The Ministry of Textiles has decided to establish a “Bunkar Mitra-Handloom Helpline Centre” where professional queries of weavers will be answered by the experts in the field. 
●    This helpline will function from 10.00 a.m to 6 p.m. and initially it will be provided in 7 languages viz., Hindi, English, and 5 other regional languages (Telugu, Tamil, Kannada Bengali & Assamese).
●    Currently 28 Weavers’ Service Centres (WSCs) are functioning across the country to provide technical assistance to handloom weavers in improving their skills. For seeking assistance, weavers have to personally visit the WSCs. 
●    As on date, there is no single point of contact where weavers can seek solutions for their technical issues/problems. The helpline aims to overcome these problems.
●    To set up this helpline, online bids were called by the Ministry by following due e-procurement process. M/s. MSD (I) P. Ltd., Bhopal has been selected as an agency for providing Handloom Helpline Centre and LOI was issued on 30.11.2016. The call centre will be operationalised within a month.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the ambitious Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna’on 27th December, 2016 at Parade Ground in Dehradun. 
●    The project aims at improving the connectivity to the Char Dham pilgrimage centres in the Himalayas, making journey to these centres safer, faster and more convenient. 
●    The Chardham project includes developing 900 km of national  highways in Uttarakhand at a total cost of Rs. 12000 crores. Work for 17 projects worth Rs 3000 crores have already been sanctioned and tendered. The entire length of the highways will be two-laned with paved shoulder and with a minimum width of 10 metres.  
●    There will be tunnels, bypasses, bridges, subways and viaducts to prevent traffic bottlenecks. A team of experts have been engaged to identify zones prone to landslides, and environment friendly techniques are being incorporated in the design to make these zones safer.  
●    Wayside amenities and public facilities will be constructed all along the Chardham route, including parking spaces and helipad for emergency evacuation.

The Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik on 22 December 2016 formally inaugurated the North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy (NEIAH) in Shillong, Meghalaya.
●    The objective of the NEIAH is to provide good quality medical graduates in traditional medicine generate employment and promote tourism in the North East.
●    It is an autonomous Institute under Union Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy.
●    With this inauguration, the institute has become the second Ayurvedic College in the North East Region with a Homeopathy college.
●    It is the only Central Academic Institute of AYUSH in the North East Region.
●    Its primary aim is to produce quality human resource in the area of AYUSH in general and the Ayurveda and Homeopathy in particular.
●    The institute will suitably help in implementing and improving the execution of national health policies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 December 2016 laid the foundation stone of a Madan Mohan Malviya Cancer Center in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The dedicated cancer centre will be built at an expense of Rs 500 crore.
●    After laying the foundation stone of the cancer centre, Modi said that the role of technology in medical science has increased and that’s why his government is making all efforts to provide best medical facilities across India. This is a time when quality and affordable healthcare should be provided to people, especially the poor.
●    Modi was on a one-day visit to his Parliamentary constituency Varanasi. During this visit, he also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of several other projects in the temple town. 
●    He laid the foundation of super speciality block of Institute of Medical Science of BHU.
●    He attended a cultural event being organised under Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav from BHU premises.

The Minister of State for AYUSH Shri Shripad Yesso Naik formally inaugurated the North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy (NEIAH), an autonomous Institute under Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India, in Shillong, Meghalaya today. With this, it became the second Ayurvedic College in the North East Region with a Homeopathy college and the only Central Academic Institute of Ayush.
●    Minister of Health & F.W, Govt. of Meghalaya Smt. Roshan Warjri in her speech expressed her gratefulness to the Union government for providing an Institute of this stature which the region has long yearned for. 
●    The Director of NEIAH Prof (Dr) P K Goswami earlier in his inaugural speech said that the Institute will be a unique institution which will be independent and collocated beside NEIGRIHMS with multi-speciality, where education and health care facilities through Ayurveda & Homoeopathy will be provided under one platform.
●    The NEIAH has started functioning with one College of Ayurveda and one College of Homoeopathy from the academic session 2016-17. The Institute admitted 50 candidates each for BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine & Surgery) and BHMS (Bachelor of Homoeopathic Medicine & Surgery) courses which commenced from 30th   November, 2016.  
●    Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha), Shri Vincent Pala; Joint Secretary to Ministry of AYUSH, Shri Anurag Srivastava; Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Meghalaya, Shri Yeshi Tsering and other senior officers of Ministry of AYUSH and the Meghalaya Government were present at the function.

Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Information & Broadcasting has said that the vision of the Government under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister is to position the nation on a sustainable growth trajectory. The Government is committed to bring about transformational changes in the country with the mantra of ‘Reform, Perform & Transform’. 
●    The vision has been depicted in the Government of India Calendar 2017 with the theme “Mera Desh Badal Raha Hai, Aage Badh Raha Hai”. He mentioned this while delivering his address at the release of the Government of India Calendar 2017. 
●    On the occasion, Shri Naidu Also released the Press in India Report 2015-16 prepared by Registrar of Newspapers of India. Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore was also present on the occasion.
●    Shri Naidu also announced that starting from 25th December this year, the Government would be launching a 100 days campaign across the country on the theme of Good Governance. Ministers, Members of the Parliament would be travelling across the country to highlight key initiatives of the Government that has been taken in the last two and a half years. 
●    Good Governance Day is observed on the birth anniversary of the former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In this context, he mentioned that the endeavour of the Government is to improve delivery systems, need to promote digital transformation and take forward the connectivity revolution in all sectors.

Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung submitted his resignation to the Union Government on 22 December 2016. He resigned 18 months short of his tenure.
●    He didn’t cited ant reason for his resignation. In an official press release, he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for all his cooperation during his tenure as Lt Governor.
●    He also thanked Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi, for his association in past two years. 
●    He also thanked people of Delhi for their support especially during the one year’s President Rule in Delhi.
●    He was serving Delhi as its 20th Lieutenant Governor of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. He assumed charge of Lt Governor of Delhi on 9 July 2013.
●    He also served Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) as its 13th Vice-Chancellor between 2009 and 2013. JMI is a central university in Delhi.
●    He is a former civil servant. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1973 and worked in Madhya Pradesh and with the Union Government.

The National Green Tribunal has decided to impose a fine of Rs 50000 on the airline whose aircraft empties its human waste tank while still being in the air.
●    The direction came on 20 December 2016, following a plea by a retired Lt. Gen Satwant Singh Dahiya who sought strict action against airlines for splattering human waste on houses near the IGI airport while landing. He termed the act as a health hazard and a violation of the Prime Minister’s ‘Swachh Bharat’ drive.
●    The NGT has directed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue notices to all the involved airlines to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation and to ensure that they do not release any waste from the tanks anywhere near the terminals of the IGI Airport.  
●    The decision was taken by a bench chaired by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar. 
●    Though normally, the collected waste from the aircraft is disposed of by the ground staff after the plane lands, there are cases when there is a leak in the lavatory. 
●    To ensure the implementation of the same, the DGCA will be conducting surprise inspections in airplanes once they land to check whether their human waste tanks are empty or not. 
●    The aircraft found violating the direction will be subjected to pay the compensation amount.

Dr. Aruna Sharma, Secretary Steel, inaugurated the 5 MW Solar Plant installed by RINL at a cost of Rs.33 crores in the presence of Shri P Madhusudan, CMD, RINL, Smt Urvilla Khati, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel and Directors of RINL in Vishakhapatnam yesterday. RINL has joined other major corporates in harnessing solar power with this 5 MW Ground Waste Solar Power Plant in its premises.
●    Dr. Aruna Sharma commended RINL management for foraying into Solar Energy in tune with the government thrust to tap renewable energy sources. She said that the role of renewable energy has been assuming increasing significance in recent times for the country's energy security.
●    Shri PC Mohapatra, Director (Projects), Shri DN Rao, Director (Operations), Shri P Raychaudhury, Director (Commercial), Shri B Siddhartha Kumar, IFS, CVO were also present on the occasion.
●    Representatives of SEA, unions, SC&ST Association, WIPs also participated.
●    Dr. Aruna Sharma and Smt Urvilla Khati visited new production units and inspected Blast Furnace-3, Steel Melt Shop-2, Rolling Mills, Captive Power Plant-2 etc. The secretary Steel also visited “Steel Museum”, located in the Technical Training Institute.
●    Dr. Aruna Sharma reviewed the performance of the Company RINL in which Shri P Madhusudan, CMD, CVO and Directors participated. Later, she interacted with the representatives of Steel executive Association, trade unions. SC&ST Association and WIPS.
 
 

Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal launched ‘Coal Mitra’, a Web portal for flexibility in Utilization of Domestic Coal and released reports on ‘Renewable Energy Integration: Transmission an Enabler’, ‘Green Energy Corridor II’ and‘ Electricity Demand Pattern Analysis’, here today. He was presiding over an event, ‘Empowering the Grid to meet Future Challenges’, organized by the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL), under the auspices of Ministry of Power.
●    The Coal Mitra Web Portal has been designed to bring about flexibility in Utilization of Domestic Coal by transferring the reserves to more cost efficient State/Centre owned or Private sector generating stations, leading to lower generation costs and ultimately lesser cost of electricity for the consumers.
●    The web portal would be used by the State/Central Gencos to display information about normative fixed and variable charges of electricity for the previous month as well as margin available for additional generation so as to enable the utilities identify stations for transfer of coal. It would host data on Operational and Financial parameters of each coal based station; Quantity and source of supply coal to the power plant; and Distance of Power plant from the Coal mine.
●    Making a new announcement at the event, Shri Goyal said that the Power Ministry has approved that henceforth Government and PSUs would be able to swap coal with private companies. Further, he said, “I would like to see the Coal sector open up and achieve the next level of Efficiency in power generation. For this the Ministry is working tirelessly and guidelines for coal swapping would be out in next 30 days.” He envisioned this coal swapping initiative to be cross sectoral and not confined to the power to power sector swaps.