HARYANA

Haryana fares poorly in welfare of street vendors: Report

The urban local bodies (ULBs) in Haryana have fared poorly in implementing the welfare schemes and rules for the street vendors, who are considered a vital part of the urban economy in providing affordable goods to the public, especially the urban poor and migrant labourers.

A report — prepared by the Delhi-based policy think tank, Centre for Civil Society (CCS), with the assistance of the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA), says: Haryana has identified over 1 lakh street vendors but has distributed identity cards to only 1,000. “It could only score 32.48 points out of 100, since it has hardly implemented four out of the 11 steps under the Street Vendors Act, 2014, analysed by the study. Haryana has seen a fall in its score on the compliance index recorded at 45 last year. No vendor has been issued a vending certificate till now. ULBs in Haryana are yet to submit vending plans, demarcate vending zones and constitute grievance redressal committees,” report pointed out.

As per estimates, 2.5% of the country’s population works as street vendors, they are a source of self-employment and entrepreneurship. However, due to lack of clearly defined rights and failure in implementation of rules, street vendors have to face harassment and extortion. MoHUA had last week released the report prepared by the CCS on the basis of the data of 3,248 ULBs of 28 states and Union territories up to March collected by the team of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM).

After Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh has ranked second on the compliance index calculated on the basis of the extent of implementation of 11 steps on the basis of the Act. Chandigarh has one ULB as compared to 110 ULBs in Andhra Pradesh.

By implementing eight out of the total 11 steps, Chandigarh scored 75 points. The Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh has recognised more than 21,000 street vendors and out of these, only 10% have been issued certificates of vending. ULB in Chandigarh had not issued identity cards to any street vendor till March.

Among the three states of the region – Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh – Punjab has emerged as the best state by identifying around 90,000 street vendors. ULBs in Punjab have issued identity cards to around 34,000 of street vendors till date. Punjab is one among the only four states – others being Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland and Uttar Pradesh – that have constituted grievance redressal committees for street vendors in the country. The agrarian state has also constituted two grievances redressal committees. Punjab has scored 63.18 points, by implementing 10 out of the 11 steps.

Two ULBs in Himachal Pradesh — Bilaspur Sadar and Hamirpur — are among the 22 top performing ULBs in the country. No other ULB from the region is on this list. But the hill state has seen a drop in its score by more than 15 points this year.

HP scored 51.21 points out of 100, by implementing eight out of total 11 steps. The state is yet to form grievance redressal committees for street vendors. Though 89% of towns in HP have completed surveys, only 5,000 vendors — less than 0.8% of urban population — have been identified till date.

INTERNATIONAL

World Wind Day :15th June

Global Wind Day is a worldwide event that occurs annually on 15 June.

The event is celebrated to spread awareness about wind energy, the various uses of wind energy, and the ways and possibilities as to how wind energy can help change the world.

EWEA established the day as Wind Day in the year 2007 and later in 2009, EWEA (European Wind Energy Association) and GWEC (Global Wind Energy Council) teamed up with aims to coordinate the events globally and the name was changed to World Wind Day.

Global Wind Day began in Europe in 2007 and globally in 2009.

NATIONAL

CIMAP announces photography competition on medicinal and aromatic plants

In an effort to create awareness about the usefulness of Medicinal and aromatic plants, the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic plants (CIMAP) has announced a photography competition on medicinal and aromatic plants.

Through this competition, CIMAP also wants to convey the message of conservation of these medicinal plants.

The theme of the competition is ‘Know your Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs)’.

Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) is a research institute of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

It is located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

Centre distributed assistive aids and devices to divyangjan under ADIP Scheme

Government of India has taken special measures to benefit the welfare scheme for Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) amidst the prevailing unprecedented situation faced by the society due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Virtual Assistance to Disabled Persons (ADIP) Scheme for free distribution of assistive aids and devices at Block level for Divyangjans under the ADIP scheme was organized at Talwandi Bhai Block of Firozpur district in Punjab.

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has announced that the Virtual ADIP Camps will be organized nationwide for distribution of aids & assistive devices to Divyangjan during the pandemic.

Under the Ministry, several schemes have been initiated to provide financial assistance and scholarships to Divyangjan students to pursue their education to become self-reliant.

Centre also invited Divyangjan and their family members to get enrolled for Unique ID Cards for Divyangjan which are valid all over India.

31 Lakhs Unique ID Cards have been delivered to Divyangjan so far.

Centre launched online delivery-based gas trading platform, Indian Gas Exchange

The Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan launched the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX).

It will be the first nationwide online delivery-based gas trading platform.

IGX will act as a delivery-based trading platform to deliver natural gas.

The launch of IGX aims to help the nation move towards free-market pricing of natural gas

It is incorporated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), India’s energy market platform.

IGX will enable market participants to trade in standardized gas contracts.

The fully automated platform is a web-based interface and it provides seamless trading experience to the customers.

IGX is expected to play a bigger role in realizing a free market for gas.

IGX, India’s vision on mega investments on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals, gas pipelines, City-gas distribution (CGD) infrastructure, and permission for market-driven price mechanism will be materialized.

India joined GPAI to support the responsible and human-centric development and use of AI

India has joined as a founding member and launched the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI or Gee-Pay). Under this move, India has joined along with the league of leading economies including Australia, the US, the UK, European Union (EU), Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Korea, Singapore.

Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI):

GPAI initiative aims to guide the responsible development and use of AI across the world.

The first of its kind initiative aims to evolve a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities around AI using the experience and diversity of participating countries.

The main objective of the initiative is to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.

They will evolve new methodologies through which AI can be leveraged to better respond to the present global crisis around COVID-19 pandemic.

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