Current Affairs 22 & 23 May 2022

We are here for you to provide the important Recent and Latest Current Affairs 22 & 23 May 2022, which have unique updates of Latest Current Affairs 2022 events from all newspapers such as The Hindu, The Economic Times, PIB, Times of India, PTI, Indian Express, Business Standard and all Government official websites.

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS

NMCG Approves Rs 660 Crore Water Infrastructure Projects

The 42nd Meeting of the Executive Committee of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) under the Chairmanship of G. Asok Kumar, Director General, NMCG approved 11 projects with an estimated cost of approx Rs 660 crores to develop Water Infrastructure Projects along the River Ganga.

• The 42nd meeting was attended by senior officers of NMCG including S.P. Vashishtha, Executive Director (Admin), Bhaskar Dasgupta, Deputy Director General, S.R. Meena, NMCG Executive Director (Finance), and Richa Misra, Joint Secretary & Financial Advisor, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.

Project Details:
i.Projects approved for Interception, Diversion and Treatment Works in Saharanpur Town focusing on cleaning River Hindon, Uttar Pradesh.
ii.Rejuvenation of Chamunda Mai Pond in GarhMukteshwar, Uttar Pradesh, was announced.The total area of the pond to be rejuvenated is about 10,626 Square metres.
iii.Environmental Upgradation of Shivna River in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, with the cost of Rs. 28.68 crore idol immersion facility.
iv.An important project on ‘Evaluation of Natural Farming Practices on Water and Energy Savings’ has also been approved and is to be implemented by Water and Land Management Training and Research Institute (WALAMTARI), in order to study the impact of natural farming practices on water and energy savings.
v.A pilot project for the ‘Implementation of Membrane-based soil-less agriculture technology’ under Arth Ganga Framework will be executed in two-phases. 
vi.Two projects pertaining to crematoriums including ‘Construction of Electric Crematorium’ at Kalyani, West Bengal with a cost of Rs. 4.20 crore and ‘Development of Cremation Ghat’ at Pauri Garhwal with a tune of Rs. 1.82 crore, Uttarakhand were also approved.
vii.Two projects of River Front Development in Badrinath, Uttarakhand, with an estimated cost of Rs. 32.15 crore were approved.
viii.Two big projects for Septage Management, includes construction of 135 MLD (megalitres per day) sewage treatment plant (STP)  in Uttarkhand and West Bengal

• While one project, Co-treatment of Septage at existing STPs of Haridwar (150 KLD), Rishikesh (50 KLD), Srinagar (30 KLD) and DevPrayag (5 KLD)covers the State of Uttarakhand.
• Another project ‘Integrated Septage Treatment Plant for Burdwan Municipality’ focuses on prevention of flow of sewage in River Banka, a tributary of Ganga in West Bengal. 

IIT-Kanpur & CSIS, USA Signs To Create A Global Just Transition NetworkThe Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur’s Just Transition Research Centre (JTRC) has partnered with the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C., United States of America(USA) to work on just energy transition globally, including in India under Global Just Transition Network (GJTN).
Utility of the Joint Agreement
i.IIT Kanpur and CSIS will co-arrange a sequence of workshops and bilateral conferences between senior officers and different key stakeholders from coal-dependent states/provinces in India, the United States, and South Africa.
ii.Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana are among the Indian states with which the IIT-CSIS collaboration will interact, allowing them to access assets and connect with senior officers working on simple transition in other countries.
iii. In addition, IIT Kanpur and CSIS may also host a number of workshops and interact extensively with the coal business in India together with with main coal business unions.
Objective of the Joint Agreement
i.To institutionalise the idea of just transition in key coal-dependent states in India and among coal companies by engaging extensively and working together with key sectoral stakeholders in India.
ii.The collaboration between CSIS, a globally famend worldwide suppose tank, and JTRC, IIT Kanpur, is a step towards constructing a dialogue with a number of stakeholders by reaching out to commerce unions, bureaucrats, regulators, and coal firms.

Greenko is to Set up World’s Largest IRESP in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh

The Greenko Group and the Government of Andhra Pradesh is setting up the World’s largest Integrated Renewable Energy Storage Project (IRESP) with a capacity to store 5,230 Mega Watt (MW), in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. It will be the first-of-its-kind Single location energy storage project with wind and solar capacities.

• The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Yeduguri Sandinti Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy performed the first concrete pour ceremony of the project.

Key Points:
i.The project is scheduled to be commissioned by the last quarter of 2023.
ii.It is being implemented with an investment of over USD 3 billion comprising pumped storage (10,800 megawatt hour of daily storage), solar (3,000 MW) and wind (550 MW).
iii.The project will help avoid 15 million tonnes of CO2 annually which is equivalent to emissions from three million cars.
iv.The state of Andhra Pradesh has favourable topography for Pumped Storage Plants (PSPs) which if effectively used it can become an energy storage capital of India.
About Greenko Group:
i.The Greenko Group is one of India’s leading Renewable Energy companies, providing solutions for energy transition and decarbonisation. 
Headquarters – Hyderabad, Telangana 
Chairman – Om Prakash Bhatt

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

UNICEF Releases Child Alert May 2022: India Is Home to World’s Most Severely Wasted Children

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has released its UNICEF Child Alert – May 2022 edition, titled “Severe Wasting: An Overlooked Child Survival Emergency.”
According to UNICEF, India has the world’s most severely wasted children under the age of five, with 5,772,472 affected children.
What Is Severe Wasting?
Wasting is the most visible and fatal form of malnutrition, described as a low weight-for-height ratio. The most dangerous form is severe wasting, often known as severe acute malnutrition.

• It is caused by a lack of nutritional diet and frequent occurrences of infections such as diarrhoea, measles, and malaria that deplete a child’s immunity.

Key Alerts:
i.In terms of countries with the highest number of children under the age of five affected by severe wasting, Indonesia ranks second with 812,564 severely wasted children. Pakistan, Nigeria, and Bangladesh ranked third, fourth, and fifth, respectively.
ii.South Asia continues to be the hub of severe wasting, with statistics that surpass Sub-Saharan Africa. At least 7.7 million children are affected in the South Asia region.

• Marriage and child-bearing before the age of 18 among adolescent girls with high levels of anaemia and underweight indicate that severe wasting is a generational concern.

iii. This most apparent and dangerous form of malnutrition affects more than 13.6 million children worldwide. Severe wasting causes one out of every five fatalities in children under the age of five.
iv.Despite the availability of effective treatment, the worldwide burden of severe waste has been increasing, and the situation has been worsened by conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic. According to UNICEF, since 2016, some countries have seen a 40% increase in cases.
Preventable & Curable Measures for Severe Wasting 
i.Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF): It is the gold standard for effectively treating severely wasted children in complex emergency situations. 

• RUTF is a paste made from peanuts, sugar, oil, and milk powder. It is manufactured in Kenya, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, India and Pakistan, and distributed primarily through UNICEF.

ii. The Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) tape: It is a colour-coded measuring band used to diagnose malnutrition in children by measuring their mid-upper arm. It is a life-saving do-it-yourself early detection tool.

Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Governor of NDB chairs the 7th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of NDB

On May 19 2022, Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Corporate Affairs and also an India’s Governor for the New Development Bank (NDB) chaired the 7th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of NDB through a video conference in New Delhi, Delhi.

• The meeting was attended by Governors or Alternate Governors of Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa and the newly joined members of Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• The theme of 7th Annual Meeting for the year 2022 was “NDB: Optimising Development Impact”.

Key Points:
i.The Finance Minister has highlighted India’s economic growth in the current fiscal year as robust and is estimated to be 8.9 percent which is the highest among all large economies.
ii.She has acknowledged the NDB’s achievements and progress made over the last six years, highlighting that the Bank has demonstrated strong results within its core mandate.
iii.She also appreciated the progress made towards setting up the India Regional Office in Gift City, Gujarat.
Note:
NDB has so far approved 21 projects in India for an amount of USD 7.1 billion.
About New Development Bank (NDB):
i.The NDB is a multilateral development bank, set up by the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) in 2014. However, it was operationalised in 2015 with its headquarters in Shanghai, China
ii.The objective is to mobilise the resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the BRICS as well as other emerging market and developing countries (EMDC) of the world. 
iii.In 2021, the NDB has expanded its membership to include four more countries namely, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Uruguay.  

• Members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, newly added members: Bangladesh and United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Prospective member: Egypt and Uruguay.

Highlights of Oman’s Commerce Minister Qais bin Mohammed al Yousef visit to India 

On May 10-14, 2022, a 48-member high level multi-sectoral delegation headed by Qais bin Mohammed al Yousef, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion of Oman visited India. 

• The delegation includes senior officials and business representatives from diverse areas spanning health, pharmaceuticals, mining, tourism, telecommunication, energy, shipping and real estate.
• This visit was to further strengthen the economic ties between the two countries. 
• Notably, a bilateral trade between the two countries has grown by 82% to reach US$ 9.94 billion in the financial year 2021-2022 from US$ 5.4 billion in 2020-21 .
• The visit had followed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC),an alliance of six Middle Eastern countries. The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

10th Session of the India-Oman JCM 2022 held in New Delhi
On May 11, 2022, the 10th Session of the India-Oman Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) 2022 was held in New Delhi, Delhi which was co-chaired by Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), and Oman’s Commerce Minister Qais bin Mohammed al Yousef. It was attended by senior officials from both the sides.
JCM reviewed the progress on all matters of mutual interest. Some of the important outcomes of the meeting are as below:
i.Fast tracking of approvals for registration of Indian pharmaceutical products already registered by USFDA (United States Food and Drug Administration), UKMHRA (United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) and EMA (
European Medicines Agency) was agreed to during the deliberations.
ii.Appreciation by India for the signing and ratification of International Solar Alliance (ISA) Framework Agreement by Oman and for acceptance of the Green Grids/’One Sun One World One Grid’ (OSOWOG) initiative. 
iii.Agreement on expeditious conclusion of all Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs)/ Agreements under discussion, including on standards and metrology, India-Oman Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, India-Oman Bilateral Investment Treaty, Invest Oman and Invest India, and Rupay card acceptance in Oman etc.
iv.Enhance collaboration across a range of fields with particular emphasis on the 3Ts (Trade, Technology, Tourism), food & agriculture, renewable energy including Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia, health and pharmaceuticals, mining, manufacturing, IT, sports, culture, youth and tourism.
v.The total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows from Oman to India during the period April 2000-December 2021 was US$ 558.68 million.
10th Meeting of India-Oman Joint Business Council (JBC) in New Delhi
On May 12, 2022, a meeting of the India-Oman Joint Business Council (JBC) was jointly organized by FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) and Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi. 

• Both sides addressed the gathering and interacted with the business communities of India and Oman.

Others:
i.The Oman’s Minister invited Indian Union Minister Piyush Goyal to visit Oman in 2023 for the next session of the JCM. It was accepted by Indian side.
ii.Qais bin Mohammed Al Yousef also held a meeting with the delegates of Indo Gulf & Middle East Chamber of Commerce (INMECC), at Hotel Oberoi Mumbai, Maharshtra.
iii.He announced the formation of the Oman Chapter and agreed to sign an MOU between INMECC and the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industries soon.
Points to be noted:
i.Major items of Indian exports to Oman include mineral fuels, textiles, machinery, electrical items, chemicals, iron and steel, tea, coffee, spices, rice, meat products and seafood.
ii.Major imports include urea, LNG, polypropylene, lubricating oil, dates and chromite ore.

Seoul Forest Declaration – Emphasis Need to Triple Investments for Restoring Degraded Land by 2030

The Korea Forest Service (KFS) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) organised the XV World Forestry Congress (WFC 2021) at Coex, Seoul, Republic of Korea from 2nd to 6th May 2022.

• During which, 141 Participant countries endorsed the Seoul Forest Declaration to convey the urgent need for action to achieve a green, healthy and resilient future with forests.
• The WFC 2021 also emphasised on the Youth Call for Action and the Ministerial Call on Sustainable Wood.
• The theme of XV WFC 2021 is “Building a Green, Healthy and Resilient Future with Forests”.

What is in the Declaration?
i.For a green, healthy and resilient future with forests, and as a contribution to Sustainable Development Goals, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, Post2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and green recovery from COVID-19 pandemic, the Declaration emphasise the following actions – 
ii.All the stakeholders and institutions should have a shared and integrated responsibility over forests to achieve a sustainable future. 
iii.Investments in forest and landscape should at least be tripled by 2030 in order to implement the global commitments and meet internationally agreed goals and targets.
iv.It emphasised for a sustainable production and consumption, along with innovative green finance mechanisms to upscale investment in forest conservation, restoration and sustainable use. 
v.The declaration emphasised the sustainably produced wood to transform the building sector and by using renewable energy and innovative new materials the sector will move towards a circular bioeconomy and climate neutrality.
To read the Seoul Forest Declaration Click here.
About Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) :
Director-General– Qu Dongyu
Headquarters– Rome, Italy

BANKING & FINANCE

RBI asks Banks to Provide Cardless Cash Withdrawal Facility at ATMs; Allows Exporters to Settle Trade Transactions with Sri Lanka in INR

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked banks to provide the option of Interoperable Card-less Cash Withdrawal (ICCW) at their ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) in order to curb frauds like skimming, card cloning and device tampering.

• This directive is issued under Section 10(2) read with Section 18 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (Act 51 of 2007).

RBI allows exporters to settle trade transactions with Sri Lanka in INR

In another circular, which has been issued by RBI under sections 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999 (42 of 1999)  has allowed exporters to settle trade transactions with Sri Lanka in Indian Rupee (INR) outside the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) mechanism.

• This decision has been taken amid view of difficulties being faced by exporters in receipt of export proceeds from Sri Lanka and State Bank of India’s (SBI) credit facility.

Background:

In March, 2022, the government had guaranteed a term loan of USD 1 billion extended by SBI to Sri Lanka for financing purchase of essential goods from India.

• Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since gaining independence from Britain in 1948 due to lack of foreign currency, which means the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.

>> Read Full News

RBL Bank ties up with Amazon Pay to offer UPI Payment Services 

RBL Bank has tied up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer UPI (Unified Payments Interface) payments for peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant transactions.
With this integration, Amazon Pay will issue NPCI’s (National Payments Corporation of India) allocated UPI ID with the handle @rapl to RBL Bank.

• Under this partnership the bank will utilize Amazon Pay’s customer base and transaction volumes, and will expand its presence in the UPI segment with its payment processing platform hosted on AWS.

About RBL Bank:
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (Interim)– Rajeev Ahuja
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra
Tagline– apno ka bank

HDFC Bank carves out Rural Banking as Separate Vertical; Launches Spot Home Loan Offer on WhatsApp

On May 19, 2022, HDFC Bank has carved out rural banking as a separate vertical which will be headed by Anil Bhavnani, who has been working with it for 19 years. The bank has also tied up with Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), Gujarat to prepare its rural initiative strategy which will look at consumer behaviour, customer satisfaction, service design, and service delivery.

• Earlier, rural banking was a part of the wider retail branch banking vertical. Now to make the bank future ready, this decision has been taken.

Key Points:
i.Under the rural vertical, bank will build new products and services related to rural transport economy, forest economy, agri economy, and other allied activities. It will act as one stop shop solution to small farmers, workers, and traders.
ii.HDFC will open 1,064 branches under the rural banking vertical in FY23 as against 1,000 branches opened in the last two fiscal years. 

• At present, the semi-urban and rural areas have 6,342 or 50 per cent of its branches.

iii.In 2021, Axis Bank announced the ‘Bharat Banking’ initiative aimed at the rural segment.
HDFC launches Spot Home Loan offer on WhatsApp 
The bank also rolled out a ‘Spot Offer’ on WhatsApp to provide an in-principle home loan approval to home buyers within two minutes. This 24×7 facility is developed by bank in association with Cogno AI, and can be availed by salaried resident Indians.

• To avail the offer, users have to send the message on HDFC’s WhatsApp number (+91 9867000000) and provide some basic information, on the basis of which a provisional/conditional home loan offer letter is generated instantaneously.

Volopay partners with Visa to issue their Own Cards in APAC region

Volopay, a Y Combinator-backed corporate cards and payable management company, has joined hands with Visa’s Fintech Fast Track Program to offer financial management solutions. 

• This Program will allow Volopay to start issuing their own Visa cards to their client businesses in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
• The partnership program was founded by Visa in order to support innovative financial services and solutions.   

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Indian Startup Skyroot Successfully Tests Kalam-100 Engine On Vikram-1 Launch Vehicle

Hyderabad-based space startup Skyroot Aerospace successfully tested a solid fuel-based engine, Kalam-100 Engine that would be used in the third stage of the launch vehicle called Vikram 1.The company is developing a series of three small satellite launch vehicles called Vikram 1, Vikram 2, and Vikram 3.The Vikram 1 rocket will use four fuel-based stages which includes 3 solid fuel and one 1 liquid fuel stages for the launch.
About Vikram-1 Launch Vehicle, Kalam-100 Engine, and Test
i.A small-lift launch vehicle will be capable of putting 225 kg payloads into sun-synchronous polar orbit whose payload capacity is very small when compared with ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which can carry up to 1,750 kg.
ii.Launch vehicle contains four stages, in which the third stage contains a solid fuel-based engine called Kalam-100 Engine, named after scientist and India’s former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

• About Testing: Test firing ran for 108 seconds and the engine produces a peak vacuum thrust of 100kilonewton(kN) or 10Tons .

iii.Kalam-100 engine is the largest rocket stage ever designed, manufactured, and tested completely in the Indian private sector.
iv.The main component of the engine structures consists of the high-strength carbon-fiber structure, solid fuel, Ethylene-Propylene-Diene terpolymers (EPDM) thermal protection system, and carbon ablative nozzle.
v.The test was conducted at a facility of one of the company’s investors Solar Industries India at Nagpur,Maharashtra.

Note – In 2021, Skyroot successfully demonstrated the country’s first privately developed cryogenic engine, Dhawan-1 ,which will be the upper stage in the Vikram-2 rocket, was completely 3D printed using a superalloy, with the process reducing the manufacturing time by 95 per cent.

NASA & Boeing Launched Starliner Spacecraft to carry Astronauts to ISS 

The Boeing Company and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Starliner Space Capsule- OFT 2 (Orbital Flight Test-2) from Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, United States of America (USA) to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). 

• The launch was carried out using the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket.

About the Launch:
i.The Launch is the second uncrewed flight test of Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 Starliner spacecraft for the Commercial Crew Program.
ii.The CST-100 Starship is scheduled to arrive about 24 hours later and plans to test multiple docking technologies.
Note:
i.NASA has partnered with Boeing Company and Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to build and operate vehicles to fly astronauts to and from the space station.
ii.SpaceX has flown four astronaut rotations to the ISS, with its last launch on April 27 2022 and the fifth planned launch is due by September 2022.

Webb – World’s Most Powerful Telescope Completes First Test To Track Moving Object In Deep Space

James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s largest and most powerful space-based observatory, recently completed the first test to track a moving object, which verified that the telescope could conduct moving target science.
Key Facts
i.The Webb team has already used an asteroid within our solar system to run engineering tests of the ‘moving target’ (MT) capability.
ii.The engineering team tested this capability on a small asteroid in the Main Belt: 6481 Tenzing, named after Tenzing Norgay, the famous Tibetan mountain guide who was one of the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
iii. Webb is currently moving through the final phases of commissioning its science instruments and as it proceeds through this phase, the mission team will test other objects moving at various speeds to verify we can study objects with the telescope that move throughout the solar system.
iv.This test was conducted to verify the observatory’s capabilities to track these objects with sufficient precision to obtain images and spectra.
About James Webb Space Telescope

• The Webb mission was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana on December 25, 2021.The space-based observatory will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in the universe.
• The James Webb Space Telescope will actually orbit the Sun, 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2.
• While moving through space, the James Webb Space Telescope will constantly find distant stars and galaxies and point at them with extreme precision to acquire images and spectra.

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Bee Day 2022 – May 20

The United Nations(UN)’s World Bee Day is annually observed across the globe on 20th May to raise awareness of the essential role bees and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy. 
The theme of World Bee Day 2022 is ‘Bee Engaged: Celebrating the diversity of bees and beekeeping systems’.
Background:
i.At the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO) Regional Conference for Europe(2016), The Republic of Slovenia proposed to celebrate the 20th May of every year as World Bee Day. 
ii.In 2017, the Proposal for World Bee Day was submitted for consideration at the 40th Session of the FAO Conference. 
iii.The United Nations General Assembly(UNGA) adopted the resolution A/RES/72/211 on 20th December 2017 and proclaimed the 20th May of every year as World Bee Day. 
iv.The first ever World Bee Day was observed on 20th May 2018. 
Observance in India:
i.Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister,  Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare (MoA&FW) participated in the event organised by MoA&FW to celebrate World Bee Day at Tent City -II, Ekta Nagar, Narmada, Gujarat. 
ii.The Ministry aims to promote beekeeping for the benefit of small farmers of India and to popularise beekeeping across India. 
>> Read Full News

STATE NEWS

Delhi Govt Inducts Two Robots In Their Firefighting Fleet

Delhi Government has undertaken a unique initiative of using robots for extinguishing fires in Delhi. By inducting the two robots into Delhi’s firefighting fleets, the fire fighters would be able to extinguish fires easily in narrow streets, warehouses, basements, stairs, forests and enter places like oil and chemical tankers and factories.
Key Informations
i.Remote-controlled fire fighting robots will have greater accessibility to places and will be able to navigate narrow lanes, reach spaces inaccessible to humans and perform tasks too risky for people.
ii.For the first time such remote control robots have been brought into the country which are capable of controlling fire remotely.
iii. At present, the Delhi Government has inducted 2 such robots, if the trial is successful, more such robots will be inducted into the fleet. These remote-controlled robots will prove to be major troubleshooters for the firefighters.
iv.Robots will also be capable of releasing high water pressure at the rate of 2,400 litres per minute.
v.This machine can be operated remotely from a distance of 300 metres with externalities by fire, smoke, heat, or any other adverse condition.

About Delhi
Chief Minister – Shri Arvind Kejriwal
Airport – Indira Gandhi International Airport

Uttarakhand Government Signs MoU With BPCL For Renewable Energy projectsUttarakhand Government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) for the development of new and renewable energy projects in the state.
Key Information
i.The MoU intends to take forward Uttarakhand by balancing both in the field of renewable energy and ecological economy.
ii.The MoU would lead to progress in the field of renewable energy, especially Solar Energy in the Hilly State.
iii. Along with this MoU, the investment procedures are simplified.
iv.This MoU would strive hard to make Uttarakhand an energy surplus state, with a particular emphasis on solar energy.
About Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)
An Indian government-owned oil and gas explorer and producer. It is under the ownership of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India.
Headquartered in – Mumbai, Maharashtra. 
Chairman & Managing Director – Shri. Arun Kumar Singh
About Uttarakhand
Capitals – Dehradun (Winter), Gairsain (Summer).
Governor: Gurmit Singh 
Chief minister: Pushkar Singh Dhami

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