Cardinal (Catholic Church): Pope Francis announced that he will create 21 new Cardinals, including two from India at a Consistory on, 27 August, 2022. The two Cardinals from India are Archbishop Filipe Neri António Sebastião di Rosário Ferrão, Archbishop of Goa and Damão and -Archbishop Anthony Poola, Archbishop of Hyderabad. These cardinals represent the Church […]
Privatisation Of Public Sector Bank
Privatisation Of Public Sector Bank: The government is in the process of taking ‘advanced action’ to take forward the privatisation of public sector banks, top finance ministry officials asserted. In the Union Budget for 2021-22, Union Finance Minister had announced privatisation of two PSBs besides IDBI Bank. However, this year’s Budget Speech had skipped the […]
Top Sugar Producing States of India
Top Sugar Producing States: After a five-year gap, Maharashtra has overtaken Uttar Pradesh to regain its position as India’s top sugar producer. The state’s output for the 2021-22 crushing year (October-September) is expected at 138 lakh tonnes (lt). That is an all-time-high, beating the previous 107.21 lt of 2018-19. This record production is attributed to […]
Permanent Indus Commission Meeting : Indus Water Treaty
Indus Water Treaty: India and Pakistan have begun another round of the Permanent Indus Commission meeting that is held annually under Indus Water Treaty (IWT) 1960. The Indus talks have survived the freeze in ties as both countries see it as mandatory under the IWT. Under the provisions of the treaty, the two sides are […]
50% Of Rural Households Covered Under The Jal Jeevan Mission
50% Of Rural Households Covered Under The Jal Jeevan Mission: 50% of rural households in India have now been covered under the Jal Jeevan Mission. At the time of launch of Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019, only 3.23 Crore households i.e. 17% of the rural population had access to drinking water through taps. Certain state […]
INS Gomati
INS Gomati: The Indian Navy Ship (INS) Gomati was decommissioned from the naval dockyard in Mumbai. INS Gomati derives her name from the vibrant river Gomti. Gomati River, also called Gumti, tributary of the Ganga River. When decommissioned, INS Gomati was also the oldest of the guided-missile frigates in the Western Fleet. It was commissioned […]
Non CO2 Pollutants
Non CO2 Pollutants: According to a new study, world needs to target both non-CO2 pollutants and CO2 pollutants to achieve climate targets. Global temperatures are likely to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels by 2035 and 2°C by 2050 if the focus is merely on decarbonisation efforts. The Non-CO2 Pollutants include methane, black carbon, […]
Indo Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative
Indo Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative QUAD grouping consisting of India, Australia, Japan and the US rolled out an Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) initiative for information sharing and maritime surveillance across the Indo Pacific region. But Infrastructure constraints and continued delay in posting Indian liaison officers limit India’s ability to further expand its role. […]
National AI Portal: Second Anniversary
Second-Year Anniversary Of National AI Portal: The second-year anniversary of National AI Portal was celebrated on 30th May, 2022. National AI Portal Launched in 2020, it is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies). The portal focuses on […]
Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme
Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme: The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has approved the extension of the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) for five years till FY26. The PMEGP has now been approved for continuation over the 15th Finance Commission Cycle for five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with an outlay of […]
