Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur today launched a mobile app for availing immediate and easy access to ambulances in the state.
•    The app named '108 HP' can be downloaded on any smartphone.
•    He also flagged off five ambulances from Ridge Maidan.
•    The new ambulances under 108- National Ambulance Service would be serving at health centres of Jalog and Rampur in Shimla District, Chatari in Mandi District, Gagret in Una District and Bharari in Bilaspur District.
•    With this, the number of 108 ambulances which was just 50 in 2010 has increased to 199 and there is one ambulance for every 34,000 population.
•    The state government was spending Rs 1 lakh per day on the ambulance services and till now 7.50 lakh emergency cases had been facilitated.
•    Besides, 102 Janani Express providing free services to pregnant women from home to hospital and back home after delivery was being provided and so far 82,000 women had benefited.
•    During the programme, Singh also distributed cheques of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of deceased in the 108 National Ambulance Service accidents.
 

An online complaint box for reporting child sexual abuse, the POCSO e-Box was launched by the Minister for Women and ChildDevelopment, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi in New Delhi today. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO), e-Box, is
an online complaint management system for easy and direct reporting of sexual offences against children and timely actionagainst the offenders under the POCSO Act, 2012. Minister of State for Women and Child Development , Smt Krishna Raj,
Secretary WCD, Ms Leena Nair, NCPCR Chairperson, Smt Stuti Kacker and other senior officials of the WCD Ministry and NCPRC\were present on the occasion.
•    Speaking on  the occasion, Smt Maneka Gandhi said that the idea of an e-Box came out of a police initiative inwhich physical complaint boxes were placed in schools. The e-Box will make it possible to implement it on a large scalethroughout the country. A large number of incidents of abuse are against close relatives and so they get pushed under the
carpet, the Minister said. E-Box is very simple to operate and will help to maintain the confidentiality of the complaint,Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi explained. 
•    Smt Krishna Raj said that all efforts should be made to generate awareness about the e-Box so that more and morechildren can come out with their suffering. Highlighting the lifelong trauma of a child suffering from abuse , Mrs Stuti
Kacker said that the online facility has been created so that the child can be given immediate help.
•    The e-Box is incorporated prominently in the home page of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights(NCPCR) website http://ncpcr.gov.in/  where a user has to simply push a button named POSCO e-Box. This will navigate to apage with a window containing an animation movie. The animation movie reassures the child that whatever has happened to
him/her is not his/her fault and she/he need not feel guilty and that NCPCR is a friend which will help her. After the userpresses the arrow on this page, it navigates  to another page where he/ she has to select at least one picture option(describing the category of harassment) and fill the form with details such as mobile number, e-mail and description of the
harassment followed by  the ‘submit’ button. The complaint is then registered and a unique auto-generated complaint number is flashed.
•    Sexual offences against children are rampant but only a small percentage gets reported. According to a study, about 53% of children surveyed, reported having faced one or the other form of sexual abuse in their lifetime.  In most cases,
the offender is a family member/near relative or an acquaintance.  The child victim in such cases generally does not report these offences.  Sexual abuse scars the psyche of the affected child for  entire life. A child who is sexually abused has
to face very serious consequences such as cognitive impairment, violent and risk behaviour including depression andanxiety. Feeling shame and guilt with poor interpersonal relationship & self esteem are other consequences of sexually
abused children.  
•    Being concerned about such offences against children, the  Government enacted POCSO Act, 20012 to protect them from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography, while safeguarding the interest of the child at every stage
of the judicial process, by incorporating child friendly mechanisms for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and speedy trial of offences through designated Special Courts.   Any human being up to the age of 18 years is recognised as a child under the POCSO Act.
 

Indian Council of Agricultural Research-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBAGR) in the third week of
August 2016 announced that it has registered 9 new breeds of indigenous farm animals.
•    The Breed registration Committee had approved the registration of nine new breeds of livestock and poultry on 21
June 2016.
•    With this, the total number of indigenous breeds of livestock in the country reached to 160, which include 40 for
cattle, 13 for buffalo, 26 for goat, 42 for sheep, 6 for horses and ponies, 9 for camel, 6 for pig, 1 for donkey, and 17
for chicken.
•    National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources and National Institute of Animal Genetics were established on 21
September 1984 at Bangalore.
•    In 1985, the institutes were shifted to Karnal.
•    The two institutes were merged to function as a single entity in the form of National Bureau of Animal Genetic
Resources (NBAGR) in 1995.
•    This premier institute is dedicated to work with its mandate of identification, evaluation, characterization,
conservation and utilization of livestock and poultry genetic resources of the country.
 

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been apprised of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and South Africa to establish cooperation in Grassroots Innovation. 
The MoU was signed on July 07, 2016 at Pretoria in pursuance to the Inter-Government Agreement between two countries for cooperation in Science & Technology. 
•    Under this MoU, both countries will jointly organise various programmes such as forums, seminars, workshops, and training on matters related to innovation; share open source technologies with each other and jointly develop projects (and including partnering with relevant industries in the respective countries) to assist innovators in converting their ideas into commercially viable innovations leading to joint technology development and transfer of technology for Societal benefit. 
•    The MoU will provide a mechanism and help in creating an ecosystem that will promote inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship at the grassroot level in both countries with particular focus on Indigenous knowledge systems and Agriculture Biotechnology.
 

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing of new Air Services Agreement (ASA) between India and Fiji. 
The Agreement is for updation of the existing Air Services Agreement (ASA) between the two countries which was signed on 28th January, 1974. The updation is as per latest ICAO template keeping in view the latest developments in civil aviation sector and with an objective to improve the air connectivity between the two countries. 
i.    Both countries shall be entitled to designate one or more airline. 
ii.    The designated airlines of either country shall have the right to establish offices in the territory of the other country for the promotion and sale of air services. 
iii.    The designated airlines of the two countries shall have fair and equal opportunity to operate the agreed services on specified routes. The routes and frequencies shall be decided subsequently. 
iv.    The designated airline will be free to decide tariffs in respect of the agreed services at reasonable levels based on the commercial considerations. 
v.    The designated Airline of each party can enter into cooperative marketing arrangements with the designated carriers of same party and other party. 
vi.    Apart from the above, the ASA also has the provisions relating to Revocation or Suspension of Operating Authorization, Principles governing operations of agreed services, commercial opportunities, safety related clause etc. that were incorporated in the line of Indian model ASA. 
vii.    The existing Route Schedule annex to the ASA has also been revised and new points of call have been added for enhanced connectivity. Now Indian carriers can operate to any points in Fiji from points in India whereas the carriers of Fiji can establish direct operation to Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai in India and by code share with Indian carriers to Bangalore, Kolkata, and Hyderabad apart from points given for direct operation. Besides this, Kochi, Varanasi, Ahmadabad and Amritsar may be served through domestic code share operations.
 

Disney India, which owns UTV Motion Pictures, one of the top film studios in the country, is going to focus on its Hollywood films distribution and television and licensing and merchandising businesses effectively pulling the plug on its Hindi film production business. 
•    Siddharth Roy Kapur, the managing director, will bid adieu once his contract gets over by January. 
•    The Walt Disney Company India (simply Disney India) is the Indian subsidiary of American Media Conglomerate The Walt Disney Company, and is a premier entertainment company in India. 
•    The Walt Disney Company (India) is a public limited company, which develops and produces motion pictures and videos for children. 
•    The company is based in Mumbai, India and operates as a subsidiary of Walt Disney Company.
•    Walt Disney India was formed in August 1993 with licensing agreement as a joint venture partnership between The Walt Disney Company and Modi Enterprises.
 

Union Government on 24 August 2016 launched Accessible E-Library 'Sugamya Pustakalaya' for Divyang under Prime Minister’s Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan). 
•    The e-library was jointly launched by Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar and Thawar Chand Gehlot.
•    Sugamya Pustakalaya is an online platform that makes accessible content available to print-disabled people. 
•    It houses more than 2 lakh books in diverse subjects and languages and multiple accessible formats.
•    The e-library was created by Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in collaboration with member organizations of Daisy Forum of India and powered by TCS Access.
•    The initiative is in line with the Article 9 of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) to which India is a signatory from 2007.
President Pranab Mukherjee launched Akashvani Maitree (Moitree) Channel and its multimedia website in Bengali language for listeners in West Bengal, Bangladesh and the adjoining areas.
 

The Akashvani Maitree channel can play a significant role in promoting and preserving the composite Bengali cultural heritage which is the proud inheritance of all Bengali speaking people irrespective of their geographical location. 
The blending of content from both India and Bangladesh in the fields of art, culture, literature, music, sports and also on shared socio-economic issues will make the channel a unique one and establish it in the hearts of millions of radio loving people both in India and Bangladesh as well as outside. 
•    India and Bangladesh are not just neighbors but are bound by an umbilical connection of ethnicity and kinship. 
•    India always attaches highest importance to bilateral relations with Bangladesh because of our shared history, heritage, culture, language, physical proximity and also the role which the two nations can play together for the development and prosperity of the entire subcontinent and beyond. 
•    The bedrock on which the edifice of this unique relationship stands is the unwavering faith of both the countries in democratic values, principles of liberalism, egalitarianism, secularism and respect for each other’s sovereignty and integrity. 
•    With the launch of Akashvani Maitree, a new chapter is being added in the annals of India- Bangladesh relations. 
•    Akashvani Maitree and its multimedia website is a unique venture and initiative of All India Radio not only for the Bengali listeners in West Bengal, Bangladesh and the adjoining areas but the entire Bengali speaking Diaspora living in different parts of the globe.
 

The All India Radio's first cross-border radio service channel was launched on Tuesday in Kolkata by President Pranab Mukherjee. 
•    The channel, dedicated to Bengali listeners will air content for 16 hours daily for listeners across India and Bangladesh. 
•    The participatory content creation platform, aimed to strengthen bilateral ties will be shared between 'Akashvani Maitree' and 'Bangladesh Betar'.
•    The new channel will be broadcast from a brand new state-of-the-art high power 1000Kw DRM transmitter installed at Chinsurah in West Bengal's Hooghly district and will cover the whole of Bangladesh through medium wave.
•    West Bengal Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi and Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar were also present at the event.
•    Listeners can tune in to Akashvani Maitree on 594kHz frequency, while it will be also be available globally through the website and a mobile application.

The total sown area as on 19 th August, 2016 as per reports received from States, stands at   992.76 lakh hectare as compared to 938.57 lakh hectare at this time last year.
•    Rice has been sown/transplanted in 346.38 lakh ha, pulses in 136.04 lakh ha, coarse cereals in 180.20 lakh ha, oilseeds in 175.49 lakh ha, sugarcane in 45.55 lakh hectare and cotton in 101.54 lakh ha.
•    The details of the area covered so far and that covered during this time last year are given below:
 Lakh hectare 
Crop    Area sown in 2016-17    Area sown in 2015-16
  Rice                     346.38                      334.26
Pulses                   136.04                        100.57
Coarse Cereals    180.20                        167.69
Oilseeds                   175.49                      168.49
Sugarcane              45.55                           49.60
Jute & Mesta             7.56                             7.73
Cotton                         101.54                      110.23
Total                          992.76                          938.57