GOA
- Sawant seeks Rs 2,000cr for mining, hinterland tourism
- Chief minister Pramod Sawant demanded a one-time special package of Rs 1,000 crore for mining and annual special package of Rs 200 crore for five years to provide infrastructural boost to hinterland tourism.
- State government is focused on developing hinterland tourism and for that he has asked for a special package.
- Regarding mining, Sawant said the state government had implemented various schemes for dependants after the activity came to a halt in 2012.
- Till date, the state government has incurred an expenditure of nearly Rs 300 crore on various scheme implemented to support mining dependants. As per the Goa Mining People’s Front (GMPF) there are approximately three lakh people, directly and indirectly, dependent on mining activity. The halt in mining has caused a loss of Rs 2,000 crore to the state annually.
- The government had sought over Rs 1,000 crore as a special grant for the maintenance and development of roads. However, the Centre had provided only Rs 100 crore.
INTERNATIONAL
- Maldives confers its highest civilian award on PM Modi
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with the Maldives’ highest civilian award, the ‘Order of the Distinguished Rule of Izzudeen’, by the President of the host country, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
- The award is in recognition of the many services Prime Minister Modi has offered to cement the longstanding and amicable ties between the two countries.
- Also for the magnanimous assistance that the Indian government continues to provide to the Maldives under his stewardship.
- Forex reserves increase by 1.8 billion to 421.8 billion
- The country’s foreign exchange reserves increased by USD 1.875 billion to USD 421.867 billion in the week ending May 31.
- Reserve Bank weekly data released showed that foreign currency assets, which is a major component of the overall reserves, rose by USD 1.946 billion to USD 394.134 billion.
- According to the RBI data, after remaining stable for the past few weeks, gold reserves declined by USD 62.9 million to USD 22.958 billion.
NATIONAL
- Union Cabinet has approved the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Siddhi Scheme
- Union Cabinet has approved the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Siddhi It will cost over Rs.87,000 crore a year to the exchequer. The government has announced its decision to extend the benefit of Rs.6,000 per yearunder the PM-KISAN scheme to all 14.5 crore farmers in the country, irrespective of the size of their landholding.
- The scheme was launched on 24th February 2019in the run-up to the 2019 Parliamentary elections in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh where the first rounds of installments were paid to several farmers.
- The government so far distributed thefirst installment to 3.11 crore beneficiaries and second installment to 2.66 crore beneficiaries into their bank accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer mode.
- Bancha, the first solar kitchen only village in India
- Bancha in Betul district is the first village in India to have zero wooden stoves and almost no use for LPG cylinders with all its 75 houses relying on solar-powered stoves to meet their cooking needs.
- The project of installing solar power plates, batteries and stoves in all the 74 houses was started in September 2017 and got completed by December 2018.
- French Open 2019 Concludes
- The 123rd edition of the French Open took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France.
- The winners of the various categories are as follows:
- Men’s Singles: Rafael Nadal (Spain)
- Women’s Singles: Ashleigh Barty (Australia)
- Men’s Doubles: Kevin Krawietz (Germany) and Andreas Mies (Germany)
- Women’s Doubles: Tímea Babos (Hungary) and Kristina Mladenovic (France)
- Mixed Doubles: Latisha Chan (Chinese Taipei) and Ivan Dodig (Croatia)