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Bill To Declare Diwali as a National Holiday In the US

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US lawmaker Carolyn B Maloney of New York introduces Bill to declare Diwali a national holiday

Highlights

Congresswoman Carolyn B Maloney of New York has introduced legislation to make Diwali a national holiday in the United States.

The Deepavali Day Act was introduced in the House of Representatives by the member.

A number of congressmen, including Indian-American Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, support the historic measure.

Meanwhile, Krishnamoorthi sponsored a resolution in the US Congress to recognize the festival of lights’ religious and historical significance.

The campaign will run from November 8 to November 14, 2021.

Under the campaign, several activities are being undertaken for empowering people by pre-litigation advice in order to rightfully claim their entitlements and timely redressal of their difficulties.

This one week is dedicated for ensuring for All by digital legal Empowerment of the needy people.

As a part of the campaign, special Login week is being organized across India to encourage those in need to seek legal advice and consultation using tele-and video conferencing facilities. They are being urged to visit their nearest Common Service Centres (CSCs) that are offering Tele-Law Services.

These CSCs are branded asKanooni Salah Sahahyak Kendrafor this purpose.

The Tele-Law on Wheels Campaign is being organised with aid of CSC e-Governance. CSC e-Governance is a Network of more than 4 lakh digitally enabled CSCs across India.

The Logistics Ease Across Different States 2021 Index was recently published by Ministry of Commerce & Industry. This is the third edition of Index.

In the index, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab were emerged as best performing states with respect to mobility of goods and efficiency oflogisticschain.

This index provide ranking to states on the basis of logistics Infrastructure.

Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab are the best performing states (Top 3 slot respectively)

Tamil Nadu (4th) and Maharashtra (5th) are among top-5 slot.

Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand have witnessed a significant improvement as compared to 2019 LEADS ranking. These states have emerged as the top improvers.

For representation purposes, states were ranked in three separate classes:

North Eastern States

Himalayan UTs and

Other UTs group.

Within Himalayan UTs, Jammu & Kashmir emerged as top ranker.

In North Eastern States, Sikkim and Meghalaya emerged as topper.

Delhi was ranked at top position among other United Territories category.

UNDP Video on Climate Change

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Dont Choose Extinction a creative video was released by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Highlights:

The UNDP emphasizes in the film that it is time to act, and it is time to act now, to address the Climate issue.

It is time to do whatever it takes to bring the urgency Home and gain the world’s attention.

The viral video depicts a dinosaur delivering a straightforward warning to world leaders and diplomats: “It’s now or never.”

Save the human species before it’s too late and doesnt choose extinction.”

The UNDP published the creative film as the centerpiece of the ‘Don’t Choose Extinction’ campaign.

A dinosaur named Frankie makes a grand entrance, takes the dais, and gets right to the point in the video.

It emphasizes a vital message: government-backed fossil fuel subsidies must be reduced in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and rescue the planet.

Banks told to stop funding states using future revenue

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The Centre andRBIhave pulled up banks for lending to entities based on the escrow of the states future revenue streams or using collectorates and courts as security, with the finance ministry seeking an end to the practice as it found that most of the loans were given by Psu banks, including SBI.

While SBI was the first to be asked to stop such lending, a source at the countrys top lender said that it extended loans toAndhraPradesh government based on a letter from the state government, which suggested that the required approvals were in place.

Last year, in a Communication to state, the Union finance ministry had stated that pledging of future tax revenues was not in line with Article 266 (1) of theConstitution, which mandates that all taxes and loans should flow into theConsolidated Fundof the state. The letter followed a reference to the Centre that the state government had transferred assets to the AP State Development Corporation (APSDC) to raise funds.

Unorganised sector, MSME absorbed workforce

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Unemployment in Bengal soared to 22.1% in June last year but fell sharply after that and remained on a par with, or lower than, the national Average, according to the Center for Monitoring Indian economy (CMIE).

Among other states, unemployment in June 2022 was the highest in Haryana at 30.6%, followed by Rajasthan at 29.8%, Assam at 17.2%, J&K at 17.2%, Bihar at 14% and Jharkhand at 12.2%.

MP recorded the lowest unemployment rate for June, 2022 at 0.5% followed byChhattisgarhat 1.2%, Meghalaya at 2.3%, Gujarat at 3% and Karnataka at 3.7%.

Kerala and Goa mirrored Bengals see-saw unemployment figures for the last two years. For Goa, the rate plunged from 17.9% in June 2021 to 5.5% in June 2022. For Kerala, the rate dropped to 5.3% in June 2022 from 15.8% in June 2021. But the rate for Maharashtra marginally rose to 4.8% in June 2022 from 4.3% in June 2021.

There, however, remains a concern due to the decline in 100-day jobs in the state. The state has alleged the Centre has not been releasing funds under the MGNREGA scheme.

Jagriti: Mascot for Consumer Rights

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Recently, Jagriti Mascot was launched by the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), in a bid to empower consumers and generate awareness on their rights.

Jagriti Mascot will help in empowering consumers and generating awareness among them about consumer rights.

The Mascot will be presented as an empowered consumer, mushrooming awareness on consumer rights and addressing solutions for the problems faced by consumers.

Through the Jagriti Mascot, DoCA aims to build up campaign on consumer awareness campaign in digital and multimedia. It also seeks to support for a young, empowered and informed consumer as consumer rights awareness recall brand.

PM launches YUVA 2.0 scheme for mentoring young authors

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Prime Ministers Scheme for Mentoring Young Authors – YUVA 2.0 was launched on October2, to promote reading, writing, and book culture in the country. In view of the significant impact of the first edition of YUVA with large-scale participation from young and budding authors in 22 different Indian languages and English, YUVA 2.0 has been launched.

Education Ministry said, the launch of YUVA 2.0 (Young, Upcoming and Versatile Authors) is in tune with the Prime Ministers vision to encourage the youth to understand and appreciate India’s Democracy. It will help to develop a stream of writers who can write on a spectrum of subjects to promote the Indian heritage, culture, and knowledge system.

US announces $810 mn in new funding for Pacific Islands at summit

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The United States announced $810 million in new funding for Pacific Islands at a summit with President Joe Biden amid inroads by China in the strategic but sparsely populated region.

The White House said $600 million will be in the form of a 10-year package to clean up and develop dirty waters to support the tuna , while the United States will also expand Climate and development aid and its diplomatic presence.

With the United States until now often seen as taking the region for granted,China has asserted itself stronglyin recent years through Investment, Police training and, most controversially, a security pact with the Solomon Islands.

Award for Sea Turtle Conservation

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Indian biologist Shailendra Singh won the Behler Sea Turtle Conservation Award for bringing back three critically endangered protected species of sea turtles from the brink of extinction.

The award has been bestowed with the help of various international bodies concerned in turtle conservation such as /SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, Turtle Survival Alliance,Turtle Conservancy, and the Turtle Conservation Fund.

As per report, more than half of the world Population are not getting any form of social protection. This trend of no social protection is there even after expansion of social protections amidst the global outbreak of COVID-19.

Only 47 per cent of the global population had effective access to one social protection benefit, in 2020 while 53 per cent (4.1 billion people) had no protection at all.

People in Europe and Central Asia are among the best covered population. 84 per cent of populations in Europe and Central Asia are having access to at least one benefit.

During the session, Prime Minister noted that, India-Russia energy PARTNERSHIP can bring stability in the global energy market. At the same time,International North-South Transport Corridorwill bring both the countries closer.

The plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) was held in Vladivostok.

EEF is an international meet, held annually in Vladivostok in order to encourage foreign investments in the resource-rich but underdeveloped Far East region of Russia. Russia has actively engaged India to invest in this region, following which India had announced a $1-billion line of credit for the Far East during EEF 2019.

Energy is one of the major pillars of India-Russia strategic partnership. Energy partnership between both the countries can help in bringing stability in the global energy market.

Both the countries have also been making a Chennai-Vladivostok maritime corridor. This connectivity project and International North-South (Transport) Corridor will bring both the countries physically closer.

Indias state-run Mazagon Docks Limited (Indias largest shipyards) will partner with Russian ship-building facility at Zvezda in order to build important commercial ships in the world.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have developed device to conduct microbial experiments in outer space.

This modular, self-contained device can be used to cultivate Microorganisms which in turn, enable scientists to carry out biological experiments even in outer space.

This study was published in Acta Astronautica. Researchers showed how this device can be used to activate and track the Growth of a bacterium called Sporosarcina pasteurii for several days with minimal involvement of human.

This understanding of how these microbes behave in extreme environments will provide valuable insights for human space missions like Gaganyaan that is set to be launched in 2022.

Social protection comprises of access to healthcare and income security in cases of Unemployment, old age, inability to work, and for families with children.