• The United Kingdom government has announced a partnership with leading businesses in India to offer 75 fully funded scholarships for Indian students to study in the UK from September, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. Additionally, the British Council in India is offering around 18 scholarships for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) covering over 12,000 courses across more than 150 UK universities.

About the Chevening scholarships programme:

• The programmes on offer include Chevening scholarships for a one-year Master’s programme, with the opportunity to study any subject at a UK university.
• HSBC, Pearson India, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Sons and Duolingo are among the companies supporting this initiative to celebrate India’s 75th year of independence. HSBC India will sponsor 15 scholarships, Pearson India will sponsor two, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Sons and Duolingo will sponsor one each as part of the 75 scholarships.
• The Chevening scheme is the UK government’s international awards scheme offered in 150 countries, aimed at developing global leaders since 1983. India’s Chevening programme is the largest in the world with over 3,500 alumni.
• The fully funded scholarships include tuition, living expenses and travel cost for a one-year-postgraduate programme. A minimum of two years’ work experience is required for candidates to be eligible for the award and details will be made available through the Chevening website.

Dak Karmayogi E-learning Platform

• The Dak Karmayogi, which is an e-Learning portal of the department of posts was launched by Shri Ashwini Vaishnav minister of communication, railways, electronics, and IT, and Shri Devusinh Chauhan minister of state for communications.
• The function was held at Stein auditorium Indian habitat Centre on 28 June 2022. This portal has been developed under the vision of mission Karmayogi which was initiated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi with a view of bringing efficiency in the actions of all the employees of the Government of India and transforming the efficiency of bureaucracy with minimum Government and maximum governance.

Objectives:

• Dak Karmayogi portal aims to enhance the competencies of about 4 lakh Gramin Dak Sevaks and department employees by enabling the trainees to access the uniform standardized training content online and in blending campus mode to enable them to effectively deliver several G2C services for enhanced customer satisfaction.
• When the trainee completes the final summative assessment successfully, a system-generated course completion certificate will be sent to the trainee’s registered email ID automatically.
• The portal allows the train to give their feedback, ratings, and suggestions for every video and other learning content for future enhancement.

History:

• It was initially observed on June 29, 2007, to honour Professor Mahalanobis’ exceptional contributions to statistical research and economic planning.
• It was decided to designate his birthday as National Statistics Day. On June 5th, 2007, the Indian Gazette initially published a notification about this.

KEY POINTS:

• National Statistics Day is observed in India on June 29 each year. The day aims to raise public awareness of the value of statistics in everyday life as well as in the planning and development process.
• The celebrated statistician, Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, is recognised on National Statistics Day for his contributions to economic planning and statistics. Additionally, the Indian Statistical Institute’s founder, Professor PC Mahalanobis, celebrates his birthday on 29 June.
• The theme of National Statistics Day 2022 is ‘Data for Sustainable Development ‘.

• The NASA researchers successfully launched CAPSTONE spacecraft to the moon from New Zealand.
• The launch took place on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket. Mission CAPSTONE stands for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment.
• With a price tag just shy of $30 million, NASA hopes the mission will verify that a specific type of moon orbit is suitable for the lunar Gateway space station that the agency aims to launch later this decade.

About the CAPSTONE:

• CAPSTONE is a microwave oven-sized spacecraft with the aim to study a specific type of moon orbit that will be suitable for the lunar Gateway space station that NASA aims to launch later this decade.
• The lunar Gateway space station will be a small space station for astronauts in orbits where they can stop before and after going to the moon’s surface.

• Pay Roll Automation for Disbursement of Monthly Allowances (PADMA),an automated Pay & Allowances module for the Indian Coast Guard was inaugurated by Shri Rajnish Kumar, Controller General of Defense Accounts (CGDA), Ministry of Defence.
• The CGDA emphasized that the Government has campaigned for Digital India to ensure dedicated services and reduce manual intervention at every level & to promote E-Governance in a big way.
• Launch of PADMA will strengthen the Digital India concept. Also, it is an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative as the entire module has been designed and developed by Indian entrepreneurs assisted by domain experts.

About the PADMA:                        

• PADMA is an automated platform leveraging latest technology which will provide seamless and timely disbursal of Pay & Allowances to around 15,000 Indian Coast Guard personnel.
• This module has been developed under the aegis of Defense Accounts Department and will be operated by Pay Accounts Office Coast Guard, Noida.
• The launch marked the beginning of the Centralized Pay System (CPS), the foundation of which is being laid down by the Defence Accounts Department Headquarters to provide one stop pay accounting solutions for all organisations under the Ministry.

• DR Bhardwaj of Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Nauni, has been bestowed with the Indian Society of Agroforestry (ISAF) Gold Medal for 2019.
• Bhardwaj is Principal Scientist in the Department of Silviculture and Agroforestry of the university.
• The award was given during the executive council meeting of the ISAF held recently at Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Jhansi.
• Bhardwaj, carrying over 27 years of teaching and research experience, has guided 37 students in the field of agroforestry and silviculture.
• According to the university, he has several research achievements to his credit, including the development of propagation and plantation technology of many tree species of the Himalayan region.
• He has introduced edible bamboo species which are in great demand among the farming community. Several agroforestry models for the state have been developed by him.
• The scientist has also developed regression models for the estimation of the timber, fodder and fuel wood production potential of farmland tree species.
• The ISAF was founded in 1998 to encourage basic, applied and strategic research in agroforestry.

• The Himachal Government is considering the inclusion of apple in mid-day meals in schools and anganwadis and in meals served to patients in hospitals.
• According to Mahender Singh, Horticulture Minister, “We are expecting a higher yield this time. The availability of this nutritious fruit will benefit both students and patients. We are also thinking of making the fruit available in small packing of 2-6 kg for sale at hotels. This will not only help the growers, but also benefit the tourists as they will get good quality fruit at reasonable prices.
• Growers welcomed this move from government and want the govt to list procurement norms.
• According to the minister the processing unit at Parala, Shimla would be made functional before July 31. This will ensure that much of the apple procured through the market intervention scheme and taken to Parwanoo be used up at Parala itself.

• The Election Commission (EC) kicked off a drive to update the electoral rolls in Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, where elections are expected later this year, for the first time allowing those turning 18 as of October 1 instead of January 1 to enrol, and for the collection of Aadhaar numbers of the applicants.
• The EC wrote to the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh CEOs, giving the programme for the revision of rolls to be followed.
• The EC informed the CEOs to carry out the special revision in accordance with the rules framed under the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, which increased the qualifying dates from January 1 every year to January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1, and allowed for Aadhaar linking with voter ID.
• The two State Assembly elections would also be the first ones where new electors would have Aadhaar linked voter IDs, but it would not be mandatory.
• According to EC, the applicant had to furnish Aadhaar Number in Form­6 and Form­8, if he/ she is having Aadhaar number, however, no application for inclusion of name in electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar Number.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation’s second dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Ltd. will launch three satellites.
• The PSLV­ C53, the 55th flight of ISRO’s workhorse launch vehicle, will carry on board three satellites from Singapore.
• The satellites — DS­EO, a Singaporean Earth Observation Satellite, NeuSAR, Singapore’s first small commercial satellite carrying a SAR payload, and SCOOB­I satellite from the Nanyang Technological University — will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

About the Airwards programme:

• Airwards is the first panoptic global awards programme of its kind dedicated to identifying, recognising and championing the breadth of positive drone use cases from around the world which are innovative, safe and having a real-world impact.
• Over 120 global submissions were judged by 38 drone experts and business leaders to award this year’s 18 Airwards main category winners.
• Announced during the second-ever Airwards Winners’ Week (23-31 May 2022), the winners have been recognised by Airwards as the pinnacle in innovative, responsible, and impactful projects made possible with drones.

KEY POINTS:

• The Delhi-based leading Drone enterprise platform company IG Drones has been felicitated with the “Best Drone Organization – Start-up Category” by Airwards.
• IG Drones has been selected for the award for its approach of helping local communities and giving access to technology to various stakeholders during natural disasters and calamities.
• IG Drones is developing new technology-based disaster response and mitigation to increase the efficiency and efficacy of first responders’ aid in emergency response and catastrophe mapping.
• Using drone and GIS technology, they’ve saved hundreds of thousands of lives throughout national disasters such as the Assam Floods, Amphan Cyclone, Fani Cyclone, and Jajpur Flood in Odisha, Maharashtra Flood, and Uttarakhand CloudBurst.