1) Mexico backs India`s bid for NSG membership

• Mexico support to India’s membership to the Nuclear Supplier Group and working towards elevating relationship from Privilege Partners to Strategic Partnership were two important outcomes of the bilateral talks held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico city on 9th June.
• At a joint media interaction with Mr Modi, Mr Nieto said that Mexico supports positively and constructively India`s membership of the Nuclaer Supplier Group. On his part, the Prime Minister thanked Mexico for its support and called the country an important partner for India`s energy security.
• Mexican President welcomed investments from India in steel, pharmaceuticals and automobiles sector. Clean energy, agriculture best practices and Science and Technology were other areas pointed out by Mr Modi for greater cooperation between the two countries.
• The Prime Minister`s five nation trip concluded with a short working visit to Mexico on 9th June, affirming greater and stronger ties between both the countries.

• As part of its efforts to make villages located along Ganga open defecation-free, Government has launched a campaign ‘Swachh Yug’, a collaborative effort of three Union Ministries, to bring about behavioural change among people staying in villages along the holy river.
• There are 5,169 villages located along Ganga falling under 1,651 gram panchayats (GPs) in 52 districts of five states - UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal from where the holy river flows through. The Union Ministries of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Water Resources and Youth Affairs are working on the campaign in a collaborative manner.
• As part of the campaign, the Ministry of Youth Affairs, under the coordination of the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, will enlist support of youth agencies such as the Bharat Scouts and Guides, Nehru Yuva Kendras and National Service Scheme.
• These organisations will be called upon to provide a large number of local youth volunteers to support a behaviour change campaign in the 52 districts under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
• To take this initiative forward, a nodal officer has been identified for each district to work on making area under their jurisdiction open defecation free (ODF) in a “mission mode” as well as to focus on cleanliness at village through proper solid and liquid waste management.
• As part of the same, the first virtual classroom will be launched tomorrow in 12 districts of Bihar, where five-day training will be provided to 50 youth volunteers in each location, connected to the trainer virtually.
• The districts and states have been assured of full support from Central government in these efforts. The state teams have, in turn, expressed their enthusiasm for and commitment towards the initiative, the statement said.

• Information and Broadcasting ministry today framed a New Print Media Advertisement Policy for Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) with the objective to promote transparency and accountability in issuing of advertisements in print media.
• The policy focuses on streamlining release of Government advertisements and to also promote equity and fairness among various categories of newspapers and periodicals.
• The Ministry in a release said, for the first time the policy introduces a New Marking System for newspapers to incentivize Newspapers who have better professional standing and get their circulation verified by ABC and RNI. This will also ensure transparency and accountability in the release of advertisements by DAVP.
• For payment and adjustment of Bills, the policy framework mandates that DAVP will release payment of advertisement bills in the name of newspaper or company account directly through ECS or NEFT.
• The policy has classified newspaper and journals into three categories namely small, that is upto 25,000 copies, medium between 25,001 and 75,000 copies and big, 75,000 copies or more, per publishing day.
• DAVP is the nodal agency of the Government of India for advertising on behalf of various Ministries and Departments which are funded by the government.

4) India, UK join hands to study monsoon variability

• India and the UK have joined hands to start an observational campaign from June 8 till end-July to better understand small-scale processes that drive monsoon variability and predictability.
• The Rs. 50-crore project, the cost of which is being shared by the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the UK Met department, will involve the deployment of UK’s BAe-146-301 atmospheric research aircraft with sophisticated scientific instruments and India’s Sagar Nidhi and Sindhu Sadhna research ships during May-July
• This joint effort is part of the implementation agreement signed between the Ministry and Natural Environment Research Council, UK, entailing three research projects.