6 Congress rebel MLAs
disqualified in Himachal
·
In recently held Rajya Sabha elections in
Himachal Pradesh , six Congress legislators had voted in favor of the BJP
candidate .
·
Congress had sent a disqualification appeal to
the speaker . Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Thursday disqualified the six
MLAs .
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The ground for disqualification was their
absence from the assembly when the state budget and finance bill was put to
vote , defying the party whip to vote in
favor of the govt .
·
The disqualified MLAs will move to the Supreme
Court ( SC ) .
·
This has created political turmoil in Himachal
Pradesh . The current strength of Congress and BJP in the 68 seat Haryana
assembly is 40 and 25 respectively . There are 3 independent candidates .
·
The move will strengthen Congress 34 . which is
one short of getting a majority in the assembly .
·
The by-election for these assembly seats will be
held with Lok Sabha polls .
GDP growth estimated this
year raised to 7.6%
·
The National Statistical Office ( NSO ) made a
series of revisions on Thursday about India’s economic growth.
·
India’s projected real GDP growth for this year
has been raised to 7.6% from the 7.3% projected last month.
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It also scaled down its 7.2% growth estimate for
2022-23 to 7% and raised its 2021-22 estimates from 9.1% to 9.7%.
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The Cross value added in the economy.
First technical team from
India arrives in Maldives
·
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson
Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday briefed media personnels that a first technical
team has reached Maldives that will replace Indian troops operating
Advanced light helicopters and other
aircrafts for the country .
·
The Maldives government had given March 10 a
deadline to withdraw its troops from Maldives .
Cabinet OK’s Rs. 75000
crore ‘free electricity‘ solar scheme
·
The Union cabinet approved a Rs.75,021
package for “PM Surya Ghar :
Muft Bijli Yojna “,( PM free
electricity scheme ), to promote Roof Top Solar Installation in India.
·
The scheme envisages providing 300 units of “
free electricity “ every month to one
crore households .
·
The center will fund 60 % of the cost for
installing 2kW systems and 40% for 2-3 KW systems . At current prices this will
mean Rs. 30,000 subsidy for 1 KW
systems , Rs. 60,000 for 2 KW
systems and Rs. 78,000 for 3 KW
systems or higher.
·
For the remaining costs , household will be able
to able to access “ collateral free lower interest loan products of around 7%
at present for the present for installation of residential of RTS systems
up to 3KW.
·
PSUs will be responsible for taking out a loan
to finance the component ,not funded by central subsidy .
·
This loan would be repaid to banks for consumers selling surplus power produced
back to the grid.
·
Applying
for subsidy : Households
will apply for subsidy through a central portal and will be able to select a
suitable vendor for installing rooftop solar.
Top court dismisses Vedanta
plea to reopen plant in Thoothukudi
·
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a demand
by Vedanta group to restart it’s copper plant in Thoothukudi .
·
The plant was earlier shut down by a high court
order for repeated violation of environmental norms .
West Bengal Police arrests
Trinmool’s Shahjahan
·
Controversial Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh
Shahjahan was arrested by the West Bengal police on Wednesday night over an
attack on officials of Enforcement Directorate ( ED ) last month .
·
Shahjahan has multiple allegations of land grab
and sexual assault by villagers of Sandeshkhali
. He was sent to police custody for 10 days by a court of North 24
Pargana district on Thursday .
·
Hours after his arrest TMC suspended him for six
years .
·
Sandeshkhali
has been on boil since february 1 , after villagers held violent protests
seeking action against Mr. Shahjahan and other local TMC workers .
India’s leopard population
rises to 13,784 ; MP on top
·
India’s leopard number rose by 8% from 12,852 in 2018 to 13,874 in 2022 ,
according to a report made public by the Environment ministry on Thursday .
·
The highest number of leopards was reported in
Madhya Pradesh ( 3907 ) ; only three states has reported over 10,00 .
Maharashtra ( 1,985 ) , Karmataka ( 1,879 ) , and TamilNadu ( 1,070 ) .
·
Uttarakhand saw a 22% decline in the number of
leopards , reportedly due to poaching and man animal conflict .Arunachal
Pradesh , West Bengal and Assam saw a collective 150% rise to 349 .
·
The numbers are based on a survey by Wildlife
Institute of India ( WII ) and it covered 70 % of the expected area for
leopards across 20 states.
Lancet study shows obesity
rates going up across world
·
A recent study on Obesity by Lancet has following key findings
●
Obesity rates among children and Adolescents has
increased four times between 1990 and 2022 .
●
The total number of children and Adolescents and adults
living worldwide living with obesity has surpassed one billion .In total 159
million children and Adolescents and 879 million adults were observed by 2022 .
●
In India obesity rates increased from .1% in 1990 to
3.1% in 2022 for girls , .1% to 3.9% for boys .
●
The study was conducted by NCD Risk factor
collaboration ( NCD – Risc ) in collaboration
WHO . 1500 researchers analyzed weight and height measurement from 190 countries .
World
104 killed as Israeli
forces attack at aid spot in Gaza
·
At least 104 people were killed in Gaza Thursday when Israeli forces in Gaza
, opened fire on Palestinians scrambling for food aid .
·
Israeli forces said that a “ stampede “ occurred
when aid trucks arrived and they were overwhelmed by the crowd .
·
Witnesses said that trucks carrying aid came
close to army tanks , and the Israeli army, fearing a crowd to damage the tank,
opened fire .
·
The Palestinian casualty in Gaza has already
surpassed 30,000 .
·
Saudi Arabia is among the first countries to
heavily condemn the incident .
West support to Ukraine
fraught with Global Nuclear war risk: Putin
·
Ahead of the Presidential elections Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a
key speech before warning the west of a nuclear strike if western forces were
deployed at the Russian border .
·
Putin noted that western countries are “
selecting targets for striking out territory “. , and “ talking about the
possibility of sending NATO troops to Ukraine “ .
“ We remember the fate of those
who sent their contingent to the territory of our country “ , the Russian
leader said in apparent allusion to Napoleon and Hitler .“ Now the consequences
for the potential invaders will be far more tragic “ .
Putin described western leaders
as reckless and irresponsible and said that the west should keep in mind that “
we also have weapons that can strike targets on their territory , and what they
are suggesting and scaring the world with “ , all that raises the real threat
of a nuclear conflict that will mean destruction of our civilization “ .
Spain’s top court opens
‘ street terrorism ‘ probe into Carles Puidgemont
·
Spain’s top court said on Thursday that it was
opening an investigation into Catalan
separatist , on terrorism charges over “ protest “ linked to Catalonia’s failed
2017 independence bid .
·
The Supreme Court said it had decided to “ to
investigate and where appropriate , prosecute “ Mr Puidgemont “ for terrorism
offenses in relation to the democratic Tsunami case “ .
·
Democratic
Tsunami – It is a Catalan protest group advocating a
self determination referendum in Catalonia .
·
On the day their protest was handed down in
October 2019 , thousands of activists blocked access to Barcelona airport for
several hours .
·
The unprecedented protest prompted cancellation
of more than 100 flights .