PUNJAB

Punjab, Himachal Pradesh lagging in WDC-PMKSY: Parl panel

The parliamentary standing committee on rural development has expressed its disappointment on the progress of implementation of watershed development component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDCPMKSY) projects in five states, including Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

The department of land resources informed the parliamentary standing committee that the funds released by it to the state governments during a particular financial year are not timely transferred to the respective SLNAs for project implementation, which hampers the release of central funds in the subsequent year also.

The committee report reveals that the department of land resources has not released any funds to the Punjab government in the last three years (2018-19 to 2020-21).

This scheme is also important for Punjab as the department of land resources informed the parliamentary committee that the necessary provisions for giving due priority to the areas witnessing low water table have already been incorporated in the revised draft guidelines for watershed projects to be followed under the “proposed new generation WDCPMKSY.”
The groundwater table in Punjab has been declining at the rate of 25-30 centimetres per annum in the past two decades. The central ground water board has already warned that Punjab could turn into a desert state in the next 25 years.

INTERNATIONAL

India-France Naval Exercise VARUNA Begins

The 19th edition of the Indian and French Navy bilateral exercise VARUNA-2021 carried out in the Arabian Sea from 25 to 27 April 2021. During the three day exercise, the devices of each of the navies will undertake excessive tempo-naval operations at sea, which will include superior air defence and anti-submarine exercises, severe fixed and rotary wing flying operations, tactical manoeuvres, surface and anti-air weapon firings, underway replenishment & other maritime protection operations.

The Indian Navy (IN) will participate with its guided-missile stealth destroyer INS Kolkata, guided-missile frigates INS Tarkash and INS Talwar, Fleet Support Ship INS Deepak, with Seeking 42B and Chetak indispensable helicopters, a Kalvari class submarine & P8I Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft.

India Elected To 3 Bodies of the UN ECOSOC

India used to be these days elected to the 3 bodies of the United Nations. The three bodies were the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality & Empowerment of Women and the Executive Board of World Food Programme. All these three our bodies operate below United Nations Economic and Social Council.

India used to be elected to all these three our bodies via acclamation. Acclamation is honouring someone. Electing a member country thru acclamation does now not use a ballot. However, other member international locations had been elected through secret ballot to these bodies. India’s term to these our bodies starts offevolved on January 1, 2022.

NATIONAL

Ways and Means Advances scheme of State Governments and UTs

The RBI decided to continue with the present intervening time Ways and Means Advances (WMA) scheme restrict of ₹51,560 crores for all States/ UTs shall for six months i.e., up to September 30, given the incidence of COVID-19.

Ways and capability advances (WMA) is a mechanism used by way of RBI below its credit coverage to grant to States, banking with it, to assist them tide over transient mismatches in the money drift of their receipts and payments.

This is guided underneath Section 17(5) of the RBI Act, 1934.

Based on the tips of the Advisory Committee on WMA to State Governments, 2021 (chaired via Sudhir Shrivastava), the RBI had revised the WMA Scheme of States and Union Territories (UTs)

The WMA restriction arrived at with the aid of the Committee based totally on a total expenditure of States/ UTs, works out to be ₹47,010 crores.

The Reserve Bank stated it would evaluation the WMA restrict thereafter, depending on the direction of the pandemic and its impact on the economy.

RBI to Issue Cyber Security Norms for Payment Services

The RBI will soon difficulty cybersecurity norms for payment provider vendors (PSPs), following a sequence of statistics breaches confronted by way of operators.

The standards for fintech-driven charge services providers will be comparable to cyber hygiene norms issued lately for banks and non-banking finance corporations (NBFCs).

The firms will additionally have to do more than observe the minimal requirements to make sure protection as digital transactions achieve further traction.

The NPCI had laid down a framework for a greater even distribution of the share of third-party app providers in the UPI system.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI): It is an umbrella organization for working retail repayments and contract structures underneath the ownership of the Reserve Bank of India in India.

Indian Government to Import Oxygen Concentrator

The Indian government is to import 10,000 oxygen concentrators. An oxygen concentrator concentrates oxygen from the atmosphere.

The atmospheric air has 78% of nitrogen and 21% of oxygen. The Oxygen Concentrator accumulates air and filters through a sieve sending the nitrogen back in to the air and collects oxygen alone.

The oxygen in the oxygen concentrator is compressed and distributed via a cannula. The oxygen is 90% to 95% pure.

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