Rajasthan has the maximum households electrified through the solar-based standalone system, while hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir had nil beneficiaries under the initiative.
Centre had launched Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – ‘Saubhagya’ in October 2017.
It also entailed provision of solar based standalone systems to un-electrified households
Electric two-wheeler company Hero Electric has announced its partnership with the State Bank of India (SBI) for two-wheeler financing solutions.
Customers buying Hero Electric e-scooters will get an additional INR 2,000 off on payments made through YONO, SBI’s integrated digital banking platform.
customers will be able to opt for a fully digital and paperless two-wheeler loan.
In an important discovery, scientists have recorded presence of White-Cheeked Macaque ( Macaca leucogenys) from central Arunachal Pradesh in India. The species was discovered in 2015 by a group of Chinese scientists from the Modog region in southeastern Tibet and this discovery was considered a significant breakthrough as far as primates are concerned.
The Delhi High Court has appointed former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal as the chairperson of the Committee of Administrators to discharge the functions of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI).
Chetan Mittal, Senior Advocate and SD Mudgil, a renowned athlete as a member of the committee.
Palaniswamy Subramanyan Karthigeyan concurrently accredited as next High Commissioner of India to Tonga.
Palaniswamy Subramanyan Karthigeyan, presently High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Fiji, has been concurrently accredited as the next High Commissioner of India to the Kingdom of Tonga, with residence in Suva.
French glass and building material major Saint-Gobain and IIT Madras Research Park have signed an agreement to collaborate on technologies to promote maximum use of clean energy as part of net-zero carbon emission objectives. As part of the MoU signed by Saint-Gobain India will be supporting IIT Madras Research Park with a funding of ₹1 crore over the next 3 years.
Muktesh Kumar Pardeshi appointed as the next Indian High Commissioner to Republic of Vanuatu.
He is a 1991-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer is currently serving as the High Commissioner of India to New Zealand.
He had earlier served as Ambassador of India to Mexico.
Vanuatu is a South Pacific Ocean nation.
Capital: Port Vila; Currency: Vanuatu vatu.
Union power and renewable energy minister R K Singh said that India will replace use of diesel in farming with renewables by 2024. He chaired a virtual meeting with additional chief secretaries and principal secretaries of power in states for collaboration between the Central and state governments for achieving energy transition goals.
On the occasion of the One Ocean Summit taking place in the French city of Brest, UNESCO has announced that at least 80% of the seabed will be mapped by 2030, compared to 20% currently, with the support of its Member States & the private sector.
In 2017, UNESCO joined forces with the Nippon Foundation, Japan's largest private foundation to launch the Seabed 2030 programme.
The Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO has successfully launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C52 from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The PSLV-C52 mission has also injected three satellites into the orbits.
PSLV C52 placed an EOS-04 radar imaging satellite weighing 1710 kgs into orbit.
Israel becomes the first-ever country to allow drones in civilian airspace. Referring to this, the Israel's Ministry of Transport and Road Safety recently announced the country's first certification for unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) to operate in civilian airspace.
Hermes Starliner can fly for up to 36 hours at an altitude of around 7600 m.
Capability to carry an additional 450kg of thermal, electro-optical, & other payloads.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the extension of the umbrella scheme of Modernisation of Police Forces (MPF) for three more fiscals till 2025-26 with a central outlay of Rs 26,275 crore with the bulk going to equip forces to tackle troubles in Jammu and Kashmir, north-east and naxal-infested states.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) launched the JIVA agroecology-based program, which will promote natural farming through its existing watershed and wadi programs in 11 states.
The JIVA initiative will be implemented in 25 projects, covering five agroecological zones.