KERALA
- Spectacular Thrissur Pooram festival begins in Kerala
- The 2019 edition of the Thrissur Pooram is an extravagant temple festival in Kerala.
- It is held at the Vadakkunnathan Temple in Thrissur every year on the Pooram day – the day when the moon rises with the Pooram star.
- A 54-year-old elephant ‘Thechikottukavu Ramachandran’ also participated in the festival.
- It was banned after it killed two people earlier this year.
- Ramachandran, the tallest elephant of the state, pushed open the southern entrance of the shrine amid thunderous cheers of the people gathered on the temple ground.
INTERNATIONAL
- Maldives confers its highest civilian award on PM Modi
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with the Maldives’ highest civilian award, the ‘Order of the Distinguished Rule of Izzudeen’, by the President of the host country, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
- The award is in recognition of the many services Prime Minister Modi has offered to cement the longstanding and amicable ties between the two countries.
- Also for the magnanimous assistance that the Indian government continues to provide to the Maldives under his stewardship.
- Forex reserves increase by 1.8 billion to 421.8 billion
- The country’s foreign exchange reserves increased by USD 1.875 billion to USD 421.867 billion in the week ending May 31.
- Reserve Bank weekly data released showed that foreign currency assets, which is a major component of the overall reserves, rose by USD 1.946 billion to USD 394.134 billion.
- According to the RBI data, after remaining stable for the past few weeks, gold reserves declined by USD 62.9 million to USD 22.958 billion.
NATIONAL
- Union Cabinet has approved the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Siddhi Scheme
- Union Cabinet has approved the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Siddhi It will cost over Rs.87,000 crore a year to the exchequer. The government has announced its decision to extend the benefit of Rs.6,000 per yearunder the PM-KISAN scheme to all 14.5 crore farmers in the country, irrespective of the size of their landholding.
- The scheme was launched on 24th February 2019in the run-up to the 2019 Parliamentary elections in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh where the first rounds of installments were paid to several farmers.
- The government so far distributed thefirst installment to 3.11 crore beneficiaries and second installment to 2.66 crore beneficiaries into their bank accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer mode.
- Bancha, the first solar kitchen only village in India
- Bancha in Betul district is the first village in India to have zero wooden stoves and almost no use for LPG cylinders with all its 75 houses relying on solar-powered stoves to meet their cooking needs.
- The project of installing solar power plates, batteries and stoves in all the 74 houses was started in September 2017 and got completed by December 2018.
- French Open 2019 Concludes
- The 123rd edition of the French Open took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France.
- The winners of the various categories are as follows:
- Men’s Singles: Rafael Nadal (Spain)
- Women’s Singles: Ashleigh Barty (Australia)
- Men’s Doubles: Kevin Krawietz (Germany) and Andreas Mies (Germany)
- Women’s Doubles: Tímea Babos (Hungary) and Kristina Mladenovic (France)
- Mixed Doubles: Latisha Chan (Chinese Taipei) and Ivan Dodig (Croatia)