The Uttarakhand State Legislative Assembly on Wednesday passed the Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand, 2024 Bill.

With this, Uttarakhand became the first State in the country to pass a law on Uniform Civil Code.

The bill was tabled before the Assembly today two days after the Uttarakhand Cabinet approved the final draft of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

Earlier, in 2022, a committee was formed by the Pushkar Singh Dhami-led State Government to prepare the draft of the UCC. The committee consisted of a five-member panel headed by retired judge of the Supreme Court Ranjana Prakash Desai.

In a bid to enhance voter awareness and promote greater participation in the electoral process, the Chief Electoral Officer of Himachal Pradesh, Maneesh Garg, announced the signing of two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) on Tuesday.

According to a press release and with the order of the Chief Electoral Officer, Himachal Pradesh, the first MoU was inked between the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department and the Election Department, aimed at disseminating voter awareness among the masses across the state.

Under this collaboration, Special Voter's Enrollment and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) committees will be established at the Gram Panchayat level, comprising Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Yuvak Mandals (YMs), Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), Mahila Mandals, and other user groups.

Ministers of State for Health Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar and Prof. S.P Singh Baghel launched 'Kilkari' programme on Wednesday, a mobile health initiative for beneficiaries, in local content, in Gujarat and Maharashtra as part of Digital Health India Programme. Kilkari is a centralized interactive voice response (IVR) based mobile health service which delivers free, weekly, time appropriate AV messages about pregnancy, childbirth, childcare to the mobile phones of beneficiaries. It is operational in 18 States and UTs.

Mobile Academy, a free audio training course designed to expand and refresh the knowledge of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and improve their communication skills via their mobile phones was also launched on the occasion.

The prelude to the International Water Conclave 2024 concluded on Wednesday with a successful Curtain Raiser event at the State Convention Centre, Shillong. Attended by esteemed dignitaries, experts, and stakeholders, the event set the stage for meaningful discussions and collaborations aimed at addressing water challenges in hill states.

The Curtain Raiser event commenced with fervor as it was graced by the presence of esteemed dignitaries, including the State Minister of the Water Resources Department Coming One Ymbon, Additional Chief Secretary Dr. Shakil P. Ahammed, Commissioner & Secretary, Soil & Water Conservation Department Dr. Joram Beda, and SC Sadhu, Secretary Water Resources, along with other officials, experts, and stakeholders from the water conservation sector.

Maharashtra Government has decided to introduce ‘Chief Minister Vayoshree Yojana’ that is likely to benefit 15 lakh senior citizens who suffer from some physical or mental disability. These citizens, above the age of 65 years, will be screened and those found eligible will be paid three thousand rupees. The scheme will be implemented across all districts at an approximate cost of 480 crore rupees.

With an aim to boost the confidence of depositors in cooperative societies, the government has announced an assistance scheme. According to an official press release, the government will form an independent entity that will pay back deposits of upto one lakh rupees in case a non-agricultural cooperative society goes bankrupt. While the government has announced an initial corpus of hundred crore rupees as its contribution for this entity, the cooperatives too will have to contribute ten paise for every hundred rupees of deposits that they receive. About three crore depositors are expected to benefit from this decision.

Union Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy on Monday laid the foundation stone for India's digital National Museum of Epigraphy at the Salar Jung Museum. Spearheaded by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), this museum will house approximately one lakh ancient writings spanning various times and languages.

This initiative follows the announcement made last year by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman regarding the establishment of the Bharat Shared Repository of Inscriptions (BharatSHRI), with the goal of digitizing one lakh ancient inscriptions.

During the ceremony, Reddy hailed the development as a significant step forward in the Modi government's commitment to "Vikas Bhi Virasat Bhi" (Development and Heritage). He emphasized the administration's dedication to utilizing technology to ensure universal access to art and heritage.

As Earth continues to extinguish its limited years and resources, scientists have been trying to find a habitable place for humanity to flourish and not get extinct if the blue planet becomes inhabitable. 

Now, in a remarkable finding, NASA has said it has discovered a "super-Earth” which has potential conditions and temperature for sustaining life.

The newly discovered exoplanet, which is 137 light years away from Earth, has been orbiting within a "habitable zone," as per NASA.

As per the astronomers, the exoplanet dubbed TOI-715b is around one and half times the Earth’s width and has been orbiting a small, reddish star. 

A small but powerful Chinese rocket capable of sending payloads at competitive costs delivered nine satellites into orbit on Saturday, Chinese state media reported, in what is gearing up to be another busy year for Chinese commercial launches.

The Jielong-3, or Smart Dragon-3, blasted off from a floating barge off the coast of Yangjiang in southern Guangdong province. It was the third launch of the rocket, developed by China Rocket Co, a commercial offshoot of a state-owned launch vehicle manufacturer, since December 2022.

President Xi Jinping has called for the expansion of strategic industries including the commercial space sector, deemed key to building constellations of satellites for communications, remote sensing and navigation.

Following the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has designed a comprehensive tour program based on places of pilgrim importance as cited in the Ramayana.

The first of such tours began on February 4, and a group of 122 tourists from United Kingdom (60), Portugal (52), and India (10) are touring multiple sites including the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya, the Bharat-Hanuman temple in Nandigram, the Janaki Mandir in Nepal’s Janakpur, the Punaura Dham in Sitamarhi, the Rameshwar Nath Temple in Buxar, the Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi and so on.

An IRCTC official said that such tours are done on special request by groups of tourists.

Call it a smart acronym or a bid to keep Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in good humour, the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority has introduced a device matching the CM’s name for farmers and common people to alert them on lightning, floods, heatwaves, and coldwaves.

Termed Novel Initiative Technological Intervention for Safety of Humanlives (NITISH), the disaster management authority, in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Patna, has come up with a pendant-shaped device that will sound alert to its users through voice message on lightning, floods, heatwaves and coldwaves. The device is synced with the Bihar meteorological service centre.

The device was recently launched in presence of the CM in Patna earlier this week. When the CM learnt about the name of the device, he smiled and said the state government has its eyes fixed on strengthening its disaster management system.