1. During the curtain raiser event for 7th International Day of Yoga (IDY) on June 11, 2021, a mobile application called “Namaste Yoga” was launched. This app in devoted to Yoga. Event was organised by Ministry of Ayush in association with Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY). On the occasion, Ayush Minister Shri Kiren Rijiju highlighted about 10-day series on Doordarshan on IDY 2021 and central message of this series as “Be with Yoga Be at Home”.Namaste Yoga app is designed as an information platform for public. It was launched with the aim of raising awareness about yoga and make it accessible for larger community.
2. India’s forex reserves crossed $600 mark for the first time and as on June 4, it stood at $605 billion. With this, India equals Russia as the fourth largest reserve holder worldwide. India’s forex reserve was $605.008 billion while for Russia it was $605.2 billion. It took a year for reserves to rise by $100 billion. Huge forex reserves have improved India’s import cover substantially.
3. UN General Assembly (UNGA) has approved nomination of Rebecca Grynspan to head United Nations Conference on Trade and development (UNCTAD). She is an economist from Costa Rica.She will be the first woman and Central American to lead Geneva-based organisation, UNCTAD.She was nominated as secretary-general of UNCTAD by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.UNCTAD was established as permanent intergovernmental body in 1964. It is a part of United Nations Secretariat that deals in trade, investment, and developmental issues. It seeks to maximize trade, investment and development opportunities in developing countries and assist them in integrating into world economy on equitable basis.
4. European Space Agency (ESA) has announced about its probe called ‘EnVision’ to study Venus, after American Space agency NASA decided to send two missions to the planet. EnVision will be the next orbiter to circle over Venus. It will provide a holistic view of planet from its inner core to upper atmosphere. It will determine how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently, even though they lie in habitable zone to the Sun as opposed to Nasa probes DAVINCI+ and VERITAS which will enter into atmosphere of Venus.
5. Education ministry has developed an online module to compile data on out-of-school children. Ministry has also asked states and union territories to upload a quarterly progress report. Under this online module, data on out-of-school children should be mapped with special training centres (STCs) of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan. Compilation of these data set will help in bringing back those children to school classroom. Thus, this module is in line with the key focus of new national education policy. Information of all identified out-of-school children and STCs will be uploaded at block level under Block Resource Coordinator. Quarterly progress report and user manual will be shared on portal.