In a landmark decision, the Ministry of Home Affairs has approved the conduct of constable (general duty) examination for Central Armed Police Forces in 13 regional languages, in addition to Hindi and English.

The historic decision has been taken at the initiative of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to give impetus to the participation of local youths in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and encourage regional languages.

The CAPFs are the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the National Security Guard (NSG).

In addition to Hindi and English, the question paper will be set in 13 regional languages -- Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Manipuri and Konkani.

The United States and Vietnam said  on Apr 15 they hoped to upgrade diplomatic ties, days after a flare-up in tensions with China over Taiwan.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is passing through Hanoi on his way to a Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers meeting in Japan, met Vietnamese leaders to pave the way for a potential diplomatic upgrade to a "strategic partnership".

The two countries have increasingly close trade links, while both share concern over China's growing strength in the region.

Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh indicated that Hanoi had given the go-ahead for "elevating our bilateral ties to a new height".

The visit follows a call last month between US President Joe Biden and the head of Vietnam's ruling Communist party, Nguyen Phu Trong.

The visit to Vietnam is Blinken's first as secretary of state. He also participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for a new eight-storey US embassy in Hanoi.

French President Emmanuel Macron signed his controversial pension reform into law  on Apr 15 , defying three months of protests and pleas from unions not to implement the legislation.

The alterations became law after the text was published overnight in France's official journal. This followed the approval on Apr 14 by the Constitutional Council of the essence of the legislation, including the banner change of raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Unions warned they were calling for mass Labour Day protests on May 1, and sometimes violent demonstrations erupted in several cities overnight after the verdict was announced.

The US has emerged as India's biggest trading partner in 2022-23 on account of increasing economic ties between the two countries.

According to the provisional data of the commerce ministry, the bilateral trade between India and the US has increased by 7.65 per cent to USD 128.55 in 2022-23 as against USD 119.5 billion in 2021-22.

It was USD 80.51 billion in 2020-21.

Exports to the US rose by 2.81 per cent to USD 78.31 billion in 2022-23 as against USD 76.18 billion in 2021-22, while imports grew by about 16 per cent to USD 50.24 billion, the data showed.

On the other hand, during 2022-23, India's two-way commerce with China declined by about 1.5 per cent to USD 113.83 billion as against USD 115.42 billion in 2021-22.

Exports to China dipped by about 28 per cent to USD 15.32 billion in 2022-23, while imports rose by 4.16 per cent to USD 98.51 billion in the last fiscal.

The trade gap widened to USD 83.2 billion in the last fiscal as against USD 72.91 billion in 2021-22.

Experts believe that the trend of increasing bilateral trade with the US will continue in the coming years also as New Delhi and Washington are engaged in further strengthening the economic ties.

America is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus.

In 2022-23, India had a trade surplus of USD 28 billion with the US. The data showed that China was India's top trading partner since 2013-14 till 2017-18 and also in 2020-21.

Before China, the UAE was the country's largest trading partner.

In 2022-23, the UAE with USD 76.16 billion, was the third largest trading partner of India. It was followed by Saudi Arabia (USD 52.72 billion), and Singapore (USD 35.55 billion).

The CBIC is likely to soon introduce a system of publishing daily currency exchange rates on the integrated customs portal, replacing the existing system of notifying rates fortnightly.

The move would help capture daily exchange rate fluctuations and help importers and exporters to precisely calculate customs duties based on daily exchange rates.

Currently, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) manually notifies exchange rates of 22 currencies every fortnight -- 1st and 3rd Thursday of a month -- based of rates obtained from the State Bank of India (SBI).

The rate notified comes into effect from midnight of the following day.

At present, after fortnightly notification, if the exchange rate of a currency fluctuates more than ±5 per cent, the rate for that currency is re-notified from the following day.

The benefits of the proposed system for determining and publishing exchange rates on a daily basis, experts said, will enable importers and exporters to make more informed decisions about their transactions.

The exchange rates will be more accurate and reflect the current market conditions and would be time efficient.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has taken a definite decision to restrict the number of foreign players taking part in different competitions across the country, which, it believes, is a hindrance to the development of local players.

The AIFF reached a decision to this effect during its executive committee meeting at its headquarters, Football House, in the national capital on Apr 14.

Later, speaking to the IANS, AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey said that till now, the AIFF allowed a 3+1 (three foreigners and one player of Asian origin) formula in each team.

Over the years, the Federation had observed that most clubs have the tendency to hire foreign footballers in two key positions - central defender and striker. Even the big clubs in the Indian Super League (ISL) and the I-League follow the pattern, which, the AIFF feels, is one of the reasons why there is an apparent dearth of good Indian footballers in these positions.

Apart from Sunil Chhetri, who is 38 now, there is hardly any Indian player in the national scene who can match the calibre of the charismatic striker. But as our national coach Igor Stimac rightly said in a recent interview that Sunil maybe into his last season, the big question is who will step into his shoes.

Against this backdrop, AIFF's decision to bar overseas players from playing in the lower leagues is likely to augur well for Indian football in the long run.

Q1. The number of major ports in India is

1. 5
2. 8
3. 13
4. 15
5. None of These

Q2. The 'creamy layer' concept refers to-

1. Classification by social level
2. Classification by economic level
3. Classification by Castes
4. Classification based on milk use
5. None of These

Q3. Tesla is a standard unit of which of the following ?

1. Magnetic flux density
2. Magnetic induction
3. Magnetic field
4. Magnetic moment
5. None of These

Q4. President of India has veto power?

1. Absolute prohibition
2. Suspended Prohibition
3. Pocket Prohibition
4. All of the above
5. None of These

Q5. The unit used to measure the distance between stars is :

1. Galactic unit
2. Light year
3. Steller mile
4. Cosmic kilometre
5. None of These

Answers

1-------------------------3   13

2------------------------2    Classification by economic level

3------------------------1    Magnetic flux density

4-----------------------4    All of the above

5-----------------------2   Light year

Nandini Gupta of Rajasthan has been crowned Femina Miss India World 2023 and will represent the country at the Miss World contest.

Nandini, 19, who hails from Kota, was crowned the winner at the Grand Finale event on Apr 15   night in Imphal, Manipur Delhi's Sherya Poonja was declared Femina Miss India 2023 - 1st Runner-up, and Manipur's Thounaojam Strela Luwang emerged as the 2nd Runner-up.

The star-studded evening saw performances by the former winners of the pageant, Sini Shetty, Rubal Shekhawat, Shinata Chauhan, Manasa Varanasi, Manika Sheokand, Manya Singh, Suman Rao and Shivani Jadhav - dressed in exquisite and finely crafted lehengas.

Bollywood actors Kartik Aaryan and Ananya Panday also performed at the 59th edition of the event, hosted by Manish Paul and Bhumi Pednaker.

The event featured multiple rounds of fashion sequences featuring the 30-state winners in a collection by Namrata Joshipura for Trends, Rocky Star and Robert Naorem showcasing traditional costumes.

The winners were selected by the panel featuring Femina Miss India Universe 2002 & mentor Neha Dhupia, boxing icon Laishram Sarita Devi, ace choreographer Terence Lewis, film director & writer Harshavardhan Kulkarni and fashion designers Rocky Star and Namrata Joshipura.

Former Manipur state winners, Soibam Kanchan, Urmila Shagolsem, Maria Chanu Pangambam, and Angobi Chanu Loukrakpam were also present at the ceremony.