[CA] Asia Environment Enforcement Awards, 2018

United Nation Environment has awarded Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India with Asia Environment Enforcement Awards, 2018 for excellent work done by the Bureau in combating transboundary environmental crime.

The Asia Environment Enforcement Awards publicly recognize and celebrate excellence in enforcement by government officials and institutions/teams combating transboundary environmental crime in Asia. The awards are given to outstanding individuals and/or government organizations/teams that demonstrate excellence and leadership in enforcement of national laws to combat transboundary environmental crime in one of the following eligibility criteria areas: collaboration; impact; innovation; integrity and gender leadership.

WCCB has been conferred this award in Innovation category. WCCB has adopted innovative enforcement techniques that have dramatically increased enforcement of transboundary environmental crimes in India. Notably it has developed an online Wildlife Crime Database Management System to get real time data in order to help analyze trends in crime and devise effective measures to prevent and detect wildlife crimes across India.

[CA] Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities, 2018

“Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities, 2018” is being organised by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in New Delhi during 9-11 November, 2018.

This year, India is hosting the event in collaboration with Government of Korea and Rehabilitation International (RI). The Global IT Challenge for disability is a capacity building project that helps youth with disabilities to overcome their limitations and challenges for a better future through access to ICT. It will alleviate the digital divide and expand participation of youth with disabilities in the society. It propagates implementation of United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) - Article 21 relates to access to information.

About 100 youth with disabilities in the age group of 13-21 years in the category of visual disability, hearing disability, locomotor disability and developmental disorder (intellectual disability/MR) from 18 countries namely, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, UAE, India and UK. 12 participants in three teams will be representing India. These youths with disabilities have been selected on the basis of National IT Challenge conducted through National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra in June, 2018. The participants will also be accompanied by one official chaperone and one non-official chaperone from each country to serve as escorts for the participating youths with disabilities.

There are about 1 billion i.e. about 15% of the world population persons with disabilities. Majority of this population live in developing countries with low ICT development indexes. Because of this information divide, persons with disabilities are being excluded from society suffering inequality and poverty. The event started in the year 1992 in Korea. Subsequently it expanded to the neighbouring countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region and since 2011 it has become a global event.

 In 2011 the event was held in Hanoi, Vietnam followed by Incheon (South Korea in 2012) Bangkok, Thailand in 2013, Busan, South Korea in 2014, Jakarta, Indonesia in 2015, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China in 2016 and Hanoi, Vietnam in 2017. The last event at Hanoi was attended by youth with disabilities from 18 countries namely India, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Brunei.

[CA] National Banana Festival, 2018

·       Held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala (Feb 17 – 21, 2018)

·       Theme: "Banana fibre – the next new sensation in textile industry"

·       The festival is organised by Centre for Innovation in Science and Social action (CISSA) in partnership with Kalliyoor Grama Panchayat and a host of National and State organisations.

·       Banana and plantains major staple food crop for millions of people in tropical developing countries, have a history of over 4000 years, dating back to 2020 BC.

·       Banana is native of India and is widely grown in tropical, sub-tropical, and coastal region of India.

·       Today, banana is cultivated in more than 130 countries across the world in 5.00 million hectare and yielding 103.63 million tonnes of banana and plantain (FAO, 2013).

·       India is the largest producer of banana in the world with 29.7 million tonnes from an area of 0.88 million hectares with a productivity of 37 MT/ha.

·       Although India accounts for only 15.5% in area, its contribution in the world’s production is 25.58%.

·       Thus, banana has emerged as one of the important fruit crops, which is easily available to common man.

·       There is also a considerable scope for the export of banana and its products, which further enhances the demand.

·       Bananas and plantains are continuously showing an impressive growth worldwide. It’s year round availability, affordability, taste, nutritional and medicinal value makes it the favourite fruit among every section of the society with good export potential.

·       World banana production is concentrated in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America because of the climatic conditions.

·       Production and productivity of banana has considerably increased with expansion of area due to interventions under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, which promotes adoption of High Density Planting, use of Tissue Culture Plants and other interventions in Post-Harvest Management (PHM) infrastructure.