India’s bid to add maritime capability through indigenous means is bearing fruits as construction of two more frontline warships of Indian Navy, Surat, (Project 15B) Destroyer and Udaygiri, (Project 17A) Frigate will be launched concurrently at Mazgaon Docks Limited, Mumbai. Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister will be the Chief Guest for both the events.

‘Surat’ is the fourth ship of Project 15B Destroyers which heralds a significant makeover of the P15A (Kolkata Class) Destroyers and is named after the commercial capital of the state of Gujarat and also the second-largest commercial hub of western India after Mumbai.

The contract for the construction of four ships under Project-15B was signed in January 2011 at a project cost of about ₹29,643.74 crore. The final cost of the project is ₹35,000 crore. The four ships are christened after major cities from all four corners of the country  - Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal, and Surat. The remaining ships would be commissioned one per year from 2022 to 2024.

With the Russia-Ukraine conflict disrupting global wheat trade and the procurement of wheat dipping down this year due to hosts of reasons and the prices of wheat flour (Atta) is an all time high in last one decade as it is between Rs 32 to Rs 33 per Kilogram and now union government banning export of the grain with immediate effect it is likely to stabilize the prices of wheat.

An official notification has been issued Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) as it called the action a part of measures to control rising domestic prices. However, the export shipments for which irrevocable letters of credit (LoC) have been issued on or before the date of this notification will be allowed.

The state food supplies department said that under the National Food Security Act five kilograms of food grains  (wheat, rice, course grains as the case may be) is distributed to the eligible beneficiaries every month at the subsidized rate of Rs 2 per kilogram of wheat, Rs 3  per kg of rice and One Rupee per kilogram of course grain).

In addition the Prime Minister announced free five Kg of ration (food grains) to every beneficiary under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) to tide off the crisis resulting from COVID-19 pandemic.

In March this year sixth phase was announced as per which free food grains are to be distributed to the beneficiaries for another six months from April to September resulting in requirement of wheat under National Food Security Act (NFSA) and PMGKY is going to be nearly 390 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT), as under NFSA 260 LMT and 130 LMT in PMGKY.

However as on March 31 the wheat reserves in the country was 190 LMT further 74 LMT has to be kept as buffer stock against the target of nearly 400 LMT. The procurement of wheat is going to be around 200 LMT in the country.

Meanwhile, the central government has revised downwards the estimate for wheat production by 5.7 per cent to 105 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year ending June from the earlier projection of 111.32 million tonnes, as the crop productivity has been affected due to the early onset of summer. The wheat production stood at 109.59 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year (July-June).

The market prices of wheat and predictions are stabilized by the open market sale scheme (OMSS) of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) which releases wheat by way of open tender at subsidized rate to the local flour mills.

This scheme is a price stabilization scheme however FCI in the coming months is likely to have no reserves for issuance under OMSS thus flour mills will have to buy from open market. Thus resultantly the market prices of wheat flour (Atta) and wheat related products such as bread and biscuits, maida will increase.

Led by its former ‘General’ V S Atem the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) t has been engaged,  in discussions with the Centre’s interlocutor to break the logjam over the Naga rebel group’s two contentious demands — recognition for a separate flag and a constitution.

This is the first time that NSCN(IM) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah has not led the ongoing talks, reportedly owing to “ill health”. 

The first meeting on May 12  was “inconclusive”. May 13 parlays also dragged on even as interlocutor A K Mishra sought to have a deeper understanding of the NSCN(IM)’s insistence on the two issues.

Introduction to Vedas, Puranas, Sanskrit, ancient science, engineering, astronomy, town planning, and architecture will now be part of a new textbook for engineering and science students taking a mandatory non-credit course on Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS).

The textbook, slated for release by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, is part of the center’s plan to roll out the new higher education curriculum that stresses the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) as per the National Education Policy (NEP) recommendations.

The new textbook follows the introduction of a mandatory non-credit course on IKS announced by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in 2018.

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore developed the curriculum and prepared the textbook in association with SVYASA Yoga Institute, Bengaluru, and Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth, Ernakulam.

India has declared one-day national mourning on 14 May, as a mark of respect to his highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, who passed away on May 13.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on  May 13 launched the Madhya Pradesh government's Start-Up Policy 2022 and a start-up portal through video link in the presence of young entrepreneurs .

Under the new policy, start-ups would get subsidies towards rent and salaries of employees.

Modi also interacted with a few entrepreneurs on this occasion to learn about their start-ups, and advised them about how they could benefit people.

In 2014, there were 300 to 400 start-ups in the country, but in eight years their number rose and now there are 70,000 recognised start-ups, the prime minister said.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also spoke at the function in Indore.

Under the new policy, the state government will give subsidy to start-ups towards rent for the workplace, salaries and product patents. There will also be a quota for start-ups in government purchases.

If a start-up is working from a rented place, Rs 5,000 per month will be paid for rent. It will also get Rs 5,000 per month per head for salary of up to 25 employees

India has assured Sri Lanka to immediately supply 65,000 metric tonnes of urea to avoid any disruption in paddy cultivation in this country, as it faces the worst economic crisis in its post-independence history.

High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in New Delhi Milinda Moragoda met with the Secretary of the Department of Fertilisers Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi in New Delhi on May 12  to discuss the supply of urea required for the current Yala cultivation season in Sri Lanka.

India has committed more than USD 3 billion to debt-ridden Sri Lanka in loans, credit lines and credit swaps since January this year. Yala is the season of paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka that lasts between May and August.

Sri Lanka is aiming to boost its agriculture sector to avoid any disruption in the agriculture market following the drop in the paddy cultivation in the Maha session. The Sri Lankan government banned chemical fertilisers last year as part of a phased transition towards organic agriculture.

The dearth of adequate supplies of organic fertilisers affected agricultural output, especially rice and tea, and the government recently ended the ban on several key crops. Sri Lanka's annual fertiliser imports cost USD 400 million.

Sri Lanka has more than 2 million farmers and up to 70 per cent of its 22 million people are directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture.

China has withdrawn as the 2023 Asian Cup hosts due to the coronavirus, football officials said on May 14 , as the country battles its worst outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.