Newscan

NEW DELHI: The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its Global Gender Gap Report 2022. Gender parity is not recovering and it will take another 132 years to close the global gender gap, the Report stated. The Report noted that as the crisis continues compounding, women’s workforce outcomes are suffering and the risk of global gender parity backsliding further intensifies.

As per the report, Iceland again emerged as the most gender equal country in the world; also the only economy which has filled more than 90 per cent of the gender gap. Till now, only 68 per cent of the gender gap has been addressed globally, while the top 10 economies have reduced their gender gap by 80 per cent.

The Global Gender Gap Index assesses the performance of a country in maintaining gender parity based on four parameters, i.e. Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Political Empowerment, and Health and Survival. The countries are given a score of 0 to 1, where 1 represents complete gender parity, while 0 shows the least. India scored 0.629 on the Gender Parity Index, which is seventh highest score for the country in the last 16 years. However, India is placed at 135th spot out of 146 countries, while last year India was ranked at 140th place out of 156 countries.

Iceland, on the other hand, has been able to close 90 per cent of its gender gap making it the most gender equal country for the 12th consecutive year. There has been no change in the top five countries. Other than Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden emerged as the table toppers. New Zealand, Rwanda, Nicaragua and Namibia are the only non-European countries in the top 10.

On comparing this year’s results against last year’s, the report noted that the overall gender parity score rose from 67.9 per cent to 68.1 per cent. The Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex has also increased from 58.7 per cent to 60.3 per cent, as did the Health and Survival subindex from 95.7 per cent to 95.8 per cent. Meanwhile, the Educational Attainment subindex fell from 95.2 per cent to 94.4 per cent, while Political Empowerment remained the same, at 22 per cent.

Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, World Economic Forum commented that while more women have been moving into paid work over the last decades and, increasingly, into leadership positions in industry, there have been continued headwinds: societal expectations, employer policies, the legal environment and the availability of care infrastructure. She noted that this has continued to limit the educational opportunities women access as well as the career possibilities that they can pursue. She further opined that the economic and social consequences of the pandemic and geopolitical conflict have paused progress and worsened outcomes for women and girls around the world – and risk creating permanent scarring in the labour market. She added that conversely, the increasing representation of women in leadership in a number of industries, engagement in tertiary education overall and rebound in professional and technical roles are encouraging and may provide a basis for future efforts.

KOHIMA: The Entrepreneurs Associates (TEA), a non-governmental organisation, has launched an initiative, ‘Trees for Wealth’, under which it plans to make Nagaland into the fruit hub of India by planting nearly 5 lakh fruit trees by the end of 2022.

Neichute Doulo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Entrepreneurs Associates (TEA), while addressing the conference, said that it is a one-of-a-kind initiative, launched in November 2019, to transform the local economy, restore and conserve the environment by planting fruit trees under the theme of ‘Micro by One, Volume by Mass.’

Doulo hoped that up to one million farmers and other individuals will plant 1000 fruit trees on average, resulting in the plantation of one billion fruit trees. The villagers, who want to join the initiative, must include at least 50 farmers with proper land. TEA, on the other hand, will provide plant saplings free of cost and training to preserve and nurture fruit trees.

Under the initiative, saplings of trees like Plum, Orange, Lime, Guava, Persimmon, Mango, Avocado, Fig, Tamarillo (Naga tree tomato), Pears, Walnut, Litchee, etc. will be provided to the farmers. Doulo said that various cash crops and spices have been promoted under this initiative.

IMPHAL: Chief Minister of Manipur N Biren Singh said that the state road infrastructure will undergo a transformation after the rainy season. To highlight the point, he presented a video brandishing the accomplishments of the Government of Manipur to enhance the connectivity of the state with the rest of India. Through the video, CM Singh mentioned that the first goods train in the state reached Rani Gaidinliu Railway Station in January 2022, first flight between Imphal and Shillong, under Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN), was also flagged-off in 2021. Also, the Trans-Asian fourlane highway connecting Imphal and Moreh has been upgraded costing `762 crores to the state government, and Jiribam, Moreh, Tamenglong, Thanlon and Parbung are connected to Imphal through helicopter under Manipur Heli Services, which was launched in 2018. The video also showed that the state government has taken numerous steps to enhance the connectivity of remote regions of the state with the capital.

Once the India-Myanmar border opens, Imphal and Mandalay will have direct flight connectivity.

Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur laid foundation stone for multiple development projects worth `55 crore on July 8. He laid foundation stones for a flyover at Khalini Chowk (`9.82 crore); foot-over bridges near Vikas Nagar (`7.62 crore); vegetable market at Darni ka Bagicha (`9.82 crore); and for bus stand, transport office, workshop, and commercial complex at Dhalli (`17.18 crore). CM Thakur said that his government is committed to restoring the old glory of Shimla, in addition to making it a smart city.

To utilise Remote Sensing and GIS technology to its fullest, National Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed a web geoportal named ‘PARIMAN’, set to be used initially by participating states of the National Capital Region (NCR) and the office of National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB). PARIMAN was launched in August last year by Hardeep Singh Puri, Chairman, NCRPB and Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. However, NCRPB has made the geo-portal open to public to optimise the utilisation of resources in public interest. The portal can be accessed through NCRPB website.

Rajkot Municipal Corporation has placed an order to buy additional 100 e-buses from PMI Electro Mobility, which has previously delivered 50 e-buses to the Rajkot Municipal Corporation. The newly ordered buses will be equipped with several advanced features such as CCTV cameras, Real Time Monitoring System (RTMS), air suspension and several other safety features as per the statement of the company.

Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, has released the detailed guidelines for the ‘Mission Shakti’- an umbrella scheme to ensure the safety, security and empowerment of women. The scheme will be implemented between 2020-21 and 202425. The scheme comprises – ‘Sambal’ and ‘Samarthya’. SubScheme ‘Sambal’ aims to provide a safe and secure milieu for women and includes initiatives such as One Stop Centre (OSC) and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) and Nari Adalats. While the sub-scheme ‘Samarthya’ includes, Ujjwala, Swadhar Greh, National Creche Scheme, and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMY).

BHUBANESWAR: The Government of Odisha is planning to introduce mangrove plantation on 930 hectares, comprising areas of four Mangrove Forest Divisions of Puri, Balasore, Rajnagar and Bhadrak. This plantation drive will cover 810 hectares of area in the Rajnagar mangrove division, 75 hectares in Balasore, 30 hectares in Puri and 15 hectares in the Bhadrak division. On 580 hectares of land, mangrove plantations will be done using an artificial regeneration method, which involves direct seeding and planting of mangrove saplings. While on 350 hectares of land, mangrove plantation will be done using assisted natural regeneration (ANR) in which natural tree seedlings planted in the forested areas are preserved and protected by humans.

According to the statistics published by the Forest Survey of India in its biennial report, the mangrove cover in Odisha is spread across five districts – Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Jagatsinghpur and Puri. In the latest assessment of 2021, the total mangrove cover of the state stood at around 259 square km, which is 8 square km more than the assessment carried out in 2019. Mangrove cover acts as a protective barrier against cyclones and tidal surges, thus, preventing any catastrophic damage as well as erosion of the coastal belts that are highly vulnerable to natural disasters.

NEW DELHI: The United Nation’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), organised a High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) 2022, from July 5 to July 11, under the theme “Building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. During HLPF 2022, fifth edition of the “Local and Regional Government Forum – Fostering the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals from the Local Level towards the 2023 SDG Summit” was held. This forum was organised by the Global Taskforce together with UN DESA, UNDP, UN Habitat and Local 2030. This year the forum was held spanning over two days, i.e. July 7 and 12. The meeting of HLPF will focus on the topic of how the recovery policies can reverse the ill effects caused by the COVID-19 on the implementation of SDGs and help countries realise the vision of the 2030 agenda. The meeting will make an indepth analysis of SDG-4 (quality of education), SDG-5 (gender equality), SDG-14 (life below water), SDG-15 (life on land), and SDG-17 (partnership for the goals).

Nearly 44 countries will carry out voluntary national reviews (VNRs) of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030.

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has made a decision to spend `162 crore on ward-level works and development after receiving suggestions from the citizens. The civic body is aiming to promote development works at 23 merged villages by allocating dedicated funds for these areas. Vikram Kumar, Administrator, PMC, said that allotting funds to each ward will help in completing pending works across the civic areas. The decision was taken at the recently held revenue committee meeting of PMC.

The fund allocation will be done based on the old ward system, according to which, the city had 162 wards, and each ward will receive `1 crore. Out of the total allotted funds to each ward, `75 lakh is to be used for ward-level works and `25 lakh will be used for works suggested by citizens. The respective ward offices will be responsible to make sure that the dedicated funds be spend on development works in the merged villages. The decision came after the PMC received demands from residents of these areas to provide funds for development works. The citizens had said that the civic body was not able to efficiently provide them with basic facilities such as roads, water supply, and drainage system.

LUCKNOW: In a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath, he proposed setting up of a fellowship programme in the state to ensure proper implementation of programmes and development of the 100 aspirational blocks in UP.

CM Adityanath noted that 75 indicators have been fixed on which work will take place in each of the 100 blocks, located across 34 districts of the state. The work will be done on parameters such as health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion, skill development, and basic infrastructure development. It has been decided to set May 2022, as the baseline. He added, “Development of the aspirational blocks is our priority.” CM Adityanath directed officials to ensure that there is no shortage of manpower in any of these blocks. And, to also ensure that each block has a Block Development Officer, Block Education Officer, Agriculture Development Officer (ADO) Panchayat, Child Development Project Officer (CDPO), Veterinary Officer, revenue officials, etc.

He said that it is important that relatively young, energetic and visionary officers are posted at these places.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and State Election Commission (SEC) are to commence ward delimitation exercise in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The delimitation committee is awaiting the gazette notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The Ministry has formed a three-member delimitation committee chaired by Vijay Dev, State Election Commissioner. The committee is supposed to submit its report on the exercise within the next four months immediately following its constitution.

Under the framework of fournation grouping ‘I2U2’, the United Arab Emirates will invest USD 2 billion to develop a series of integrated food parks across India. The grouping is known as ‘I2U2’ because ‘I’ stands for India and Israel and ‘U’ stands for United States of America and UAE. The decision was announced after the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi; President of USA Joe Biden; President of UAE Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan; and Prime Minister of Israel Yair Lapid held the first virtual summit on July 14. As part of the initiative, the ‘I2U2’ will also advance a hybrid renewable energy project in India’s Gujarat state with 300 MWs of wind and solar capacity.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) announced uniform rates for general trade and storage licences for establishments in Delhi. The new policy states that `3968 is the annual licence fee for an area measuring up to 10 square metres under groups A and B. Meanwhile, for groups C and D, it is `2646, and for groups E and H, the establishment fee is `1323. The new licence fee rates will come into effect from July 7, and there will be an increase of 15 per cent in the licence fee.

The state cabinet of Jharkhand, led by Chief Minister Hemant Soren approved the proposal to provide 100 units of free electricity per month to the financially poor population in the state. Nearly 55 proposals were approved by the cabinet in the meeting. The state cabinet has also decided to implement the Old Pension Scheme with some added conditions. Under the chairmanship of the Development Commissioner, a committee will be formed to draft the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to reinstate Old Pension Scheme replacing the new pension scheme.

ITANAGAR: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) aims to invest Rs 1400 crores in the road infrastructure of Arunachal Pradesh. P K H Singh, Additional Director General for Northeast, BRO, said that the organisation is already engaged in the construction projects worth `1000 crores in Arunachal Pradesh. He added that the organisation has been granted nearly `20,000 crores, out of which the organisation plans to invest `13001400 crores in the state. Apart from that, approvals are pending for clearing the forest to construct projects worth `2500 crores, on which the work will begin soon.

Balipara-Chardwar-Tawang (BCT) Road, Sessa Road in the East Kameng district and Elephant Road are some of the previous development projects. The Single-lane Elephant Road has already been completed, while the construction on Sessa Road is pending due to pending forest clearance approval. Also, 90 per cent of the construction work, on Siyom Valley road, in West Siang District is complete except a few patches. Once completed, these road connectivity projects will facilitate reverse migration to the villages and hamlets along the border. The Arunachal Frontier Highway stretching up to 2000 kms, was designed to serve as an axial route along the Indo-China Boundary.

BHUBANESWAR: The Government of Odisha, after the success of Family Planning Logistics Management Information System (FPLMIS) in the rural areas, plans to extend the same to the urban area. The FPLMIS is an onlinebased platform to ensure an uninterrupted supply of contraceptive solutions to the target couples at the sub-centre level. Dr Bijay Panigrahi, Director, Family Planning said that they are trying to introduce the FPLMIS in the urban areas under the National Urban Health Mission Programme. He later added that efforts are underway to deliver the supply of newer contraceptive measures (injectables) to the eligible couples to increase the size of basket of choice. On the occasion of ‘World Population Day’, Malkangiri and Rayagada districts have been facilitated for family planning services. District of Deogarh and Jagatsinghpur were awarded for introducing the injectable contraceptive measures, while the Sonepur and Malkangiri have been awarded for Intrauterine Contraceptive Device (IUCD) acceptance. Nuapada and Khurda, on the other hand, have been awarded for the implementation of FPLMIS in supply chain programme and family planning logistics. Khurda and Ganjam received the award for the overall implementation of FPLMIS, in 2021-22.

Dr Sadananda Panigrahi, Dr Sapan Kumar Dinda, Dr Anup Kumar Ghose, Dr Madan Mohan Mohapatra, Dr Muralidhar Padhi and Dr Deepak Kumar Dehury have been conferred with the lifetime achievement award for family planning.

NEW DELHI: Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, addressed the gathering at 168th Annual Day celebrations of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD). He said, “India is witnessing an urban renaissance and the architectural wonders of Rashtrapati Bhavan and various other monuments are a testimony to our architectural expertise of preIndependent India.” Puri praised the active role played by CPWD, as one of the oldest serving government departments, in the development of socio-political landscape of the National Capital Region of Delhi. The minister also highlighted that the department has been part of some of the most exquisite projects, such as the Rashtrapati Bhavan, North and South Block, and Parliament House of the country. Also, the department is contributing to the development of the Central Vista project, including the New Parliament House, Common Central Secretariat and Vice-President Enclave. Apart from the projects inside the country, the department has also constructed the parliament of Afghanistan. He added that today, we are not constructing to meet the needs of today or tomorrow, but of the next 250 years. The department is inculcating sustainable and environment friendly technology to minimise carbon footprint of the construction processes and buildings. Thus, advancing towards a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive future for the country.

SHILLONG: The Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad Sangma, on June 15, launched an Integrated Web Portal of the Meghalaya State Public Services Delivery Commission at the Yojana Bhavan. M S Rao, Chief Commissioner, State Public Services, and T Dkhar, State Informatics Officer, were present during the launch.

In his address, CM Sangma highlighted that the state administration has taken various measures for the implementation of citizen-centric governance across all the departments. This Integrated Web Portal aims to ensure citizen centric governance and enhance the efficiency of delivery mechanisms.

He added, “All 188 services should be made available at the earliest on the portal,”

The ‘Meghalaya Right to Public Services Act, 2020’ is the principal act to look after the delivery of notified public services to the citizens of Meghalaya within a specified time limit, including the liability of the government servants in case of default.

The portal is designed keeping in mind the convenience of the citizens. It also encompasses a dashboard which will allow the officials and commission to check the status of applications at each stage. As per the statement of an official, citizens residing in areas having poor network connectivity can access the services provided by the portal through Common Service Centres.

In an effort to give impetus to cleaner energy production in Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma inaugurated a 25 MW capacity Boko Solar Park in Kamrup district. Earlier, CM Sarma also inaugurated a solar plant in the Udaigiri district. On the same day, CM Sarma, in a meeting, highlighted that the state aims to produce 50 per cent of its power demand through solar energy by the year 2026. He said that they will be able to generate 215 MW solar energy over the next few years.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the recent Mayoral elections in Madhya Pradesh, has managed to secure nine seats out of a total of 16 seats. While Congress won five seats, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won one seat, and one went to an independent candidate. This time, new political parties, AAP and All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) have marked their entry into the local bodies of the state. AAP has won the Singrauli seat while AIMIM’s mayoral candidate got 10,000 votes.