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India’s Agreement with the World Bank to Eliminate TB India has signed a Loan Agreement worth US$ 400 Million with the World Bank to help treat and Eliminate Tuberculosis from India. The program will cover nine states in the country. The World Bank supported program will support the government’s National Strategic Plan to end TB in India by 2025. It will do so by helping to improve and strengthen diagnostics and management of drug-resistant tuberculosis and increase the capacity of public institutions engaged in monitoring and treating TB in the country. The loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has a 19-year maturity which includes a 5-year grace period. The program will provide financial incentives to private sector care providers for reporting cases of TB and ensuring that their patients complete the treatment regimen. It will also provide Direct Benefit Transfers to patients for acquiring the critical nutrition needed during treatment. ...

New National Rubber Policy The Minister of Commerce and Industry has informed the Lok Sabha about the New National Rubber Policy. The Department of Commerce brought out the National Rubber Policy in March 2019. The  National Rubber Policy  includes several provisions to support the Natural Rubber (NR) production sector and the entire rubber industry value chain. The Policy is based on the short term and long term strategies identified by the Task Force constituted on the rubber sector for mitigating problems faced by rubber growers in the country. The Policy covers (a) new planting and replanting of rubber (b) support for growers (c) processing and marketing of natural rubber (d) labour shortage (e) external trade (f) Centre-State integrated strategies (g) research and training (h) rubber product manufacturing and export (I) climate change concerns and carbon market. Natural rubber which is also called India rubber or caoutchouc consists of polymers of the organic com...

SISTER-CITY AGREEMENT BETWEEN KOBE AND AHMEDABAD  In a bid to cultivate, promote and enhance opportunities on business, academic and cultural fronts between Kobe in Japan and Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, a  sister-city agreement  has been inked between the two cities.   Significance : This agreement will formalize the relationship between the two cities, both of which are unique in their own ways. While Kobe is the Creative Design City of Asia,  Ahmedabad is India’s first World Heritage City . After the agreement, a plan will be laid out on creating more opportunities for cooperation between the two cities on the academic, cultural as well as business fronts.   Facts : Kobe is located in the  Hyogo Prefecture  in Japan.  PM Narendra Modi and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe have also inked a  sister-state agreement for Gujarat and Hyogo Prefecture .

How India can become a world leader in solar power To not become reliant on imported equipment, India must immediately work on developing the value chain ecosystem to become competitive in the long run India is on its way to improve its industrial and economic health through structural reforms. The country has decided to phase out fossil-based energy generation and adopt green energy. This has been instrumental in laying a path to transition towards sustainable energy. The growing need of energy perfectly aligns with the country’s green energy transition initiatives, to satisfy future energy demands while reducing carbon footprints and burden on the country’s foreign currency reserves. India’s per capita energy consumption currently stands close to one-third of the world average. India is running renewable energy initiatives in a big way and has emerged as the second most attractive market for renewable energy equipment in the world. With the headquarters of Internationa...

RSTV In Depth – Melting Himalayas Ice protects the Earth and our oceans  by reflecting excess  heat back into space . But today, the dwindling  disappearance of mountain glaciers  around the world has become an evidence of the  earth’s climate change . Events of global warming and climate change have increased around the world due to  increasing human activities , especially since the industrial revolution. ANALYSIS: Human-caused climate change  is seen around the world today in the form of extreme weather, shifting wildlife populations and habitats, extinctions of a large number of species from the planet, etc. A glacier is a huge mass of ice that moves slowly over the land. Scientists have observed that  glaciers on two parts of the world  – Antarctica and Asia – have been impacted to a large extent by rising temperatures. A recent study reveals that  Himalayan glaciers are melting twice as fast  now as they were bef...