Correct Answer :   5th

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India is the fifth amongst spacefaring countries in the world having end-to-end capabilities in Space Research and Development (R&D).

Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Dr Jitendra Singh said this in a written reply in Lok Sabha on 2nd August 2023.

He said that India has the capability to launch from its own land and operate programmes of earth observation, satellite communication, meteorology, space science and navigation, and ground infrastructure.

He further added that now after space sector reforms, the NewSpace industries are also emerging at a fast pace..

Source : AIR

Correct Answer :   Bhopal

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President Draupadi Murmu inaugurated the national festival of India's folk and tribal expressions "Utkarsh" and the international literature festival "Unmesh" in Bhopal (3rd August 2023).

Culture Department of Madhya Pradesh along with Sangeet Natak Akademi and Sahitya Akademi of the Union Ministry of Culture is organizing this event from 3rd to 5th August 2023.

Governor Mangubhai Patel and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were present at the inaugural ceremony.

On this occasion, the President said that literature shows the mirror to humanity and takes it forward. It connects as well as connecting.

He said that it is to be seen from the Amrit Kaal Mein Unmesh program that what is being created in literature today, which is being read by a large number of people.

The President said that Utkarsh means progress and the progress of the tribal group will lead to the progress of the country. It is the responsibility of all of us to preserve the tribal tradition, language and culture..

Source : AIR

Correct Answer :   Bengaluru

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University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) will be opening a first-of-its-kind museum on its campus in Bengaluru on 3 August 2023.

Minister of Agriculture N. Cheluvarayaswamy would inaugurate the museum.

Aim : To introduce the evolution of agricultural practices into the lives of students and the general public increasingly cut-off from the experience by the "urban buzz".

The museum will serve as a one-stop solution where they can get information about agriculture.

Source : The hindu

Correct Answer :   Shohini Sinha

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Indian-American Shohini Sinha has been appointed as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City Field Office.

Sinha has been appointed to the post by FBI Director Christopher Wray, according to a release issued by the FBI.

Sinha most recently served as executive special assistant to the Director at FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC. She joined the FBI as a special agent in 2001. She was first assigned to the Milwaukee Field Office, where she worked in counterterrorism investigations.

She also served in temporary assignments at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, the FBI Legal Attaché Office in London, and the Baghdad Operations Center.

Sinha was in 2009 promoted to supervisory special agent and transferred to the Counterterrorism Division in Washington, DC. She served as program manager of Canada-based extraterritorial investigations and facilitated liaison efforts with Washington, DC-based Canadian liaison officers, according to the FBI release.

In 2012, Sinha was promoted to assistant legal attaché in Ottawa, Canada, working counterterrorism matters in collaboration with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. In 2015, she was promoted to field supervisor in the Detroit Field Office, where she led squads responsible for investigating international terrorism matters.

Sinha was in early 2020, transferred to the cyber intrusion squad, which worked both national security and criminal cyber intrusion matters. Later in 2020, she was promoted to assistant special agent in charge for national security matters, and later criminal matters, in the Portland Field Office.

In 2021, she was selected to serve as the executive special assistant to the FBI Director.

Before her employment with the FBI, Sinha worked as a therapist and later as an administrator for a private, not-for-profit clinic in Lafayette, Indiana. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in mental health counseling from Purdue University in Indiana.

Source : NDTV

Correct Answer :   Ministry of Minority Affairs

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Minority Affairs Minister "Smriti Irani" told in the Lok Sabha that about 1 lakh 20 thousand minority students have benefited under the Naya Savera Scheme. 'Naya Savera Yojana' is a scheme launched by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

The Ministry implemented ‘Naya Savera’ scheme (‘Free Coaching and Allied’ scheme) to assist students/candidates belonging to the six notified minority communities namely Sikh, Jain, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Parsi by way of special coaching for qualifying examinations for admission in technical/professional courses and competitive examination for recruitment to Group Á, ‘B’, & ‘C’ services and other equivalent posts under the Central and State Governments including public sector undertakings, banks and railways. The scheme was implemented across the country through empaneled Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs).

Since inception, 1,19,223 minority students/candidates have been benefited under Naya Savera Scheme, out of which 12,155 beneficiaries were from state of Andhra Pradesh.

The details of physical achievement during last three years are given below:

Year	Number of students allocated
2019-2020	9,580
2020-2021	5,300
2021-2022	5,090

State-wise details of minority students benefited under the scheme is available on the website of Ministry www.minorityaffairs.gov.in .

The duration of the coaching period under the scheme were from 3 months to 2 years depending upon the coaching programme allocated to the PIAs. The scheme has been discontinued w.e.f. 2022-23.

This information was given by the Minister of Minority Affairs "Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani", in a written reply in Lok Sabha 3rd August 2023..

Source : PIB

Correct Answer :   63

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There are 63 DGCA authorised Remote Pilot Training Organisation (RPTO) in the country as on 25th July 2023. The List of DGCA Authorised RPTO is placed at Annexure.


Key Points :

* Training schools for Drone certified more than 5500 Remote Pilot Certificates

* Over 10 thousand drones are registered with a Unique Identification Number

* DGCA has issued 25 type certificates till date for drones manufacturing in India


DGCA has sanctioned applications of three RPTOs in Madhya Pradesh as under :

1. Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi, Gwalior

2. Ultimate Energy Resource Private Ltd, Bhopal

3. Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi, Bhopal

The Government has notified the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Drones and Drone Components with an objective to incentivise manufacturing of drones and drone components in India so as to make them self-sustaining and globally competitive. Drone import policy has been notified on 9th February 2022, banning import of foreign drones and freeing up import of drone components. Drone Rules have been liberalized to facilitate wider application of drones.

Given the combined benefits of the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021, the PLI scheme, the prohibition of drone imports and growing utilisation, the Indian drone industry is likely to grow along with an increase in employment.

Since notification of Drone Rules, 2021, 63 RPTOs have been approved by DGCA for providing drone training/skilling across the country. Till date, these training schools have certified more than 5500 Remote Pilot Certificates (RPCs). As on date, a total of 10010 drones are registered with a Unique Identification Number (UIN). DGCA has issued 25 type certificates till date for drones manufacturing in India.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Gen. (Dr) V. K. Singh (Retd) in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha 3rd August 2023..

Source : PIB

Correct Answer :   Himanta Biswa Sarma

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Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday (2nd August 2023) launched the Department of Forest & Environment's Amrit Brikshya Andolan web portal/mobile application and the Wood-based Industry (WBI) registration web portal, along with the theme song for the Amrit Brikshya Andolan, an initiative aimed at planting a total of 1 crore (10 million) commercially-viable saplings across the State by individuals from various walks of life on coming September 17.

Sarma, referring to the launch of the Amrit Brikshya Andolan web portal/mobile app as a first step towards the target of 1-crore sapling plantation on September 17, said Amrit Brikshya Andolan would provide a major boost to the State's green economy.

Stating that rampant destruction of forests across the world as one of the major contributing factors behind global warming,

Sarma exuded confidence collective initiatives such Amrit Brikshya Andolan would be Assam's contribution towards the fight against climate change. On September 17, 2023, around 40 lakh members of women self-help groups from across the State would be planting two commercially-viable saplings each, taking the total to 80 lakhs. The rest (20 lakhs or more) would be planted by people belonging to various walks of life such as anganwadi workers, tea garden workers, government officials, police and forest battalions and members of the general public of the State.

* To encourage participation and ensure the success of the initiative, the state government will set up distribution centers to provide saplings conveniently.
* Moreover, individuals who register themselves with the ‘Amrit Brikshya Andolan’ app or portal and upload geo-tagged photographs of themselves planting the saplings will receive a reward of Rs 100 credited to their bank account.
* This incentive-based approach is expected to motivate a higher number of people to actively participate in the plantation drive.


Amrit Brikshya Andolan: Future Targets

While the immediate target of ‘Amrit Brikshya Andolan’ is to plant 1 crore saplings in a single day, the state government has set its sights on even more ambitious goals. By the year 2025, Assam aims to plant a staggering 5 crore saplings, further fortifying its commitment to environmental conservation and sustainable growth...

Source : India Times

Correct Answer :   Tamil Nadu

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The Tamil Cultural community celebrates Aadi Perukku, also known as Pathinettam Perukku, as an auspicious festival to honor the monsoon season and the fertility of the soil.

Aadi Perukku is celebrated on August 3rd, coinciding with the 18th day of the Tamil month of Aadi. Traditionally observed in late July or early August, this festivity centers around expressing gratitude to water bodies, as the entire month of Aadi is considered to herald the onset of the monsoon season.


Aadi Perukku: A Monsoon Festival Celebrating Water Sustainability and Gratitude in Tamil Nadu

* Aadi Perukku is a monsoon festival celebrated in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, that occurs on the 18th day of the Tamil month of Aadi.
* This joyous event revolves around promoting water sustainability and encompasses a variety of rituals and customs.
* Families unite to prepare special delicacies and partake in a lavish feast, expressing gratitude to the water deities for a prosperous year ahead.
* An intriguing facet of the Aadi Perukku celebration is the veneration of Goddess Parvati, with women offering prayers to both her and the divine.
* The festivities also showcase an array of rice-based dishes, including traditional favorites such as tamarind rice and curd rice, complemented by the delightful sweetness of Pongal.

Aadi Perukku: From Local Tradition to Global Celebration

* In its early origins, Aadhi Perukku was confined to the communities living alongside the Cauvery River. Over time, though, this festival has surpassed geographical confines and now embraces a worldwide observance.
* People from various corners of the globe, particularly those with Tamilian heritage, actively participate in the festivities, delighting in the preparation of a wide range of rice delicacies that spread joy on this occasion.
* Aadi Perukku has, in essence, evolved into an expression of gratitude and admiration towards Mother Nature, becoming a beloved family celebration cherished across the globe.

Correct Answer :   Ministry of Education

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To modernise and scale India’s free education tech platform DIKSHA, that serves over 200 million students, the Union Ministry of Education has migrated the platform to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

The ministry and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure have entered into a multi-year collaboration agreement. Under this collaboration, Oracle will help the education ministry use DIKSHA to provide educational resources to millions of additional students, teachers and collaborators across India.

Migration to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will help the education ministry scale for DIKSHA 2.0 and lower the IT cost.

Since moving to OCI, DIKSHA has gained greater scalability, security, cost effectiveness, and the ability to adjust capacity based on demand, enabling DIKSHA to deliver more content and serve more students and teachers as the platform grows.

“Education is an important pillar for economic development, and India’s knowledge economy continues to be one of the largest in the world. We need to embrace modern tools and technology to make education more easily available and securely accessible to everyone,” said Indu Kumar, Head of Department, ICT and Training, Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Ministry of Education, Government of India.

DIKSHA is one of India’s largest and most successful digital public infrastructure (DPI) initiatives, which was developed for school education and foundational learning programmes.

The platform supports 1.48 million schools across all of India’s 35 states and Union Territories and is available in 36 Indian languages.

Using the open-source platform Sunbird, developed by the EkStep Foundation, DIKSHA helps teachers support inclusive learning for communities of underserved and disabled learners across the country.

More than 200 million students and 7 million teachers from government and private schools access content from more than 11,000 contributors. Users of the platform stream 1.2 petabytes of text and video content per day from sources such as the National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT), Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs).

With the massive scale of the DIKSHA platform, DIKSHA generates a huge number of logs for which they run Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana (ELK stack) for application diagnosis, performance, analytics and dashboards. OCI Compute VMs and OCI Storage help manage DIKSHA’s workload and store application content such as PDFs, videos and webpages as well as performance logs.

For the massive scale is the platform, India’s Ministry of Education needed a cloud service provider that is well equipped to handle the processing, storage and distribution of large amounts of data in a variety of formats. To aid this continuous development and management of the DIKSHA application, many of its microservices run on Oracle’s Kubernetes clusters in OCI Container Engine for Kubernetes (OKE) and container images are stored in OCI Container Registry.

Additionally, OCI Media Flow and OCI Media Streams help make it easier for users to access the nearly 1.5 million videos on the platform by processing and storing video content in the right formats and resolutions to meet the users’ needs.

The DIKSHA migration project is being implemented by two Oracle PartnerNetwork members, Bharti Airtel and Trigyn Technologies. DIKSHA will be deployed in the Oracle Cloud Mumbai region..

Source : Business Today

Correct Answer :   IIT-Madras

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The Ministry of Railways and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) signed a memorandum of understanding ((MoU) to establish the India 5G testbed at the Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications (IRISET) in Secunderabad;

The facility would be dedicated to the testing and development of 5G use cases for Indian Railways.

MoU Aim : The MoU between IRISET and IIT-Madras aims to accelerate the indigenisation efforts of Indian Railways in the field of communications and create a testing facility for Indian Railways.

Indian Railways Aim : The Indian Railways aims to leverage the potential of 5G technology to enhance its operational efficiency, passenger experience and overall safety. By simulating real-world scenarios, researchers and industry experts will explore innovative solutions to modernise various aspects of Railway communication and services.

About the 5G testbed :

The indigenous 5G solution and testbed has been developed jointly by IIT-Kanpur; Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) under MeitY; IIT-Bombay; Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT), a society of IIT-Madras;

IIT-Madras, as part of the indigenous 5G testbed project funded by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to a consortium of eight institutes.

The establishment of the India 5G testbed represents an important step in harnessing the potential of 5G technology for the railway industry. It will enable Indian Railways to explore and implement innovative solutions that can transform various aspects of railway communication and services..

Source : Indianarrative