFTOP PROJECTS
i. Asian Development Bank and the Punjab National Bank
signed a $100 million loan agreement to finance large solar rooftop systems on
industrial and commercial buildings throughout India.
ii. This is the 1st tranche loan of the $500 million multi
tranche finance facility Solar Rooftop Investment Program approved by ADB in
2016.
iii. This agreement has been guaranteed by the Government of
India. PNB will use the ADB funds to make further loans to various developers
and end users to install rooftop solar systems.
iv. ADB’s $500 million Solar Rooftop Investment Program
includes $330 million from ADB’s ordinary capital resources and $170 million
from the multi donor Clean Technology Fund administered by ADB.