World Health Organisation has released a new report on air pollution, and Indian capital New Delhi ranks high, second only to Saudi Arabian city Riyadh among other mega cities in the world.
●    According to the report titled Ambient Air Pollution: A Global Assessment of Exposure and Burden of Diseases, more than 90 per cent of the world population breathes dirty air and around 6.5 million people die due to ailments caused by air pollution. 
●    India alone accounts for 75 per cent of the cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer, states the report.
●    Delhi is joined by Mumbai and Kolkata in the list of 11 most populated mega cities, which makes India the country with maximum number of cities in the list. 
●    The pollution levels of Delhi has been a cause of concern for a while now, with the state government adopting dire measure like maintain an odd-even scheme for cars on the road on alternate days.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched today in Srinagar for the state of Jammu & Kashmir by Chief Minister of J&K, Ms Mehbooba Mufti along with Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan in the presence of Minister of State, PMO, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Dy. Chief Minister of J&K, Dr. Nirmal Singh, Minister for FCS & CA J&K, Shri Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Shri Nazir Ahmed Fiaz and Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Shri Mir Mohammed.

●    Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which was launched by the Prime Minister on 1st May 2016 at Ballia (Uttar Pradesh), is a scheme to provide clean cooking fuel to the women belonging to the ‘Below Poverty Line’ (BPL) households across the country. 
●    Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) aims to provide LPG connections to 5 Crore BPL households by 2019 and is a part of larger program of adding 10 crore new LPG connections by 2019 to achieve full coverage of connections in Indian households. 
●    1 lakh LPG connections will be released in the next 15 days. He said that the central government has released 2 lakh connections during the last 2 years in J&K vis a vis 5 Lakh connections released during the previous 8 years in J&K by the previous governments. 
●    He added that there are 4 LPG bottling plants in the state and another LPG plant at Kargil will be put up and also to increase the capacity of Leh LPG plant.

The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) on 27 September 2016 announced that the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has become the first airport in the Asia-Pacific region to achieve carbon neutral status.
•    DIAL is a GMR Group-led consortium which manages and operates IGI airport.
•    The announcement on the carbon neutral status was made by Airports Council International (ACI) during the Airport Carbon Accreditation certificate presentation ceremony held in Montreal, Canada.
•    Carbon neutrality, or a net zero carbon footprint, occurs when the net carbon emissions over an entire year is zero.
•    This means the airport absorbs or offsets the same amount of emission that was generated.
•    It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation, energy production, and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel. 
 

India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) celebrated its platinum jubilee. 
•    The platinum jubilee celebrations were inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is also the President of CSIR. 
•    PM Modi also released seven new plant varieties developed at CSIR laboratories. 
•    He also witnessed exclusive CSIR Showcase on major technological contributions of CSIR. Besides, prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prizes was presented to eminent scientists on the occasion along with other CSIR awards. 
•    CSIR is an autonomous body and the largest research and development (R&D) organisation in India. It became operational on 26 September 1942. 
•    It is registered under the Registration of Societies Act of 1860. 
•    It is mainly funded by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology. 
•    CSIR’s R&D activities include aerospace engineering, ocean sciences, structural engineering, metallurgy, life sciences, chemicals, mining, food, petroleum, leather, and environment.

India will ratify its U.N. climate change commitments next month to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday and as a tribute to Deendayal Upadhyaya.
•    Days after the G20 summit in Hangzhou where it decided not to commit itself to ratifying the Paris Agreement on climate change this calendar year, India announced it would ratify the decisions on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. 
•    India’s position at the G20 was seen as a snub to China, the summit host, for having blocked New Delhi’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group earlier this year. 
•    Speaking at the BJP national council meeting in Kozhikode, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country would ratify the Paris Agreement on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi who led his life with minimum carbon footprint.
 

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are going to launch Mission Parivar Vikas for improved family planning services in 145 High Focus districts in seven states. 
•    The objective of mission is to accelerate access to high quality family planning choices based on information, reliable services and supplies within a rights-based framework. 
•    These districts are located in the seven high focus states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Assam. 
•    They are having the highest total fertility rates and constitute 44% of the country’s population. 
•    They also have a substantial impact on maternal and child health indicators. 
•    As about 25 to 30% of maternal deaths and 50% of infant deaths occur in these districts. 
•    The key strategic focus of this initiative will be on improving access to contraceptives through delivering assured services, dovetailing with new promotional schemes.
 

The Ministry of Culture is observing a Swachhta Pakhwada from 16th to 30th September, 2016 to spread awareness about the need and importance of cleanliness in all the domains. M/o of Culture and its various organisations have made all possible efforts for an efficient observance of the Swachhta Pakhwada. During the period Ministry has taken up various initiatives including the use of 100% e-office mechanism, setting up of permanent mechanism for cleanliness in all organisations, three Akademies to ensure activities in Music, Dance and Drama to spread awareness about Swachhta, the upcoming Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav scheduled in October to have Swachhta theme and also weeding out of files in all organisations and headquarters to be completed in this fortnight.
•    To step forward towards creating mindset of all officials and staff of the Ministry and its organisations, a special one day ‘Swachhta Conference’ was organised today at the National Museum, New Delhi. The Swachhta Conference was chaired by the Secretary (Culture), Shri Narendra Kumar Sinha.  A presentation based on initiatives taken by ASI to implement Swachh Bharat Swachh Smarak initiative was also presented during the conference. While delivering the key address at the conference he said that “Our Sanskriti(Culture) and Swachhta(Cleanliness) are very much connected to each other.  As we follow the route of devotional activities through personal cleanliness, the same we follow for the surrounding environments. Instead of making “Swachhta” an objective of a fortnight, we should rather make it a daily habit and a yearlong activity”. The conference was attended by senior officials of the Ministry and other organisations.  
•    Various autonomous, attached and subordinated organisations under the Ministry of Culture are also undertaking a number of activities related to the Swachhta Pakhwada. Cleanliness drives are regularly being organised by these organisations in and around their respective organisations’ premises.
•    These organisations have already made significant contributions to mark the fortnight by administering Swachh Bharat Pledge to the officers and the staff, cleaning the Museums’ premises, organising Nukkad Natak(Street Play) with a theme of Swachh Bharat,  holding various lectures and seminars with an objective of dissemination of  the message of Swachh Bharat, organising a Cleaning Campaign at the Ganga Ghat, in Allahabad, development of selective areas in the organisation’s premises into vegetable garden by Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad  and other such initiatives as on today.
•    Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sanghralaya, Bhopal under the activities of ‘Swachha Bharat’ Fortnight organized a special lecture on ‘Solid Waste Management’ and on ‘Benefit to Health due to Swachha Bharat Abhiyan’. Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCC’c) are also playing a key role in dissemination of messages on sanitation and hygiene through cultural performances. Also, National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) and their regional and district science centres are creating scientific temper about sanitation and public cleanliness.

The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) on 21 September 2016 signed a contract with DST, Germany to design vessels, especially suited to navigate the 1620 km stretch of National Waterway-1 (NW-1). 
•    DST will develop a combination of standardised vessels to meet the requirement of various types of cargo.
•    One of the most important navigational challenges for NW-1 is the kind of vessels that will play on the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly stretch.
•    Keeping in view the difficult hydro-morphological characteristics of the river in the upper reaches between Patna and Varanasi, it is important to have vessels which can ply on low draft, with high carrying capacity, and are economically viable and environment friendly.
•    Union Government is developing the National Waterway-1 under the Jal Marg Vikas Project, with assistance from the World Bank at an estimated cost of 4200 crore rupees.

A global study on a range of health indicators released on Thursday has ranked India 143rd among 188 countries, citing various challenges, including mortality rates, malaria, and hygiene and air pollution.
•    India was placed just ahead of Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were ranked 149th and 151st respectively.
•    India's poor performance on hygiene, air pollution mortality are among factors that place it lower than countries like Bhutan, Botswana, Syria and Sri Lanka. 
•    For malaria, which was one of the health indicators assessed, India scored only 10 points and remained in the red zone. 
•    Similarly for hygiene, the study gave India just eight points while for PM2.5 (particulate matter), it scored just 18 points.
•    For under-five mortality India scored 39 points while for Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) it scored 28 points.
•    India, however, scored above 80 points for performing well in areas like Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD), which are a diverse group of communicable diseases, overweight and harmful alcohol consumption.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 21 September 2016 approved the partial capital grant of 5176 crore rupees to GAIL (India) Limited for development of 2539 km long Jagdishpur-Haidia and Bokaro-Dhamra Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) project.
•    This grant is 40 percent of the total estimated capital cost of 12940 crore rupees.
•    JHBDPL project will connect Eastern part of the country with National Gas Grid.
•    This Capital Grant will encourage the supply of eco-friendly fuel at affordable tariffs to industries and will encourage industrial development in these states.
•    The CCEA also approved the simultaneous development of City Gas Distribution (CGD) networks in cities namely Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Cuttack etc. en-route of JHBDPL project. 
•    These distribution networks will be developed by GAIL in collaboration with the concerned State Governments. 
•    It will bring clean cooking fuel at the door step of Domestic households as well as provide clean fuel to transport sector in the eastern region.