• The book titled “A Burning”, is debut novel of Megha Majumdar.

• She is New York based writer who was born and raised in Kolkata.

• The book is about the lives of three characters, Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi and Jhumpa Lahiri who want to rise to the middle class, to political power, to gain fame in the film industry and how their lives changed in Indian society.

• The book was published on 2nd June 2020 by Knopf Doubleday publishing Group.

● India was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for a two-year term after winning 184 votes in the 193-member General Assembly.

● Along with India, Ireland, Mexico and Norway also won the Security Council elections held last night. India was a candidate for a non-permanent seat from the Asia-Pacific category for the 2021-22 term.

● India's two-year term will begin on January 1, 2021.

● This is the eighth time that India will sit at the UN high-table, which comprises five permanent members and 10 non-permanent members.

● Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch a massive rural public works scheme, Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, in six states this Saturday.

● The campaign aims to provide livelihood opportunities to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens.

● The campaign of 125 days will be implemented on mission mode.

● It will involve intensified and focused implementation of 25 different types of works to provide employment to the migrant workers and create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country.

● The scheme entails a resource envelope of 50 thousand crore rupees.

● A total of 116 Districts with more than 25 thousand returnee migrant workers across six States, namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha have been chosen for the campaign which includes 27 Aspirational Districts.

● India will send a 75-member Tri-Service contingent to participate in the military parade in Moscow on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Second World War.

● The parade will honour the heroism and sacrifices made by the Russian and other friendly people.

● Defence Minister of Russia had invited an Indian contingent to take part in the Victory Day Parade scheduled to be held on 24th of this month.

● The participation will be a mark of tribute and solidarity with the people of Russia at a time when they remember their heroes of the Great Patriotic War.

● The All India Football Federation recently recommended the former Indian Captain IM Vijayan for the fourth highest civilian award in India, the Padmashri.

● IM Vijayan has scored 40 goals in over 79 matches. He won the Arjuna award in 2003. Also, in 1993, 1997 and in 1999 he was awarded the best Indian “Player of the year”.

● Padmashri is the fourth highest civilian award in India. The other three highest civilian awards include Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan.

● The awards are presented by the President of India during Republic Day celebrations of the country.

● Information technology giant, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd, and IBM have expanded their global partnership to help clients accelerate their digital transformations to IBM public cloud using IBM Cloud Paks.

● As part of the tie up, TCS will establish an IBM Enterprise Cloud Architecture Unit, which will include technical professionals from both companies.

● TCS and IBM plan to co-develop solutions designed to help clients migrate workloads across applications, analytics, data estate and platforms.

● Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has affirmed a USD 750 million (around Rs 5,714 crore) loan to India to enable the legislature to fortify its fight against the antagonistic effect of COVID-19 on poor and vulnerable households.

● AIIB’s total sovereign advances to India that have just been affirmed add up to USD 3.06 billion, including an ongoing USD 500 million COVID-19 emergency response.

● The current credit will be the second for India under AIIB’s COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF).

● Composite Regional Centre (CRC) for Skill Development, Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs)” has been inaugurated in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

● The centre was inaugurated by Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Thaawarchand Gehlot, and Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Arjun Munda.

● This is the 21st Composite Regional Centre (CRC) which will serve to fulfil the needs of Persons with Disabilities in Jharkhand.

● Composite Regional Centre (CRC) for Skill Development, Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities will offer rehabilitation services such as Early Intervention Programme to Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in the State of Jharkhand including the adjoining areas.

● The Asian Paralympic Committee (APC) has announced that the 4th edition of Asian Youth Para Games to be held in Bahrain in December 2021.

● Around 800 athletes under 20 years aged are expected to compete in nine sports: athletics, badminton, boccia, goalball, para taekwondo, powerlifting, swimming, table tennis and wheelchair basketball.

● The event is being organised in conjunction with the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) of Bahrain with the support of the government.

● Grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan has won the World Stars Sharjah Online International Chess Championship.

● He won the coveted title and price of $3000 after scoring 7.5 points from 10 rounds.

● Indian Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna finished second in the Championship after scoring 6.5 points from 10 rounds.

● Sharjah Online International Chess Championship was hosted by the Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club.

● The Championship was held under the patronage of Sheikh Saqr Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Chairman of Sharjah Sports Council.