Excellence by Saikat Sir: 06/29/20

National Statistics Day is observed on June 29 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Professor PC Mahalanobis.
This year the day will be marked virtually due to Covid-19 pandemic and people still are being advised to stay indoors.
The theme of the day this year is Sustainable Development Goals -3 (Ensure healthy lie and promote well-being for all at all ages) and Sustainable Development Goals-5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls)

In Uttarakhand , a crucial bridge on the Munsyari Milam Road near the Indo -China Border in Pithoragarh has been rebuilt by the Border Road Organisation(BRO) in a record time of five days.
The 100 feet long bridge with a capacity of carrying weight of around 30 tonnes, is the only route for movement of Army and ITBP personnel to the higher Himalayan posts along the china border.
The old bridge collapsed because of overloaded trailer carrying an excavator tried to cross it despite several warnings from the BRO.
This bridge is very important for supplying ration to the army and the ITBP men near the Indo-China border in Uttarakhand.

The government has approved an additional Rs 1,691 crore for highway works by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand for 2020-21.
Of this, Rs 1,351.10 crore has been sanctioned to BRO for road works in Jammu & Kashmir.
A total of Rs 340 crore ceiling has been approved for Uttarakhand for national highways.
In addition, it has also given nod for additional sanction of Rs 71 crore for highway works by the state’s Public Works Department in Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu,
Besides, it has also enhanced the total ceiling to Rs 1,955 crore for highways work for Nagaland under Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) from the existing Rs 1,081 crore.

Tribal Affairs Ministry has taken several immediate initiatives to re-energise the lagging economic activity for sustaining the livelihood development of tribals to ease the burden of the tribal artisans arising out of COVID pandemic.
The TRIFED Digital Platforms, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda stated that the team of “TRIFED Warriors” will take Tribal Commerce based on forest products, handlooms and handicrafts to a new high for transforming tribal lives and livelihoods.
He stated that with more and more people going online to meet their various needs, an important strategic push has been to adopt an all-encompassing digitisation drive to map and link its village based tribal producers to the national and international markets. This was the key focus area of a webinar organised by TRIFED.
It was attended by over 200 participants. The main highlight was the launch of the TRIBES India products on the Government e-Marketplace and TRIFED’s new website.
Mr Munda opined that TRIFED plays a major role in connecting the tribals to the mainstream and congratulated the team for their initiatives being launched.
He urged them to focus on extracting and utilising the wealth of information and knowledge that the tribal communities have, especially with regard to the jungle, and how that can be used to not just benefit their community but can also be of greater help to the country and people in these troubled times.

Union Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik inaugurated two-day Defence Conclave 2020 Gujarat via video conferencing and stated that strong defence capabilities would help the nation safeguarding the prosperity “generated in the last few decades“.
The minister stated that the huge opportunity and clear vision of the Centre for the defence sector “have attracted the attention of not only a few large players but also a large number of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs).
Naik stated that the slowing down/saturation of markets in other sectors has also been responsible for directing their interest towards the unexplored defence sector which promises sustained business opportunities.
Naik stated that the state has emerged as an excellent infrastructure facility and can offer both forward and backward supply chain linkages to the defence and aerospace manufacturing sector.
The growth drivers for Gujarat include its vast coastline of 1,600 kilometres with well-connected ports, the MSME engineering companies providing entire supply chain for the defence sector, premier educational institutes in management, engineering, design, research and development, infrastructure planning and world-class shipbuilding and repairing facility, he stated.

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