Fighting Corona, Unstoppable protests, pulses availability, weather

18 May 2021

• Government encouraging Remdesivir production

  Government is working with the 7 licensed producers of Remdesivir to increase the production. The number of manufacturing units in the country have increased from 22 to 60, and production per month of the vials has almost tripled.

• Availability and rates of pulses reviewed across the country

  Sudden rise in the cost of pulses has made the government review their availability and prices across different regions of the country. This is being done to make sure that pulses are available to the general public at affordable rates. Government is also trying to find the reason for this price increases. Government is monitoring prices of other food items too, to handle any exceptional circumstances.

• Protests from farmers to go one level up

  The protesting farmers have said that it has been 6 months and there has been no response from the Government. They are planning to take the protests one level up by stopping farming activities and not to produce anything.

• Districts of Gujarat and Maharashtra under alert for heavy rainfall

  Cyclone Tauktae has caused alerts in some coastal districts of Gujarat and Maharashtra. These districts should expect heavy rainfall with thunderstorms. Junagarh, Amreli, Botad, Bhavnagar, Navsari in Gujarat are under alert for these. Raigad, Thane, Palgarh and other districts of Maharashtra have also been put on alert.

• Microsoft ties up with Indian government and adapts 250 schools

  Microsoft has adapted 250 EMRS schools and plans to provide intensive training to 50 of them and 500 teachers will be trained in advanced technologies like AI in the first phase. These teachers on completion will become Microsoft certified trainers.

• Giloy production in rural Maharashtra

  A youth organization, that is involved in production of Giloy has secured orders worth 157 lakhs from companies like Dabur. Giloy is part of the medicines that heal fever and diabetes. TRIFED has played an important part in this development and has supported and guided this youth organization since its inception. 

• Free food grains to the marginal citizens

  As planned under PMGKAY, 5 KGs of food grains per person are being distributed across the poor of the country. This scheme is applicable for the two months of May and June. Grains collected in the Godowns are being transported to the marginal sectors of the country.

• Barley fields of Rajasthan

  Farmers in Rajasthan prefer to grow wheat over barley due to assured returns and with MSP they can sell what they produce at a fixed rate. There is no such surety with Barley, rates of which keep fluctuating. However, Barley doesn’t need as much water as other crops and hence is grown in areas with low availability of water.

• EU donates USD 8 Million to East Africa

  East African countries will be assisted by FAO which has received USD 8 Million from the European Union to fight the locusts menace in the region. Locusts eat away the crops which the farmers there are growing with great effort.