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In the recently released Environment Performance Index-2022, India was at the bottom among 180. The Environment Performance Index (EPI) is an international ranking system that measures environmental health and sustainability of countries. The EPI, a biennial index, was started in 2002 as Environmental Sustainability Index by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the Yale Center for …

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued a draft proposal for public comment on a set of proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The draft document was however withdrawn the same day. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT …

Wildlife scientists and conservationists in Arunachal Pradesh flagged threats to local biodiversity from the proposed Etalin hydroelectric (3,097 MW) project in Dibang Valley. To raise the issue,they approached the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). WildLIfe Institute of India (WII)and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) have suggested …

Recently, Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister visited India and held bilateral Meetings and agreed to deepen defence ties. The two Ministers presented a joint declaration marking 30 years of Israel-India relations. The declaration reiterated the commitment of both the countries to deepen defence ties. Both sides adopted the India-Israel …

MAP OF THE MOON Recently, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in partnership with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)and the Lunar Planetary Institute has released a new comprehensive map of the Moon, called the ‘Unified Geologic Map of the Moon’. The new map showcases the Moon in a 1:50,00,000-scale size, and is claimed to come …

The Union Cabinet has approved a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between India and Australia on Technical Cooperation for Australia –India water Security initiative (AIWASI). AIWASI is a project Under South Asia Water Security Initiative (SAWASI) of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia. It aims to work towards the Water Sensitive City vision which …

While launching an Integrated Credit Portal ‘Jan Samarth”, Prime Minister said that India is moving ahead with the approach of Citizen-Centric Governance, which is the fundamental aspect of Good Governance, leaving behind the government-centric approach. The portal, an initiative of the Ministry of Finance, is a one-stop gateway for over a dozen of the government’s credit-linked schemes directly …

Recently, the Ministry of Finance has announced that the National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL)along with the India Debt Resolution Company (IDRCL) will take over the first set of bad loans from banks and try to resolve them. The health of the balance sheets of Indian banks has improved significantly over the …

Recently, the Centre has approved the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for the Khari season 2022-23, stating that the rates are at least 1.5 times of the weighed average cost of production. The rates for 14 Kharif crops have been increased, the hikes ranging from 4% to 8%. Kharif Season Crops are sown from June to July and Harvesting …

India’s eight core sector industries showed a robust growth of 8.4% in April compared to 4.9% in March 2022. The eight core sector industries comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The eight core sector industries in decreasing order of their weightage are: Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural …

Recently, the Prime Minister inaugurated the first Liquid Nano Urea(LNU) plant at Kalol, Gujarat. It is Indigenous Urea, introduced firstly by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) for farmers across the world. It is one of India’s biggest cooperative societies which is wholly owned by Indian Cooperatives Founded in 1967 with just 57 cooperatives, today it is …

Recently, Bihar government has announced that it will undertake a socio-economic survey of all castes and communities (SECC). The origin of the Census in India goes back to the colonial exercise of 1881. Census has evolved and been used by the government, policymakers, academics, and others to capture the Indian population, access resources, map …

India will oppose the continuation of a moratorium on Customs Duties on electronic transmission (E-Transmission) at the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) starting in June 2022 as it favors developed nations only. The moratorium was extended at the 11th MC in Argentina in 2017 for two years. In the General Council meeting in December …

Recently, Israel signed a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates, its first with an Arab country, building on their US-brokered normalization of relations in 2020. The UAE was the first Gulf country to normalize ties with Israel and only the third Arab nation to do so after Egypt and Jordan. …

Stockholm+50 is being held in Stockholm, Sweden. It will commemorate the 50 years since the 1972 United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment (also known as the Stockholm Conference). The UN General Assembly will be convening this international meeting. This is being held at a time when the world is facing a triple planetary crisis of climate change, …

Recently, researchers have identified a new colorful species of leopard geckos named Eublepharis pictus, also known as the Painted Leopard Gecko, earlier it was thought to belong to a known species. The new species differs from all members of the genus Eublepharis except for E hardwickii. Eublepharis is a genus of terrestrial geckos native …

Recently, a new biomass-based boiler technology was launched in India (Kurukshetra, Haryana) that claims to accommodate all kinds of agricultural residue as fuel and can be greener and may also help reduce the burden of stubble burning. Biomass-based electricity is gaining the attention of regulators and policy makers, as the country moves towards …

Recently, the Tracking SDG 7 – The Energy Progress Report 2022 was released which showed that the Russia-Ukraine war and Covid-19 crisis have considerably slowed down efforts towards attaining the Seventh Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 7) target. The Energy Progress Report is a product of close collaboration among the five SDG 7 custodian agencies in the form of a …

Recently, a proposal for setting up ‘Grievance Appellate Committees’ for hearing appeals regarding social media posts has been put forward by the government of India. One or more ‘Grievance Appellate Committees’ will be constituted by the Central Government as per the draft of the proposed amendments to the IT Rules, 2021. The appellate committees will …

Recently, India and Sweden hosted the Industry Transition Dialogue in Stockholm, as a part of their joint initiative i.e. Leadership for Industry Transition (LeadIT). This high level dialogue has contributed to the UN Conference ‘Stockholm+50’ and set the agenda for COP27 (Climate Change). LeadIT The LeadIT initiative lays specific focus on hard to abate sectors that are …