President Ram Nath Kovind has prorogued the fifth session of 17th Lok Sabha. The session had commenced on 29th January. President also prorogued the Rajya Sabha. The House was adjourned sine die on 25th of this month. Important points: Termination of a session of the House by an order made …

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined the role of micro forests in minimising the havoc caused by cyclones in coastal areas. Through his Mann ki Baat program, the Prime Minister, commended two odia activists- one, Mr. Vijay Kumar Kabi of Kendrapara and the other Mr. Amaresh Samanta of Paradeep, for …

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar reached Dushanbe on a three-day visit to Tajikistan. He will attend the 9th Ministerial Conference of Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process on Afghanistan. The Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) is an initiative of Afghanistan and Turkey, which was officially launched at …

Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde lauded Goa’s Uniform Civil Code, and encouraged “intellectuals” indulging in “academic talk” to visit the state to learn more about it. Earlier in September 2019, the Supreme Court had described Goa as a “shining example” with a Uniform Civil Code. A Uniform …

The Election Commission’s recent decision to change the rules for appointing polling agents has sparked off a debate in West Bengal. Who is a polling agent? A polling agent is a person appointed as a representative of a political party as it is not possible for a candidate to be …

A public interest litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court by Wasim Rizvi seeking declaration of 26 verses of the Quran as unconstitutional, non-effective and non- functional on the ground that these promote extremism and terrorism. Power of judicial review: Under Indian law, only a “law” can be challenged …

A women-led startup ‘Astrome’ has developed deep-tech for reliable low-cost internet services to rural areas. Astrome has developed an innovative wireless product that gives fibre like bandwidth at a fraction of the cost of fibre to help telecom operators deliver reliable low-cost internet services to suburban and rural areas. The …

Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the new US Secretary of Energy agreed to revamp the India-US Strategic Energy Partnership. Important points: The two leaders agreed to prioritise greater collaboration in cleaner energy sector biofuels, CCUS, hydrogen production and carbon sequestration through technology exchange, joint R&D through Partnership to …

Due to the recent blockage of the Suez Canal, the option of re-routing ships via the Cape of Good Hope was explored. The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A headland is a narrow piece of land …

NASA and ISRO are collaborating on developing an SUV-sized satellite called NISAR, which will detect movements of the planet’s surface as small as 0.4 inches over areas about half the size of a tennis court. The satellite will be launched in 2022 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota …