ALL INDIA AGRI TRANSPORT CALL CENTRE LAUNCHED

TRADE BALANCE OF INDIA’S FOREIGN TRADE GETS NARROWED

• India’s overall exports in 2019-20 are estimated to be USD 528.45 bn, exhibiting a negative growth of (-)1.36% over the same period last year.
• Overall imports in 2019-20 are estimated to be USD 598.61 bn, exhibiting a negative growth of (-)6.33% over the same period last year.
• Oil imports in April-2019 to March-2020 were USD129.43billion (Rs. 9,17,306.25crore) which was 8.15% lower in Dollars (6.99% lower in Rupees) compared to USD140.92billion (Rs. 9,86,275.06crore), over the same period last year.

TRADE BALANCE

• MERCHANDISE: The trade deficit for March2020 was estimated at USD 9.76 bn as against the deficit of USD11.00 bn in March2019.
• SERVICES: As per RBI’s Press Release dated 15th April 2020, the trade balance in Services (i.e. Net Services export) for February 2020 is estimated at USD6.66billion.
• OVERALL TRADE BALANCE: Taking merchandise and services together, overall trade deficit for April-2019 to March-2020 is estimated at USD70.16billion as compared to USD103.32billion in April-2018 to March-2019

DECLINE IN WPI INFLATION OF INDIA

• The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has released the monthly review of WPI numbers for March 2020.
• The official Wholesale Price Index for 'All Commodities' for the month of March,2020 declined by 0.90% to 121.1 (provisional) from 122.2 (provisional) for the previous month.
• The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 1.00% (provisional) for the month of March,2020 (over March,2019) as compared to 2.26% (provisional) for the previous month and 3.10% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 1.00% compared to a build up rate of 3.10% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Fact: The base year for calculating WPI is 2011-12

            Minister of Commerce and Industry: Piyush Goyal

AMENDMENT TO ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT NOTIFICATION

• The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has made the amendment to the Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006 in order to increase the availability of medicines and drugs in the country in a short span of time.
• All projects or activities in respect of bulk drugs and intermediates, manufactured for addressing various ailments, have been re-categorized from the existing Category ‘A’ to ‘B2’ category.
• Projects falling under Category B2 are exempted from requirement of collection of Base line data, EIA Studies and public consultation. The re-categorization of such proposals has been done to facilitate decentralization of appraisal to State Level so as to fast track the process.

Fact: Environment Protection Act – 1986

            Minister of MoEFCC – Prakash Javdekar

INTEGRATED GEOSPATIAL PLATFORM TO AID STRATEGIES AND DECISIONS AGAINST COVID19 OUTBREAK

• The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, has created an Integrated Geospatial Platform out of available geospatial datasets, standards-based services, and analytic tools to help decision making during the current COVID-19 outbreak and aid devising area-specific strategies to handle the socio-economic impact in the recovery phase.
• The mobile application SAHYOG, as well as the web portal prepared and managed by the Survey of India (SoI), has been customized to collect COVID-19 specific geospatial datasets through community engagement to augment the response activities by Government of India to the pandemic. Information parameters required as per the Govt of India strategy and containment plan for large outbreaks have been incorporated in the SAHYOG application.
• This mobile application will complement the “AAROGYA-SETU” mobile application launched by the Government of India for Contact tracing, Public awareness, and Self-assessment objectives

WEBINAR SERIES ON CULTURE AND HERITAGE OF INDIA

• The Ministry of Tourism has recently launched a webinar series titled “DekhoApnaDesh” to provide information on the many destinations and the sheer depth and expanse of the culture and heritage of our Incredible India.
• The first webinar series of DekhoApnaDesh was released on 14^th April titled as “City of Cities- Delhi's Personal Diary”
• After Delhi's success, the second "DekhoApnaDesh" webinar series will be released on 16^th April “Calcutta - A Confluences of Culture”

Fact: Kolkatta – City of Joy, Cultural Capital of India, City of Palaces

ALL INDIA AGRI TRANSPORT CALL CENTRE LAUNCHED

The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare has initiated the 24x7 All India Agri Transport Call Centre which was launched by Agriculture Minister

This will facilitate inter-state movement of perishables in the current situation of lockdown due to the COVID-19 threat

The Call Centre numbers are 18001804200 and 14488. These numbers can be called from any mobile or landline phones any time of the day or night.

Fact: Minister of Agriculture – Narendra Singh Tomar