Who plans to launch #VaccinesWork to emphasize on the importance of vaccines?

For the first time in India, under the 'Honey Mission' initiative, (KVIC) Khadi and Village Industries Commission (in less than 2 years) distributed more than 1 lakh bee-boxes among farmers and jobless youths across India. KVIC has helped in creating more than 10,000 new jobs and 25,000 additional man-days through the manufacturing of bee boxes and honey extractors. Bee-keeping would also open many job avenues for aspiring young entrepreneurs. In August 2017, the initiative of 'Honey Mission' was launched in accordance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for 'Sweet Revolution' in 2016 while introducing Banas Honey project at Deesa, Gujarat. The KVIC had offered the beekeepers training on the effective examination of the honeybee colonies, wax purification, and management of the bee colonies.

To commemorate 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 2 October 2019, the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to Government of India and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in a move to come together and to bring best of science and technology to implement waste management by setting up a Centre of Excellence for Waste to Wealth Technologies in India. The waste to wealth mission project has been approved under Prime Minister's Science Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC). The GoI and IIT-Delhi partnership will provide an effective platform for stakeholders to bring together integrated approaches for effective recycle, reuse and resource recovery of waste.

Under the FAME II scheme, the Central Government has made compulsory for Electric Vehicle (EV) manufactures in India to locally source at least 50% components for the provision of receiving subsidies. This step has been taken to encourage local manufacturing and relying less on imports. The conditions under FAME II scheme were decided by the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee of National Mission for Transformative Mobility headed by Amitabh Kant, (Chief executive Officer) CEO of NITI Aayog.Only the companies that meet the 50% localisation threshold will be eligible for incentives and subsidies under Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME-II) scheme for enhancing electric mobility.

Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) directed National Stock Exchange (NSE) to disgorge more than ?625 crore in the case of misuse of its co-location facility. SEBI has been probing alleged lapses in high-frequency trading offered through NSE's co-location facility. National Stock Exchange (NSE) to pay more than ?625 crore along with interest calculated at the rate of 12% per annum from April 1, 2014 onwards to the Investor Protection and Education Fund (IPEF) created by SEBI. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has been prohibited from accessing the securities market directly or indirectly for six months.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has brought relaxation in the income tax rules related to residential properties' sale and carry-forward of losses, in order to facilitate fundraising by start-ups.The relaxation laws are part of the 'Startup India Vision 2024' that's been prepared by the DPIIT.The DPIIT recommended amendments in Section 54GB of the Income Tax Act, that is, capital gain on transfer of residential property not to be charged in certain cases and Section 79 that states, carry forward and set off of losses would be done for specific companies.The DPIIT has proposed to reduce shareholding requirements of founders from 50% to 20% and compulsory tenure from 5 years to 3 years. iv. Start-up promoters need to hold 100% shares for carrying forward of losses.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs distributed over 3,100 special kits Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kits (SAECKs) to carry out immediate investigations into sexual assault cases among states and Union Territories. It is expected that SAECKs can be used for collecting blood and semen samples, besides other evidence which can be used for investigation purpose. SAECKs are specially designed kits to carry out the immediate medico-legal investigation. The kit comprises of a set of test tubes and bottles, which mention contents and specifications together with instructions on collection of evidence from the crime scene.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has constituted a committee to implement the National Clean Air Program (NCAP). The objective is to reduce the PM (particulate matter) 2.5 and PM 10 concentration by 20% to 30% in at least 102 cities by 2024. The committee will be headed by the Secretary, Union Environment Ministry. The headquarters of the committee will be in New Delhi.The other members of the committee will be Joint Secretary (Thermal), Ministry of Power; Director General, The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and Professor Sachidananda Tripathi, IIT Kanpur.The 102 cities, across 23 states and Union Territories will be identified by the Central Pollution Control Board (CBCB). The selection criteria will be based on their ambit air quality data between 2011 and 2015. The NCAP is envisioned as a five-year action plan with 2019 as the first year. There would be a review every five years.

Delhi High Court has recently released a report that talks about the problem of increasing backlog and pendency of cases. Prompted by the urgent need to ensure timely justice, the Delhi High Court started a Pilot Project titled "Zero Pendency Courts" in certain subordinate courts in Delhi. The primary goal of the project was to study the flow of cases in the absence of backlog. The conclusions from this project would help in identifying benchmarks for different types of cases time lines, number of judges, case flow management rules and a host of other relevant factors.

The Mumbai police have started an investigation into the seizure of campaign material of the BJP from the premises of United Phosphorous Ltd (UPL) in Mumbai. A flying squad of the Election Commission (EC) had raided the premises of UPL at suburban Khar, where electronic cards for the BJP's poll campaign were being allegedly assembled. The returning officer had then issued a show-cause notice to the company. Sanjay More, senior inspector at the Khar Police station said the Khar police had earlier registered a non-cognisable offence in the case. The police have now started an investigation in this case after seeking proper permission from the local court.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industries instructed the Health Ministry to frame law banning manufacture and sale of e-cigarettes in the country as in the absence of the domestic legislation, it would not be possible to put a blanket ban on its imports. The Commerce Ministry stated that without banning domestic sale and manufacturing of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) through the law, it will be an infringement of global trade norms to put an import ban. Electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes are devices that do not burn or use tobacco leaves but instead vaporise a solution, which a user then inhales. As per the World Health Organization report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2017, governments of 30 countries which includes Mauritius, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Bahrain, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, have already banned the Electronic cigarettes.