*** The Fourth Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) Corvette of Project-28, christened ‘Kavaratti’ was launched at a glittering ceremony held at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE)Kolkata.
*** New urea policy
The government approved a new urea policy aiming to increase domestic production by2 million tonnes and reduce its subsidy bill by over Rs 4,800 crore annually, but decided not to raise retail prices.
The maximum retail price (MRP) of urea for farmers has been left untouched at Rs 268 per bag of 50 kgs, excluding local taxes. Farmers would have to pay an additional Rs 14 per bag for neem-coated urea.
*** Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Bill
The Cabinet approved the new Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Bill which aims at curbing the generation of domestic black money.
The Bill provides for prosecution and aims to act as a major avenue for blocking generation and holding of black money in the form of benami property, especially in real estate.
*** A strategically important new Naval base — INS Sardar Patel — was commissioned in porbandar, which Navy chief K. Dhowan said will help boost security of Gujarat’s 1600-km coastline.
*** India successfully test-fired an advanced version of the BrahMos land-attack cruise missile from the Car Nieobar Islands as it revalidated the weapoifs precision strike capability .The BrahMos missile’ has been jointly developed by India and Russia.
*** India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran for developing the Chabahar port that amis to improve trade connectivity between Southeast Asia and Central Asia.
*** AAP- stands for Aam Aadmi Party which won 67 of the 70 seats of Delhi in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
*** (Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar witnessed four-hour long naval maneuvering between Indian Navy and its French counterpart off Goa coast- the concluding day of ‘Varuna’
*** The government sanctioned a Rs 5,113 crore project to develop a next-generation Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), which will act as a 360-degree “Eye in the Sky”, and also approved purchase of two Airbus A330 air craft ‘for the same.
*** Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi and 1T Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad jointly launched the website ‘Khoya-Paya’, a platform for citizens to report children sighted as abandoned, lost or with suspicious person.
*** Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated scientists for the successful launch of IRNSS ID satellite.
With the successful launch of IRNSS-ID, the fourth in the series of seven navigational satellites today, India is set to operationalise its own navigational system on part with the GPS of the United States.
IRNSS-ID will provide navigation, tracking and mapping service and has a mission life of 10 years.
*** Water Resources minister lima Bharathi today launched Mal Kranti’campaign in Jaipur, emphasizing that the water preservation and conservation initiative will not be successful unless it is converted into a mass movement.
*** Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched the e-ration’ service through which people can apply and obtain ration cards and check availability of food grains and their costs, making Delhi the first in the country to launch the facility.
*** In the recently released EDU-RAND 2015 rankings, IIT Delhi is at the top of the list, followed by other IITs in Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Guwahati and Kanpur.
*** Three premier institutions of IIT Kharagpur, IIM Kolkata and Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Kolkata, have come together for the first time to offer a joint course in business analytics.
Starting from this session, the Post Graduate Diploma in Business Analytics(PGDBA) will allow students the rare opportunity to become students of all the three institutions at the same time and study one semester at each of them.
*** IIT Delhi has been ranked as the best engineering college in India while Kolkata”s Jadavpur University is leading the pack among government colleges, according to a report.
*** Prime Minister of India. Shri Narendra Modi launched his ambitious multi-purpose and multi-modal platform PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation).
PRAGATI is a unique integrating and interactive platform.
The platform is aimed at addressing common man’s grievances, and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India as well as projects flagged by State Governments.
The PRAGATI platform uniquely bundles three latest technologies: Digital data management, video-conferencing and geo-spatial technology.
*** Preparing to join the yoga day celebration. NCERT has prepared a textbook on yoga for upper primary classes to be released on June 21.
*** Parliament has passed the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2015.
The Amendment removes discretion in the grant of mineral concessions. All mineral concessions are granted by the respective State Governments. They will continue to do so but all grants of mineral concessions would be through auctions, thereby bringing in greater transparency and removing discretion.
*** India’s largest aircraft carrier. INS Vikrant’s induction into the Navy will be done after a series of static and dynamic trials.
*** The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, gave its approval for making reservation of 33 percent for women, horizontally and in each category (SC/ST/OBC and others) in direct recruitment in non-gazetted posts from Constables to sub-inspector in the police forces of all Union Territories, including Delhi Police
*** As the pre-dawn cross-border operation appeared to signal a possible change in India’s counter-terrorism approach, the Government also said it has “zero tolerance” towards terror and terror organizations.
*** With the passing of the Coal Mines( Special Provisions) Bill 2015 by the Rajya Sabha , the Bill gets the approval of the Parliament. Earlier the Lok Sabha had passed this Bill on 04th March. 2015. The objectives and salient features of the Coal Mines) Special Provisions) Bill,2015 are as follows:
To provide for allocation of coal mines and vesting of the right, title and interest in and over the land and mine infrastructure to successful bidders and allottees with a view to ensure continuity in coal mining operations and production of coal.
To take immediate action to auction or allot coal mines to minimise impact on core sectors such as steel, cement and power, which are vital for the development of the nation.
*** Prime Minister Narendra Modi today condoled the death of Nek Chand, the creator of the iconic Rock Garden of Chandigarh, and said he will always be remembered for his artistic genius, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed today inaugurated the annual three-day Sindhu festival here at laddakh. extending an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the region — a great seat of Buddhist culture.
*** An advanced version of the indigenously developed Pinaka Mark-II rocket was successfully test fired from Army”s Chandan firing range near Pokhran using a multi-barrel launcher, jointly developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization and the Indian Army, this multi-barrel rocket launcher has high operational mobility, flexibility and accuracy as the major characteristics, which give the weapon an edge in modern artillery warfare for the Indian Armed Forces.
*** The Union government has launched an insurance pool of Rs. 1,500 crore, mandatory under the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act to offset the financial burden on foreign nuclear suppliers in case of an accident.
*** In a traditional ceremony, US-educated Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wodeyar, the adopted son of Pramoda Devi Wodeyar, was crowned as the titular head of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family.
*** Ahead of the first UN Yoga Day to be observed on June 21, India-China Yoga college has beeninaugurated today at Yunnan Minzu University in Kunming by VK Singh. The MoU for establishing the Yoga College was signed during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Chinalast month.
*** The Centre welcomed Tripura government decision to lift AFSPA saying there was no need the state government to take the consent of the central government while taking the move AFSPA provides unlimited powers to security forces to shoot at sight, arrest anybody without a warrant, and carry out searches without consent. All this knowing that they wouldn’t face any action for any legal action undertaken under the act.
*** Sakaar consists of 3D models of MOM, RISAT, rockets (PSLV, GSLV Mk-IlI); videos of INSAT-‘D-predicting cyclones, GSLV D5/Cryo, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) orbit insertion, launch video of MOM, 360 degree animated view of MOM; Anaglyph of Mars surface.
*** IT industry lobby group Nasscom launched ‘Nasscom Cyber Security Task Force’, which aims to make India the hub for cyber security related research, training and products. The development comes nearly three months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted the domestic IT industry and youth to help address the global cyber security challenge.
*** The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region. MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh launched an Augmented Reality (AR) application named ‘Sakaar’ to highlight the achievements of the Department of Space during one year in office of the Present Government. DECU-ISRO has developed this application for Android devices.
*** Reaching out to farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong pitch for their prosperity and development of villages, saying it was directly linked to the progress of the country. Launching DD Kisan Channel, which would provide information about best agricultural practices and related content.
*** The Election Commission today suspended the recognition of ‘P A Sangma”s National People’’sParty for failing to file its election expenditure statement for the 2014 Lok Sab ha elections
*** The AAP government has approved mandatory GPS on all public transport vehicles. This will be in effect from June 1, said a senior official. The decision comes months after the transport department which has been extending the deadline for mandatory GPS, announced that all passenger vehicles will need it in order to get their fitness certificates renewed.
*** Emphasizing that yoga does not discriminate, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he discovered the “simple sense of satisfaction” it brings when he tried his first “asana” during his visit to India.
*** Indigenously-built guided missile stealth frigate INS Satpura and anti-submarine corvette INS Kamrota are participating in SIMBEX-15, a bilateral naval exercise with Singapore,