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📰 Goa becomes first state to be 'Har Ghar Jal' certified, says PM Modi: • Goa becoming the first Indian state to get certified under ‘Har Ghar Jal’ with 100% coverage. • Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that over 10 crore rural households of the country have been connected to the facility of clean water through pipes, with 7 crore rural families getting connected in the last three years. • Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have also become Har Ghar Jal certified Union Territory. • Haryana, Telangana, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry have reported 100% coverage, but are yet to be certified. While other states such as Punjab (99.9%), Gujarat (97%), Bihar (95.49%), Himachal Pradesh (94.85%) are also inching closer to the target. • The Centre has now set September 30 as the deadline for all states to award contracts for all pending works. • The World Health Organization prescribes 25 litres of water for one person per day to meet all basic hygiene and food needs. • India has had public programmes for drinking water before, such as the National Drinking Water Mission launched in 1986. But the goal of providing piped water to every rural household has got a special impetus under the Modi government. □ About Jal Jeevan Mission: • Jal Jeevan Mission is a flagship programme of the Government of India which was announced from the ramparts of Red Fort by the visionary Prime Minister on August 15, 2019. • The fund-sharing pattern between the Centre and states under the mission is 100% for Union territories (UTs) without legislature, 90:10 for north-eastern states and UTs with legislature, and 50:50 for all other states. • Jal Jeevan Mission, is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India. • The programme will also implement source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, such as recharge and reuse through grey water management, water conservation, rain water harvesting.

🔆Carbis Bay Declaration - G7 Summit ✅The G-7 summit recently took place in the U.K., and the leaders jointly signed the Carbis Bay Declaration. ✅Vaccine : The G7 pledged over the next 12 months to secure a further one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses. ✅This will be either through donating surplus supplies or providing further finance to Covax. [Covax is the UN-backed scheme charged with distributing vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.] ✅ The G7 also committed to invest $12 trillion in the combined pandemic recovery plan. ✅It also pledged to reinforce global surveillance for potentially dangerous diseases. ✅Economy : The joint statement set out plans to reduce roadblocks to production in Africa. ✅On the controversial issue of enforced temporary waivers of patents, it said the leaders will support manufacturing in low income countries. ✅They would engage constructively on the issue of intellectual property waivers in discussions at the WTO. ✅The G7 also agreed to increase the special drawing rights (SDRs) in IMF of low-income countries by $100bn. ✅Consensus amongst the seven-member countries on countering China was an important message from the meet. ✅The final G-7 communiqué holds no less than four direct references to China, each negative. ✅It includes criticising Beijing for its - i. rights record in Xinjiang and democratic freedoms in Hong Kong ii. “non-market policies and practices” iii. concerns over its actions in the China Seas ✅The G7 also underscored “the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”. ✅Besides, there was a demand for a transparent investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 virus. ✅The G7 also vowed to cooperate with China on issues such as the climate. ✅ India is a special guest to the G-7/G-8 since 2003. ✅It has maintained its independent course, especially on political issues. ✅ At the recent meet, India voiced concerns about some clauses in the joint communiqué on Open Societies. ✅The communiqué condemned “rising authoritarianism”, net shutdowns, manipulation of information, and rights violations. ✅These are areas the Indian government has often been criticised for in the recent years. ✅However, India signed off on the joint statement by G-7 and guest countries on “open societies.” ✅The statement reaffirms and encourages the values of “freedom of expression, both online and offline". ✅In the present, India will be expected to walk the talk on its commitments at the G-7 outreach, especially in the areas of information clampdowns. [Notably, India had the largest number of Internet shutdowns in 2020.]

📰 Kerala Savari: • ‘Kerala Savari,’ the country’s first online taxi service owned by a State government, was rolled out in the State. • Kerala Savari aims to offer a safe and reliable online service for women, children, and senior citizens. It ensures safe travel for the public at government-approved fares. • There will be no fluctuation in fares on Kerala Savari during peak hours. • A police clearance certificate is mandatory for drivers joining the scheme. • To address the security concerns of passengers and drivers, a panic button system has been introduced in the online app. Kerala Savari app is available to the public on Playstore. 📰 Russian frigates for Navy still elusive: • There is up to 6 months delay in the delivery of the two Krivak or Talwar-class stealth frigates under construction for the Indian Navy in Russia due to the war in Ukraine. • The first frigate is now expected to be delivered by November 2023 and the second one by April 2024. • Indian Navy already operates 6 of this frigates weighing around 4000 tonnes each. • The 1st frigate, Tushil, was launched into water in October 2021. • With Russia being shut out of the global SWIFT system for money transfers, India and Russia have agreed to conduct payments through the Rupee-Rouble arrangement. • The Central banks of the two countries had extensively discussed this issue and small payments have been resumed. Officials stated that modalities to undertake larger payments are still being worked. 📰 India, China troops to take part in Russa war games. • China’s Defence Ministry announced the participation of People’s Liberation Army troops in the exercises, adding that “India, Belarus, Tajikistan, Mongolia and other countries will also participate”. • India has also indicated its participation in the war games. There was no response from the Indian Army to questions on India’s participation. • Russia’s Defence Ministry said last month the Vostok (East) 2022 exercises will be held from August 30 to September 5 in Russia. 📰 Delhi’s PM2.5 levels worst in the world. • A global analysis of air quality found that Indian cities, while recording particulate matter emissions (PM2.5) that are among the highest in the world, do relatively better on nitrogen dioxide (NO 2) emissions. • Air Quality and Health in Cities report, released by US-based Health Effects Institute on Wednesday, analyses pollution and global health effects for more than 7,000 cities around the world, focusing on two of the most harmful pollutants - fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2). • Delhi and Kolkata were ranked first and second in the list of top 10 most polluted cities when PM2.5 levels were compared, with Delhi and Kolkata reporting an average annual exposure of (relative to population) of 110 µg/m3 and 84 µg/m3 respectively. µg/m3 refers to microgram per cubic metre. • However no Indian city appeared in the list of top 10 – or even top 20 - polluted cities when N0 2 levels were compared. This list saw Shanghai at the top with an average annual exposure of 41 µg/m3. • Other cities with high NO 2 population levels included Moscow, Beijing, Paris, Istanbul and Seoul. • Average NO 2 levels for Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, according to the report, ranged from 20-30 µg/m3 • NO 2 comes mainly from the burning of fuels in older vehicles, power plants, industrial facilities and residential cooking and heating. • As city residents tend to live closer to busy roads with dense traffic, they are often exposed to higher NO 2 pollution than residents of rural areas. • Due to their highly reactive nature, nitrogen oxides also contributed to the formation of other pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter. • NO 2 also has a shorter lifetime compared with PM2.5 and other air pollutants. As a result, NO 2 levels show very high variability in space and time — levels can vary significantly even across a few kilometres within the city. • In comparison, PM2.5 levels tend to show less spatial variation at the fine scale.

■ 11 more new Ramsar sites added: • 11 more wetlands were designated as Ramsar sites. It increased the number of Ramsar sites in India from 64 to 75. • A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, also known as "The Convention on Wetlands", an intergovernmental environmental treaty established in 1971 by UNESCO, which came into force in 1975. • It provides for national action and international cooperation regarding the conservation of wetlands, and wise sustainable use of their resources. • India is one of the contracting parties to Ramsar Convention, signed in Iran's Ramsar in 1971. • India signed it on 1 February 1982, according to an Environment Ministry release. • The 11 new sites designated as Ramsar sites included: four sites in Tamil Nadu, three in Odisha, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one each in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. • Tamil Nadu has maximum number of Ramsar sites (14), followed by UP which has 10 Ramsar sites. • The 11 Indian wetlands which have been designated as new Ramsar sites are: • Chitrangudi Bird Sanctuary, Suchindram Theroor Wetland Complex, Vaduvur Bird Sanctuary and Kanjirankulam Bird Sanctuary - Tamil Nadu. • Tampara Lake, Hirakud Reservoir and Ansupa Lake - Odisha. • Hygam Wetland Conservation Reserve and Shallbugh Wetland Conservation Reserve - Jammu and Kashmir. • Yashwant Sagar - Madhya Pradesh. • Thane Creek - Maharashtra.

📰 Exercise Udarashakti: • An Indian Air Force contingent left for Malaysia on Friday to participate in a four-day bilateral exercise 'Udarashakti' with the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) at the latter's base in Kuantan. 📰 Centre begins scheme to rehabilitate beggars: • The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry on Friday launched the ‘SMILE-75’ initiative for comprehensive rehabilitation of persons engaged in begging in 75 identified municipalities as a part of the celebrations of 75 years of Independence. • The initiative is part of the Ministry’s ongoing SMILE project (Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise) for which ₹100 crore has been allocated till 2025-2026. • “Under the SMILE-75 initiative, 75 municipal corporations in collaboration with NGOs and other stakeholders will cover several comprehensive welfare measures for persons who are engaged in the act of begging with focus extensively on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, awareness, education, skill development, economic linkages and convergence with other government welfare programmes etc. 📰 29 elephant poaching cases in 3 years: Centre. • In the past three years, 90 cases of seizure of elephant tusks/ivory have been reported in India along with 29 cases of poaching of elephants. • The Ministry has informed that the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has conducted a special pan-India enforcement operation to coordinate action among State and Central enforcement agencies. “Ivory seizures have been affected in the ‘Operation WILDNET-I, II, III and IV’,” the response added. • Wildlife experts and conservationists point out that while India is home to 60% of Asian Elephants, the human-elephant conflict continues to be the biggest challenge for wildlife management. □ About Operation WILDNET-I, II, III and IV’: • "Operation Wildnet” (1st May 2017 to 30th June 2017), “Operation Wildnet-II” (1st November to 30th November, 2019), “Operation Wildnet-III” (1st July to 30th September, 2020) and “Operation Wildnet-IV” (1st August to 30th September, 2021) were aimed to draw the attention of the enforcement agencies within the country to focus their attention on the ever increasing illegal wildlife trade over internet using social media platforms. 📰 Government to enumerate people who clean sewers: • The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJ&E) is now preparing to undertake a nationwide survey to enumerate all people engaged in hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, an activity that has led to at least 351 deaths since 2017. • Drawing a distinction between this work and manual scavenging, the Ministry insisted that the practice of manual scavenging no longer takes place in the country as all manual scavengers had been accounted for and enrolled into the rehabilitation scheme. • Ministry officials said that the enumeration exercise, soon to be conducted across 500 AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) cities, is part of the Union government’s National Action Plan for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE), which will streamline the process of rehabilitating sanitation workers and eventually merge with and replace the Self-Employment Scheme for the Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS), which was started in 2007. • NAMASTE scheme aims to achieve outcomes like zero fatalities in sanitation work in India. • NAMASTE scheme is being undertaken jointly by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and aims to eradicate unsafe sewer and septic tank cleaning practices. • Other benefits under the scheme will include capital subsidies of up to ₹5 lakh on sanitation machinery costing up to ₹15 lakh and interest subsidies on loans, where interest rates will be capped between 4-6% for the beneficiaries, with the government taking care of the rest of the interest. • In addition, the scheme also provides for training the workers in the use of these machines, during which time a stipend of up to ₹3,000 per month will be provided.