Centre has approved 175 crore rupees for implementation of Jal jeevan mission in Meghalaya during 2020-21. Jal Jeevan Mission was launched by Union Government last year aims to provide Functional Household Tap Connection to every rural household by 2024.

The Revenue Department stated the provisions of the amended Indian Stamp Act, which was to come into force from April 1, will now be effective from July 1.

To rationalise and harmonise the system of levying stamp duty and help curb tax evasion, the government had through Finance Act 2019 amended the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. Certain changes were to be effective from April 1, 2020. Through a notification the Revenue Department stated these amended provisions will come into effect from July 1, 2020.

The winners of The Hindu Prize 2019 Fiction and Non-Fiction are Mirza Waheed (Tell Her Everything – Fiction) and Santanu Das (India, Empire, and First World War Culture: Writings, Images and Songs – Non-Fiction) respectively.Prize was founded in 2010 to honor writers who have spent the rest of their lives mining the human spirit with their words & ideas.

GoI has extended the benefit of 2% Interest Subvention (IS) to Banks and 3% Prompt Repayment Incentive (PRI) to all farmers up to 31 May 2020. The extension is applicable to the crop loans up to Rs.3 lakh given by banks which have become due or are becoming due between 1 March and 31 May 2020. The move comes in the wake of lockdown due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

National Gallery of Modern Art has celebrated 66 years by launching a virtual tour of its permanent collection amid lockdown.
The Gallery launched a virtual tour of its permanent collection for the visitors to enjoy without having to physically visit the Museum during these days.
It is for the first time that the National Gallery of Modern Art has provided the facility of the virtual tour.

Thomas Schafer passed away by committing suicide, his body was found on train tracks near Wiesbaden. Schafer had “considerable worries” over COVID-19

Schafer was a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). He had been active in Hessian state politics for more than two decades and was finance minister for almost 10 years.

The Scitech Airon is a negative ion generator that helps in controlling the fungal infections, bacteria and virus present in a closed environment. It also helps in cleaning up the air and disinfecting areas that are exposed to the suspected and positive cases of Covid 19 infection. Thereby ensuring the wellbeing of the medical and paramedical staff. Note: NIDHI stands for National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations programme, which was started by the Department of Science & Technology (DST) with the objective of helping and converting ideas and innovations that are knowledge-based and technology-driven into successful startups.

The Reserve Bank has allowed Small Finance Banks (SFBs) to carry out simple financial activities without seeking a prior approval from it. This will be applicable to those SFBs who have completed three years of operations.

Jharkhand state government has launched PRAGYAAM, a Mobile application. The app was launched by the State Chief Minister Hemant Soren. The app aims to issue e-passes to everyone associated with the delivery of essential services during the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The National Health Commission of China published a list of recommended treatments to treat COVID-19. Apart from western medicine and Chinese medicine, the list included Tan Re Qing, injections that contain bear bile powder.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) has unveiled a new logo as it merges United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce with it, with effect from April 1, 2020.
The new logo will bear distinct signages of all the three public sector lenders.
With this, PNB is set to become the second-largest lender in the country.

The book titled “The Death of Jesus” authored by Nobel laureate J M Coetzee has been released. It is the third book of the series.

The earlier two books were, “The Childhood of Jesus”, published in 2014 and The Schooldays of Jesus, in 2018.

The Active Case Finding Campaign for COVID 19 patients will be started in Himachal Pradesh from 1 April 2020. Within the campaign, health workers will be providing facts regarding symptoms of Covid-19 to the people at their doorsteps and every ASHA worker with a team of two people will visit every house in the rural areas and gather information on the health of each individual which would be shared with the department through Google form. The timing for information gathering will be from 9 am to 4 pm.

In accordance with a report titled “Boom and Bust 2020: Tracking the Global Plant Pipeline” 47.4 GW coal fired power projects at different stages were cancelled in India in 2019 which reduced total under development coal capacity to 66 GW. The report was prepared jointly by Global Energy Monitor, Greenpeace International, the Sierra Club, and Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). The report is the fifth annual survey of the coal plant pipeline

Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has announced that Saudi Arabia assured India to get uninterrupted Liquefied petroleum Gas(LPG) supply during the discussion on global oil market developments with Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Aramco’s Chief Executive Amin Nasser via video conference. The Capital and Currency of Saudi are Riyadh and Riyal respectively.

DheeYantra, the pioneers in Indian languages NLP and conversational AI, has launched “Aham!”, a virtual assistant. The chatbot was developed to provide answers to the concerns on the COVID-19 crisis.

Iconic ethnic newspaper in US, India Abroad, ceases print edition after 50 years.

IIT Madras will collaborate with 2 industry partners for research in AI and magnetic nanoparticles-based products.
The Institute has joined hands with MagGenome Technologies to develop magnetic nanoparticles-based products.
The institute has also collaborated with BUDDI Healthcare Technologies to develop AI-based software products for the Healthcare industry.

The country’s largest lender State Bank of India stated it has raised USD 100 million green bonds, the first such bond by any state-owned bank in this fiscal. The bonds were priced at 3M Libor + 80 basis points. The lender has already two climate bond initiative certified green bonds issuances, aggregating USD 700 million.

The Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) has acquired 67% stake held by the Central government in Kamarajar Port Ltd (KPL – located at Chennai, TN) for an amount of Rs 2,383 crore.

Gujarat Education Department has decided to introduce home learning process for students following the lockdown.
The students from class III to class VIII will be provided – weekly learning material – by using various social media platforms, including WhatsApp.
Every Saturday, students will be provided study material via social media platforms for the next four to five weeks.

The 50th edition of the Indian Handicrafts and Gifts Fair (IHGF)-Delhi Fair is to be organized from 14-18 October 2020 at India Expo Centre & Mart, Greater Noida in Delhi NCR.

The Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) which was formulated by the Indian Government in 1993, assists the Members of Parliaments (MP) to suggest developmental work in respective constituencies with a focus on the creation of durable community assets based on local needs. The scheme was earlier administered by the Ministry of Rural Development but in October 1994,  the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) took charge of looking into the scheme. Context: The Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has requested all MPs for the contribution of at least Rs. 1 crore from their MPLADS funds to help the Government to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

The two short-range projectiles fired by North Korea were a test of a ‘super-large’ multiple rocket launcher, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reports.

the test was carried out in order to “verify strategic and technical characteristics of a super-large multiple rocket launcher once again.”

BP Kaunungo was reappointed as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the extension of Kanungo’s term as RBI deputy Governor by one year with effect from 3 April, when his three year tenure comes to an end.

The United States of America (USA) will provide additional USD 174 million financial assistance to 64 countries at-risk which includes USD 2.9 million to India as a support for combating the coronavirus pandemic. In February 2020, the USA provided 100 million aid for the same purpose.

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has set up “Team-11” comprising of as many inter-departmental committees to fight the coronavirus spread.
Each of the committees will be headed by a senior bureaucrat of the state while the CM himself will be the head of the Team 11.
He has formed 11 inter-departmental committees with over 2 dozen senior govt officials working at crucial levels under his supervision.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed the 10th Episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat 2.0’ on 29 March. The Prime Minister apologized for the tough decisions the government took to combat against COVID-19.