NATIONAL NEWS

SWAMITVA scheme

• Prime Minister launched the SWAMITVA scheme on the National Panchayati Raj Day (24 APR 2021).
• SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) was launched on 24th April 2020 as a Central Sector Scheme to promote a socio-economically empowered and self-reliant rural India.
• The Scheme will cover around 6.62 Lakh villages of the entire country during 2021-2025.
• The pilot phase of the Scheme was implemented during 2020–2021 in the States of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and select villages of Punjab and Rajasthan.
• Panchayati Raj Ministry has made arrangements of online payment through ‘e-Gram Swaraj’.

DRDO develops single crystal blades technology

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed single crystal blades technology and supplied 60 of these blades to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for helicopter engine application.
• Under this program DRDO will develop 300 blades of single crystal high pressure turbine blades.
• Single crystal blades, having complex shape and geometry, are manufactured out of nickel-based superalloys that are capable of withstanding high temperatures.
• Only USA, UK, France and Russia have the capability to design and manufacture the Single Crystal Blades.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

EXERCISE VARUNA – 2021

• The 19th edition of the Indian and French Navy bilateral exercise ‘VARUNA-2021’ conducted in the Arabian Sea from 25th to 27th April 2021.
• This year for the first time, UAE joined the Varuna naval exercise.

Net Zero Producers Forum

• Saudi Arabia is set to join the Net Zero Producers Forum.
• The Net-Zero Producers Forum (NZPF) is a platform for oil and gas–producing countries to discuss how the sector can support the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
• Currently Canada, USA, Saudi Arabia, Norway, and Qatar are the members of NZPF.
• The above-mentioned countries account for the 40 percent of global oil and gas production.

Project DANTAK

• Project DANTAK was established on April 24, 1961 between India and Bhutan.
• DANTAK was tasked to construct the pioneering motorable roads in Bhutan.
• DANTAK completed the road connecting Samdrup Jongkhar to Trashigang and Thimphu to Phuentsholing in 1968.
• Project DANTAK is commemorating its Diamond Jubilee in Bhutan.

BANKING NEWS

Supply Chain Resilience Initiative

• Trade ministers of India, Japan, and Australia together launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) in a trilateral virtual meeting.
• This initiative was launched to counter the China’s dominance of supply chain in the Indo-Pacific region.
• The objective of SCRI is to enhance the supply chain resilience for a strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth in the region.