Total outward Remittances, under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme, shot up to an all-time high of USD 19.61 billion in the year ended March 2022 as against USD 12.684 billion in March 2021. Foreign exchange, including the US dollar and euro, taken out of the country by resident Indians has shot up by 54.60% during …

Recently, the International Labour Organization(ILO) has released the Ninth Edition of ILO Monitor on the World of Work Report, which says that after significant gains during the last quarter of 2021, the number of hours worked globally dropped in the first quarter of 2022, to 3.8% below the employment situation before the Covid-19. The fresh lockdowns in …

Recently, the Inter-State Council(ISC) has been reconstituted with the Prime Minister as Chairman and Chief Ministers of all States and six Union Ministers as members. Ten union ministers will be the permanent invitees to the Inter-State Council. The government has also reconstituted the standing committee of the Inter-State Council with Union Home as Chairman. The …

Recently, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD)has started the process to identify 4% of posts of junior engineer (civil and electrical) to be reserved for persons with disabilities (PwD) as mandated by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016(RPwD Act). The Central construction agency wrote to its regional offices to identify 4% of …

Recently, ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) has organized a conference named Indian Metal Industry: Current Outlook and Future Trends. With the emergence of economies driven by industrialisation at the beginning of the twentieth century, countries with sound metal industries benefited from a first-mover advantage. Metals have been one of the core …

The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) chips have risen in recent times with chipmakers designing different types of these chips to power AI applications. AI chips are built with specific architecture and have integrated AI acceleration to support deep learning-based applications. Deep learning, more commonly known as Active Neural Network (ANN) or Deep Neural Network (DNN), …

Recently, India’s Prime Minister participated in an event in Tokyo to launch the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). This economic initiative came a day before the second in-person summit of the Quad leaders (India, the US, Australia and Japan) in Tokyo. It is the grouping of four democracies –India, Australia, the US, and Japan. All four nations find …

CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi in association with Metrology Society of India (MSI) organized the World Metrology Day (May 20th). Metrology is the science of measurement and its application. World Metrology Day is celebrated in commemoration of the anniversary of the signing of the Metre Convention in 1875. This treaty provides the basis for a …

Recently, the Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs and India’s Governor for the New Development Bank (NDB) chaired the 7th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of NDB (New Development Bank). The meeting was also attended by Governors/Alternate Governors of Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa and the newly joined members Bangladesh …

Recently, Finance Minister participated in the 13th Annual Day commemoration of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Finance Minister also inaugurated the regional office at Kolkata and launched an upgraded website of CCI. Competition Commission of India (CCI) is a statutory body of the Government of India responsible for enforcing the Competition Act, 2002, it was …

World Bee Day is celebrated annually on 20th May. Earlier, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) had launched the country’s first Mobile Honey Processing Van at Village in Uttar Pradesh. The day marks the birth anniversary of Anton Janša, a pioneer of modern apiculture. Anton Janša hailed from a family of beekeepers in Slovenia, where beekeeping …

A team of researchers in Australia has identified a biochemical marker in the blood that could help identify newborn babies at risk for the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The researchers used dried blood spots from newborn infants and screened the samples for BChE (Butyrylcholinesterase) level and total protein content. Sudden infant …

According to a recent Report ‘Pollution and health: A Progress Update’, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, Air Pollution was responsible for 16.7 lakh deaths in India in 2019, or 17.8% of all deaths. Air Pollution alone contributes to 66.7 lakh deaths, which updates a previous analysis from 2015. Overall, pollution was responsible for an …

Recently, the ‘State of Inequality in India’ Report was released by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) The report compiles information on inequities across sectors of health, education, household characteristics and the labour market. Inequities in these sectors make the population more vulnerable and trigger a descent into multidimensional poverty The report stretches the …

The Government is reassessing the concept of post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) as well as the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) and is looking to streamline the setup. The CDS is a four-star General/Officer who acts as the Principal Military Advisor to the Defence Minister on all tri-services (Army, Navy and Indian Air …

Recently, the Minister of Commerce and Industry launched the NavIC Grand Challenge at National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC) meeting. NavIC Grand Challenge is aimed at promoting adoption of NavIC as geo-positioning solution, a key proponent for digital AtmaNirbharta. It was constituted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). It advises …

Recently, the Defence Minister launched the Indian Navy destroyer warship INS Surat and frigate INS Udaygiri in Mumbai. ‘Surat’ is the fourth ship of Project 15B Destroyers which heralds a significant makeover of the P15A (Kolkata Class) Destroyers. The first ship (Visakhapatnam) of this class was commissioned in 2021. The second (Mormugao) and third (Imphal) ships have been launched and are …

The Supreme Court has slammed the Kerala government for doing “virtually nothing” for Endosulfan pesticide exposure victims. The court said the State’s inaction was “appalling” and amounted to a breach of the apex court’s 2017 judgment, which had ordered the State to pay Rs 5 lakh each to the victims in …

Recently, Prime Minister inaugurated the country’s first 5G testbed that will enable start-ups and industry players to test their products locally, thereby reducing dependence on facilities abroad. It was an important step towards self-reliance in the direction of critical and modern technologies in the telecom sector. The 5G testbed had been set up at a cost of about …

Recent satellite images have Captured Twin Cyclones in the Indian Ocean region, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere, named cyclone Asani and cyclone Karim respectively. Karim is classified as a category II hurricane, with a wind speed of 112 kilometers per hour (kmph). Asani remains a Severe Cyclonic Storm …