The Supreme Court on January 4 said it has recommended setting up a two-judge panel in all high courts to ensure that the orders on pay, pension and other retiral benefits for judicial officers as per the Second National Judicial Pay Commission are implemented.

Serving and former judicial officers will also get cashless facilities for their medical examination, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said.

Observing that the judgment on the issue is ready and will be pronounced soon, the bench, also comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, said it has accepted the recommendations of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission (SNJPC).

Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla was appointed as Maharashtra's new Director General of Police (DGP) on January 4. The state home department issued an order to this effect. The state home department issued an order to this effect.

Shukla, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the 1988 batch, was posted as director general of the Sashastra Seema Bal on deputation.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar was holding additional charge as DGP Maharashtra after earlier DGP Rajnish Seth retired on December 31.

The decision to appoint Shukla as the top cop came more than three months after the Bombay High Court quashed two phone-tapping cases registered against the IPS officer.

Gautam Adani has reclaimed the position of Asia's wealthiest individual, after a volatile trajectory in wealth standings last year. This comes after the Indian Supreme Court's decision to dismiss any necessity for fresh probes into the allegations leveled by Hindenburg Research against the Adani conglomerate.

Adani saw a remarkable surge in his net worth, soaring by $7.7 billion in a single day to reach $97.6 billion, as per a report by Bloomberg. This development allowed him to regain the leading position in the region, surpassing his Indian counterpart Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd. Ambani, closely trailing, possessed a net worth of $97 billion, as indicated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

REC Power Development and Consultancy Limited (RECPDCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of REC Limited, has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Gujarat for Rs. 2,094.28 Crores for the implementation of the Smart Metering project in PGVCL (Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Ltd.) under Phase 1 of Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS).

In the strategic collaboration, the Government of Gujarat is set to facilitate RECPDCL in obtaining necessary permissions and clearances for their upcoming projects in the state. The MoU outlines a time-bound framework to streamline the establishment of RECPDCL’s projects in Gujarat.

The MoU was signed ahead of Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2024 by MD, Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam (GUVNL), Shri Jai Prakash Shivahare and CEO, RECPDCL, Shri Rajesh Kumar Gupta in presence of Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Bhupendra Patel.

Assam Government launches 'Gunotsav 2024' a comprehensive state-wide assessment aimed at evaluating the performance of approximately 40 lakh students of 43,498 government schools spread across 35 districts.

Gunotsav, an initiative of the Government of Assam, is covering all government Elementary and Secondary schools in the state. To facilitate the assessment process, a total of 18,098 external evaluators deployed throughout the State. This diverse group of evaluators will include the chief minister, MLAs, the chief secretary, and college teachers, Government Officers among others to visit schools as external evaluators.

The exercise, which began yesterday, will conclude on February 8 in three phases. The first phase covering 12 districts from January 3 to 6, the second phase involving 13 districts from January 10 to 12, and the final phase comprising the remaining 10 districts scheduled from February 6 to 8.

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary Shri S Krishnan launched ERNET India’s newly developed integrated web portal for educational institutes in the country, at its head office here today. The portal will offer domain registration, DNS and value-added services viz. Website as a Service (WaaS) and Learning Management as a Service (LMaaS). The users can select from the variety of available templates for schools, colleges, universities as per their requirement and create their own website and Learning Management System. The user can publish the website and LMS by customizing the template with single click. This web portal has been developed utilizing open-source software and emerging technologies such as AI/ML.

India has nominated Indore, Bhopal and Udaipur for the Wetland City Accreditation (WCA) scheme under the Ramsar Convention, which helps cities gain international recognition for their efforts to protect their natural or human-made wetlands.

These are the first three Indian cities nominated for WCA based on the proposals received from state wetlands authorities in collaboration with municipal corporations.

The wetlands situated in and around these cities provide a plethora of benefits to their citizens in terms of flood regulation, livelihood opportunities, and recreational and cultural values.

Sirpur Wetland (Ramsar site in Indore), Yashwant Sagar (Ramsar site closer to Indore), Bhoj Wetland (Ramsar Site in Bhopal), and several wetlands in and around Udaipur are lifelines to these cities.

As a part of the National GI Drive Mission, West Bengal has acquired a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for some products which include Sundarban honey, Black Nunia rice from Jalpaiguri district and Tangail, Gorod and Kadiyal sarees. The Central Government has already uploaded the names of the products in the designated portal.

West Bengal Forest Development Corporation Limited (WBFDCL) applied for an exclusive GI tag for Sunderban honey. WBFDCL had to compete with a Pune-based entity to win the case. This honey was collected by the 'Mouli' community from the Sunderban forest. WBFDCL collects and processes the honey and sells it with the brand name Mouban. The Black Nunia rice is called Prince of Rice and is cultivated in the Jalpaiguri district of the State. It is an indigenous variety of rice. Kadiyal saree is produced only at Mirzapur of Murshidabad district of West Bengal. Tangail and Gorod saree are also famous in this field.

As a part of the National GI Drive Mission, West Bengal has acquired a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for some products which include Sundarban honey, Black Nunia rice from Jalpaiguri district and Tangail, Gorod and Kadiyal sarees. The Central Government has already uploaded the names of the products in the designated portal.

West Bengal Forest Development Corporation Limited (WBFDCL) applied for an exclusive GI tag for Sunderban honey. WBFDCL had to compete with a Pune-based entity to win the case. This honey was collected by the 'Mouli' community from the Sunderban forest. WBFDCL collects and processes the honey and sells it with the brand name Mouban. The Black Nunia rice is called Prince of Rice and is cultivated in the Jalpaiguri district of the State. It is an indigenous variety of rice. Kadiyal saree is produced only at Mirzapur of Murshidabad district of West Bengal. Tangail and Gorod saree are also famous in this field.

In a major initiative to promote inland water transport, the shipping ministry is readying a plan to focus on greater adoption of greener vessels. The transition of vessels to ply on green energy is likely to cost around Rs 15,000 crore over the next 10 years.

Sources said the guidelines for this programme will be unveiled at the Inland Waterway Development Council (IWDC) meeting on Monday.

They added that the scheme would be almost similar to the FAME scheme for promotion of electric vehicles. To begin with, port authorities and the government will provide support for around 1,000 vessels, ferries and tug boats.