Governor-State Relations: Last week, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blocked Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Twitter. She said she was “forced” to do so because of his “unethical and unconstitutional” statements and accused him of treating government officials like “his servants”. Although envisaged as an apolitical head who must act on the advice of […]
Supreme Court On Death Penalty
SC On Death Penalty: The Supreme Court (SC) commuted the death sentence of a man, convicted of the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl, to life imprisonment. The judgment may become a significant precedent to the anti-death penalty cause. SC commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, with the rider that he shall not […]
Unitary Digital Identity Framework: Important Points
What Is The Unitary Digital Identity Framework? In a bilateral meeting India has agreed to provide a grant to Sri Lanka to implement a ‘Unitary Digital Identity framework’, apparently modelled on the Aadhaar card. Both sides also discussed the fishermen’s issue and India provided financial assistance of 2.4 billion USD to Sri Lanka. Earlier, […]
Crop Diversification
Crop Diversification: In the annual Economic Survey, the Department of Economic Affairs said that there is an urgent need for Crop Diversification in view of the severe water stress in areas where paddy, wheat and sugarcane are grown as well as to increase oil seed production and reduce dependency on imports of cooking oil. […]
Geomagnetic Storm Impact on Satellites
Geomagnetic Storm: Elon Musk’s Starlink has lost dozens of satellites that were caught in a geomagnetic storm a day after they were launched. The satellites were designed to burn up on reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and did not create debris in space. However, the loss of 40 satellites — most of a launch […]
Accelerate Vigyan Scheme
Accelerate Vigyan Scheme: The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), has invited applications under ‘ABHYAAS’, a program of ‘Accelerate Vigyan’ scheme, for summer season. SERB is an autonomous body of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Union Ministry of Science & Technology.. “Accelerate Vigyan” (AV) strives to provide a big push to high-end […]
World’s Longest Highway Tunnel Above 10,000 Feet
Atal Tunnel: Atal Tunnel has officially been certified by World Book of Records as the ‘World’s Longest Highway Tunnel above 10,000 Feet’. World Book of Records UK, is an organisation that catalogues and verifies extraordinary records across the world with authentic certification. It was built by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). The 9.02-km tunnel […]
Right To Question of MPs
MPs Right To Question: Congress Whip Jairam Ramesh has raised the issue of Cabinet ministers not responding to questions in the Rajya Sabha claiming it to be first such incident in 70 years. In both Houses, elected members enjoy the right to seek information from various ministries and departments in the form of starred […]
Detention Centres For Foreigners
Detention Centres For Foreigners: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recently informed the Rajya Sabha that it does not maintain a centralised data on the total number of detention centres in the country, as powers have been delegated to the State governments “to make necessary arrangements for detention centres/camps as per their requirement.” Detention […]
UN Peacekeepers in DRC
UN Peacekeepers: UN peacekeepers and troops of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have increased patrols near the site of last week’s deadly raid on internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northeast Ituri province. The UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym as MONUSCO, recently exchanged fire with members of […]
