Nutrition guidelines approved by Niti Aayog

Why in news?

The NITI Aayog has approved the supplementary nutrition guidelines, prepared by the Ministry for Women and Child Development, bypassing Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi following intervention by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)

Concerns

• The debate continues to haunt the government about the mode of implementation.
• The Govt currently lacks the data about the quality of food with the different kinds of models that exist
• There is no data systems about the quality of food, how people use it, and what people think about it

Vaishnava Jana To

Why in news?

As part of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is working on a new version of Vaishnava Jana To, the favourite bhajan of the father of nation. Multiple singers will sing the bhajan at the Taj Mahal and other iconic spots.

Details

• A film festival screening 15 archival films of the Mahatma will be held.
• For children, the I&B Ministry is exploring making an animation film on the Mahatma’s teachings.
• A competition of short films have been planned. The Ministry is planning to get Mahatma’s works translated into Sanskrit.
• It is one of the most popular Hindu bhajans, written in the 15th century by the poet Narsinh Mehta in the Gujarati language.
• The bhajan was included in Mahatma Gandhi’s daily prayer.
• The bhajan speak about the life, ideals and mentality of a Vaishnava Jana.

Solar Mamas (Rural women solar engineers)

 Why in news?

A group of 45 women from 10 countries, ‘solar mamas’ who learnt the skills needed for the fabrication of solar panels, lights and photovoltaic circuits in a six-month-long training programme, were felicitated at a ‘graduation ceremony’ at the Barefoot College.

Details

• The Barefoot College, established four decades ago, empowers marginalised women by training them to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists, broadcasters and doctors for their own villages.
• Under Government of India-supported programmes, the college in Rajasthan has been promoting and training rural women solar engineers from Africa in household solar lighting systems.
• The institution has so far trained over 15,000 women in various skills.
• Training in solar energy applications is the Barefoot College’s latest initiative. It was launched in 2005 and is now supported by the Ministry of External Affairs.
• It caters to two groups of women — from India, and from Latin America, other parts of Asia, the Pacific Islands, and African countries.
• They are a group of nearly 30 rural women solar engineers from six African countries who have been trained under India’s developmental support for harnessing solar energy.

About solar mamas

• The ‘Solar Mamas’, who come from across Africa, are trained at Barefoot college in Rajasthan’s Tilonia village.
• They are trained to fabricate, install, use, repair and maintain solar lanterns and household solar lighting systems in their villages.
• The women are also trained in solar electrification and other entrepreneurial skills such as bee-keeping and tailoring.

Solar mamas in other countries

• A barefoot women vocational training college in Zanzibar Islands of Tanzania and other countries in Africa has also been setup for imparting solar electrification skills and distributing solar kits.
• They will replicate the model in their villages by installing solar lanterns and panels, and train the women in their communities for the electrification of their homes.

Bogibeel Bridge- India longest road-rail bridge

• It is a combined road and rail bridge over the Brahmaputra River in Assam between Dhemaji district and Dibrugarh district.
• Upon its expected completion at the end of 2018 the 4.94 km bridge, work on which was started in 2002, wpule be the longest rail-cum-road bridge in India.
• Bogibeel is the fourth rail-road bridge on the Brahmaputra River in Assam.
• Bogibeel Bridge connects the North and South banks of river Brahmaputra and is situated in the eastern region of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
• The foundation stone for Bogibeel Bridge was laid down by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002.
• Bogibeel bridge is the second longest in Asia.
• The bridge, which has been made making use of techniques from Sweden and Denmark, is much lighter when compared to bridges with riveted girders. The design too is similar to a bridge that connects Sweden and Denmark.

Benefits

• It will significantly enhance India’s ability to transport troops and supplies to its border with Tibet in Arunachal Pradesh.
• The bridge is located just over 20 km away from the Assam- Arunachal Pradesh border and is thus expected to act as an alternative to the Kolia Bhomora Setu, Tezpur in providing connectivity to nearly five million people residing in Upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
• Bogibeel bridge will save a lot of time both in terms of road and rail travel
• As of now a train journey from Arunachal Pradesh to Assam’s Dibrugarh means a detour of 500 kilometres via Guwahati. But, with the Bogibeel bridge, the train journey will be less than 100 kilometres.

LEMOA

Why in news?

The India-U.S. foundational agreement for mutual logistics support, the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), has been fully operationalised over the past few months, official sources said.

Details

• India had concluded the LEMOA in August 2016 in a culmination of a decade of negotiations between the two countries.
• The pact gives both countries access to designated military facilities on either side for the purpose of refuelling and replenishment in primarily four areas — port calls, joint exercises, training and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
• The SOPs include designating the points of contact for the U.S. military to work with, and set up, a common account for payments.
• “The SOPs are applicable to all three services. Each service has a designated LEMOA officer,” another official said.
• The biggest beneficiary of the LEMOA is the Indian Navy, which interacts and exercises the most with foreign Navies.
• The Navy has a fuel exchange agreement with the U.S. for fuel transfer on the high seas, which is set to expire in November.
• Now fuel exchange gets subsumed into the LEMOA and does away with the need for a separate agreement.

Background

• With COMCASA, India has signed three of the four foundational or enabling agreements with the U.S. meant to improve interoperability between the militaries and allow transfer of high-end military platforms.
• The first one, the General Security Of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), which is for information safety, was signed in 2002.
• COMCASA, which was signed at the 2+2 dialogue is an India-specific version of the Communication and Information on Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA).
• The last one remaining is the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation (BECA).

Bonnethead Shark / Shovel Head

Why in news?

The bonnethead shark, a small member of the hammerhead family, was long thought to be a strict carnivore that would occasionally ingest greens purely by accident but scientists say it follows an omnivorous diet in which seagrass plays a key nutritional role.

Details

• It is a very abundant, small hammerhead that is found in shallow estuaries and bays on the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean coasts of the Americas as well as in the Gulf of Mexico.
• This is the first species of shark ever to be shown to have an omnivorous digestive strategy.
• Not all carnivores can digest plant material efficiently, but sharks fed with the seagrass-heavy diet all gained weight. Although sharks lack a secondary jaw that many herbivores use to chew plants, they have highly acidic stomachs which may aid digestion.
• Bonnethead sharks are not only consuming copious amount of seagrass but they are actually capable of digesting and assimilating seagrass nutrients, making them clear omnivores
• Seagrass can form up to 62% of the bonnethead diet, alongside their preferred meal of crustaceans and molluscs.
• The animals were found to be as good at digesting fibre and organic matter as young green sea turtles — a species that transforms from eating an omnivorous diet in youth to committed vegetarianism in adulthood.
• IUCN: Least Concern

Seagrass

• Growing in salty and brackish waters, seagrass meadows are the most widespread coastal ecosystem on Earth.
• They help filter water and absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.