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They are women from rural India who have adopted clean energy-based livelihood technologies to catalyse their businesses. From solar refrigerators to silk-reeling machines and biomass-based cold storage to bulk milk chillers, distributed renewable energy (DRE) is transforming women’s livelihoods at the grassroots. A recent Council on Energy, Environment and Water …

This is a series of post-budget webinars being organized by the Government with an aim to brainstorm ideas for effective implementation of the initiatives announced in the Union Budget-2023. In his address, the Prime Minister, Shri Narender Modi  said that tourism has always been a part of our social and …

Samarth is a demand driven and placement-oriented umbrella skilling programme of Ministry of Textiles. The implementation period of the scheme is up to March 2024. The scheme was formulated under the broad skilling policy framework adopted by M/o Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. Samarth aims to incentivize and supplement the efforts …

World Wildlife Day (WWD) was commemorated recently. To draw attention to issues of conservation of flora and fauna. It marks the 50th anniversary of CITES’ establishment. CITES is considered a landmark agreement on conservation that focuses on ensuring the sustainability of endangered species. Theme: Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation. What is the CITES? CITES is an international agreement between governments. Its …

It stands for Scheme for Modernization and Reforms through Technology in Public Distribution System. Envisaging a new and unified scheme to strengthen the PDS technology components by standardization of its operation and implementation of data driven decision making through the data analytics. Smart ration cards are issued to beneficiaries of public distribution system. Fingerprint template of the beneficiary is recorded …

The National Statistical Office’s latest release of GDP data estimates a further deceleration in growth in the October-December 2022 quarter, a slowdown that the government’s Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) has attributed largely to an upward revision in the year-earlier period’s figures. Gross domestic product is posited to have expanded by …

February 2023, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) recently said, had been the warmest since 1901 with the average maximum temperature at nearly 29.54°C. While February — considered ‘spring’ and a ‘winter month’ by the IMD — usually posts temperatures in the low 20s, it is also apparent that there has …

Things aren’t looking too good for coral reefs. They’re suffering from bleaching, overfishing and are being cooked by warming oceans. Coral reefs are essentially just big limestone structures built by thousands of tiny coral creatures called polyps. They’re found in more than 100 countries, and just like pina coladas, they …

A steep price increase of over 100% from prepandemic levels of certain raw materials for essential drugs — called active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) — has raised eyebrows in the industry. Interestingly, the sharp hike — which should have corrected by now with the improvement in supply chain and logistics — …

eSanjeevani app, a free telemedicine service run by the Centre, a ‘lifesaving app’ for the common man. In his monthly radio broadcast ‘Mann Ki Baat’, the PM said more than 10 crore people have availed tele-consultation through the app till date. ESanjeevani is becoming a lifesaving app for the commonman …

Two major indigenous defence projects — the acquisition of 70 basic trainer aircraft for the IAF and three cadet training ships for the Navy — worth almost ₹10,000 crore were cleared by the cabinet committee on security. The 70 Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) aircraft will be supplied by defence PSU …

It is the fifth of a series of 12 post-budget webinars organized by the government to seek ideas and suggestions for the effective implementation of the initiatives announced in the Union Budget 2023. Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said that India of the 21st century is constantly empowering its …

Last year, the U.S. government passed the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act 2.0. The move is expected to boost the research and development of ‘organ chips’ — small devices containing human cells that are used to mimic the environment in human organs, including blood flow and breathing movements, serving …

Bank credit growth slowed down to 16.8% in the October-December 2022 period from a year earlier, RBI data showed. This compares with 17.2% seen in the previous quarter, according to the quarterly statistics on bank deposits and credit, released by the Reserve Bank of India. A year earlier, credit growth …

The burgeoning problem of managing e-waste is a cross cutting and persisting challenge in an era of rapid urbanisation, digitalisation and population growth. The first set of e-waste Rules was notified in 2011 and came into effect in 2012. An important component of the Rules (2011) was the introduction of …

The One District One Product (ODOP) programme under Department of Commerce (DoC) and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry is aimed at creating sustainable employment at the district level while promoting holistic socio-economic development. The idea is to select, brand, and promote …

In order to further the existing cooperation in the realm of maritime safety and security, IFC-IOR signed an MoU on 21 Feb 2023 with Regional Coordination Operations Centre (RCOC), Seychelles. IFC-IOR, hosted by the Indian Navy, was established by the Government of India at Gurugram on 22 Dec 2018 to …

The Foundational Literacy and Numeracy report was released by Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). The report was released at #TheIndiaDialog organised by Institute for Competitiveness and US-Asia Technology Management Center, Stanford University, on February 23 & 24, 2023. The second edition of the State of …

India’s research and development (R&D) expenditure-GDP ratio of 0.7% is very low when compared to major economies and is much below the world average of 1.8%. The main reason is the low investment in R&D by the corporate sector. While the corporate sector accounts for about two-thirds of gross domestic …

India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues grew 12.7% in January to hit almost ₹1.59 lakh crore, the second highest monthly collections on record, as per revised figures from the Finance Ministry. Earlier estimates of GST revenues for January had pegged collections at about ₹1.56 lakh crore till the evening …