The 5th India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Committee Meeting, co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Affairs Minister of Bangladesh Dr. Abdul Momen was held in New Delhi.
The last Joint Consultative Committee Meeting between the two countries was held in October 2017 at Dhaka. Earlier, Mrs. Swaraj held a bilateral meeting with Mr. Momen.
Note: Bangladesh PM: Sheikh Hasina, Capital: Dhaka, Currency: Taka.
The Expert Committee led by Anoop Satpathy, Fellow of V. V. Giri National Labour Institute (VVGNLI), submitted its report on “Determining the Methodology for Fixation of the National Minimum Wage” to the Government.
The Committee recommended different national minimum wages for different geographical regions in the range of Rs.8,892 to Rs. 11,622 per month, with supplementary house rent allowance of Rs. 1,430 per month for urban workers.
It recommended the fixation of need-based National Minimum Wage (NMW) for India at Rs 375 per day or Rs 9,750 per month irrespective of sectors, skills, occupations and rural-urban locations for a family comprising of 3.6 consumption units. The Present NMW is Rs. 4,576.
Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, inaugurated the North Karnataka Agromet Forecasting and Research Centre (NKAFC), India’s first agromet forecast centre, at University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Dharwad, Karnataka.
The main objective of the centre is to give accurate reports on the weather which would enable the farmers to protect the crops and get a good yield. About 25 lakh farmers in the region would be kept updated with information via various platforms like WhatsApp, SMS, social networking sites and community radio stations.
Note: Karnataka CM: H. D. Kumaraswamy, Governor: Vajubhai Vala.
World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) 2019, the flagship event of ‘The Energy and Resources Institute’ (TERI), was inaugurated by Vice President Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
The theme of WSDS 2019 was ‘Attaining the 2030 Agenda: delivering on our promise’. Frank Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji was honoured with the Sustainable Development Leadership Award 2019 for his outstanding contributions towards sustainable development in Fiji.
Note: TERI Director-General: Dr. Ajay Mathur, Headquarters: New Delhi.
The International Labour Organization released World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2019 report. As per the report, unemployment rates will fall to 4.9% in 2019 and remains steady in 2020.
Among the age group 15-24 the global unemployment stood at 11.8% which is much higher than it is among other age groups. In the global labor market, 2 billion out of 3.3 billion people worked keeping their economic security at risk in informal employment.
Note: ILO Headquarter: Geneva, Switzerland, Director General: Guy Ryder, Formed: 1919.
Early Ed Asia 2019, the two-day event which is Asia’s largest conference on Early Childhood, was held at the City Palace in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The motto of the event was ‘Our Children. Our Future’.
It was the first time such a conference was held in India with over 6000 eminent early childhood educators, policy-makers, researchers and other stakeholders from India and foreign countries. The latest trends in teaching and research were discussed to provide a stronger foundation to the children.
Note: Rajasthan Capital: Jaipur, Chief Minister: Ashok Gehlot, Governor: Kalyan Singh.
Amazon launched “Amazon Pay Unified Payments Interface (UPI)” for Android users in partnership with Axis Bank to issue UPI IDs to its customers in India.
With this, users would be able to use their Amazon Pay UPI ID to shop on Amazon.in, make payments for their daily purchases, including recharge and bill payments, without entering bank account or debit card credentials or going through a multi-layer process to pay from their bank account.
Note: UPI is an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India processing inter-bank transactions.
NASA has announced a new space telescope mission dedicated to understanding the origins of life and the universe. It’s called the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer or SPHEREx, for short. The space agency is aiming for a 2023 launch.
Once SPHEREx is in orbit, it will observe and collect data on over 300 million galaxies, some as far as 10 billion light-years away from Earth, and 100 million stars in our own Milky Way every six months.
The space telescope’s main goals, though, are to search for water and organic molecules within the Milky Way. It will also look for those ingredients of life in regions where stars are born.
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) launched a new portal Least Available Depth Information System (LADIS) for real-time data on available depth on stretches of National Waterways.
It will ensure real-time data on ship and cargo owners on which they can undertake transportation on National Waterways (NW) in a more planned way. It is a step towards ensuring optimum use of National Waterways.
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