With 42 per cent workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme still not eligible for Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS), the Union government on Aug 30  extended the deadline for enabling payment of wages through the system to December 31. Earlier, the deadline was September 1 and this is the fifth extension by the Centre.

CPM leader and its former state committee member, Sarojini Balanandan, passed away in Kochi. She was 86.

Sarojini was the wife of former CPM politburo member late E Balanandan, who passed away in 2009.

Sarojini was a member of the CPM state committee from 1985 to 2012. She contested the Kerala Assembly from Aluva in 1996. She also served as the state president of the Janadipathya Mahila Association. 

Congress received a shot in the arm when senior BJP leader Vinod Sharma joined the grand old party in the presence of state president Akhilesh Prasad Singh and other senior leaders at Sadaqat Ashram .

Sharma, chief spokesperson of BJP and member of the executive committee, had resigned from the saffron party last month alleging the central government’s utter failure to contain violence in Manipur. 

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has  launched a comic book on good health and wellness, which will be accessible in 11 languages, including Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Tamil, and Telugu.

Launching the comic book, developed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and UNESCO, the minister hoped the book would motivate students to prioritize holistic well-being while entertaining them through storytelling, with a key focus on good health and wellness.

He also mentioned the importance of the partnership with UNESCO at the time of India’s G20 Presidency and the subject of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) which can be spread with the help of comic books.

Pradhan urged UNESCO to spread Indian stories so that it benefits not only the youth of India but the entire world.

It will be distributed across various educational and health institutions nationwide and will also be disseminated to the 29,000 schools affiliated with the CBSE.

The SHWP, initiated under the Ayushman Bharat campaign in April 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is an initiative undertaken by the Union Education Ministry and Union Health Ministry.

Its primary objective is to impart health education, prevent diseases, and enhance access to health services through wellness centres within educational institutions.The comic book ‘Let’s Move Forward’ is designed to cater to the diverse requirements of adolescents and encapsulates crucial information pertaining to the 11 thematic components of the School Health and Wellness Programme

Seeking to fulfil another key pre-poll promise, the Congress government in Karnataka on Aug 30  launched the 'Gruha Lakshmi' scheme, offering monthly assistance of Rs 2,000 to about 1.1 crore women who are heads of their households.

"Gruha Lakshmi" scheme, rolled out amid fanfare, is one of the five pre-poll 'guarantees' of the Congress, which ousted the BJP from power in the May Assembly elections.

Earlier, the CM had said that his government has already implemented three of the five 'guarantees' (pre-poll promises) -- 'Shakti', 'Gruha Jyothi' and 'Annabhagya' -- and noted that 'Gruha Lakshmi' is the fourth one.

The government has earmarked Rs 17,500 crore for the 'Gruha Lakshmi' programme in the current financial year.

The fifth guarantee 'Yuva Nidhi' (Youth Fund) promises to give Rs 3000 and Rs 1,500 a month to unemployed graduates and diploma holders, respectively, who failed to get a job even after six months of clearing the exam in 2022-23 academic year.

The scheme will be launched in December.

The number of foreign tourists who arrived in India this year during January-June is 106 per cent more than the figure for the corresponding period in 2022.

Also  there has been a growth in foreign exchange earnings for this period in 2023 compared to the corresponding figures last year.

The number of foreign tourists who arrived in India this year during January-June stood at 43.80 lakh, which is 106 per cent higher than the figure (21.24 lakh) for the corresponding period in 2022.

As far as domestic tourism is concerned, the figure stood at 677 million in 2021 and grew to 1,731 million in 2022.

A 36-year-old man working as a senior manager with e-commerce giant Amazon was shot dead in northeast Delhi’s Bhajanpura area . The incident took place on  Aug 29 when five unidentified people opened fire at Harpreet Gill and his maternal uncle Govind Singh  in Subhash Vihar. 

Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has called for stronger relationships with India, South Korea and Japan to reduce the US' economic dependence on China and Taiwan.

Ramaswamy, 38, whose poll numbers have surged following the maiden Republican presidential primary debate last week, spelt out his plans and foreign policy views on Aug 29 .

He attacked another Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who had slammed him for his inexperience on foreign policy issues.

The entrepreneur-turned-politician Ramaswamy said he favours strategic clarity and advocated that the US must defend Taiwan vigorously until America achieves semiconductor independence, then resume the posture of strategic ambiguity when the stakes are lower for the US.

He said the US should rapidly arm and train Taiwan with Anti-Access/Area Denial weapons while running at least one Destroyer warship through the Taiwan Strait each week.

The US should also fortify its own homeland defence, which is at present dangerously vulnerable to major conflicts with China, he said, adding this includes improving nuclear, super electromagnetic pulse, cyber and space defence capabilities.

His campaign said that Ramaswamy is the only US Presidential candidate to date who has clearly stated that the US will defend Taiwan.