Railways will generate eight lakh man days of employment opportunity for migrants and others in infrastructure projects worth 1800 crore rupees in the next 125 days. Ministry of Railways has reviewed the progress of Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan with Zonal Railways and Railway PSUs through video conference meeting.
 
The Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan is in operation in 116 identified districts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Jharkhand. Chairman Railway Board, Vinod Kumar Yadav took a video conference meeting with General Managers, Divisional Railway Mangers and Managing Directors of PSUs regarding the progress of Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan.
 
The Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan of 125 days will involve focused implementation of 25 categories of works and activities in 116 districts. Each of these districts has a large concentration of returnee migrant workers. Public works to be undertaken during this campaign will have a resource envelope of 50 thousand crore rupees. The Abhiyaan will be a convergent effort between 12 different Ministries and Departments, including Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport and Highways, Telecom and Agriculture.

The Union Cabinet on June 24 approved the declaration of the airport in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar as an international airport, stating it will offer improved connectivity to the important Buddhist pilgrimage site. “You know that Kushinagar is the mid-point of the Buddhist circuit. It has pilgrimage sites in Lumbini, Shravasti, Kapilvastu nearby it. A little farther, it has sites in Sarnath and Gaya,” Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told the media after a Cabinet meeting.

“However, there was no airport there of international standards. Kushinagar airport is being declared as an international airport. A 3-km-long runway strip has already been made. Now, even a big aircraft of Airbus can land at the airport,” he added.

Later, in an official statement, the Central government said around 200-300 devotees from Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, Myanmar, etc come to offer prayers at Kushinagar on any given day.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has got an Indian patent for its liquid cooling and heating garment (LCHG) that is suitable for space applications.

The patent is valid for 20 years from the date of application, that is, February 8, 2016, and was granted on June 19.

While ISRO is the patentee or patent owner, the four inventors are Srirangam Siripothu, Reshmi Balachandran, Saraswathi Kesava Pillai Manu, and Gurumurthy Chandrasekaran.

According to the patent papers filed by ISRO, the garment made of biocompatible fabrics and parts to provide comfortable body temperature and removal of sweat.

These garments find use in manned space flights and also for earth-bound operations such as firefighting, working in industries and the like, the Indian space agency said in its filings.

The close-fitting, single-piece garment covering the body, torso and limbs from neck to toe weighs between 1,000 to 3,000 g and has a front-entry zipper to be worn inside over which the flight or the spacesuit is to be worn.

According to ISRO, the garment has superior heat transfer efficiency and can be conveniently used for maintaining the body temperature of the wearer at levels suitable for the physiological performance required.

Former India opener and domestic stalwart Wasim Jaffer has been appointed head coach of the Uttarakhand cricket team for the upcoming domestic season.

Jaffer confirmed his appointment to PTI, stating the contract was for a year.

The highest run-getter in Ranji Trophy, Jaffer had announced retirement in March this year after playing for over two decades, primarily for domestic giants Mumbai and Vidarbha.

This will be his first stint as a head coach with a team.

"I am becoming the head coach of any team for the first time. It is very challenging and something new for me, straightaway after my playing career and I'm looking forward to it," Jaffer said.

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.