Maharashtra Police to have the first women battalion

Indian Railway has integrated all railway helplines into single number 139 which is Rail Madad Helpline for quick grievance redressal and enquiry during the journey. As the new helpline number 139 will take over all the existing helpline numbers, it will be easy for the passengers to remember this number and connect with Railways for all their needs during the travel.Ministry of Railways in a statement said that various Railway grievances helplines were discontinued last year and now, Helpline number 182 would also be discontinued from 1st of April, 2021 and will be merged into 139. The Helpline 139 will be available in twelve languages and passengers can opt for Interactive Voice Response System- IVRS or directly connect to call-centre executive by pressing asterisk button. There is no need of a smart phone to call on 139. Ministry of Railways has also launched Social Media campaign #OneRailOneHelpline139 to inform and educate the passengers.

-On the occasion of International Women’s Day on Monday, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan unveiled two of the Passport Seva Kendras, PSKs to be transformed as All Women PSKs. One PSK is at RK Puram, Bhikaji Cama Place in New Delhi and another at Tripunithura in Cochin, Kerala. In his address, the Minister expressed that the Government is continuously working to create a balance between both men and women in various spheres of lives, be it professional or personal.

-Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday presented State’s Budget for the Year 2021-22. The state government is expecting revenue of around 3.69 lakh Crore and a fiscal deficit of more than 66 thousand crores in the next financial year. Maharashtra government has decided to provide zero-interest loans to farmers who take crop loans up to a limit of 3 lakhs and doing timely repayment. In order to strengthen the APMC, state govt. Announce 2 thousand crore scheme. State govt has decided to allocate 5 thousand crores for quality health services in urban areas.Seven new medical colleges will be set up in various districts out of which 5 will be government colleges. A modern hospital for the treatment of contagious disease will be set up in Pune District. Post-Covid counselling and treatment centres will also be opened in every district hospital and medical college. In order to reduce congestion on Mumbai-Goa highway, 540 KM Marine highway will be constructed. Medium High speed railway will be constructed on the Pune-Nashik route. Maharashtra government has also announced to set up the first women battalion of the state reserve police force in the country. One per cent concession on stamp duty will be provided for women home buyers. For the welfare of female domestic workers, the state has also decided to launch a social security and welfare scheme. 

-Union Ministry of Women and Child Development on Monday signed an agreement with Invest India in New Delhi to enhance cooperation. The aim of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is to enhance co-operation in the thematic areas of Nutrition, Child Protection and Development, Women Empowerment and convergent capacity building in mission mode. It was signed by joint Secretary in the Ministry Aditi Das Raut and Vice President, Invest India, Hindol Sengupta. To formulate, design and conduct strategic research for the Ministry, DRISHTI under Invest India will conduct input and output analysis research, and other research as per requirement including coordinating with research agencies for primary, secondary and tertiary research.

-Bangladesh and India held the Commerce Secretary level meeting in Dhaka on Monday. Both sides held extensive discussion on a wide range of issues of mutual interest such as streamlining Certificate of Origin procedures, regional connectivity initiatives, anti-dumping duty on Jute products, harmonization of standards, removal of port restrictions, trade infrastructure-related issues, India-Bangladesh CEOs’ Forum, sharing of trade data, and upgradation of border trading infrastructure. According to an official press release, both sides decided to expeditiously move forward on the feasibility study on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).During the visit Commerce Secretary Dr Anup Wadhawan called on the Commerce Minister of Bangladesh Tipu Munshi and Private Industry and Investment advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Salman F. Rahman. 

-In Men's Hockey, India beat Great Britain 3-2 in a closely contested fourth and final match of the Europe tour at Antwerp, Belgium on Monday. Striker Mandeep Singh scored the all important goal in the last minute of the game. It was India's fourth and final match of the Europe tour. Earlier on Saturday, India's previous match with Great Britain ended in a 1-1 draw. The Indian team also played out a 1-1 draw aginst Germany in the second game. The world number four, India crushed Germany 6-1 in the first match of the tour. With resilient performance India remained unbeaten throughout the tour.