May82017

News story: Accelerator webinar: autonomous last mile resupply

HM Government
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A webinar for this Defence and Security Accelerator competition will be held on 30 May 2017.

The competition is seeking new technologies, processes and ways of working to improve the way we deliver mission-critical supplies, focusing on the challenging ‘last mile’ resupply in the land environment.

It involves delivering combat supplies from the forward-most location to personnel engaged in combat operations. Although relatively small in distance, these resupply activities are challenging as they are in an environment that is typically hostile, complex and contested. These activities need to quickly and efficiently deliver vital supplies in order to enable successful mission outcomes.

The challenges of this Accelerator competition are to develop and demonstrate:

  • Challenge 1: unmanned air and ground load carrying platforms
  • Challenge 2: technologies and systems to allow load carrying platforms to operate autonomously
  • Challenge 3: technologies to autonomously predict, plan, track and optimise resupply demands from military users

Phase 1 proposals must be submitted online via the Accelerator submission service and received no later than 12 noon on 21 June 2017.

May82017

Consultation on the Regulatory Reform of Registered Social Landlords

Welsh Government
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Reform has become necessary because the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reclassified RSLs as public market producers in a recent review. This means that any private sector market borrowings taken out by the newly reclassified public sector RSLs will score against Welsh Government’s capital budget. The Welsh Government’s borrowing powers, which come into force in 2018/19, have a set limit which would not provide enough capacity to accommodate RSLs’ current annual borrowing requirement. 

The review identified central and local government controls which led the ONS to conclude RSLs should be reclassified. These are mainly powers set out in the Housing Act 1996, and provisions inserted by the Housing (Wales) Measure 2011. The consultation is therefore proposing regulatory reform of RSLs to remove or amend the relevant powers so that the ONS would be able to consider reclassifying RSLs in Wales to the Private Non-Financial Corporations sector, thus restoring their borrowing abilities. 

The Communities Secretary said:

“RSLs play a vital role in helping us to meeting our target of 20,000 new affordable homes and they, in turn, require the sector to continue to have the freedom to use private sector borrowing to supplement the Welsh Government’s social housing grant funding and other funding programmes.

“This reclassification would mean fewer new affordable homes and limited options for the Welsh Government to maximise the positive contributions RSLs make to the communities in which they work including significant local employment and economic benefits. It would also result in uncertainty for funders who have made long term commitments to funding an independent RSL sector.

“Unless we take action which would enable ONS to reverse the reclassification and return RSLs to the private sector, our plans to address the shortage of affordable homes in Wales will be severely compromised.”

May82017

Unimpeded access, humanitarian funds urgently needed in Yemen – senior UN relief official

United Nations
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8 May 2017 – Voicing concern over lack of humanitarian access &#8211 particularly for medicine and medical supplies &#8211 in war-torn Yemen, a senior United Nations relief official has called on all parties to the conflict to ensure urgent and unrestricted access to people in need across the country.

&#8220Giving the UN and humanitarian partners safe and unimpeded access to those in need would be a strong demonstration by the warring parties of their concern for the Yemeni people,&#8221 said Jamie McGoldrick, the Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, in a statement yesterday.

&#8220It is imperative that humanitarians reach people in need without obstacle, wherever they may be,&#8221 he underscored.

According to the statement, administrative delays at ports, checkpoints, and interference with aid delivery have hampered efforts to transport medicine and medical supplies to people in need in a timely manner.

The access is all the more important now given the current threat of famine and outbreaks of cholera in locations throughout the country. Some 17 million Yemenis are battling food insecurity, making it the largest &#8220hunger crisis&#8221 in the world.

&#8220Recent information suggests that medicine supplies are being delayed from reaching Taizz City, where the need of the people is urgent. I call on the authorities in Sana’a [,the capital of Yemen,] to allow trucks carrying medicines into Taizz City without delay,&#8221 said the Humanitarian Coordinator.

Also in the statement, Mr. McGoldrick underscored the urgent need for additional resources and called on the international community to fund the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan.

In February this year, UN together with humanitarian partners launched an international appeal for $2.1 billion to provide life-saving assistance to millions in Yemen in 2017, the largest-ever humanitarian response plan for the country.

Last month, commitments amounting to little under $1.1 billion were made at a UN-led humanitarian pledging conference in Geneva.

&#8220All commitments made during the pledging conference need to materialize at once,&#8221 stressed Mr. McGoldrick in the statement, adding: &#8220While Yemen awaits for peace, humanitarian action is saving lives every day across the entire country.&#8221

May82017

NAAC launches Revised Accreditation Framework

India
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In its efforts to remain relevant and globally acceptable, NAAC has taken cognizance of the changing trends in higher education, stakeholder perceptions and feedback, besides the avalanche of experience gained from its accreditation exercise involving more than 11,132 institutions [518 Universities and 10614 Colleges] till July 2017, which stand in good stead in all its endeavours.