Important Fact For Prelims (2nd March 2019)

• 02 Mar 2019

7^th Guinness Book of World Record

• Recently the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has created “7^th Guinness Book of World Record”.
• The record was created for implanting ‘Modern Artificial Limbs (Legs)’ on 260 Divyangjans within eight hours.
• It can be noted that the DEPwD has already created Six World Records in other categories.
• This was announced by the Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment on the occasion of National Conference on “Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS)”.
• The Conference was organised by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• The objective of the conference was to sensitize the stakeholders of the scheme i.e. Programme Implementing Agencies (PIAs), District level officers & State Government officers.
• Recently the second edition of the Indian Sign Language dictionary was launched by Indian Sign Language Research and training Center ( ISLRTC) for the hearing impaired Divyangjans.

Construction Technology India-2019

• Recently, the Prime Minister of India has inaugurated Construction Technology India -2019 conference.
• The aim of the conference is to identify proven, innovative & globally established technologies for use in the Indian context.
• The conference is being organized as a component of the Global Housing Technology Challenge.

Global Housing Technology Challenge

• Global Housing Technology Challenge – India is an initiative by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India, with an aim to identify, evaluate and shortlist a basket of proven & potential innovative technologies from across the globe and subsequently mainstream them in the Indian construction sector that is sustainable, green, disaster resilient.
• GHTC-India has the following three components:
  • Component 1 - Conduct of EXPO-Cum-Conference
  • Component 2 - Identifying Proven Demonstrable Technologies: Inducting suitable established technologies from across the globe to the Indian market through shortlisting and actual construction of Light House Projects.
    • The selected sites for lighthouse projects will be used as an ‘open laboratory’ for live demonstration and will receive due attention from academia, practitioners, policy makers (Central/ State) and media apart from felicitation/ recognition in Grand Expo-cum-Conference.
  • Component 3 - Establishment of Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators India (ASHA-India) for Indian technologies which have potential but not market ready yet.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) – PMAY-U- Housing For All

• PMAY (U) is a Mission to provide housing for all by 2022 and is being implemented from June 2015 by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
• It provides central assistance to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and other implementing agencies through States/UTs for in-situ Rehabilitation of existing slum dwellers.
• The scheme emphasises on using land as a resource with private participation, Credit Linked Subsidy, Affordable Housing in Partnership and Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction/enhancement.
• PMAY-U targets the construction of 1 Crore housing units by 2022.

Poshan Pakhwada

• The Minister for Women and Child Development has announced that the Government will celebrate ‘Poshan Pakhwada’ from 8th to 22nd March 2019 across the Country.
• The celebrations will mark the first anniversary of POSHAN Abhiyaan on 8th March (International Women’s Day), 2019 by organising Poshan Pakhwada across the Country.
• The Poshan Pakhwada will be celebrated on lines of ‘Poshan Maah’ held in the month of September, 2018.
• Following activities will be undertaken during the observance of Poshan Pakhwada:
  • Poshan Melas, Rally on nutrition at all level, Session on nutrition at schools, Self help group meetings, anaemia camps, etc.
  • Further Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities through mass media, and Social Media will be carried out.
  • Social Media Campaign Hashtag #PoshanPakhwada through media partners and team of Swasth Bharat Preraks would be carried out for maximum reach.