INTERNATIONAL

 

• India ranks 10th on new Commonwealth innovation index

 

• India has ranked 10th on a new Commonwealth Innovation Index, topped by the UK, Singapore and Canada.

 

• The index was launched as part of a new Commonwealth Innovation Hub on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London.

 

• It has been created in partnership with the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and its annual Global Innovation Index (GII).

 

 

NATIONAL

 

• First regional conference of eastern states on Water Resources

 

• The first regional conference of eastern states on Water Resources was held in Kolkata on April 16 to address the outstanding water issues of these states.

• The conference deliberated on finding a solution to mitigate intra and intra-basin issues relating to water resources in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.

 

• The issue of interlinking of rivers also come-up for discussion at the conference.

 

 

• East Godavari, first district with complete LED street lighting

 

• East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh is all set to become the country’s first ‘LED street light district’.

 

• The rural LED street lighting programme in the district entailing the installation of around 3.1 lakh LED street lights has been completed.

 

• The exercise is expected to save around 34 Million Units (MU) annually.

 

• AP is already ranked the best State in implementation of energy efficiency and conservation programmes by the World Bank.

 

 

• Union Government Revises Target To Complete PMGSY From Year 2022 To 2019

 

• The Union Government has stated that the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojanaor PMGSY is well on its way to achieving the target by March 2019.
• The scheme, since its inception in 2000, has been able to provide connectivity to more than One lakh 50 thousand habitations.
• Sensing the importance and urgency of rural roads for national development, the target date for completion of PMGSY-I has been preponed from 2022 to 2019.

·        Electric vehicles charging stations need no licence, clarifies Power Ministry

 

• The Power Ministry has categorised charging batteries of electric vehicles as a service, a move which will help such stations operate without licence and encourage the use of e-vehicles.
• Transmission, distribution and trading of electricity need licences under the Electricity Act. Therefore, all utilities have to seek licences for sale of power to consumers.
• The Ministry said in a clarification that during the charing of e-vehicles, a station does not perform any activity related to the transmission, distribution or trading of electricity.
• Hence charging of batteries of electric vehicles through charging station does not any require licence under the provision of the Electricity Act 2003.
• In the present scenario, the EVs make economic sense as their per km running cost is less than a rupee, whereas the same cost for petrol and diesel works out to an average of ₹6.50.
• The government’s National Electric Mobility Mission Plan launched in 2013 aims at ensuring 6-7 million electric and hybrid vehicles in India by 2020.

The vision enunciated two years ago is for India to have 100% EVs by 2030.

 

• Pulitzer Prizes 2018 announced

 

• The Pulitzer Prizes for 2018has been announced. Following are the winners of the Pulitzer Prize 2018.

  Fiction- Andrew Sean Greer’s “Less” has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Greer’s novel tells the comic story of a middle-aged novelist.

  2. Drama- Cost of Living, by Martyna Majok.

  3. History- The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea, by Jack E. Davis (Liveright/W.W. Norton).

  4. Biography- Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by Caroline Fraser (Metropolitan Books).

  5. Poetry- Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016, by Frank Bidart (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux).