1) States asked to convert 3,784 urban areas into statutory Urban Local Bodies.

• Ministry of Urban Development has asked 28 States to take immediate and necessary action to convert 3,784 Census Towns into statutory Urban Local Bodies to promote planned urban development.
• Shri Rajiv Gauba, Secretary (Urban Development) in a letter to the Chief Secretaries of these States has highlighted the need for statutory Urban Local Bodies for planned and coordinated infrastructure development, enhancement of revenues and efficient delivery of services to citizens leading to overall growth of economic activities.
• The opportunity of planned urban development might get lost if unplanned construction and ad hoc provisioning of infrastructure is allowed to take place over a long time.
• A Census Town is an area with urban characteristics like a minimum population of 5,000, at least 75% of the male main working force engaged in non-agricultural activities and population density of at least 400 persons per sq.km. As per 2011 Census, there are 3,784 Census Towns as against 1,362 in 2001.
• Shri Gauba also informed the States that conversion of Census towns into statutory ULBs entitle them to Central assistance as per the guidelines of 14th Finance Commission. Under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), 50 & weightage is given to the number of statutory towns in any State/UT in allocation of funds among States/UTs.

2) WCD Minister Smt Maneka Gandhi releases Draft National Policy for Women, 2016 for consultation.

• Union WCD Minister Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi released the draft National Policy for Women, 2016 for stakeholder comments and consultations. Releasing the draft policy at a press conference in New Delhi,
• The Minister stated that the Policy is being revised after 15 years and is expected to guide Government action on Women’s issues over the next 15-20 years.
• The Minister stated that several things have changed since the last Policy of 2001 especially women`s attitude towards themselves and their expectations from life. In view of this the new draft Policy shifts the focus from entitlements to rights and from empowerment to creating an enabling environment.
• She has requested for widespread comments on the draft policy so that the final policy document can be a true reflection of the voice of all women.

3) India’s first national social security platform to be developed by DeitY.

• India`s first national social security platform will be developed by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), which has been entrusted with the task following the intervention of the Prime Minister`s Office to end the tug of war between three central ministries.
• The PMO stepped in after the ministries of labour, finance, and communications and IT could not reach consensus on who should set up the backbone for distributing social security benefits.
• It has been decided that DeitY will use the socio-economic caste census to establish the identity of all resident beneficiaries.
• This will be seeded with Aadhaar and Jan Dhan accounts of all the beneficiaries for direct transfer of benefits as we go forward, according to a senior official, requesting not to be identified. DeitY will develop the platform while the other ministries will use this platform to authenticate their beneficiaries.

4)`Tatkal` system to expedite patent examination.

• The government has amended rules and introduced several measures including a system similar to ‘tatkal’, to expedite examination of patent applications by start-ups as well as entities choosing India for the first filing of patent. This comes in the backdrop of 2.37 lakh patent applications pending in the country.
• The government, incidentally, is aiming to bring down the time period for initial examination of patent applications from the present 5-7 years to 18 months by 2018. It had also last week announced the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy to push IPRs as a marketable financial asset and economic tool, promote innovation and entrepreneurship/ start-ups, while protecting public interest.
• Under the ‘tatkal’-like system applicants can opt for the `expedited examination` - route on the grounds that they have chosen India as the competent International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority in the corresponding international application, and file their applications first in India.
• Under the ‘expedited examination’ route, the fees for individuals and start-ups have been fixed at Rs. 8,000, while for small firms it is Rs. 25,000 and for large companies, the fee is Rs. 60,000.

5) Odisha to launch Green Passage Scheme for Orphan Students.

• The Odisha government launched Green Passage scheme for orphan students to ensure that they get free of cost higher education in the state.
• A proposal of the higher education department was approved by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. As per the scheme, orphan students pursuing higher education from Plus-II level to post-graduation level, will no longer have to bear the education expenses.
• As many as 16,382 orphan students lodged in 272 institutions across the state, will be exempted of admission fee, tuition fees and laboratory fees for higher studies. In this Green Passage scheme will be provided free hostel facilities and food.
• All government, private, government aided colleges and universities to ensure that the orphan students are not charged in any form.

6) Ola signs MoU with govt. to benefit `Safai Karamcharis`.

• Mobile app for transportation Ola a MoU with National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC) established under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to focus on building a sustainable framework by supporting entrepreneurship, skill development training and self-defence courses for Safai Karamcharis and Scavengers.
• The Ola-NSKFDC partnership has the potential to generate synergies that will result in a better future for driver entrepreneurs by creating sustainable careers and livelihoods for them.
• Aimed at socio-economic development of Safai Karamcharis/ Scavengers, the MoU will aim at benefitting these people and their dependents by enabling livelihood opportunities, especially for women beneficiaries identified by NSKFDC.

7) Inauguration of Intelligent Operations Centre and Launch of Mobile APP `Monitor` for Smart President’s Estate.

• The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated an Intelligent Operations Centre (IOC) in Rashtrapati Bhavan and launch a Mobile App `Monitor` for transformation of President`s Estate into a smart township at a function to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
• The IOC is a software solution designed by IBM which helps collect and make sense of the rich data streaming in from several sources within the Estate to provide intelligent insights. It offers integrated data visualization, near real-time collaboration and deep analytics that will help agencies prepare for problems, coordinate and manage response efforts and enhance efficiency of services.
• The "Monitor" mobile application is a Residents collaboration tool of the Intelligent Operation Center. This will help residents and domain (Energy, Water, Horticulture, Waste and Security) supervisors to collaborate in a smarter way for their observations.

8) Assembly results in five states.

• In an emphatic mandate, the BJP has won 86 of Assam`s 126 assembly seats, with the Congress, which ruled for the last 15 years, getting only 26.
• Kerala too has delivered an unambiguous verdict. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) won 91 seats with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) at 47 in a state that has stuck to its trend of not voting the same government in twice. Pinarayi Vijayan is set to become the next Chief Minister of Kerala.
• J. Jayalalithaa a second successive term. The AIADMK won 134 seats, well past the half-way mark at 118, while the DMK-Congress got 98 seats.
• In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee has constructed another sweep, with her Trinamool Congress winning 211 of the state`s 294 seats. The Left-Congress alliance was far behind at 77.
• Good news comes to congress its way from Puducherry, where it won 17 of 30 seats.

9) Himachal CM launches PEHAL programme.

• The Shimla District Administration introduced PEHAL programme in the district.
• The Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh launched the programme from the historic Ridge Maidan.
• The aim of the programme is to identify certain thrust areas which have a direct bearing on the lives of the people at grassroots.
• The five areas identified under PEHAL are Primary Education, Forest Rights, Health and Sanitation, Campaign against drugs and skill development and Women Empowerment.
• Shimla is the first district in the state to launch such different programme to work as a team with the people.

10) BHEL commissions 250 MW thermal unit in Maharashtra.

• State-owned BHEL has commissioned a 250 MW thermal unit in Maharashtra .
• The unit has been commissioned at Parli Thermal Power Station (TPS), located in Beed district in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra.
• The project is owned by Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (Mahagenco). This is the eighth coal-based unit commissioned by BHEL at Parli TPS.

11) Health Minister launches `Kayakalp Fortnight` to be observed across the country in Central Government hospitals.
To implement the vision and philosophy behind Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan launched by the Hon. Prime Minister, the Health Ministry launched the Kayakalp initiative to set protocols for hygiene and sanitation at government health facilities.

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• The initiative towards total ``Swacchta`` in public health facilities is aimed towards building confidence of the users in public health facilities, provide quality service and encourage team work.
• The initiative will encourage every public health facility in the country to work towards standards of excellence to help the facilities stay clean and hygienic.
• The Union Health Minister was speaking at the launch of the `Kayakalp Fortnight` which shall be observed throughout the country in various central government hospitals with a view to intensifying the Kayakalp initiatives under the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan.
• Shri Nadda launched the Kayakalp Fortnight at AIIMS, New Delhi. Shri Nadda stated that as part of the various activities to be taken up during the fortnight, senior officers of the Ministry will be inspecting various Central Hospitals in the country to take stock of the existing status and to intensify the Swachhta drive.

12) Dr. Mahesh Sharma inaugurates exhibition `frontier Gandhi and the Indian Freedom Movement` to commemorate 125th birth anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

• Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/C) for Culture and Tourism inaugurated an exhibition entitled ‘Frontier Gandhi and the Indian Freedom Movement’ on the occasion of commemoration of ``125th Birth Anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan`` organized by Ministry of Culture.
• Ministry of Culture has been celebrating the 125th Birth Anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan during 2015-16. As a part of activities under the commemoration and Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi has organized this exhibition and programme.
• The Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a great person who was devoted to the Freedom of India and Hindu-Muslim unity. It is a great moment that his family members are present in this function. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Gandhi ji were complementary to each other and we will keep his memories alive for the decades to come.

13) WCD Ministry and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sign MoC for technical support to strengthen the nutrition programme in India.

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) to provide technical support at the National and State level for strengthening the delivery of nutrition goals, especially during pre-conception, pregnancy and first two years of life.
• Further, the Gates’ Foundation will support an enhanced framework of collaboration in Information and Communication Technology enabled Real Time Monitoring (ICT-RTM) of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and technical support on nutrition.
• Improving the health and lives of women and children in India, by strengthening nutrition programs in order to promote their holistic development is one of the topmost priorities of the Government. In sync with this focus, the four priority areas.

This MoC would include:

1. Development and deployment of ICT solutions for improving and strengthening ICDS Service Delivery System.
2. Support Ministry of Women & Child Development in developing a shared national communications campaign for maternal and child nutrition among target populations.
3. Provision of technical support for the National Nutrition Mission, Restructured ICDS Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) and Restructured ICDS through a Technical Support Unit at the national and state level for strengthening their capacities to deliver nutrition especially during pre- conception, pregnancy and first two years of life.
4. Technical support and Knowledge management support to strengthen human resource capabilities at various levels in order to deliver effective nutrition interventions.

14) India lauded for Medicines with the Red Line campaign on antibiotics.

• India’s idea of putting a red line on antibiotic packages to curb their over-the-counter sale is now being cited as a model that can be used globally to counter the rising threat of superbugs.
• In its final report on tackling drug resistant infection released, the global Review on Antimicrobial Resistance - commissioned by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and chaired by economist Jim O’Neill - says India has led the way so far with its idea of a ‘Red Line Campaign’ for antibiotics packaging, launched earlier and should be considered as a starting point. It recommends that the labelling and symbols used can be improved if needed and then expanded globally.
• Common labelling standards of this type could become a condition of sale of antibiotics around the world,” the report notes, while stressing that convincing people to stop using antibiotics would not be effective unless they recognize antibiotics.
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15) Government takes measures to set up science cities, science centers.

• The union government will soon launch a hub and spoke model to set up science cities and science centers to encourage science and technology (S&T) incubators and create an enabling environment, according to YS Chowdary, Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences.
• The entire country can be divided in five zones so that each zone can have a science city, so that number of science centers can be there whereby rural population and youngsters can have a lot of access.
• There is a need for us to spend more time on blueprint rather than on trying to execute, particularly from government’s point of view, as once blueprint is prepared properly with all kinds of IT tools the execution can be done perfectly.

16) Bihar govt bans gutka and paan masala.

• The Bihar government has cracked down on gutka and pan masala, banning the sale, distribution, storage and publicity of such tobacco products.
• The government issued an order authorizing officials to conduct raids and inspections and take action against those flouting the guidelines.
• The ban, which will remain effective for the next one year, on edible items having tobacco content, both packaged and unpackaged, aims at preventing the deterioration of public health.

17) Centre sets up panel to relook defence spend.

• The NDA government has appointed a committee of experts to recommend measures to enhance the combat capabilities of the over 13-lakh strong armed forces and "re-balance" the overall defence expenditure in view of the escalating salary and pension bills.
• The 11 member committee led by former Lt Gen D.B. Shekatkar, which includes several other top military officers as well as civilian experts, has been given three months to chalk out an action plan.
• The overall aim is to ensure India`s combat capabilities and potential are enhanced, with a better teeth-to-tail combat ratio, within budgetary constraints. The committee will hold its first meeting with defence minister Manohar Parrikar.
• This comes a year after Parrikar first underlined the need to slash the non-operational "flab" of the Army, Navy and IAF after a detailed review to ensure leaner, meaner and cost-effective fighting forces.

18) Centre urges States to exempt pulses from local taxes.

• To check spiraling prices of pulses, the Centre urged the States to exempt it from value-added tax (VAT) and other local taxes.
• It may help cool the prices of the pulses by 5-7 per cent while briefing the media after a meeting of State Food Minister to draw an action plan to check prices of essentials, such as pulses, edible oil and sugar.
• The State Food Ministers’ conference also noted that the prices of the specified food items, such as pulses, sugar, edible oils shoot up abnormally due to hoarding, profiteering and cartelling by traders and middlemen, with farmers ending up as the biggest losers.
• There is a need that all States and Union Territories impose and implement stock limits, which should follow a logical and scientific formula separately in consuming States and surplus States.
• The meeting adopted an action plan to improve availability and contain prices of essential food items, which includes rationalization of imposition of stock limits, streamlining of the price monitoring mechanism, utilization of full potential of the Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) and States to consider setting up own PSFs.

1) Railway Minister to inaugurate number of amenities through remote control from Dadar East station.

• Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu inaugurated a number of amenities through remote control from Dadar East station.
• Railway has recently completed construction of a new platform, foot over bridge, escalator, booking office and a toilet block at Kanjur Marg station on Central Suburban Railway.
• Minister of State for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and other state ministers and dignitaries will grace the occasion.
• The Railway Minister will also attend the informal gathering of Station masters Association in Mumbai.

2) NDA framed NITI Aayog to replace 5-year plans with 15 year vision document.

• The National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has decided to get rid of the Nehruvian five-year plans, and replace them with 15-year vision documents.
• These will be framed keeping in mind the country`s social goals and the sustainable development agenda. The NITI Aayog has been directed to prepare a vision document at the earliest. The current 12th Five-Year Plan will be terminated in the current financial year, 2016-17.
• The first 15-year vision document will start from 2017-18, along with a seven-year National Development Agenda which will lay down the schemes, programmes and strategies to achieve the long-term vision.
• The mid-term appraisal of the 12th Plan was also not done, though it was due after the completion of two-and-a- half years.

3) Cabinet approves country’s first Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy.

• The Cabinet has approved the national intellectual property rights (IPR) policy with a view to promoting creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.
• The aim is to create awareness about economic, social and cultural benefits of IPRs among all sections of society.
• The window for trademark registration will be brought down to one month. The policy aims to create and exploit synergies between all forms of intellectual property (IP), statutes concerned and agencies.
• There are seven objectives that guided the policy mechanism, which include IPR public awareness, stimulation of generation of IPRs, need for strong and effective laws and strengthening enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms to combat infringements.
• This policy shall weave in strengths of the government, research and development organizations, educational institutions, corporate entities, including MSMEs, start-ups and other stakeholders towards creation of an innovation-conducive environment.

4) Modi, Maithripala Sirisena released `Simhastha Declaration` in Ujjain.

• Releasing the ‘Simhastha Declaration’ in Ninora village in Ujjain, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the capacity of Kumbh organisers.
• Mr. Sirisena, who is in India for a visit, accompanied Mr. Modi to the Vaichaarik Mahakumbh.
• Both leaders addressed the concluding session of the 3 day International Vichar Mahakumbh for the month-long Simhastha Mela. Sri Lankan President Sirisena was on a two day visit to India from 13 May to 15 May 2016.
• 51 sacred points have been included in this declaration for betterment of mankind and these elixir points will start new discourse for India and the world.

5) Shri J.P. Nadda lays Foundation Stone for three new Medical Colleges at Rajouri, Anantnag and Baramulla.

• Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Shri J.P. Nadda laid the foundation stone for three new medical Colleges at Rajouri, Anantnag and Baramulla districts in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The new Medical Colleges will strengthen the medical infrastructure and give a big boost to tertiary healthcare and medical education in the region. The total outlay of 189 crore each, the three new Medical Colleges will add 300 MBBS seats per year in the States with 100 seats per College. In addition, the medical infrastructure in the districts will be strengthened with addition of a 300 bed facility attached to each college.
• The Government Medical College, Jammu and Government Medical College, Srinagar in the State of J&K have been taken up for up gradation under PMSSY with an outlay of 120 Crore (i.e. Central contribution of 15 Crore and State share of 5 Crore) for each medical college.

6) Parkash Singh panel submits report on Jat quota Agitation.

• The Prakash Singh probe panel constituted to probe lapses on part of civil and police administration officials during Jat agitation has castigated over 90 officers including IAS/IPS officers besides various state cadre officers for lapses on their part. The Committee produced a comprehensive report within a period of 71 days.
• After submitting it to the Chief Minister, Prakash Singh addressed media and briefly described about what the report was all about. Prakash Singh mentioned that the committee headed by him had not gone into the political aspect of the agitation.
• He mentioned that the committee has examined 143 video footages pertaining to the arson during Jat agitation and shall be submitting over 10 hours of video recorded statements to the home department for further necessary action.

7) Rajasthan to be 1st state to issue ads to appoint V-Cs.

• Rajasthan will become India’s first state to issue newspaper advertisements to select vice-chancellors for state universities.
• Governor Kalyan Singh issued guidelines advertisements seeking applications for vice-chancellor positions in state universities will be published in two national newspapers.
• The move is aimed at ensuring better-qualified candidates apply for the job and greater transparency in the process.
• The ads will also appear on the website of the concerned institute and the governor, who is the chancellor of the state’s 15 state universities.
• This new process of selection will not only attract a large pool of candidates, it will also ensure transparency in the recruitment process and universities will be provided vice chancellor in due time.
• We want that the young generation studies more and more. This process will improve the education quality in state and set new benchmarks.

8) NIA has become `Namo Investigation Agency`.

• The Congress changed NIA (National investigation agency) as "NAMO Investigation Agency", alleging there was "politically partisan misuse" in the Malegaon blast case after the agency in a complete U-turn dropped all charges against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and five others.
• Separately, the party`s Chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala stats that "The NIA under Modi ji has become `Namo Investigation Authority` purely aimed at giving clean chit to the BJP, RSS affiliated leaders in various criminal cases``.
• Gogoi claimed that whatever instructions come from the "leadership in Delhi", that approach will be taken by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and this bias was also confirmed by the Public Prosecutor.
• Gogoi made a strong pitch for a Supreme Court monitored probe in the case. He wanted strictest standards of investigation to be conducted in terror cases.

9) Centre Approves Proposal To Set Up Kalinganagar National Investment Manufacturing Zone.

• The Centre has approved the Odisha Government`s proposal to set up Kalinganagar National Investment and Manufacturing Zone in Jajpur district.
• The Zone will be a mega industrial zone having a world-class township to cater to the needs of the investors. This is the third Investment and Manufacturing Zone of India involving a massive area of 163 square kilometer.
• According to reports, the project is expected to invite 1 lakh crore rupees investment and generate 1 lakh 50 thousand direct jobs.
• Notably, the State Government had envisaged the major project as part of `Ease of Doing Business`. It had committed to providing 24x7 power, dedicated industrial feeder and quality physical infrastructure and common facilities for the project.

10) India Post Goes High-Tech, Geo-Tags Post Offices On Bhuvan.

• The good old Postal Department is going hi-tech by geo-tagging the post offices and has begun monitoring timely clearance of the letter boxes through a mobile app.
• In collaboration with the Department of Space, India Post has geo-tagged over 1.5 lakh post offices on the indigenous geo-portal Bhuvan, developed by ISRO, to help people search the nearest post office and know about services and timings.
• India Post has over 1.55 lakh post offices of which more than 1.39 lakh are in the rural areas. The remaining post offices would also be geo-tagged soon on Bhuvan, a Hindi word for `universe`.
• More than 1.5 lakh post offices have been geo-tagged and their exact location on a GIS satellite imagery map along with photograph, services and office timings, etc, have been made available on the portal.
• Bhuvan, developed by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), is providing visualization services and earth observation data to users in public domain.

11) Shri Nitin Gadkari Launches INFRACON, ePACE and up-Scaled INAM PRO.

• Shri Gadkari launched ePACE, INFRACON and an updated version of INAMPRO, three innovative IT initiatives of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, developed in house by NHIDCL (National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd.)
• EPACE (Projects Appraisal & Continuing Enhancements) is an online integrated Management Information System that brings projects from all wings of the Ministry under a common platform, ensuring their effective and real time tracking. The portal can be freely accessed by anybody, and information regarding projects in any particular state can be found at the click of a button. The portal also allows for validation checks to prevent wrongful entries, making it difficult to fudge figures.
• INFRACON is the National Portal for Infrastructure Consultancy Firms and Key Personnel. This portal acts as a kind of bridge between consultancy firms working in the road engineering and construction sector and domain experts and key personnel who are deployed both for project preparation and supervision. The portal hosts the credentials of consultancy firms and key personnel and has linkages to Aadhar and Digi-locker for data validation and purity
• INAM PRO has been developed as a web-based application (www.inampro.nic.in) for Infrastructure and Material Providers. It is a kind of a web based market place that brings together the material providers and the prospective buyers on a common platform.

12) Government constitutes a five Member Committee to comprehensively review and give recommendations on the FRBM roadmap for the future.

• In pursuance of the Budget Announcement 2016-17, the Government has constituted a five Member Committee to comprehensively review and give recommendations on the FRBMI (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) roadmap for the future.

The composition of the FRBM Review Committee is as follows:

1. Shri N.K. Singh (Chairman), Shri Sumit Bose (Member), Dr. Arvind Subramanian (Member), Shri Urijit Patel (Member) and Shri Rathin Roy (Member).

The Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Committee are as under:

1. To review the working of the FRBM Act over last 12 years and to suggest the way forward, keeping in view the broad objective of fiscal consolidation and prudence and the changes required in the context of the uncertainty and volatility in the global economy.
2. To look into various aspects, factors, considerations going into determining the FRBM targets.
3. To examine the need and feasibility of having a ‘fiscal deficit range’ as the target in place of the existing fixed numbers (percentage of GDP) as fiscal deficit target.
4. To examine the need and feasibility of aligning the fiscal expansion or contraction with credit contraction or expansion respectively in the economy.
5. The Budget Division of Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance will provide necessary secretarial and logistics support to the Committee.

13) The Empowered Institution (EI) approves VGF Support for two PPP Projects of Government of Rajasthan.

• The Empowered Institution (EI), under the Government of India’s Scheme for Financial Support to Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Infrastructure, met for its Seventy-First meeting.
• The Meeting was chaired by the Additional Secretary (Investment), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance and approved Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support to two projects of the Government of Rajasthan.
• One project, in the Road Sector for Development and Operation of Chomu Chandwaji - Highways Project, was granted in-Principle approval while the other project, in the Power Sector, granted final approval of the VGF support, was for the development of the 400 kV Bikaner-Sikar Transmission Line Project .

14) Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourer Scheme – 2016 to be Made Central Sector Scheme.

• The Government is revising the rehabilitation of bonded labour scheme and increasing the quantum of financial assistance from Rs. 20 thousand to one lakh rupees.
• The Scheme proposes to increase the budget provision from Rs. 5 crores to about Rs. 47 crores per annum. This was proposed by Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, the Minister of State (IC) labour and Employment.
• While the most deprived and marginalized like the disabled, female and children rescued from trafficking, sexual exploitation and transgender will get Rs. 3 lakhs, the next in order is the special category comprising of females and the minors who will now get Rs. 2 lakhs. A normal adult male bonded labour will get Rs. 1 lakh.
• New package the money will remain in an annuity account, controlled by the District Magistrate (DM) and a monthly earning will flow to the beneficiary account for his/her comfortable living. The corpus remains untouched until decided by the DM.
• One of the special features of the new scheme is that it aims to address new forms of bondage such as organized begging rings, forced prostitution and child labour for which females, disabled and transgender are mercilessly used by the powerful elements.

1) Uma Bharti launched first trash skimmer for River Yamuna for skimming of solid waste material.

• Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti has launched the first trash skimmer for River Yamuna for skimming of solid waste material and a sum of 850 crore rupees have been approved for the third phase of Yamuna action plan Yamuna.
• The money will be utilized to clean up the stretch of Yamuna from Wazirabad to Okhla.
• These floating trash skimmers is to be used for cleaning the river of all kinds of floating materials like plastic bags, bottles, cans, food packets, coconuts among others, dumped into the river by humans.

2) 55,669 villages to have mobile connectivity by 2019.

• Government plans to provide mobile connectivity in 55,669 villages by 2019 in a phased manner.
• It will also commission a project to connect 8,621 villages in the north-eastern region by installing 321 mobile tower sites by 2017, Department of Telecom (DoT) about the progress made during the last two years of the NDA government.
• A comprehensive telecom development plan for the north-eastern region at an estimated cost of Rs. 5,336.18 crore approved.
• On connecting rural India through high-speed broadband, the department has completed lying of optic fiber in 48,199 gram panchayats.
• For deeper digital penetration in rural areas, the government has taken up the BharatNet project in mission mode to connect all 2.50 lakh gram panchayats, which have over 600 million people. BharatNet will support e-governance services, e-commerce, tele-medicine, tele-education, financial services, among others.

3) Sulabh group to set up `hybrid toilet complexes` in 9 Odisha cities.

• The Odisha government signed a memorandum of understanding with Sulabh International Social Service Organisation (SISSO) for construction and maintenance of ‘hybrid toilet complexes’ in its nine cities.
• The hybrid toilet complexes having 5,957 seats will come up in urban centres such as Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Baripada, Balasore, Bhadrak and Puri covered under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) yojna.
• The State Cabinet had earlier given approval to partner with SISSO for setting up of toilet complexes. As per the Housing and Urban Development department, the existing community and public toilet facilities in the ULBs of Odisha are seemingly inadequate to cater to the need of this deprived population alone.
• According to the HUD department, SISSO will prepare the design and estimate as per the current schedule of rates and lead of the particular places, which needs to be approved by the concerned urban local body.

4) Single emergency number `112` to be operational throughout India from 2017.

• The single emergency number `112` will be operational throughout India 2017 to help people reach immediate services of police, ambulance and fire department.
• Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has approved the provision of a single number for various emergency services that would be similar to the `911` all-in-one emergency service in the US.
• The service will also be accessible even through those SIMs and landlines whose outgoing call facility has been stopped or temporarily suspended.
• A person in distress will need to call only 112, which will direct the call to concerned departments immediately for help. All existing emergency numbers will be phased out within a year of rolling out 112, depending upon the awareness about this new facility.
• The panic button will enable users to make emergency call or send alerts to multiple numbers just by pressing a button.

5) Environment Minister launches Web-Based Application on Integrated Waste Management System.

• The Government has launched a web-based application on Integrated Waste Management System (IWMS) for better management of waste. The Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar launched the app; it will provide an opportunity to all the industries dealing in hazardous waste, to apply online.
• The user-friendly application can also track the movement of hazardous waste and will also help in ensuring its proper management. There are an estimated 43000 industries dealing in hazardous waste, of which about 30000 industries have been mapped through this application.
• The objective of the web-based application is to enhance transparency in the working of the Ministry and other Centre/State level regulatory bodies and also to reduce the time taken for processing applications, seeking various types of permissions under the recently notified waste management regulations.
• In addition to being a single window access, this application is expected to expedite the way the permission is granted and way the analysis could be done not only for authorization and consents, but also for import/export permission under the rules.

6) Railways sets up directorate to generate funds via advertisements.

• In yet another move, albeit an incremental one, aimed at restructuring the railways board on functional lines, the national transporter has set up a new directorate to generate funds in a big way through advertisements and find the right players for commercial exploitation of its land.
• The railways is trying to raise resources from non-tariff sources, but the setting up of the `non-fare revenue directorate`, which comes after a `mobility directorate` was formed, indicates rail minister Suresh Prabhu`s strategy to slowly push structural reforms in the mammoth PSU.

7) Mahesh Sharma Releases Commemorative Coin on Maharana Pratap.

• As a part of 475th Birth Anniversary celebrations of Maharana Pratap Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Dr. Mahesh Sharma released a Commemorative coin of Rs. 100 and a Circulation coin of Rs. 10 in New Delhi.
• Ministry of Culture has been celebrating the 475th Birth Anniversary of Maharana Pratap in association with the State Government of Rajasthan. A Conference and Special Lecture on Maharana Pratap was organized by Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML) in the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur on March 04, 2016. This was fully financed by the Ministry of Culture.
• The Government of India and the State Government of Rajasthan have decided to create a multi-purpose indoor stadium at Khel Gaon, Udaipur in his memory. Ministry of Culture has agreed to give a sum of Rs. 9.50 crore to the State Government for this purpose.

8) DBT scheme for Odisha farmers.

• Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the ‘Direct Benefit Transfer’ (DBT) scheme for farmers and promised digging of at least one lakh borewells to enhance irrigation facilities in the State.
• Patnaik was addressing a meeting marking the celebration of the Akshya Trutiya festival at laxminarayanpur village near Pipili. The day is also observed as the ‘Krushak Divas.’ Under the DBT scheme, the farmers would get the subsidy amount in their bank accounts directly.

9) Parliament Passes Anti-Hijacking Bill.

• Parliament has passed the Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2016 to widen ambit of law dealing with this anti-hijacking crime. The Bill was first passed in the Rajya Sabha and later in the Lok Sabha in 2016.
• Now the Bill will go for Presidential assent as per Article 111 of Indian Constitution.
• The Bill defines hijacking as seizing control of an aircraft in service, unlawfully and intentionally, by coercion, technological means or by exercising force or any other form of intimidation. It covers several acts within the definition of hijacking.

It includes:

1. Attempt and abetment of hijacking
2. Organizing or directing others to commit hijacking and
3. Making a credible threat to commit hijacking.

10) WiFi at 5 railway stations.

• Google announced the launch of its free high-speed public WiFi service at Ujjain, Jaipur, Patna, Guwahati and Allahabad railway stations.
• This is in continuation with its project to provide high-speed public WiFi service at 100 Railway stations across India by end of the year.
• Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu will formally inaugurate the service at these stations soon. It has been deploying the service over the extensive fiber network of Indian Railway’s arm Railtel which provides Internet services as RailWire.

11) Three-member panel to prepare policy framework for taxi operators.

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has set up a three-member committee to prepare a policy framework for taxi and other transport operators.
• The panel will be headed by Sanjay Mitra, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and have the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and the Delhi Transport Commissioner as its members.
• A group of taxi and other transport operators had met Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari , apprising him of the situation that has emerged following the Supreme Court’s order banning diesel taxis in the NCR, and the various problems they are facing as a result of the ban.
• The Ministry has decided to set up a committee to look into these issues and come up with appropriate policy recommendations to address the same in a time-bound manner.

12) Harish Rawat set to return as Uttarakhand CM.

• Congress leader Harish Rawat is all set to be reinstated as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, over six weeks after he was ousted by the Centre, with the Supreme Court its stamp of approval on the floor test in the Assembly.
• Rawat gets 33 votes out of 61 in the floor test. No irregularities were found in the voting. 9 MLAs could not vote due to their disqualification an apex court Bench and directed revocation of the President’s rule forthwith so that 68-year-old Rawat can assume office as Chief Minister.
• The developments have come as a major loss of face for the Modi Government at the Centre which had dismissed the Congress government and imposed President’s rule after nine Congress MLAs sided with the BJP on the Appropriation Bill.

13) Gujarat announced `Agri Business Policy-2016`.

• Gujarat government announced its `Agri Business Policy-2016` with a special emphasis on promoting food processing industry, applying new techniques to convert agriculture waste into value-added products and developing the entire value chain of exporting locally grown farm produces.
• The new policy was announced by Chief Minister Anandiben Patel while inaugurating this year`s `Krishi Mahotsav` in Anand town of Kheda district.
• The policy aims at increasing farmers` income by strengthening agriculture-related infrastructure and promoting food processing industry, which at present provides employment to around 10 lakh people in the state.
• As per the policy document, any new projects of agro food processing will get 25 per cent subsidy, maximum of Rs 50 lakh, on the total cost of establishing or upgrading such units in the state.
• Projects related to cold chain, food e-radiation, packaging houses and food parks will get 25 per cent subsidy in the limit of Rs. 5 crore, on the total cost of establishment of any such unit.

14) Parliament passes bill on potable alcohol.

• Parliament passed the Industries (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, which seeks to transfer from the Centre to states the control over industries engaged in the production of potable alcohol, with Lok Sabha approving some technical amendments.
• The bill in the Lok Sabha was introduced by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and was later approved by the House amid din.
• The Industries (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill seeks to amend a schedule to exclude production of alcohol for potable purposes from the ambit of the Act.
• According to the Bill, the central government would continue to be responsible for formulating policy and regulating foreign collaboration (FDI and foreign technology collaboration agreements) for all products of fermentation industries, including industrial and potable alcohol.

15) First AIIMS-like institution on Ayurveda to come up in Delhi.

• The first AIIMS-like institution on Ayurveda will be inaugurated in Delhi within three months as part of steps to popularize the Indian system of medicine.
• There is an AIIMS for allopathy, the first AIIMS for Ayurveda is going to start in Delhi. The AYUSH is trying to have AIIMs like Centre on Ayurveda in all state capitals.
• The All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) is coming up at Jasola in Delhi. A 200-bed hospital will also become functional.
• The government allocated Rs. 16032 lakh to these centers and allocated Rs. 6949.81 lakhs.
• The National Free Drugs Initiative under the National Health Mission does not specify the number of drugs to be provided free of cost. While the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) includes 376 medicines, the number of drugs that states decide to provide free of cost varies.
• The decision to increase, decrease the number of essential medicines to be provided free of cost is to be taken by respective state/ union territory governments.

16) I-T Dept`s PAN-Aadhaar linkage crosses 50 lakh.

• The Income Tax department`s ambitious plan to link its PAN number database with Aadhaar has crossed the 50 lakh.
• The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy-making body for the IT department, had launched the initiative of linking the two databases Permanent Account Number and Aadhaar.
• I-T Dept to start a safe and quick electronic regime for taxpayers when it comes to filing income tax returns and subsequent ensuring of a host of tax-related services.
• The department wants these numbers to grow so that the full e-regime in the delivery of taxpayer services can be ushered in as soon as possible.
• The new e-filing system allows online verification of a person’s ITR by using the Aadhaar number, internet banking or bank account along with email and mobile number, thereby ending the practice of sending paper acknowledgement to the Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) of the department located in Bengaluru.

17) Government inks MoU with NDTV Ethnic Retail Ltd. to popularize India Handloom products.

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between The Development Commissioner (Handlooms), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India and NDTV Ethnic Retail Ltd. for popularizing India Handloom textiles as a fashionable product for youth.
• The joint endeavor will endorse and launch a project, Indian roots Fashion Accelerator (IFA), a project by NDTV to support fresh talent and to support new and innovative ventures in fashion industry. Government will support the project with incubation and production support.
• India Handloom Brand will also provide an interface where fashion professionals will be able to accesses facilities such as Weavers Service Centers and handloom clusters. The initiative will connect fashion designers with Handloom sector in an organized manner.

18) Maharashtra government declares `drought` in 29,000 villages.
Maharashtra government has declared drought in over 29,000 villages of the state, most of them in parched Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.
The government issued a corrigendum clarifying that wherever reference is made to a `drought-like situation`, it would be read as `drought`.
The government had earlier this month given an assurance to the Bombay High Court. The state government has already taken drought relief measures in villages where the anewari (proportion of failed crops) is below 50 paise in Kharif and Rabi season.
In the wake of acute water shortage in various parts of Maharashtra, the state government had informed the High Court that it would declare drought in over 29,000 villages in the state and all relief prescribed in the Drought Manual.

19) UIDAI launched special enrolment drive in 4 States/UTs.

• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) launched a unique initiative to enroll left over population for Aadhaar, in four States and Union Territories, viz., Haryana, Goa, Chandigarh and Puducherry, where the Aadhaar saturation levels are more than 100% (as per projected population figure of last year).
• Aadhaar saturation can cross 100% when the migrant population also enrolls in that particular state. In 2016 over 101.26 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated across the country.
• As part of the initiative, people who have not yet enrolled in Haryana, Goa, Chandigarh and Puducherry are being asked to register themselves at https://wenrol.uidai.gov.in. On completing the simple registration formality, such people would be enrolled for the Aadhaar number on a priority basis.
• This exercise has been initiated to ensure that no one is left without an Aadhaar number in these four States/UTs which has more than 100% Aadhaar saturation, statistically speaking.

20) Committee on Estimates recommends PM-headed authority on Ganga Rejuvenation.

• Ganga being declared one of the 10 most polluted rivers in the world, a parliamentary committee recommended setting up of an overarching authority headed by the Prime Minister to cut down on red tape so that the river is restored to its pristine glory.
• The Estimates Committee of Parliament, in its report on Ganga Rejuvenation tabled, an "overarching and fully empowered" authority headed by the Prime Minister was required to cut down on the red tape involving various ministries and state governments.
• Committee Chairman and BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi it would be preferred that the recommended body is created by a statute and it submits its report to Parliament on a regular basis.
• The need for such a body when the Prime Minister himself was monitoring the Namami Gange programme, personal monitoring was not "enough" and he should head the body so that inter-ministry and inter-state issues are settled without wasting time.

21) Research wing now compulsory in dental colleges.

• When majority of medical institutions in India that are engaged in active research complain about lack of funds, support and due recognition for their work, research in the field of dental sciences is completely ignored and lagging behind in the country.
• The Dental Council of India (DCI) has now made it mandatory for every dental college across the country to have a research wing.
• There is a lack of research in dental sciences. Only few dental colleges in India have research centers. In a bid to promote the research in the dental field, we have made it mandatory that every dental college should have research wing associated with it.
• The rule will apply to all dental colleges, i.e., already existing and those who are making fresh applications for establishing a dental college.
• Recently the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) research across the country is stuck due to lack of funds. A recent study published in Journal of Pharmacy and Bio-allied Sciences stated that "research in the dental field is progressing at mightier speed worldwide, but unfortunately representation of India at this platform is negligible".

1) EPFO Launches a Special Drive: Mission Consolidation ``One Empployee-One Account`` on May Day.

• Shri. Bandaru Dattatreya, the Union Minister for Labour & Employment (Independent Charge) launched a special Mission consolidation drive ``One Employee-One EPF Account`` for members of the EPFO.
• EPFO has taken several IT based initiatives to provide convenient and efficient services to its stakeholders. The initiative of launching the Mission consolidation ``One Member One EPF Account`` is a step towards encouraging EPF members to access enhanced IT enabled services through UAN accounts that are linked with Aadhaar.
• Sh. Dattatreya also informed this drives, would result in EPF members having just one EPF account and multiple conveniences. The Universal Account Number that is Aadhar seeded will consolidate multiple past service accounts, across various spells of employment during working life of an EPF member.

2) Maharashtra government launched online app for caste certificates.

• The Maharashtra government released Adi Praman, an online application for validating tribal caste certificates which would make it a simple and transparent process for Scheduled Tribes to get bar-coded caste certificates.
• The web-based application and its user manual were launched by Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Tribal Development Minister Vishnu Savra at a function held at the Raj Bhavan. Maharashtra has become the first state to issue caste validity certificates online.
• The web-based application for caste validity certificates would help the government achieve the goal of inclusion as envisioned under the Digital India programme. The government is working towards the goal of digital administration, which would have minimum human intervention.
• The validity certificate will be bar-coded with a unique identification number and enable authorities to directly verify the status of validity certificate using the unique barcode number.

3) PM launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.

• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana at Ballia. The scheme aims to provide cooking gas connections to five crore below-poverty-line beneficiaries over the next three years.
• The Union Government’s primary focus has been the welfare of the poor the Prime Minister mentioned various steps for labour welfare taken by the Union Government over the last two years.
• The Ballia is the land of the revolutionary Mangal Pandey, while the development of Eastern Uttar Pradesh has suffered for decades connectivity is now being strengthened in the region. The Union Government is allocating tremendous resources for the development of Uttar Pradesh.
• The Prime Minister emphasized that schemes must be designed keeping in mind the welfare of the poor, and not merely to derive electoral benefit. The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana will benefit the poor, especially the women.

4) Diesel run taxis are ban in Delhi.

• Applying the brakes on diesel-run cabs in Delhi, the Supreme Court ordered that only taxis running on compressed natural gas (CNG) will be allowed from May 1.
• In a day-long special hearing convened on a weekend disregarding objections raised by the Centre, a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur. Two extensions had been given to taxi operators to shift from diesel to CNG in the larger effort to curb air pollution.
• In Delhi 60,000 taxis are registered and of them 21,000 run on diesel. About 40 lakh vehicles ply on Delhi’s roads daily, including 10 to 12 lakh floating vehicles. A significant majority of these are goods carriers and cabs registered in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Faridabad and other parts NCR.

5) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Ministry of Railways and Forest Department of Haryana & Punjab.

• Minister of Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu and Minister of State (IC) for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding ``plantation of trees alongside Railway Track on Railway Land Boundary`` was signed.
• The care and conservation of the trees is not only the responsibility of the Ministry of MOEFCC but it is the responsibility of every citizen of India to protect trees and thus Railways initiated the step of providing railway land for the use of plantation.
• The Railways wants to take integrated steps to maintain in the field of forest, water, energy, solar system etc. All States should be sensitized to establish Nurseries in their respective State.
• The plantation alongside the Railway Track will stop soil erosion which has been a reason of rail accidents in recent past. Instead of exotic trees indigenous trees should be grown according to the climate.

6) Parliament passes Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, 2016.

• Parliament has passed Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016. The Bill amends the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957. The amendment Bill was in the Rajya Sabha.

Key facts:

Transfer of mining leases: The Bill provides for transfer of mining leases, which have been granted through procedures other than auction and where minerals are used for captive purpose.
This provision will allow for merger and acquisition of companies with captive mining leases.

Leased area: The also bill adds the definition of leased area as the area within which mining operations can be undertaken.
This will also include the non-mineralized area required and approved for the activities defined under Mines Act 1952.

7) Monitoring of `Make in India`.

• The Government has unveiled two dashboards to monitor the progress made in its ‘Make in India’ initiative and rank States on real-time basis based on ‘Ease of Doing Business’.
• The Make in India Dashboard will allow Ministries concerned to update progress made by them on short-term and medium-term targets, facilitate timely delivery of identified action points and facilitate monitoring and identification of delays in implementation.
• The Ease of Doing Business Dashboard will facilitate States to report progress made by them on State Level Business Reforms Action Plan and validation of responses received from the States/UTs by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

8) Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Programmes.

• Ministry of Commerce & Industry is implementing two schemes relating to Skill Development viz. Indian Leather Development Programme (ILDP) and Training for Technology Upgradation.
• ILDP is for leather sector and it aims to augment raw material base through modernization and technology upgradation of leather units, addressing environmental concerns, human resource development, supporting traditional leather artisans, addressing infrastructure constraints and establishing institutional facilities.
• Training for Technology Upgradation is for salt sector and aims to educate salt workers and artisans for improving the quality of salt to meet the stringent standards of industrial and edible salt to compete in the domestic and international market.

9) Union Railways Ministry launches E-enabled PMIS app for proper monitoring of projects.

• Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Minister of Railways launched E-enabled project, namely, Project Management & Information System (PMIS).
• The Indian Railways has numerous big projects throughout the country which are of crores of rupees and have many complexities. Proper monitoring and management of these big projects is the demand of the Indian Railways.
• To provide best railway network in the country, Indian Railways needs two things; one is money and the second is proper monitoring of projects in which that money is to be spent.
• It is necessary to keep proper monitoring and management of the existing projects instead of keep on launching new projects. This new PMIS system will contain all the information about the ongoing projects which will help in reducing the completion time of the project. This Application will help in fixing the responsibility for delay in projects on the other hand officers would be awarded for timely/early completion of projects.

10) BHEL commissions 600 MW thermal power plant in MP.

• State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) announced the commissioning of a 600 MW coal-based thermal power plant in Madhya Pradesh.
• The unit has been commissioned at the 1x600 MW Jhabua Thermal Power Project (TPP) located in Seoni district in Madhya Pradesh.
• The project has been developed by Jhabua Power Ltd (JPL), a subsidiary of Avantha Power & Infrastructure Limited (APIL).
• BHEL’s scope of work in the contract envisaged design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of steam turbine, generator and boiler, along with associated auxiliaries and electricals, besides controls and Instrumentation and electrostatic precipitators.

11) Supreme Court panel to monitor MCI.

• Former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha gets the responsibility to reform the Medical Council of India (MCI). The Supreme Court appointed a three-member panel headed by Lodha to oversee how the regulator of medical profession and education in India functions.
• Besides Lodha, the panel has former CAG Vinod Rai and Dr. S.K. Sareen.
• The court appointed the Lodha panel to oversee the MCI because the regulator is often accused of indulging in corrupt practices. It referred to reports of a government panel and a parliamentary standing committee that indicted the MCI for various malpractices.
• The MCI was repeatedly found short of fulfilling its mandated responsibilities medical graduates lacked competence in performing basic healthcare tasks. Instances of unethical practices continued to grow.
• Private medical colleges cannot be given the unfettered right to devise their own admission procedure and fee structure because it will ``impinge upon the right to equality of students``.

12) Ministry of AYUSH supports large scale cultivation to produce quality medicinal plants raw material under NAM.

• To promote export of medicinal plants/ herbs, the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH under its National AYUSH Mission (NAM) is supporting large scale cultivation to produce quality medicinal plants raw material.
• There is provision to set up National Institute of Medicinal Plants (NIMP) under Ministry of AYUSH in the country.
• Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National AYUSH Mission (NAM) having a component on ``Medicinal Plants`` which is primarily aimed at supporting cultivation of medicinal plants on farmers land with backward linkages through establishment of nurseries for supply of quality planting material, and forward linkages for post-harvest management.
• The cultivation of medicinal plants was being supported under Centrally Sponsored Scheme of ``National Mission on Medicinal Plants`` of NMPB.

13) Commerce Ministry launches web-based dashboard for export, import data.

• Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the portal DashBoard with Export & Import (EXIM) Analytics developed by Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics for disseminating information regarding foreign trade.
• The user-friendly EXIM Analytics dashboard enables analysis of the country`s trade information and provides analysis of export-import data, destinations or countries of origin, and ports.
• The data for analysis, including of the trade balance, is presented as a month`s aggregate at levels like of country, region, commodity and port.

14) Shri Piyush Goyal to Launched Portal for Contract Labour Payment Management System.

• Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Shri Piyush Goyal, launched `Contract Labour Payment Management System` - a portal of Coal India Limited.
• The web portal is created for monitoring compliance of labour payment and other benefits to the contract workers under the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act. 1970.
• It is an integrated system for all subsidiaries of CIL. The in-house developed application will maintain a comprehensive database of all contract workers engaged by different contractors in CIL and all its subsidiaries.
• The portal provides access to all contract workers, through a Workers Identification Number (WIN), to view their personal details and payment status. Contract workers can also register their grievance through this portal.
• It has been planned to make payment to the contractors only after submitting a system generated declaration of compliance.

15) MP first state to provide subsidised food to SC, ST persons.

• Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan provide subsidized wheat, rice and salt at Re. one per kg to non-income tax payee SC, ST persons. And education would also be given to students belonging to these classes.
• The chief minister laid foundation stone for buildings of schedule caste girl student hostels at Panchsheel Nagar. Slum dwellers will be given pucca houses. Gradually, all Garib Bastis will be made slum-free.
• The state government is extending maximum cooperation to the poor to provide Roti, Kapada and Makan. For this, government is helping them getting employment, cloths, houses, subsidized food grains, free medicines, education of children etc.
• SC and ST students will also be provided laptops on securing 75 percent marks in class XII and smart phones on taking admission in colleges. The government is also bearing their fee in higher education institutions and assistance for foreign studies.

16) Union Cabinet gives nod to India-EU agreement on S&T cooperation.

• The Union Cabinet has given its approval to the renewed Agreement for Scientific and Technological Cooperation with European Union (EU) for another period of 5 years.
• Decision in this regard was taken by Union Cabinet Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. The agreement will be retrospectively effective from 17 May 2015 until 2020.

Key facts:

1. The agreement will reaffirm India-EU’s shared commitment to research and innovation as drivers of social and economic development.
2. The Agreement’s purpose is to strengthen the co-operation in R&D activities in science & technology fields of common interest between the research institutions of the EU Member States and India.

17) Projects worth Rs. 2446 Crore approved under Namami Gange Programme.

• Namami Gange programme the Empowered Steering Committee (ESC) of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) has approved projects for Development of Ghats and crematoria in the banks of river Ganga.
• The total estimated cost of the projects is Rs. 2446 crore. These projects have been carved to improve the facilities of Ghats and crematoria for reduction of pollution load into river Ganga. All the projects will be implemented under centrally sponsored scheme of Namami Gange and Government of India would bear 100% costs.
• The major project components are implementation of Forestry Interventions in Five States at the banks of River Ganga strengthening Knowledge Management and National Capacity for Forestry Interventions and conservation of Rivers and scaling up and replication of successful models of Forestry interventions and Rivers cape. The estimated cost of the project is Rs. 2294 crore for the duration of five years.

18) Setting up of New Airports.

• Government of India (GoI) has granted `in-principle` approval for setting up of 14 Greenfield airports namely, Mopa in Goa; Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra; Shimoga, Gulbarga,Hassan and Bijapur in Karnataka; Kannur in Kerala; Pakyong in Sikkim; Datia/ Gwalior (Cargo) in Madhya Pradesh; Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh; Karaikal in Puducherry; and Dholera in Gujarat.
• Government has laid down Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) of air transport services taking into account the need for air transport services of different regions of the country. However, it is up to the airlines to provide services to different regions depending on their commercial viability subject to compliance of RDG.

19) Government clears adoption of UN principles of official statistics.

• The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given approval to adoption of United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.
• According to the statement, the adoption will lead to professional independence, impartiality, accountability and transparency in methods of collection, compilation and dissemination of official statistics, besides ensuring international standards.
• It is also expected to pave the way for devising a National Policy on Official Statistics for improving systems, procedures and institutions consistent with these principles.

20) NASSCOM, Facebook ink MoU to engage with India’s entrepreneurs.

• The trade body of Indian IT firms NASSCOM has signed a MoU with Facebook to build a product design initiative to engage the country’s young entrepreneurs into becoming problem solvers and solution builders.
• NASSCOM-Facebook initiative is likely to propel innovative thinking and approaches to build solutions in key sectors where technology can play a transformational role.
• A joint initiative to catalyze the innovation ecosystem and to help design thinking. An infliction point where the industry is at the next phase of revolution and moving towards the whole startup and innovation part, which is coming on the heels of the two decades old of the growth of the services company.

21) NMDC ties up with ISRO for mineral mapping.

• National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) Ltd has teamed up with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to make use of satellite-based geological mapping capability for mineral exploration.
• A memorandum of understanding was signed between NMDC and ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre opening up the possibilities for NMDC to use satellite technology for mineral exploration and a host of other related ventures.
• NMDC becomes the first company under the Ministry of Steel to use satellite-based geological mapping.
• Under the memorandum, NMDC will establish a Remote Sensing and GIS Laboratory at its head office in Hyderabad for interpretation of satellite data.

22) Bankruptcy Bill passed in Lok Sabha.

• The Lok Sabha passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Bill 2016, which is seen as a ``transformational`` legislation that will help improve India’s ranking in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ index.
• Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, in the Lok Sabha that the Government had ``in toto`` accepted the report of the Joint Committee of Parliament that went into the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Bill.
• This would lead to ``friction-free`` market processes that will help create jobs. Accepting the Joint Committee report in toto meant that the new legislation has also provided for cross-border insolvency (which was not covered in the original Bill introduced in 2015).
• The Bill has also strengthened workmen rights as well as creditor rights. It has sought to provide a better deal for workmen in the waterfall (priority of repayment of dues post liquidation).

23) Government clears Infosys proposal to set up SEZ in Bengaluru.

• The government has approved the proposal of Infosys to set up an IT/ITeS special economic zone in Bengaluru in an area spread over 4 hectares.
• The decision was taken by an inter-ministerial Board of Approval (BoA), headed by Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia.
• The Board noted that the developer is in possession of the land. It decided to grant formal approval to the proposal. The Board also granted more time to as many as 20 developers to complete their projects.
• Those that got additional time include Mayar Infrastructure Development for a biotechnology SEZ in Haryana, Wipro for IT SEZ in Karnataka and Vedanta for its sector-specific SEZ for manufacturing and exports of aluminium in Odisha.

24) All India Institute of Ayurveda being set up at Delhi.

• Government has approved for establishment of All India Institute of Ayurveda at Sarita Vihar, New Delhi. The Institute has been conceived as an apex Institute of Ayurveda with 200 bedded referral hospitals and to impart education in the field of Ayurveda at M.D. and Ph.D level.
• The total project cost is Rs. 157 crore. The institute is to be functional during 2016-17; an amount of Rs.40.00 Crore has been allocated in the B.E.
• This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik.

25) Lok Sabha passes Finance Bill 2016.

• The Lok Sabha approved the Finance Bill 2016, the legislative vehicle containing the FY17 Budget proposals, including a monetary policy committee that would now set interest rates in tune with an inflation-targeting approach adopted by the Reserve Bank of India.
• Finance minister Arun Jaitley secured the Lower House’s assent for the Bill retaining the contentious 1% excise duty on non-silver jewellery, though only jewellers with more than `12 crore annual turnover will have to pay the duty.
• The Bill, which mainly comprises tax proposals, was passed by the Lok Sabha with the amendments by voice vote.
• A key proposal to reform how the Reserve Bank of India sets monetary policy is now closer to reality. The Bill gives the central bank a mandate to target inflation, guided by a six-member committee that would set interest rates through a majority vote, a practice followed by major central banks in the world.
• The committee would constitute of three external members appointed by the government and three members from RBI, including its governor who would have a casting (extra) vote in the event of a tie. At present, the RBI governor is the sole authority to decide on monetary policy.

26) Recommendations of Committee on Yoga Education in Universities.

• A committee was constituted by the Government 2016 on yoga education in universities under the chairpersonship of Prof H.R. Nagendra, Chancellor, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana, Samsthana in Bangalore.
• The Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the committee included identification of courses and programmes in yogic art and science and the level at which it can be offered; to determine the eligibility qualifications for students for joining yoga education programme at different levels; to prescribe recommendations for qualifications for faculty of yoga etc.

27) Union Government starts UBIN drive for budding entrepreneurs.

• The government has started the process for issuance of Unique Business Identification Number (UBIN) to enable budding entrepreneurs set up their business without any delays.
• Delivering his remarks at a seminar, that top bureaucracy has been activated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to produce results well within targeted time and in India it is no longer a business as usual, according to a release issued by PHD Chamber of Commerce.
• This number would automatically be moved on to MCA portal after it is issued to the intended beneficiary and subsequently sent to the CBDT which would nomenclature it as PAN for Unique Business Identification Number.
• On the issue of ease of doing business and minimum government and maximum governance, bureaucracy has been activated so much that it has become target oriented as each month the PMO is undertaking a review monitoring meeting on projects implementation.

28) Indian Railways launches Bharat Darshan Tourist train for pilgrims.

• Railways have launched the Bharat Darshan Tourist train for pilgrims to visit Shirdi, Tirupati, Jagannath Puri, Gangasagar, Baidyanath Dham and Jyotirlingams and others.
• Comprising 10 coaches, the train begins the "East Darshan`` from Chandigarh and travelling from Delhi Cantonment to cover Jagannath Puri, Gangasagar, Baidyanath Dham, Gaya, Banaras and Ayodhya.
• The bookings are being done by IRCTC and it has firmed up a budget-friendly package for pilgrims, According to the package, a person has to pay Rs 830 per day to selected destinations in the east or south of the country or packages that cover major religious sites.
• The package includes train journey, road transportation, accommodation, sightseeing at tourist locations and onboard and off-board meals.
• Bharat Darshan will also cover "7 Jyotirlinga" package beginning from Chandigarh through Delhi Cantonment.