Why in news?

• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has approved an ex-gratia from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the victims of stampede at Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan.

About Prime Ministers National Relief Fund (PMNRF)

• In pursuance of an appeal by the then Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru in January, 1948, the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) was established with public contributions to assist displaced persons from Pakistan.
• The resources of the PMNRF are now utilized primarily to render immediate relief to families of those killed in natural calamities like floods, cyclones and earthquakes, etc. and to the victims of the major accidents and riots. Assistance from PMNRF is also rendered, to partially defray the expenses for medical treatment like heart surgeries, kidney transplantation, cancer treatment and acid attack etc.
• The fund consists entirely of public contributions and does not get any budgetary support. The corpus of the fund is invested in various forms with scheduled commercial banks and other agencies. Disbursements are made with the approval of the Prime Minister.
• PMNRF has not been constituted by the Parliament. The fund is recognized as a Trust under the Income Tax Act and the same is managed by Prime Minister or multiple delegates for national causes.
• PMNRF accepts only voluntary donations by individuals and institutions.

Why in news?

• With the advent of New Year, Manali will be hosting the Winter Carnival from January 2 to 6.
• The annual fest is organised to attract tourists to Kullu and Manali during the off-season, promote folk culture and provide a platform to local artistes and those from other states.
• In order to expand it, the then Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal gave the Winter Carnival the status of a state-level festival in 1999 while it became a national event in 2011.
• The main purpose of the carnival in 1970s was to promote winter sports.
• Harnam Singh, the then director of the mountaineering institute in Manali, played an important role in starting this event.

Why in news?

• China has been making rapid advancements in the technology field. And now, Chinese scientists have claimed that they have developed a machine that can charge people with crime using artificial intelligence. This is the world’s first such machine.

About ‘AI prosecutor’ by China

• The artificial intelligence ‘prosecutor’ received training for five years – from 2015 to 2020 – during which it went through 17,000 cases. The Chinese researchers claimed that it was able to identify and press charges for common crimes.
• The AI “prosecutor” can charge people with over 97 per cent accuracy, the researchers further claimed, adding that it works on verbal description.
• The machine was built and tested by the Shanghai Pudong People’s Procuratorate, the country’s largest and busiest district prosecution office.
• It can also identify “dissent” against the state.
• It can press charges based on 1,000 human-generated case description texts.

Why in news?

• The Karnataka government’s e-Governance department has partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and State Bank of India (SBI) for enabling and implementing ‘e-RUPI’, a cashless and contactless payment solution to students under its scholarship programme.

About Karnataka and e-Rupi

• e-RUPI will be used to ensure a leak-proof delivery of education fees of eligible students by paying digitally to the college or institute by the Karnataka government.
• The Karnataka government will get e-vouchers delivered to the mobiles of eligible students. The voucher code can be received on the feature phone also. The students will be able to redeem e-RUPI at the identified colleges or institutes for the intended purpose of fees payment, NCPI said in a release.
• For redeeming e-RUPI, the identified institutes will scan the QR code or SMS string displayed by the students using an application or POS machine, and this process will remove the requirement of any physical token delivery for the students to avail of the scholarship.

Why in news?

• India recently welcomed Egypt’s entry as the fourth new member of the New Development Bank (NDB) that was established by the BRICS countries six years ago.

About addition of new members into NDB

• NDB’s Board of Governors authorized the Bank to conduct formal negotiations with prospective members in late 2020. After a round of successful negotiations, NDB started expanding its membership in September 2021 with the admission of Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uruguay.
• Egypt is the fourth new member admitted into NDB, further expanding the Bank’s global outreach. Egypt is one of the world’s fastest-growing countries, a major economy in the African continent and the Middle East region as well as a key player in development finance institutions.

Why in news?

• Senior diplomat Anupam Ray has been appointed as India’s next permanent representative to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said recently.
• Ray, a 1994-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, is currently serving as a joint secretary in the MEA’s headquarters in Delhi.
• Ray will replace Pankaj Sharma. Sharma, a 1991 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Mexico.

Why in news?

• The Uttar Pradesh government recently issued a notification to rename Jhansi Railway Station as Veerangana Lakshmibai Railway Station.

About Veerangana Lakshmibai Railway Station

• The Uttar Pradesh government recently issued a notification to rename Jhansi Railway Station as Veerangana Lakshmibai Railway Station.

Why in news?

• IIT Madras has been Ranked #1 in the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements

About IIT Madras being recognized as the most Innovative Educational Institute

• It has been Ranked #1 in the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) launched by the Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Education, Government of India.
• IIT Madras is in the ‘CFTIs (Centrally Funded Technical Institutions)/Central University/Institute of National Importance (Technical)’ category.
• ARIIA 2021 has rankings for six categories of institutions – CFTIs (Centrally Funded Technical Institutions) /Central University/Institute of National Importance (Technical); State University and Deemed University (Govt & Govt aided)(technical); Government College/Institution (Govt and Govt Aided)(technical); University & Deemed University (Self-finance/private)(technical); Private college/Institute (self-finance/private)(technical); Institute of National Importance, Central University and CFIs (non-technical) and General (non-technical).

Why in news?

• The 75-day Snow Festival will begin with prayers at the famous Triloknath temple in the Lahaul valley on January
• The festival would be celebrated according to religious beliefs and traditional customs, and also keeping in mind the calendar fixed by the Lamas (monks) of the valley for various
• The festivals of Udna, Gochi, Halda, Fagli and Yor organised in Gahar, Pattan and Tinan valleys would also be associated with the Snow Festival to make tourists aware about the rich traditions of the
• It is one of the longest festivals celebrated in India and is on a par with the 75-day Bastar Dussehra held in The cultural traditions and ancient festivals have been rejuvenated through this festival.

Why in news?

• Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today urged the Central Government to increase import duty on apple from 50 per cent to 100 per cent to protect Himachal growers and approve the Mandi airport
• The import duty on apple should be increased and the crop should be excluded from the list of fruits and other commodities brought under the Open General
• Apple is the main horticultural crop of the state and a primary source of livelihood for a large population. However, due to a huge arrival of imported apple in the national market, the prices of Himachal apple have fallen sharply, leading to revenue loss to local horticulturists,”