1) Logo for International Day of Yoga launched:
--> The logo for International Day of
Yoga was launched on 29 April 2015 by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj
and Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik.
--> The United Nations General Assembly
had on December 11 adopted an India-led resolution declaring June 21 as the
'International Day of Yoga'.
--> The logo was selected by the
Committee of Yoga experts, which was constituted by Union Ministry of AYUSH and
has been approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
--> The idea to observe 21 June as the
‘International Day of Yoga’ was proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in
September 2014 during his speech at United Nations General Assembly (UN-GA).
2) Mukesh Khanna appointed chairperson of CFSI:
--> Veteran actor Mukesh Khanna, who
made his way into the hearts of children with his popular superhero TV series
"Shaktimaan", has been appointed as the new chairperson of the
Children Film Society of India (CFSI).
--> The 56-year-old actor has taken over
the charge from actor-director Amole Gupte, who resigned in June 2014.
--> Khanna made his debut on the small
screen with B R Chopra's "Mahabharat" where he gained much fame after
he played Bhisham Pitamah in the epic.
3) Govt aims to start building 'Bharat Mala' in two years:
--> The road ministry's ambitious plan
to construct a road network along the land border might be rolled out within
two years.
--> The scheme, called Bharat Mala,
envisages 5,000 km of roads - both construction and upgrades - for Rs 12,000
crore. The road network will stretch from Gujarat in the west to Mizoram in the
east and cover 10 other states.
4) India extended e-tourist visa scheme to 31 more
countries:
--> India will provide e-tourist visa to
31 more countries, including France and Canada, enabling the citizens of these
nations easy entry to the country.
--> The e-tourist visa had been launched
in November last year for 45 countries from nine designated Indian airports.
--> With the latest addition, the total
number of countries under this scheme will go up to 76.
5) India ranked 13th in generating power from nuclear
source:
--> India stands at the 13th place
world-wide in generating electricity from nuclear source and expects to
increase the installed nuclear power capacity from 5,780 MW to 10,080 MW by
2019.
--> This is according to the data
published in 2014 by Power Reactor Information System of International Atomic
Energy Agency.
6) Mamata Banerjee declared Nadia first 'open
defecation-free' district in India:
--> West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee on 30 April 2015 declared Nadia as the first Open Defecation Free
(ODF) district in the country.
--> Thanking UNICEF and the World Bank
for helping the district achieve this feat, Ms. Banerjee declared April 30 as
the “Nirmal Bangla Diwas” to be observed in the years to come.
7) Messenger crashed into Mercury:
--> NASA’s Messenger spacecraft has
crashed into the surface of Mercury, ending its historic 11-year mission that
provided valuable data and thousands of images of the planet.
--> Messenger, launched on August 3,
2004, began orbiting Mercury on March 18, 2011. The spacecraft completed its
primary science objectives by March 2012.
8) New TV rating system by BARC operational now:
--> Broadcast Audience Research Council
(BARC) India, launched two years ago to measure and assess TV viewership in
India, has announced its first data for week 16 of 2015.
--> BARC India was set up as collaboration
between advertisers and the TV broadcasters to replace TAM (Television Audience
Measurement) media research data.
--> Broadcasters had complained that TAM
data was inaccurate.
--> BARC was set up by Indian
Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), AAAI and Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) two
years ago.
