National
Fourth UT/State with 100% Household Tap Connection under JJM
⇒ Puducherry has become ‘Har Ghar Jal’ UT by ensuring that every rural home in the Union Territory gets a household tap connection. All 1.16 lakh rural households in Puducherry have tap water supply now.
After this achievement, the Union Territory Puducherry becomes the fourth State/UT after Goa, Telangana and Andaman & Nicobar Islands to provide assured tap water supply to every rural home under Jal Jeevan Mission.
Apart from this, the State of Punjab and the UTs of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu have also crossed the milestone of covering 75% of rural homes with assured tap water supply.
Green Urja Award to IREDA
⇒ Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) has been conferred with “Green Urja Award” for the year 2021 by Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) for being the Leading Public Institution in Financing Institution for Renewable Energy.
IREDA has been awarded for the pivotal and developmental role it plays in Green Energy Financing.
Shri Pradip Kumar Das, Chairman & Managing Director, IREDA received the award from Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, International Solar Alliance in presence of Shri Anil Razdan, Chairman, ICC National Expert Committee on Energy in a virtual ceremony held on 11 May 2021.
About IREDA:
IREDA under the administrative control of Ministry of New & Renewable Energy is the only dedicated institution for financing Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency projects in India.
Advocate-General of Tamil Nadu
⇒ Senior advocate and former Rajya Sabha MP, R Shanmugasundaram was appointed as the Advocate-General of Tamil Nadu on 09 May 2021. He took over as Advocate General from the next day.
International
4th India-Swiss Financial Dialogue
⇒ The 4th India-Swiss Financial Dialogue was held on 11 may 2021 via video conferencing.
Delegation:
Shri Ajay Seth, Secretary Economic Affairs led the Indian delegation while Ms Daniela Stoffel, State Secretary, State Secretariat for International Finance, Switzerland was lead from the Swiss side.
Discussion:
During the Dialogue, inter-alia, experiences were shared by the two countries for collaboration on various aspects including investments, International Financial Services Centre Authority, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), FinTech, sustainable finance and cross border financial services.
In addition, issues related to G20, IMF and tax challenges arising from the digitilisation of the economy was discussed along with infrastructure financing.
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2021
⇒ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2021 was announced on 18 May 2021 at the WSIS Forum 2021.
The 18 winning projects was announced and together with the 72 champion projects, recognized at the WSIS Prize 2021 Ceremony.
India’s eService Delivery Framework, ServicePlus gained international recognition after becoming champion & winner at WSIS 2021, ITU, Geneva, Switzerland.
‘ServicePlus – A metadata based eService Delivery Framework’ of National Informatics Centre (NIC), India won the WSIS Prizes 2021 in category 8.
The Service plus project is related to following Action Lines:
- AL C2. Information and communication infrastructure
- AL C7. E-government
- AL C7. E-business
Death
Former Indian hockey player and coach, Maharaj Kishen Kaushik
⇒ Former Indian hockey player and coach, Maharaj Kishen Kaushik died on 08 May 2021 in New Delhi. He was 66.
MK Kaushik was a member of the 1980 Moscow Olympics gold-medal winning Indian team.
He coached both senior men’s and women’s teams. Under his coaching, India men’s team won a gold medal at the Asian Games in Bangkok in 1998. Also in 2006, the Indian women’s team won a bronze medal at the Doha Asian Games.
He was conferred with the Arjuna Award in 1998 & Dronacharya award in 2002.
Renowned sculptor & Rajya Sabha member, Raghunath Mohapatra
⇒ Renowned sculptor & Rajya Sabha member, Raghunath Mohapatra died on 09 May 2021 in Bhubaneswar. He was 78. He made pioneering contributions to the world of art, architecture and culture.
Mohapatra was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in July 2018 for his contribution to the field of arts. He was conferred with Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, & Padma Vibhushan award in 1976, 2001, & 2013 respectively. He was also the recipient of National Award for Sculpture in 1964.
Renowned social worker, Gutta Muniratnam
⇒ Renowned social worker Gutta Muniratnam died on 06 May 2021 in Chennai. He was 86 years old.
He was a member of the National Planning Commission of India, and was also the founder of the Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS), an NGO.
He was conferred with the Padma Shri award in 2012.