18-07-23 Daily-Himachal Pradesh-HPPSC Current Affairs

The Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) has been conferred with the first prize at the prestigious Swachhta Pakhwada Award – 2023 by the Union Ministry of Power. SJVN chairman Nand Lal Sharma received the prize from the Union Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal in New Delhi.

Sharma said that the Swachhta Pakhwada Awards were conferred by the Union Ministry of Power to honour the (PSUs) in the power sector for their exemplary performance during the Swachhta Pakhwada from May 16 to 31 every year. The PSUs were evaluated on the basis of the initiatives undertaken to create awareness regarding the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan among the masses.

The action plan of this year included plantation drives, awareness camps, cleanliness campaigns as well as special drives to strengthen the use of eco-friendly material, installation of solid waste disposal machines and dustbins in public places. Besides, the firm organised awareness sessions on menstrual hygiene, installed sanitary pad incinerators in government educational institutions for girls and distributed sanitisation and personal hygiene materials in local communities.

Withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes by Reserve Bank on May 19 and the subsequent near total return of the currency to the system has buoyed deposit accretion to a six-year high of Rs 191.6 lakh crore in June, according to a report.

Earlier this month, the RBI said more than three-fourths of the total 3.62 lakh crore of Rs 2,000 bank notes have come back to the system by way of deposits (over 85 per cent) and the rest as note exchanges.

Deposits rose 13 per cent in the reporting fortnight and sequentially, it expanded by 3.2 per cent to Rs 191.6 lakh crore and in absolute terms, deposits rose by Rs 22 lakh crore in the trailing 12-month period when it had stood at Rs 185.7 lakh crore.

The Centre is aiming for digitising land records across all districts by March 31 next year and the ministry of rural development is also working on linking the digitised records with e-courts and banks to check fraudulent land transactions and prevent disputes.

According to the ministry under the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP), 94% digitisation targets have already been achieved across the country. Showing the way to others to meet the targets are 68 districts across nine states Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tripura, Gujarat, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Assam. On Tuesday they received the Bhoomi Samman from PresidentDroupadi Murmufor meeting 99% and above of the targets on all components of digitisation.

The government, under DILRMP, carries out monthly grading on six components computerisation of land records; digitisation of cadastral maps; linkage of land records with cadastral maps; computerisation of registration; integration of registration (sub registrar office) with land records (revenue office); and creation of a modern record room. The districts are graded as platinum (99% and above), gold (95% and above till 99%) and silver (90% and above till 95%).

India and Argentina discussed the ongoing DEFENCE cooperation initiatives, including measures to enhance defence industrial PARTNERSHIP, the Ministry of Defence said after a bilateral meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Argentine counterpart Jorge Enrique Taiana.

Argentina has shown interest in sourcing Tejas, a Light combat aircraft, from India. The Argentine Minister will visit the public sector giant, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the makers of the plane. Hal has already done its sales pitch with the South American country.

India and Argentina are working closely together to make defence engagements an important facet of their strategic partnership.

The Asian (ADB) on Wednesday retained Indias economic Growth forecast at 6.4 per cent for the current financial year and 6.7 per cent for the next, saying robust domestic demand will continue to support the region’s recovery.

In an update to its Asian Development Outlook, the ADB said Inflation is expected to continue to fall, approaching pre-pandemic levels as fuel and food prices decline. It forecast 3.6 per cent inflation this year for developing economies in Asia, and 3.4 per cent in 2024.

In April, the ADB had projected that India’s economic growth is expected to moderate to 6.4 per cent in the current financial year due to tight monetary conditions and elevated oil prices.

Researchers have discovered a new way to reverse the effects offentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine.
Their research, which was published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, could lead to a new method of reversing overdoses, either through a new product or by working in tandem with naloxone.
According to the Centres for Disease Control, 100,000 Americans die each year from overdoses, the majority of which are caused by the use of synthetic opiates such as fentanyl. While naloxone, the only antidote for opiateoverdose, is becoming more widely available, it is less effective against fentanyl-class synthetic opioids.