PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has been issued a passport with 10-year validity.

After a prolonged legal battle in the Delhi High Court, the passport was delivered to Mehbooba.

Her travel document expired in 2019 and since then she had been seeking its renewal.

It came barely two days ahead of a hearing in Jammu and Kashmir High Court where Mehbooba's daughter Iltija's plea challenging the decision of the passport office to give her a country-specific passport is to come up.

The passport given to Mehbooba, who was the last chief minister of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state before it was bifurcated in 2019, is valid from June 1, 2023, till May 31, 2033.

The Delhi High Court in March this year had asked the passport authority to decide within three months on issuing a fresh travel document to the PDP chief.

The court's order had come on a petition by Mehbooba seeking a direction to the passport authorities to take an early decision on her appeal regarding the issuance of a new passport.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said in her plea that there was a considerable delay in issuing a new passport to her despite reminders.

She said no decision was being taken on her appeal.

The Central government's counsel had informed the court that an order was passed on the appeal on March 2 and the matter has been sent to the passport officer in Jammu and Kashmir for reconsideration.

In February this year, Mehbooba had sought the intervention of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for the issuance of the passport, saying she had been waiting for it for the past three years to take her 80-year-old mother on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

In March 2021, Mehbooba and her mother were denied passports after the Jammu and Kashmir Police had cited an "adverse report".

This year, the cotton crop was sown on only 1.75 lakh hectares in Punjab against the target of 3 lakh hectares set by the state government. This is the lowest area under cotton crop in the state in last 10 years. While the state has the potential to bring around 8 lakh hectares under cotton crop as it used to have more than 7 lakh hectares under the crop in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 2013-14, the area under cotton in the state was 4.45 lakh hectares, a record, and this year, it is the lowest ever. Many factors are cited for the reduction in the area for cotton cultivation: First, the time when the crop is sown is between April 1 and May 31, but due to rains this year, the crop could not be sown properly in 25,000 acres.

At least twice the crop was sown but it faced pest attacks. Second, despite officials’ persuasion, the farmers, especially in the Malwa region, did not prefer the cotton crop for fear of crop diseases

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in India on  Jun 4 on a two-day visit to explore ways to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation, especially in areas of transfer of critical technologies for co-development of military hardware.

Secretary Austin's trip comes over two weeks ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to Washington during which the two sides are expected to unveil initiatives to expand the India-US global strategic partnership.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Austin are set to discuss in their talks General Electric's proposal to share technology with India for fighter jet engines and New Delhi's plan to procure 30 MQ-9B armed drones at a cost of over USD 3 billion from US defence major General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc besides other issues.

India has been looking at manufacturing of jet engines in India under the framework of technology transfer to power its fighter aircraft.

In June 2016, the US designated India a "Major Defence Partner" paving the way for sharing of critical military equipment and technology.

The US Defence Secretary arrived from Singapore. It is Secretary Austin's second visit to India. His previous trip to India was in March 2021.

Saudi Arabia has announced it would slash output further by one million barrels per day in a bid to prop up prices, despite fears of a recession.

The announcement came following a meeting of the 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) headed by Saudi Arabia and its 10 partners, led by Russia.

The cut is for July but "can be extended", Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told reporters.

It is a "voluntary" cut announced after the in-person hours-long OPEC+ meeting at the group's headquarters in Vienna, which saw some tough negotiations.

Analysts had largely expected OPEC+ producers to maintain their current policy, but signs emerged this weekend that the 23 countries may make deeper cuts.

An output cut of one million barrels per day (bpd) was being discussed, according to the source close to the talks.

In April, several OPEC+ members agreed to cut production voluntarily by more than one million bpd -- a surprise move that briefly buttressed prices but failed to bring about lasting recovery.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in an anti-government protest in Poland's capital, with citizens travelling from across the country to voice their anger at officials who they say have eroded democratic norms and created fears that the nation is following Hungary and Turkey down the path to autocracy.

Warsaw Mayor RafalTrzaskowski, who belongs to the opposition party that led the march, estimated that 500,000 people took part. The Onet news portal estimated there were at least 300,000 at the march's culmination.

Large crowds also gathered in Krakow and other cities across the nation of 38 million people, showing frustration with a government that critics accuse of violating the constitution and eroding fundamental rights in Poland.

Former President Lech Walesa, the leader of the Solidarity movement that played a historic role in toppling communism in Poland, marched alongside the leader of the opposition Civic Platform party, ex-Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Air ticket prices, booked for the same day travel, were exorbitantly expensive on Jun 4 and on some routes, it was as high as 10 times than normal fares. In many routes, economy class tickets were priced way above what average business class fares were a month ago.

A search on various portals showed that a single flight ticket on economy class from Delhi to Delhi for same-day travel was priced between Rs 17,000 and Rs 29,000. The one-way economy flight ticket between Delhi and Chennai was sold for R68,000 by Air India. Historical data showed flight ticket prices between Delhi and Chennai hovered around R6,000 about a month ago.

Coming to other popular routes, one-way ticket prices from Delhi to Bengaluru were sold between R24,000 and R40,000 while from Delhi to Hyderabad it was between R28,000 and R 52,000. In the busiest route (Delhi to Mumbai ), air tickets were priced between R15,000-R30,000. In most cases, carriers such as IndiGo and SpiceJet were offering tickets at prices lower than Tata Group-run airlines Air India and Vistara.

When Rezoana Mallick Heena clocked 53.31 seconds to win 400m gold — her first international medal at the junior level — on the opening day of the Asian U-20 Athletics Championship in Yecheon (Korea), halfway across the world her coach Arjun Ajay was beaming with pride in Bengaluru. That the 16-year-old won gold came as no surprise to him to the extent that he was focussing more on her timings.

Arjun expected Heena to finish at 52.5-52.7, but he understands the reasons behind the extra half-second. 

Q1. A systematic record of all economic transactions completed between residents of a country and the rest of the world in a year is known as..?

1. Net Capital Flow
2. Balance of Payment
3. Balance of Trade
4. Absolute Flow
5. None of These

Q2. Which among the following revolutions is related to ‘fertilizers’?

1. Silver Revolution
2. Grey Revolution
3. Golden Revolution
4. Pink Revolution
5. None of These

Q3. The banks keep the Margin Requirements for the primary purpose of which of the following?

1. To fulfill RBI requirements
2. To keep themselves Basel II compliant
3. To maintain a cushion against the decline of value of security
4. To earn profit
5. None of These

Q4. Who among the following made significant contribution to behavioral economics?

1. Ernst fehr
2. Amartya Sen
3. Allen Greenspan
4. Daniel Kahneman
5. None of These

Q5. Which sector contributed the maximum to GDP at the time of Independence?

1. Agriculture
2. Services
3. Manufacturing
4. Mining
5. None of the above

Answers

1---------------------------2    Balance of Payment

2---------------------------2  Grey Revolution

3-----------------------------3   To maintain a cushion against the decline of value of security

4-----------------------------4    Daniel Kahneman

5-----------------------------1  Agriculture