rawan239

Laosis gearing up to host the annualASEAN Tourism Forumin January 2024, which will take place in the countrys capital city, Vientiane. The theme for the forum is Quality and Responsible Tourism Sustaining ASEAN Future, which reflects the focus on sustainable and responsible tourism practices.

The forum will include a tourism exhibition and is expected to boost tourism in Laos while encouraging service improvement in associated businesses. The Lao News Agency quoted Minister of Information, Culture, and Tourism Suanesavanh Vignaket, who stated that the event will promote Laos as a nature-based tourism destination.

The Lao government is keen to promote the countrys potential as a nature-based tourism destination. Many foreign tourists have already visited Laos to explore the countrys scenic attractions, as well as the local lifestyles and traditions.

TheSports Ministryhas decided to set up 143Khelo Indiacentres across seven states with a total budget of Rs 14.30 crore in its bid to nurture talent at the grassroot level.
These centres will be set up inMaharashtra,Mizoram, Goa,Karnataka,Madhya Pradesh,Arunachal PradeshandManipur.

Each centre will be entrusted with one Sports discipline.

The Khelo India centres have been launched by the Sports Ministry in PARTNERSHIP with state governments to ensure the availability of grassroot-level across the country.

In June 2020, the ministry had planned to open up as many as 1,000 new Khelo India centres over a period of four years, with at least one centre in each district of the country.

The Supreme Court‘s E-Committee has released a manual in 14 languages for its free “e-Courts Services Mobile App.”

The Supreme Court’s e-committee has released a manual for its “e-Courts Services Mobile App” in 14 languages, and the app itself has received over 57 lakh downloads.

The manual is available in the following languages: English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Khasi, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

The App functions as a personalised digital case diary, with case details available on the handset at any time of day, for free. It allows any litigant, advocate, judge, or anyone else in India to check the current status of a case.

Karnatakawith 4.4 lakh active Covid cases is at the top among all states with highest active coronavirus cases in the country.Maharashtrais second with 3.3 lakh active cases, followed byTamil Naduwith 3 lakh, Kerala (2.6 lakh) andAndhra Pradesh(2 lakh).

Many other states have reported significant drop in daily cases and coupled with a high recovery rate, the total caseloads have come down countrywide – from a peak active cases of 37 lakh to 26 lakh on Tuesday. West Bengal,OdishaandRajasthanhave 1 lakh active cases each.

Indias exporters are not complaining about the order book, despite some hiccups in recent weeks due to lockdowns across states.

According to the latest data available with thegovernment, Indias exports reached $50.7 billion during the first seven weeks of the fiscal year, 11% higher than the corresponding period in 2019-20. The initial weeks of the last financial year were washed out due to a strict country-wide lockdown in India, which coincided with a similar situation across large parts of the world.

Over 14,000 hectares area in Car Nicobar and Nancowry islands in the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands has become Indias first large contiguous territory to be certified as organic under theCentre’s Large Area Certification (LAC) scheme.
Farming operations will be completely free from chemical inputs in this area like how it’s being done in the country’s fully organic stateSikkim.

India currently has several smaller clusters, accounting for more than 30lakh hectaresarea spread over many states, registered under organic certification as per the PGS-India certification programme where the areas having chemical input usage HISTORY are required to undergo a transition period of a minimum of 2-3 years to qualify as organic.

As per the international survey report (2021) on , India ranks fifth in terms of area and is at the top in terms of a total number of producers (the Base Year 2019).

The 2023 International Prize in Statistics, which is regarded as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in statistics, has been awarded to Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, an Indian-American statistician. The prize, established in 2016, is presented once every two years to an individual or team that has made significant contributions to science, technology, and human welfare through the use of statistics. The award is given out by a collaboration of five major international statistics organizations and recognizes major accomplishments by an individual or team. Rao will be honored with the prize, which carries an $80,000 cash award, at the International Statistical Institute World Statistics Congress in Ottawa, Canada, in July.

In addition to being awarded the Padma Bhusan in 1968 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2001, Rao was the recipient of the SS Bhatnagar Prize in 1963 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1967. He also received the Wilks Medal of the American Statistical Association in 1979 and the US National Medal of Science in 2002

The Index HDI measures the Average achievement of a country in three basic dimensions of human development a long and healthy life, Education and a decent standard of living. Human Development index is calculated using four indicators life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling, and the Gross NATIONAL INCOME (GNI) per capita.

This score is a remarkable improvement compared to the South Asian regions average value of 0.508 and is close to the world average of 0.465, and India ranks 132 out of 191 countries

India ranked 132nd among 191 countries and territories on the 2021 Human Development Index (HDI). In the 2020 report, India had ranked 131st among 189 countries and territories. The decline in the countrys performance from its previous level was on account of a fall in life expectancy

Among Indias neighbours, Sri Lanka (73rd), China (79th), Bangladesh (129th), and Bhutan (127th) are ranked above India, while Pakistan (161st), Nepal (143rd), and Myanmar (149th) are worse off. The report said around 90 per cent of countries registered a decline in their HDI value in 2020 or in 2021

NASAs Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument has successfully launched, marking a significant step forward in the monitoring of major air pollutants. The instrument will provide unprecedented resolution, allowing scientists to observe air quality from space with accuracy down to just four square miles. The TEMPO mission aims to revolutionize the way air quality is monitored, helping to improve life on Earth.

The instrument was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Intelsat 40E satellite carried the payload, which separated from the rocket around 32 minutes after launch. Signal acquisition occurred at 1:14 a.m. TEMPO commissioning activities will begin in late May or early June

Nepal and India are preparing to sign an agreement to allow cross-border digital payments through e-wallets, a move that is expected to boost trade and tourism between the two countries by eliminating currency exchange issues. The accord, expected to be signed during Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahals visit to India, will allow Indian tourists in Nepal to make digital payments through Indian e-wallets like BharatPe, PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm.

The two countries have agreed to the deal, and officials from both countries are awaiting signatures. The launch of digital payment Services will eliminate the hassle of carrying large amounts of cash for Indian tourists and businessmen in Nepal and is expected to increase inter-operable real-time person-to-person (P2P) and merchant payment transactions (P2M) in Nepal

India elected as member of UN Statistical Commission Narcotic Drugs and the Programme Coordinating Board of the Joint UN Program

India has recently been elected as a member of the United Nations (UN) Statistical Commission Narcotic Drugs and the Programme Coordinating Board of the Joint UN Program, signaling the countrys increasing presence in the international arena. The decision was made during a vote held at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

India, along with South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and China, were vying for two seats from the Asia Pacific States category. In the first round of voting, South Korea received 23 votes, while China and the UAE received 19 and 15 votes, respectively.

A recent report by Tibet Press highlights that, according to the Freedom in the World Index for 2023 published by international watchdog Freedom House, Tibet is the country with the least freedom in the world. The report, titled Freedom in the World 2023 Report, was released by Freedom House on March 9 and identified Tibet, South Sudan, and Syria as the least-free countries in the world.

This is the third consecutive year that Tibet has been ranked at the bottom of the list in Freedom Houses surveys conducted in 2021 and 2022. The report stated that residents of Tibet were deprived of basic rights, both Chinese and Tibetan, and that the Chinese government is ruthless in suppressing any signs of dissent among Tibetans