Daily News

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States yet to decide on national anthem query

Home Ministry notified the appointment of a 12-member inter-ministerial committee to take a final call on the playing of the national anthem in cinema and public places.

The panel, led by Special Secretary B.R. Sharma, is expected to give its report.

The committee to give recommendations regarding regulations on playing/singing of the national anthem and suggest changes in the acts and orders relating to the Insult of National Honour Act, 1971.

Audiences were not expected to stand if the anthem is part of the movie.

Did you Know

The national anthem was composed in Bengali by poet Rabindranath Tagore.

The song was adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on 24 January 1950.

A formal rendition of the national anthem takes approximately 52 seconds.

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Odisha police, UNICEF join hands against child abuse

CM Naveen Patnaik launched ‘Paree Pain Katha Tiye’ (A word for the little angel), a State-wide awareness campaign against child sexual abuse.

UNICEF and the State police have joined hands for the campaign to create awareness on the importance and role of every member of society in preventing child sexual abuse, need for reporting and need for trauma care.

Fifteen vans modified as ‘Paree Express’ flagged off by Mr. Patnaik will cover all 30 districts during the campaign from May 28 to June 12.

Did you Know

UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, to defend their rights, and to help them fulfil their potential.

Head: Henrietta H. Fore

Headquarter- New York City

Founded: 11 December 1946

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Defence secretary gets additional charge of DRDO

Defence secretary Sanjay Mitra has been given additional charge of the organization for three months after chief S Christopher retirement.

Did you Know

DRDO was formed in 1958 by the merger of Technical Development Establishment and Directorate of Technical Development and Production with the Defence Science Organisation.

Its Headquarter is in New Delhi.

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Sudha Balakrishnan starts as RBI’s first CFO

Sudha Balakrishnan, a former vice president at National Securities Depository Ltd., assumed charge as the first Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of RBI.

Ms. Balakrishnan has been appointed to the rank of an executive director.

She will report to Deputy Governors Viral Acharya and B.P. Kanungo.

Did you Know

Balakrishnan will also be in charge of the dividend RBI pays to the government, which is crucial in the final budgetary calculations.

Under the RBI Act, 1934, the central bank is required to pay the government its surplus after making provisions for bad and doubtful debts, depreciation in assets and, contribution to staff and superannuation fund among others.

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AI arm, IndiGo among lowest cost worldwide

Air India’s low-cost international arm Air India Express and budget carrier IndiGo are among the top five lowest cost airlines in the world, according to Melbourne-based travel planning site Rome2rio.

India ranks fourth among 46 countries with lowest average airfares, while Chile is at the top and Nepal at the bottom of the rankings.

Did you Know

The study ranks 200 airlines in the world on the basis of average price per kilometer.

Air India Express was the second place and IndiGo ranked third.

Full-service carriers Jet Airways and Air India secured 12th and 13th positions.

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Sangeeta Bahl becomes oldest Indian woman to scale Mt Everest

Sangeeta Bahl, a 53-year-old former model, and entrepreneur from Jammu and Kashmir have become the oldest Indian woman to conquer Mount Everest.

She has already conquered six out of the seven highest peaks of the world.

She broke the record of Premlata Agarwal, 48, who scaled Everest on May 20, 2011.

Did you Know

Her husband, Ankur Bahl, on March 19, 2016, successfully scaled the world’s highest peak.

Sangeeta was a Miss India finalist in 1985 and is also the founder of Impact Image Consultants in Gurgaon.

Shivangi Pathak, 16, from Haryana became India’s youngest woman to climb the Everest from Nepali side.

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Queen Maxima of Kingdom of Netherlands visits India

The Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and also the UN Secretary General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development is on a four-day visit to India.

The Queen also meets with development partners at the UN House, Co-Founder and Governing Council Member of iSpirit Sharad Sharma, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar and Amitabh Kant respectively at the NITI Aayog.

Did you Know

The capital of Netherland: Amsterdam

Currency: Euro

Prime Minister: Mark Rutte

Monarch: Willem Alexander

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Moonwalker Alan Bean is dead at 86

Alan Bean, who became the fourth man to walk on the moon has died.

Bean stepped onto the lunar surface preceded by Pete Conrad in November 1969, four months after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first lunar explorers.

Did you Know

Bean left NASA in 1981 to become a full-time artist as he had a long-standing interest in painting.

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Kamaljit Bawa first Indian to receive Linnean Medal

Indian botanist Kamaljit S. Bawa, president of Bengaluru-based non-profit Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), received the prestigious Linnean Medal in Botany from the Linnean Society of London.

Dr. Bawa is the first Indian to win the award.

Did you Know

The Linnean Medal is awarded to a biologist every year by the Linnean Society of London.

It is the world’s oldest active biological society founded in 1788 and named after famous Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus who gave us one of the systems of naming plants and animals.

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IMD teams up with BSNL to send weather alerts

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is teaming up with state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to send extreme weather warnings to people.

If IMD sends an alert, it will be passed on to all BSNL numbers in Delhi (about an impending extreme weather event warning like thunderstorm, dust storm, heatwave).

Did you Know

The area-specific alerts will be sent to users if they are in that particular place where extreme weather pattern is going to occur, even if their phone numbers do not belong to that particular telecom circle.

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Colombia is first Latin American nation to join Nato as 'global partner'

Colombia has formally joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Colombia joined the ranks of Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan.

Did you Know

NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries based on the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.

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Hamburg to host 2018 Global Wind Summit

First edition of the Global Wind Summit will be held from September 25-28, 2018 in Hamburg, Germany which will provide a platform for experts from across the globe to discuss innovative and green technologies for harnessing wind energy making.

The event combines two conferences, WindEnergy Hamburg and WindEurope, Holinsky.

The focus of the conferences would be on three major subjects- Dynamic markets, cost efficiency and smart energy.

Did you Know

India is fourth largest country -- after China, the US, and Germany -- in terms of wind energy installation capacity at around 33 GW.