Recently, Pochampally village in Telangana was selected as one of the Best Tourism Villages by United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). The award will be given on the occasion of the 24th session of the UNWTO General Assembly in December 2021 in Madrid, Spain. The Union Ministry of Tourism has …

Recently, the Prime Minister inaugurated the Purvanchal Expressway in Uttar Pradesh. Important points: It starts from Chandsarai village, located near the existing Lucknow-Sultanpur Road (NH-731), in Lucknow district and it ends at Haidaria village on National Highway 31 in Ghazipur, 18 km from the UP-Bihar border, in Ghazipur district. The …

Recently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has launched a week-long awareness campaign on SafaiMitra Suraksha Challenge (SSC) as part of the ‘World Toilet Day’ (19th November) celebrations, to run up to the ‘Swachh Amrit Diwas’. The Swachh Amrit Diwas is an award ceremony to recognize the role …

Recently, Ministries of Power and New and Renewable Energy released guidelines which allows thermal generation companies to set up renewable energy generation capacity and supply power to consumers under existing Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). Important points: The new guidelines allow thermal generation companies“to set up renewable energy generation capacity either …

Recently, President Joe Biden of the United States and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for the first virtual bilateral meeting. The meeting ended with the clear divergences in the positions taken by the two sides. US-China confrontation is on multiple fronts including ideological and cultural hegemonic rivalry, trade wars which …

Recently, Arunachal Pradesh has approved the large, brightly coloured Kaiser-i-Hind as the State butterfly. Kaiser-i-Hind literally means Emperor of India. Important points: It is one of the very rare and elusive swallowtail butterflies which are found at medium and higher elevations. Swallowtail butterfly is any of a group of butterflies …

Recently, scientists have observed a quasi-satellite named Kamo`oalewa, tracking the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, could be a fragment from the moon. A mission to collect Kamo’oalewa’s samples has been scheduled for a launch in 2025. Important points: Discovered in 2016 (through the PanSTARRS telescope in Hawaii), Kamo’oalewa is a …

Recently, the Union Government has conducted the National Achievement Survey (NAS) across India, assessing about 38 lakh students from 1.23 lakh schools in 733 districts in 36 States and Union Territories. The survey was last conducted in 2017 and was scheduled to take place in 2020. However, due to the …

Recently, the Prime Minister has launched the integrated ombudsman scheme. In 2019 the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had launched the Complaint Management System (CMS) in order to improve the customer experience in the grievance redressal process of banking services. The PM has also launched the RBI’s Retail Direct Scheme. …

The Centre Government is contemplating creation of the National Interlinking of Rivers Authority (NIRA). NIRA is supposed to be an independent autonomous body for planning, investigation, financing and the implementation of the river interlinking projects in the country. Important points: NIRA will function as an umbrella body for all river …