Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami inaugurated a compressed biogas plant at Namakkal through video conferencing, in the presence of the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan, on Tuesday. The plant established by the IOC has been established at a cost of `25 crore.

The CM also commissioned CBG retail sales centre at five places including Namakkal, Salem, Puthuchathiram and Rasipuram. The biogas plant has been producing 2.4mw biogas. Now, equipment has been procured to produce 15 tonnes of CBG and 20 tonnes of bio manure.

Thanking the Union Minister the CM said, “I wish more such steps will be undertaken in TN and my government will support endeavours for clean energy.” The CM said Tamil Nadu stands first in renewable energy sources and sources in State include - hydro (2,322mw), wind (8,523mw), solar (4,054mw), biomass (266mw), co-generation (711mw). To meet increasing demand for power in Chennai, two combined cycle gas turbine power projects will be established in and around Chennai.

Minister of State for Shipping (Independent charge) and Chemicals & Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday inaugurated India's one the largest 1st Virtual Healthcare & Hygiene EXPO 2020 . The Expo has been organised by FICCI.

The event was inaugurated virtually which will be live daily from 22nd to 26th June, 2020. Anurag Sharma, M.P., Jhansi and Chairman, FICCI, AYUSH Committee, Dr. Sangita Reddy, President FICCI, P.V. Sindhu, eminent sports personality, Badhri Iyengar, Chairman, FICCI Medical Devices Fourm and other representatives from the industries attended the Virtual EXPO.

This is the first ever largest virtual exhibition in India making a new beginning. This is the new norm, wherein business will happen virtually as Digital India is now making a way forward.

Speaking at the Inauguration, Minister said that an ecosystem is being built for a self-reliant India, which will help in ramping up domestic production in Pharmaceutical Sector and Health & Hygiene Sector. Health, Hygiene & Sanitation, Medical Textiles & Devices, AYUSH and Wellness sector assume greater significance in our resolute fight against the COVID 19 pandemic. He highlighted various initiatives announced in this direction by the Honourable PM since 2014 such as providing toilets for every household, “Ayushman Bharat” to cover 10 crore family for healthcare, “Swatch Bharat Abhiyan”, “Suvidha Sanitary” Napkin etc.. He also spoke about Jan Aushadhi stores which are providing quality medicines at affordable price for everyone. Shri Mandaviya elaborated how all these initiatives became possible due to firm vision of Narendra Modi Government.

Domestic cricket stalwart Rajinder Goel died on Sunday after suffering from illness for quite some time. He was 77 and breathed his last at his residence.

A left-arm spinner, while Goel never managed to break into the Indian team, he took 750 wickets in a 24—year career for Haryana. He also represented Punjab and Delhi. Goel also holds the record for most wickets in the Ranji Trophy. He leads the tally with 637 wickets. Goel received the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 from the BCCI for his service to Indian cricket.

"It is a huge loss for the game of cricket and a personal loss for me which has left a huge void. He was one of the best, if not the best left-arm spinner that this country has seen and his record of 750 first-class wickets speaks for his tremendous ability," former BCCI President Ranbir Singh Mahendra said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a massive rural public works scheme ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ to empower and provide livelihood opportunities to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens.

PM launched this Abhiyaan on Saturday through Video-Conference. The Abhiyaan was launched from Village – Telihar, Block- Beldaur of Khagaria District of Bihar. 

The villages across 116 districts in the six States joined this programme through the Common Service Centres and Krishi Vigyan Kendras.

This campaign of 125 days, which will work in mission mode, will involve intensified and focused implementation of 25 different types of works to provide employment to the migrant workers. Focus will be on creating infrastructure in the rural regions of the country with  a resource envelope of Rs. 50,000 crore.

A total of 116 Districts with more than 25,000 returnee migrant workers across six states, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha, have been chosen for the campaign which includes 27 Aspirational Districts. These districts are estimated to cover about 2/3 of such migrant workers.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), on Friday, signed an MoU to engage SIDBI as the implementation agency for the PM Street Vendor’s AatmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), a special micro-credit facility for street vendors.

“As per the MoU terms, SIDBI will implement the PM SVANidhi Scheme under the guidance of the MoHUA. It will also manage the credit guarantee to the lending institutions through Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE),” said an official release.

SIDBI will also develop and maintain a customised and integrated IT platform that provides end-to-end solutions, including documentation of the processes and workflows, through a portal and a mobile app, to ensure engagement and information flow between urban local bodies, lending institutions, digital payment aggregators and other stakeholders, it added.

Petroleum major BP today announced plans to set up a major new centre for its global business services (GBS) operations in Pune.

New centre will employ around 2000 people and will support digital innovation across BP globally.

The centre is expected to begin operations by January 2021 and will provide business processing and advanced analytics capabilities in support of bp businesses worldwide.

The new centre in India will assume operational ownership of third-party business processes and seek to further extend its work with analytics and data science capabilities to pursue better business outcomes.

India is a growing market with growing digital talent pool. The new centre in India will allow bp to tap into this pool and will lead bp’s development and application of cutting-edge digital solutions.

Welcoming this development, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas &Steel Dharmendra Pradhan said, “I welcome bp’s move to establish a major new global business services centre in Pune.

With a total Covid-19 tally of 1,16,752 positive cases and over 5,600 deaths, Maharashtra is by far the worst coronavirus affected state in the country. Mumbai, the financial capital of India, has been caught so off-guard that the confirmed number of cases there alone has crossed 61,500.

While on one hand cases are rising at an alarming rate, the lacuna in the health infrastructure in the state has left citizens shaken and wanting. From lack of enough beds for Covid patients to unhygienic hospitals wards for those who managed one, it’s been a hellish few months for coronavirus infected people.

In order to address this pressing concern, the Mumbai civic authorities have launched a mobile application that will provide information on the availability of beds and ventilators in the city hospitals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Thursday launch the auction of coal mines for commercial mining via video conferencing at an event here.

As many as 41 coal blocks will be put up on sale for commercial mining, according to sources. The virtual auction event will be centred on the theme "Unleashing coal: New hopes for Aatmanirbhar Bharat", the coal ministry said.

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi had earlier said that by allowing commercial mining, the government has completely opened up the sector for investments.

Terming the commercial coal mining as one of the biggest-ever reforms in the sector to boost ease of doing business, the minister had said several restrictions have also been removed, promoting free trade of coal.

As India has recently embraced the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the coal and mining sector has started gearing up to make the country self-reliant in coal mining through structural reforms, according to the coal ministry.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration was conferred with three prestigious Deen Dayal Upadhyay Sashaktikaran Puraskar (DDUPSP) awards for its outstanding contribution to the socio-economic development of the gram panchayats.

The awards conferred by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj were given to three different panchayats of the Rajouri and Pulwama districts, , a spokesperson said.

Rathal and Badakana in Rajouri and Meej in Pulwama district were adjudged the best performing panchayats in recognition of their work in improving the delivery of services to the public like sanitation, natural resource management, maintaining record, construction of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Gramin) houses, data management, implementation of agriculture-related schemes and electricity coverage, he said.

Jammu and Kashmir administration was earlier awarded three different national awards by the Union Ministry under Nanaji Deshmukhh Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar (NDRGGSP), Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) Award, Child-friendly Gram Panchayat Award appreciating the good work done at different levels in the union territory, the spokesperson said.

The government of India has decided to launch a massive rural public works scheme ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ to empower and provide livelihood opportunities to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens.

PM Modi will launch this Abhiyaan on June 20 at 11 am through video-conference in the presence of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.

The Abhiyaan will be launched from Village – Telihar, Block- Beldaur of Khagaria District of Bihar. Further, the Chief Ministers of other five States and Union Ministers of concerned Ministries will also participate in the virtual launch.

The villages across 116 districts in the six States will join this programme through the Common Service Centres and Krishi Vigyan Kendras, maintaining the norms of social distancing in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This campaign of 125 days, which will work in mission mode, will involve intensified and focused implementation of 25 different types of works to provide employment to the migrant workers on one hand and create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country on the other hand, with a resource envelope of Rs. 50,000 crore.