4th and 5th ODF States in India
- Under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G), rural Uttarakhand and rural Haryana have declared themselves as the 4th and 5th Open Defecation Free (ODF) States of India.
- The two states joined the league of Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala, which were the first three states to be declared ODF.
- Nationally, the sanitation coverage has increased from 42% to over 64% since the launch of SBM.
- With the total number of ODF States now rising to 5, more than 2 Lakh villages and 147 districts have also been declared ODF across the country.
NIUSAT
- It is one of the nano-satellites from India sharing space in PSLV C-38 mission which carries CARTOSAT and 29 other nano-satellites from 14 countries.
- NIUSAT was designed and developed by the Noorul Islam University in Tamil Nadu.
- This nano-satellite is built for disaster management and crop monitoring, equipped with an RGB camera for multispectral imagery.
Operation Swarn
- Operation Swarn is launched by the Railway Ministry to improve services in Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains.
- Under the project, the Indian Railways will focus attention on 10 key areas — punctuality, cleanliness, linen, coach interiors, toilets, catering, staff behaviour, security, entertainment, housekeeping and regular feedback.
e-waybill
- An e-waybill is an electronic bill documenting any transport of a good of a value of more than 50,000.
- Though few items which may be exempted from GST, they would require generation of e-waybill for their transportation.
- For e.g. The National flag, temple prasadam, Khadi fabric and Gandhi caps may be exempt from GST, but for their transportation, generation of e-waybill may be required.
- Sensitive technology that goes into spacecrafts and satellites will be exempt.
- Recently held GST council failed to reach consensus over the implementation of the e-waybill system and authorized the continuation of the current e-waybill system.
First Total Yoga Village
- Kunnamthanam in kerala is the first total yoga village with at least one member of each family in the panchayat trained in yoga.
