UTTAR PRADESH
- Sonbhadra gets first ‘taanka’ in UP to harvest rainwater
- Sonbhadra has become the first district of UP to use the traditional ‘taanka’ technique popular in the desert region of Rajasthan for rainwater harvesting and water conservation to deal with the water crisis. The first ‘taanka’ has come up at Kasturba Gandhi Girls School, in Bichpadi village.
- The ‘taanka’ was inaugurated in a programme organised in the district over a week after PM Narendra Modi wrote a letter to village heads urging them to conserve water and harvest rainwater. PM Modi specially mentioned for constructions of taankas, ponds, soak pits and cleaning of small and big ponds.
INTERNATIONAL
- India and France air exercise – Garuda
- Indian Air Force and French Air Forcehave planned to carry out Garuda, atwo-week-long mega air exercise, beginning on July 1 in France. The aim is to boost the military-to-militaryties between the two countries. A fleet of Sukhoi 30 fighter jets of the Indian Air Force will engage in dogfights with France’s Rafale multirole aircraft in simulated scenarios as part of the ‘Garuda’ exercise.
- India had signed a government-to-government deal with France in 2016 to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of about 58,000-crore.The first Rafale jet is scheduled to be delivered in September.
- Muhammad Bande has been elected as the next President of the 74th session UN General Assembly
- Nigeria’s Ambassador to the UN Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, elected as the next Presidentof the 74th session UN General Assembly. He will succeed Maria Fernanda Espinosa. The next General Assembly session will commence in September 2019.
- He assumes charge as UNGA prepares to celebrate the75th anniversary of its creation in 2020. India offered its support to Muhammad-Bande’s candidature.
- Google Maps launches features for real-time updates on public transports in India
- Google tech Behemoth invented three new features- bus travel times from live traffic in 10 of the largest cities in India
- The live train status for Indian Railways trains, and mixed-mode commute suggestions that now combine auto-rickshaw and public transport.
- The travel plan of Indian users are predicted by transit time while traveling on buses.
Google map enable users to know how long a bus trip will take when factoring in live traffic conditions - This feature launched in 10 cities namely Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow, Chennai, Mysore, Coimbatore, and Surat.
- The partnership app is Where is My Train app acquired by Google in December 2018.
- It helped for Google’s ‘Next Billion Users’ initiative.
NATIONAL
- CM Yogi Adityanath unveiled a 7 foot tall statue of Lord Rama at the Shodh Sansthan museum
- Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathunveiled a 7-foot tall statue of Lord Rama at the Shodh Sansthan museum in Ayodhya on 7 June. Adityanath will also inaugurate the event to celebrate Mahant Nritya Gopal Das.
- The statue is made out of a single rosewood block statue which was from Karnataka for 35 lakh from Karnataka. The statue will depict Kodamb Ram, one of the five avatars of Lord Ram.
- Kodamb Ram is worshipped in the south. The statue depicts the stage of Ram’s life when Sita was kidnapped by Ravan, the demon king. The statue shows Ram alone, without Sita and Laxman.
- The Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan museum was established in 1986.The museum is a government-funded museum. It hosts works related to the Hindu epic Ramayana.
- Govt underpaid food subsidy bill by Rs 69,394 crore in Fiscal Year 2019
- The central government underpaid the food subsidy bill to Food Corporation of India (FCI) by Rs 69,394 croreduring the year 2018-19.
- According to the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), central govt. paid only 74% of the total major subsidies during 2018-19 in comparison to the 83 percent payment made in 2017-18.
- As a percentage of the budget estimate, govt. paid only 59%of food subsidies in FY19.
- India partners with Portugal to set up a national maritime heritage museum at Lothal
- India has partnered with Portugal to set up a national maritime heritage museum at Lothal in Gujarat. The Indian Navy will be the stakeholder in the project and the Portuguese Navywill assist as they have experience in it by administering the maritime museum in Lisbon, Portugal. India is to follow a similar model of the maritime museum.
- In March 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid thefoundation stone for the project and the Government of India has allocated a grant for building the maritime museum.
- The project will be implemented by theMinistry of Shipping through its Sagarmala programme. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) along with the State government and other stakeholders is also involved in setting up the museum.
- Union Cabinet approved the Brucellosis control program to improve the health of animals
- Union Cabinethas approved the Brucellosis control program, a new scheme, to control Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis to support the livestock rearing farmers and improve the health of animals. This initiative aims to fully control these diseases amongst livestock in the country in the next five years and subsequently eradicate these diseases.
- Cabinet has approved a total outlay of13,343 croresfor the scheme and entire cost will be now borne by Central Government. Earlier the cost was shared by both Central and State Governments. It is very common amongst the livestock, cow-bulls, buffaloes, sheep, goats, pigs, etc.
- RBI scraped NEFT, RTGS transaction charges, banks to pass on benefits
- The RBI removed transaction charges levied by it for Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) systems to boost digital transactions.
- The Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) is meant for large-value instantaneous fund transfers while the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) System is used for fund transfers up to Rs 2 lakh.
- The State Bank of India (SBI) currently charges between Re 1 and Rs 5 for NEFT transactions and between Rs 5 and Rs 50 for RTGS.