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Pib

1. Need to extend reservations for women in Parliament and Assemblies on lines of Panchayats: Vice President

The Vice President said that educating a woman means educating an entire family. He further said that ending gender disparity, ensuring safety, healthcare, imparting job skills, creating more job opportunities and ensuring safe work places are all aimed at empowering women. The Vice President quoted UN report, saying for every one additional year of education for women in reproductive age, child mortality is reduced by a huge 9.50 per cent. The Government has launched various schemes, including ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ which seeks to reverse the trend of decline in Child Sex Ratio, he added.

The Vice President also interacted with the Members of the FICCI Ladies Organization. Responding to a question on what needs to be done for the women empowerment, the Vice President said that education is very important for the empowerment of women. He further said that financial security is also an important factor for women empowerment. They should be given equal opportunities, equal rights and health facilities, he added.

2. Need to focus on planning and design for sustainable and clean urban mobility: Vice President

The Vice President said that urbanisation is one of the realities of the 21st Century, which is called as urban century. He further said that the 2011 Census has clearly shown that urbanization in India is gaining momentum where every third person is living in urban areas. The current urbanization patterns are causing unprecedented challenges to urban mobility systems, he added.

The Vice President said that urban transport accounts for about 25% of the greenhouse gases worldwide. He further said that it is also the major cause of local air and noise pollution in cities which cause ill health. The traffic congestion created by the transportation systems is responsible for significant economic and productivity costs for commuters and transporters, he added.

The Vice President said that increased motorisation in the Indian cities have caused an ever increasing trend of congestion, pollution, increased travel time, thus producing negative externalities. He quoted Lewis Mamfort, the great American urban architect and historian, as saying, “Building more roads to prevent congestion is like a fat man loosening his belt to prevent obesity.”

The Vice President said that India has made huge strides in provision of public transport systems in many cities. He further said that Metro rail has seen a rapid growth in many cities with Delhi taking the lead and Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) has also seen a phenomenal growth with around 250 kms operational and around 250 kilometers under construction in various cities. He quoted Mr. Enrique Penelosa, the present mayor of Bogota, as saying, “A developed country is not where the poor use cars but where the rich use public transport.”

3. Dr Jitendra Singh attends Conference at World Food India 2017 on North East India: Organic Production Hub

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh said that North East (NE) India is indeed a land of opportunities unexplored. He said that now we have to move ahead and also decide how to move ahead. Highlighting the steps taken by the Government led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, he said that in the last three years, a lot of initiatives have been taken to explore the unexplored potential of North East India. He said that the earlier always the efforts have been made to bring North East India closer to the rest of India, now the efforts are being made to bring rest of India closer to North East India. He said that there is a lot to learn from North East for all of us. The Minister said that balanced development of all regions is necessary for the overall development of the country.

Throwing light on the potential of North East, Dr Jitendra Singh said that NE region has about 50 species of bamboo, about 14 varieties of banana and 17 varieties of citrus fruits. The NE region also has huge production of fruits such as pineapple and oranges. This production goes waste, if there is no ancillary support to export these products, he added. He said that in the current Government, there has been a lot of emphasis on rail and road connectivity. He further said that for the first time, a region based North East Road Sector Development Scheme (NERSDS) has been started in North East for the development of roads specially ‘orphan roads’ that have been neglected by the state governments.

The Minister said that there are 3 Mega Food Parks in North east, in the states of Assam, Tripura and Mizoram. The state of Sikkim has been declared the first Organic state of India, he added. He said that various events have been organized by Ministry of DoNER to promote culture and products of NE region recently such as North East Calling festival in Delhi and Destination North East Festival in New Delhi and Chandigarh.

4. World Food India is a unique platform where delegates from 60 countries will not only understand but also assess our growth: Shri Radha Mohan Singh

The Agriculture Minister said that at the time of independence, we were unable to feed 34 crore population, but today, thanks to the hard work and wisdom of our policymakers, farmers, scientists, and food production officers, we have moved ahead among the countries suffering from food shortages and not only providing food to 134 million population but have also become a food exporter.

Shri Singh said that with just two percent of the world's land we are not just feeding 17 percent of the global population, 11.3 percent livestock and vast genetic inheritance, but also exporting food. He said that today we are the world's largest milk producer, second largest fruits and vegetable producer, third in the production of fish and holds fifth place in egg production.

Shri Singh said that at the time of Independence, per capita of milk supply was 130 gram per day to the 34 million population and today per capita of milk supply has increased to 337-gram milk per day to 134 million people. This is an incomparable achievement in milk production. The Minister further said that we export a lot of agricultural commodities which is about 10 percent of the country's total exports.

The World Food India, which is being organized in the national capital, is a unique platform where delegates from 60 countries of the world will not only understand but also assess our progress.

The Agriculture Minister said that special emphasis has been given to the overall agricultural growth. The Government has taken various steps to increase the agricultural sector's growth rate. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, e-NAM, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Soil Health Card are some of our key schemes. The Government has allowed 100% FDI in food processing.

5. Opportunity in Infrastructure, Logistics Technology and Equipment in the World Food India 2017

The country had just 96,000 km of NH three years back, but this has grown to nearly 1.7 lakh km, and will soon reach a length of 2 lakh km. This will provide more farmers in remote areas with access to markets for their produce .

44 Economic Corridors and 24 Multi Modal Logistics Parks have been planned under the Government’s flagship programme Bharatmala. Work has already begun for setting up Logistics Parks at Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vijaywada, Surat and Guwahati.

The Economic Corridors and Multi Modal Logistics Parks will facilitate faster movement of farm produce to food processing centres and to markets. This will raise the income of farmers, give a boost to the food processing industry and create a large number of jobs.

Sagarmala Programme of the Shipping Ministry will also be contributing to the growth of the country’s food economy in a big way. 14 Coastal Economic Zones have been planned under this programme. Two mega food processing parks are being planned at Kakinada and Satara and a cost of Rs 140 Crores. Support is being given to fishermen under the programme to develop their skills and raise their productivity. Facility for processing, grading and packaging of fish will be developed at Paradeep Port.

111 waterways are being developed as National Waterways. River Ganga, Brahmaputra, Barak are already under development. Water transport will reduce logistics costs, which in turn will benefit the food processing industry.

6. Cauvery Tribunal Gets Six Months Extension

Cauvery is an inter‐State basin having its origin in Karnataka and flowing through Tamil Nadu and Puduchery before outfalling in Bay of Bengal. The sharing of waters of the Cauvery has been the source of a serious conflict between the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The genesis of this conflict rests in two agreements in 1892 and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Kingdom of Mysore.

In this regard, Government of India on June 02, 1990 constituted the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) to adjudicate the water dispute regarding inter‐state river Cauvery and the river valley thereof among the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.

The Tribunal was asked to submit its report by August 05, 2005.The term of the tribunal was extended for one year upto August 06, 2006 and again for six months upto Februay 05, 2007.