UTTARAKHAND
- Infant mortality rate of U’khand shows decline
- In a significant achievement, the infant mortality rate in Uttarakhand has reduced from 38 per thousand to 32 per thousand. In its report of May 2019, the Sample Registration System (SRS) has indicated that the mortality rate has reduced by six points.
- Uttarakhand as per the survey of SRS, 2016 had a child mortality rate of 38 per thousand which in the survey of 2017 has reduced to 32 per thousand.
- Incidentally the infant mortality of the country stands at 33 per thousand which means that the mortality rate in Uttarakhand has become less than the national average.
- It is worth mentioning here that the Government of India had felicitated Uttarakhand after it was successful to reduce maternal mortality rate from 285 per thousand to 201 per thousand.
- The chief minister of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat has set up a target of reducing the infant mortality to 30 per thousand till the year 2020.
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)