Headlines at a Glance – 20th July 2020
Delhi Police launches plasma donation campaign at AIIMS
On the initiative of Delhi Police, a ‘Plasma Donation Campaign’ has been launched at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on Sunday. Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan, was the Chief Guest while Commissioner of Police, S.N. Shrivastava, was the Guest of Honour, on the occasion. “The objective of the campaign is to encourage people to come forward to donate plasma to be used for the treatment of Covid-19 patients,” said Additional PRO Delhi Police Anil Mittal. In all, 26 personnel including a woman constable of Delhi Police kicked off the campaign by donating their plasma.
SOURCE: Economic Times
Indian railways to introduce private trains in phases
Indian Railways plans to introduce private trains on its network in phases, with the first dozen due to start running in the 2023-24 financial year and all 151 by 2027, officials aware of the plan said on condition of anonymity. According to the railway ministry’s projections, the transporter will select the companies that will run the private trains by April 2021; the first 12 are expected to start plying by 2023-24, followed by 45 more in FY 2024-25, the next 50 in FY 2025-26 and the last 44 by 2026-27. The railway ministry on July 1 began the formal process of allowing private trains on 109 routes — a process that aims to, for the first time, to open up one of the government’s most prominent enterprises that has in recent decades been outpaced by the demands of a rapidly growing economy.
SOURCE: Hindustan Times
Govt announces norms for contributions by individuals, institutions to NDRF
The Central government has laid out the modalities for contributions and grants from any person or institution to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), for the first time after 15 years of its establishment. Announcing this on Saturday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the contributions to the NDRF have been allowed through any of the modes like physical instruments, Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)/National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT)/ Unified Payments Interface (UPI).These contributions have been allowed as per Section 46(1)(b) of the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005, the Ministry said. The MHA’s approval came after clearance from the Union Finance Ministry. The contributions to the NDRF by any individual or institution have been allowed nearly 15 years after it was set up. The NDRF, constituted under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, supplements the State Disaster Response Fund of the states in case of natural calamities like cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloud burst and pest attack considered to be of severe nature by the government.
SOURCE: Business Standard
India-US announce new areas of research on transformational power generation
India and the US have announced new areas of research on transformational power generation based on supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power cycles and advanced coal technologies, including carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS), the Ministry of Science and Technology said on Saturday. This emerged at a virtual ministerial meeting of the US-India Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP) on Friday to review progress, highlight major accomplishments, and prioritise new areas for cooperation. The meeting was co-chaired by Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. Besides Pradhan and Brouillette, the virtual meeting was attended by US Ambassador to India Kenneth I Juster, Indian Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Secretary of Department of Science and Technology (DST) Professor Ashutosh Sharma along with other concerned officials.
SOURCE: Livemint
Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman attends the 3rd G20 Finance Ministers Meeting
Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the 3rd G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting under the Saudi Arabian Presidency through Video Conferencing here today to discuss the global economic outlook amid evolving COVID-19 pandemic crisis along with other G20 Finance Track priorities for the year 2020. The Finance Minister, in the first session of the meeting, talked about the G20 Action Plan in response to COVID-19 which was endorsed by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in their previous meeting on 15th April 2020. This G20 Action Plan lays out a list of collective commitments under the pillars of Health Response, Economic Response, Strong and Sustainable Recovery and International Financial Coordination, aimed at coordinating G20 efforts to fight the pandemic. Smt. Sitharaman emphasized that it is crucial to ensure that this action plan remains relevant and effective.
SOURCE: PIB
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