• Ratan Lal Nath, Education Minister of Tripura launched the first of its kind Auro Scholarship Programme of Sri Aurobindo Society for all the students of Tripura. The programme was launched at the virtual event organised by the Sri Aurobindo Society.

• Auro Scholar is the World’s first Micro Scholarship programme aimed to encourage the students to improve their learning.

• Sri Aurobindo Society partnered with the Government of Tripura to make the scholarship accessible to all the students of Tripura.

* Andhra Pradesh selected Essar Steel as Joint Venture partner to set up a steel plant in the Kadapa district.

* The AP government has previously selected Liberty Steel India Limited as the JV partner for construction and development of the YSR Steel Plant.

* But that was cancelled based on the recommendation of SBICAP as Liberty steel India Limited was facing some financial issues.

* The steel plant will be set up with a capacity of 3 million tonne per annum for producing high grade Steel products.

* The Capital Expenditure of the Project will be Rs.11,606 crore.

• The Uttarakhand Police has launched a drive called “Mission Hausla” to help people get oxygen, beds and plasma for COVID-19 patients.

• Besides this, the police are also helping the public in getting ration, ambulance, cremation of bodies as part of the mission.

• To ensure the availability of fresh vegetables for day to day consumption and reduce the distress sale of farm produce during the pandemic Manipur state government has launched the MOMA Market Mobile application to solve the issues of home delivery of fresh vegetables.

• The application was introduced by the Manipur Organic Mission Agency (MOMA), Department of Horticulture and Soil Conservation, Manipur.

• MOMA is assigned to channelize the farm producers to consumers through home delivery.

• Under this initiative the vegetables from various farms will be collected by the Farmers Producer Companies (FPCs) working with MOMA.

• The collected farm produce will be disbursed to the registered marketing agencies.

• The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MoSJE) has issued a notification mandating all State/UT Governments to issue a certificate of disability through online mode only using Unique Disability ID Portal (UDID Portal) – (www.swavlambancard.gov.in) from June 1, 2021.

• The requirement of a Certificate of disability is mandated under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act, 2016).

• Using the certificate, people with disabilities can avail benefits of different government schemes.

• The sector has been demanding online issuance of certificates, as people with disabilities were unable to get certificates due to prevalent restrictions in Pandemic times.

• Department of Health, and Department which deals with disability matters in States/UTs will ensure the compliance of the notification.

* London-based property consultant Knight Frank has ranked New Delhi and Mumbai in 32nd and 36th positions respectively in the Global Prime Residential Index.

* While Bengaluru moved down by four places in Q1 2021 and is ranked 40; Delhi and Mumbai dipped one place each in the same period.

* Three Chinese cities – Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou lead the index this quarter. Shenzhen recorded the strongest performing world region with a growth of 18.9%, while New York was the weakest performing market with negative 5.8% growth. Some of the world’s top metropolises, New York, Dubai, London, Paris and Hong Kong are seeing prices soften. New York was the weakest-performing global city during the period.

* Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has launched a new mobile app for students and parents. The new app ‘Dost for Life’ is an exclusive psychological counselling app for students and parents of CBSE-affiliated schools.

* The new App will simultaneously cater to students and parents from CBSE-affiliated schools in different geographies across the world.

* The app will also provide students with other resource material such as suggestive course guides for after senior secondary education, tips on mental health and well being, and a ‘corona guide’ with information on daily safety protocol, learning from home and self-care.

* The counselling sessions shall be provided to students of classes 9-12 by 83 volunteer counsellors and school principals.

* According to the new report ‘Renewable Energy Market Update – Outlook for 2021 and 2022’ released by International Energy Agency (IEA), India’s Renewable Energy capacity addition declined by almost 50% to 5.62 GigaWatts (GW) in 2020 (compared to 2019).

* The decline in capacity addition in India has been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

* At the Global level, the annual renewable capacity additions increased 45% to almost 280 GW (up from 190 GW in 2019), which is the highest year-on year increase since 1999.

* China alone accounted for more than 50% of the green energy projects built in 2020.

* The 280 GW renewable energy capacity addition in 2020 comprised primarily Solar – 135 GW, Wind – 115 GW, Hydro – 20 GW, and 10 GW of other renewables.

* The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has notified 48.32 sq km around the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS) in Maharashtra as an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ).

* Eco-Sensitive Zones are geographical areas within a radius of 10 kms around a protected area, a national park or a wildlife sanctuary, and are declared by the ministry under the provisions of Environment Protection Act 1986.

• According to the ‘Environmental Risk Outlook 2021’ released by Verisk Maplecroft, India has 43 of the World’s 100 most environmentally riskiest cities and China has 37 most environmentally riskiest cities.

• Jakarta in Indonesia was ranked as the riskiest city in the world, followed by Delhi and Chennai.

• 99 of the World’s 100 riskiest cities are in Asia.

• Lima, Peru is the only non-Asian city to be listed in the World’s 100 Riskiest cities.
Glasgow, Scotland was ranked as the safest city in the report.