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- Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee passed away in Kolkata on 13 August morning. He was 89.Chatterjee, who was admitted in a private hospital on August 10, breathed his last at 8.15 am 13 August. Doctors said he had a cardiac arrest.
- The Communist Party of India (Marxist) veteran was suffering from kidney ailment and was put on ventilator support on 11 August He suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in July.
- Born on July 25, 1929, Chatterjee was a ten-time Lok Sabha MP. He was one of the longest-serving parliamentarians in India. He served as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009.
- Chatterjee joined the CPI(M) in 1968 and remained its leader, until he was expelled from the party in 2018. He had refused to step down from his position in Parliament after CPI(M) withdrew its support from the United Progressive Alliance-led government over the India-US nuclear deal.Chatterjee won the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 1996.
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- Draft National rubber policy proposes steps to bring more area under rubber cultivation, price safety for farmers
- The task force on the rubber sector set up by the Central government has proposed a national rubber policy with a package of measures to promote the production and consumption of natural rubber and safeguard the interests of domestic growers.
- One of the major recommendations of the task force is to consider rubber as an agricultural crop rather than a commercial produce.
- This, according to experts, would pave the way for declaration of Minimum Support Price and financial support under the Centre’s income doubling scheme for farmers.
- In its report submitted to the Union Ministry of Commerce, the task force chaired by former Kerala Chief Secretary Paul Antony sought more restrictions on the import of rubber and enhanced production incentives for farmers to help them tide over the crisis caused by falling prices.
- It mooted a nation-wide rubber production incentive scheme with the Centre and State government sharing the burden on a 50:50 basis. It also recommended a ban on the import of cup lump rubber and the imposition of safeguard duty and Minimum Import Price for natural rubber.
- Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar said almost all the demands submitted by Kerala had been approved by the task force. “The recommendations, if implemented, have the potential to lift the rubber sector out of the current crisis and improve the lot of the growers”.
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- Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.
- An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you've used privacy settings that say they will prevent it from doing so.Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP's request.
- For the most part, Google is upfront about asking permission to use your location information. An app like Google Maps will remind you to allow access to location if you use it for navigating.
- If you agree to let it record your location over time, Google Maps will display that history for you in a "timeline" that maps out your daily movements.
- Storing your minute-by-minute travels carries privacy risks and has been used by police to determine the location of suspects such as a warrant that police in Raleigh, North Carolina, served on Google last year to find devices near a murder scene. So the company will let you "pause" a setting called Location History.
- Google says that will prevent the company from remembering where you've been. Google's support page on the subject states: "You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored." That isn't true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking.
- For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are.
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- The Supreme Court on Monday accepted the Centre’s proposal to use hologram-based coloured stickers on vehicles, plying in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), to indicate the nature of the fuel used.
- Addressing a bench headed by Justice M B Lokur, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said that hologram-based sticker of light-blue colour will be used for petrol and CNG-run vehicles while similar sticker of orange colour will be used for diesel-driven vehicles.
- Accepting the government’s suggestions, the bench, also comprising justices S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta asked the ministry to implement the use of the coloured stickers by September 30.
- The top court also asked Additional Solicitor General ANS Nadkarni, who was representing the ministry, to consider having green number plates for electric and hybrid vehicles. Nadkarni responded by saying the ministry would look into it and take a decision soon.
- Advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as amicus curiae in the air pollution matter, had earlier suggested the use of colour-coded stickers to identify the nature of fuel being used in the vehicle. The advocate made the suggestion when the court was hearing a petition on air pollution in the region.
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- After accumulating approximately Rs 66,000 crore from user agencies/subcontractors for diverting forest land for non-forest purposes in the last 10 years, the government has finally notified the rules to use the money for expanding forest cover and also for setting up authorities to monitor its proper use for afforestation and conservation.
- The Parliament passed the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Bill in July 2016 and notified the draft rules early February this year.
- As per the rules, notified by the government on Friday, about 80% of the total money will be used by the states for plantation and other green projects, including assisted natural regeneration, artificial regeneration, forest fire prevention and control operations, soil and moisture conservation works in the forest, silvicultural operations in forests, voluntary relocation of villages from protected areas and improvement of wildlife habitat.
- Besides, the states will utilise the remaining 20% of the afforestation amount for 11 listed works for strengthening of the forest and wildlife related infrastructure.
- The list includes survey and mapping of forest areas for forest fire control, compensatory afforestation works, soil and moisture conservation; casual engagement of local people to assist regular staff of state forest department; construction, upgradation and maintenance of inspection paths, forest roads in forest area and independent concurrent monitoring and evaluation and third party monitoring of various works, among others.
- However, the money can not be utilised for activities such as medical expenses to regular staff of state forest department, payment of salary, payment of legal services, travelling allowances, going on foreign visits, expansion and upgradation of zoo and wildlife safari, among other things.
- The rules also state that all these activities should be taken up in consultation with the Gram Sabha or Village Forest Management Committee.
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