Notes:
In a bid to protect forests, the Government of India (GoI) has given approval to establish an International Standard Zoo and Biopark on the forest land at Gorewada, Nagpur. The Zoo will have attractions like Bio Park, Indian Safari, African Safari, Night Safari, Research, Education and Training, facilities for tourists, etc. The Government of Maharashtra has accorded permission for establishing the International Zoo, through Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited (FDCM. Ltd.), Nagpur. The tasks of protection of forests and wildlife at the Gorewada forests and wildlife habitat development have been assigned to FDCM Ltd., for which State Forest Department is providing grants and manpower at the disposal of FDCM Ltd.

Notes:
Two well-known products from Tamil Nadu — the Dindigul lock and the Kandangi saree — have been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by The Geographical Indications Registry in Chennai. The lock is known throughout the world for its superior quality and durability, even the city is called Lock City. The Government institutions such as prisons, godowns, hospitals, and even temples use these locks instead of other machine-made ones. The abundance of iron in this region is the reason for the growth of the lock-making industry. The Kandangi sarees are manufactured in the entire Karaikudi taluk in Sivaganga district. They are characterised by large contrast borders and some are known to have borders covering as far as two-thirds of the saree which is usually around 5.10 m-5.60 m in length. These cotton sarees are worn in summer & usually bought by customers in bulk.

Notes:
The Government e Marketplace (GeM) has signed an MoU with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to benefit MSMEs, women entrepreneurs, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) and various loan beneficiaries under MUDRA and Stand-up India scheme. The MoU will enable promotion of special initiatives of GeM like Womaniya and Start-up Runway with SIDBI stakeholders. GeM and SIDBI will also take steps to ensure payments within a guaranteed time-frame to sellers, enhance working capital availability through bill discounting and control NPAs through control of end use.

Notes:
The Central TB Division of the Health Ministry has signed a pact with Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence (WIAI) to explore the application of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence technology in its fight against TB. As per pact, Wadhwani AI would support the National TB programme in vulnerability and hot-spot mapping, modelling novel methods of screening and diagnostics and enabling decision support for care-givers apart from supporting the Revised National TB Programme (RNTCP) in adoption of other AI technologies. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, India has close to 27 lakh TB cases every year and 4.23 lakh cases die. India is committed to ending TB by 2025, 5 years ahead of the Global Sustainable Development targets.

Notes:
On 30th August, the 2019 edition of Malayala Manorama New Conclave was held in Kochi. It is the Kerala’s first and only news conclave deals with the most contemporary and compelling theme―New India; New government; New aspirations; New challenges; New frontiers; New avenues. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the conclave via video-conference from New Delhi. During the conclave, discussions were held on varied topics like new Indian nationalist, politics, new boundaries of belief, youth, and opportunities for Kerala. On this occasion, Shashi Tharoor launched a language challenge on twitter – #LanguageChallenge – to help people learn one word each from languages other than their mother tongue. The initiative began after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the media to unite India with the help of language.