Parliament has passed the Appropriation (No.3) Bill 2022 and the Appropriation (No.2) Bill 2022 with the Rajya Sabha returning them to the Lok Sabha after consideration. The Lok Sabha has already approved these two bills.

As these are money bills, they are generally returned to the Lower House after consideration. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had moved the Appropriation (No.3) Bill 2022 in the Rajya Sabha to authorise payment and appropriation of certain further sums from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India for the services of the financial year 2021-22.

President Ram Nath Kovind presented Padma Awards at the Civil Investiture Ceremony-I held at Rashtrapati Bhavan this evening. Mr Kovind presented Padma Vibhushan to CDS General Bipin Rawat and Radhey Shyam Khemka posthumously. Daughters of General Rawat, Kritika and Tarini and Khemka's son Krishna Kumar received the awards.

Veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekharan, Paralympics Medalist Devendra Jhajharia, former Comptroller and Auditor General Rajiv Mehrishi, Managing Director of the Serum Institute of India Cyrus Poonawalla, welfare activist Sachchidanand Swami, Classical vocalist Rashid Khan received the Padma Bhushan. Singer Gurmeet Bawa was given the award posthumously.      

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has approved all urban water-supply schemes of the Jharkhand government under the recently launched Atal Renewal and Urban Transformation Mission (AMRUT) 2.0. The state has been allocated a grant of 1178 crore rupees as contribution amount from the Central government for all schemes under AMRUT 2.0.

Jharkhand becomes the first state to submit the City Water Balance Plan among other six states for the first phase of AMRUT 2.0. 

Meanwhile, the central government has given its nod to strengthen water supply and urban resources of 16 municipal bodies under the new plan. More than 1 lakh 90 thousand households present in 16 different municipal bodies will be provided with free tap-water connections under this scheme, benefiting over 9 lakh people.

India's public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Australia's public service broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) yesterday to boost co-operation in the field of broadcasting.

This will expand the reach of DD News, DD India and multiple language services of DD News amongst the Indian Diaspora in Australia. Through this MoU, the two broadcasters will explore opportunities in co-production and joint broadcasting of programmes spanning multiple genres. They will also exchange programmes of Radio and Television content in the fields of culture, education, science, entertainment, sports, news, travel, music and arts.

UGC Chairman, M Jagadesh Kumar has said that Central Universities will have to use Common University Entrance Test CUET scores to admit students to undergraduate programmes this year. Briefing media in New Delhi yesterday, Mr Kumar said, from the 2022-23 academic year, the National Testing Agency NTA will conduct the CUET for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. He said, the syllabus of the CUET will be mirrored with the Class 12 model syllabus of the NCERT. The UGC Chairman said the CUET will be conducted in the first week of July.

The application process for undergraduate CUET will commence from the first week of April. The CUET will have Section 1A, Section 1B, general test, and domain-specific subjects. Section 1A, which will be compulsory, will be in 13 languages and candidates can choose the language of their choice. The options are English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Section 1B is optional and for students who want to opt for another language apart from the ones that are a part of Section 1A. Some of the languages on offer are French, Arabic, German, etc.

Seventy five women were conferred with the Women Transforming India Awards-2021 in recognition to their contribution towards a Sashakt Aur Samarth Bharat. NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform conferred the fifth edition of awards in New Delhi yesterday as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.

AIR correspondent reports that the awards were presented by an equally exceptional group of women including former Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi, former Assistant Secretary-General of UN Lakshmi Puri, former Chairperson of State Bank of India Arundhati Bhattacharya among others.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and Senior members of the Aayog including bollywood singer Kailash Kher were present at the event.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released the admit card for the recruitment exam for the post of RBI Assistant. Candidates who have registered for the recruitment exam can download the Preliminary exam admit card from the official website -
rbi.org.in
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Candidates should carry their admit cards to the exam centre, as the ones without a call letter will not be permitted to enter the exam centre, Said RBI. It is also advised to check all the personal and other details given in the admit card for any spelling or factual errors.

RBI further instructed that those who qualify for the preliminary round will be eligible to appear for the main examination, which is tentatively scheduled to take place in May 2022.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras and the US-based Northwestern University have developed deep learning algorithms that can greatly enhance the depth perception and 3D effects in videos shot using smartphone cameras.

According to officials, such algorithms will prevent mobile phone images from being "flat" and impart a realistic 3D feel. A crucial advantage of the algorithm developed is that it eliminates the need for fancy equipment or an array of lenses to capture videos with depth.

India and Japan yesterday signed six agreements in the areas including cyber security, waste water management and clean energy after the 14th India-Japan Annual Summit in New Delhi today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held productive talks and discussed ways to boost economic and cultural linkages between the two countries. Mr Modi and Mr Kishida also held delegation-level talks. They also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest so as to advance the Partnership for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. India and Japan have multi-faceted cooperation within the ambit of their Special Strategic and Global Partnership. After the annual summit, both the leaders signed a joint statement.

Saying that Ethanol, Methanol, Bio-Diesel, Bio- LNG, Electric, Green Hydrogen is the future, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari today said India should become an energy exporter rather than an energy importer.

He said this while addressing the Sugar and Ethanol India Conference (SEIC) 2022 in Mumbai. The conclave is being organized by ChiniMandi, a news and information portal for the sugar and allied industries, sought to bring together leading domestic and global industry experts to discuss the top challenges and risk response strategies in domestic and global sugar trade and the way forward to building a more innovative and sustainable Sugar and Ethanol sector in India.

He further said, farmers’ should be made ‘Urja Data’ instead of ‘Anna data’ to pull them out of poverty. Gadkari said, diversification of agriculture towards the energy and power sector is the need of the hour.