PUNJAB
- Jobs, agriculture top poll issues in Punjab, Haryana
- A pre-election, all-India survey on governance issues and voting behaviour has found that better employment opportunities, agriculture loan availability and higher price realisation of farm products are the top-three priorities of voters in Punjab and Haryana.
- The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data released earlier this year also shows India’s unemployment rate rose to a 45-year high during the 2017-18 fiscal and reached 6.1%. Urban voters in Punjab have also listed water and air pollution, and better hospitals and primary health-care centres, as their priorities.
- In the interim Union Budget for 2018-19, only 2.1% of the total budget has been allocated to healthcare, which is less than the 2.4% allocated in 2017-18.
INTERNATIONAL
- Cyclone Idai affects over 1.5 million people in three southern African countries
- Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi have been hit by a vicious cyclone that has killed nearly 150 people, left hundreds more missing and stranded tens of thousands.
- According to the UN and government officials, Cyclone Idai has affected more than 1.5 million people in the three southern African countries.
- India has decided to divert three Indian naval ships to the port city of Beira in Mozambique to provide humanitarian assistance to the people affected by tropical cyclone ‘IDAI’.
- Indian Army starts Military Exercise With 17 African Nations
- The Indian Army began a 10-day military exercise with armed forces of 17 African nations at Aundh in Maharashtra.
- The countries participating in the inaugural edition of the Africa-India Field Training Exercise (AFINDEX) include Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Benin and Botswana.
- The inaugural ceremony of the exercise held at the Aundh military station was attended by defence attaches and other senior officials of the participating nations.
- The exercise will focus on the exchange of best practices between the participating nations, team building and tactical level operations in the conduct of the UN-mandated tasks.
NATIONAL
- Ex-SC judge Justice PC Ghose set to be India’s 1st Lokpal
- Retired Supreme Court judge Pinaki Chandra Ghose is likely to become India’s first Lokpal or anti-corruption watchdog.
- His name was finalised and recommended in a Selection Committee meeting comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, and Mukul Rohatgi.
- Lokpal is a three-member, anti-corruption watchdog comprising a chairman, a judicial and non-judicial member.
- The members of the Lokpal will include eight members – former High Court judges and civil servants.
- New hydro policy will help to meet renewables target
- The Union Cabinetapproval to the new hydroelectricity policythat, among other things, included large hydro projects within the ambit of renewable energy. Prior to the policy, only small hydro projects of a capacity of less than 25 MW were treated as renewable energy. Large hydro projects were treated as a separate source of energy.
- India’s renewable energy sector had an installedcapacity of 75,055.92 MW as of February 2019, according to data with the Central Electricity Authority. This made up about4% of the overall energy mix, with the rest coming from thermal, nuclear and large hydro sources.
- With the inclusion of large hydro in renewable energy, the energy mix changes drastically. Renewable energy capacity would now be 1,20,455.14 MW or 34.4% of the overall energy mix.
- Second Scorpene submarine Khanderi ready for induction
- The Navyis set to induct the second Scorpene submarine Khanderi by early May. The remaining submarines in the series are in advanced stages of manufacturing and trials. Khanderi was launched into the water in January 2017 and has since been undergoing a series of trials.
- Also, thefourth submarine Vela is ready to be launched into the water for trials around the same time depending on the ocean tide.
- Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL), Mumbai,is manufacturing six Scorpene submarines under technology transfer from Naval Group of France under a 2005 contract worth $3.75 bn. After a series of delays in the project, the first submarine of the class Kalvari joined service in December 2017. The entire project is expected to be completed by 2020.
- Irfan became first Indian athlete to qualify for Tokyo Olympics
- A 29-year-old Indian athlete from Kerala, K.T. Irfan qualified for the Tokyo Olympics as he finished fourth in the men’s 20 kilometre category at the Asian Race Walking Championships in Nomi, Japan.
- He got qualified for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
- He made the cut after finishing fourth at the Asian Race Walking Championship at Nomi in Japan.
- The fourth-place finishes also ensured a berth in the upcoming International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championshipin Doha that begins in September.
- The Two other Indian race walkers, who qualified for the World Championship are Devinder and Ganapati.
- India finished second in medal tally at Asian Youth Championships
- Indian youth team finish second in the overall medals tally with a total of 26 medalsincluding eight gold, nine silver and nine bronze medals.
- China topped the overall medals tally with 31 medals that included 12 gold, 11 silver and eight bronze medals.
- Japan finished third with 20 medals that included 6 Gold, 8 Silver and 6 bronze.
- Asian Youth Athletics Championships 2019 was held in Hong Kong.
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