• The 21st Meeting of the Central Employment Guarantee Council was held  recently under the Chairmanship of Union Minister of Rural Development, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and Panchayati Raj, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar through Video-Conferencing. 

Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC)

• It was constituted under Section 10 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA), 2005.
• Union Minister for Rural Development is the ex-officio chairperson of the CEGC.

Functions of Council

• The Central Council shall perform and discharge the following functions and duties:
• Establish a central evaluation and monitoring system
• Advise the Central Government on all matters concerning the implementation of this Act
• Review the monitoring and redressal mechanism from time to time and recommend improvements required
• Promote the widest possible dissemination of information about the Schemes made under this Act
• Monitoring the implementation of this Act
• Preparation of annual reports to be laid before Parliament by the Central Government on the implementation of this Act
• Any other duty or function as may be assigned to it by the Central Government.

• The Expert Committees on Rationalisation/Closure/Merger of Film Media Units under the aegis of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and on Review of Autonomous Bodies under the Ministry submitted their report to Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting recently.
• Both the Committees on review of autonomous bodies and Rationalisation/Closure/Merger of Film Media Units was headed by Shri. Bimal Julka.

Recommendations

• The committee had recommended specific roadmaps for the development of National Film Development Corporation, Films division, Children’s Film Society of India, Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Directorate of Film Festivals, and National Film Archives of India etc.
• The committee has found overlapping activities undertaken by multiple institutes and has suggested an umbrella configuration with 4 broad verticals under which institutes should work viz. Production, Festival, Heritage and Knowledge.
• These verticals would be headed by professionals. The report recommends creation of Film Promotion Fund to fund independent filmmakers for making commercial films.

• To tap the potentials of players, Mizoram Cabinet has granted industry status to sports, a move aimed at generating employment.
• Mizoram government seek to invest more in sports for the generation of employment and increasing value.
• The industry status would help the state to meet the requirements of sportspersons and others involved in the sector.
• The State has a pool of footballers playing for premier clubs across the country.

• Previously, an enterprise with investment up to Rs 25 lakh was called a micro unit.
• Under the new Investment definition, a firm up to investment of Rs 1 crore is to be called Micro unit, of Rs 10 crore is to be called as small unit and investment greater than Rs 20 crore will be called as medium unit.
• Under the new Turn-over definition a firm with turnover of Rs 5 crore is to be called a micro unit, of Rs 50 crore will be called as small unit and turn over greater than Rs 100 core is to be called as Medium unit.
• It is to be noted that for an enterprise to come under the category of MSME it has to fulfill both investment and turn over conditions.
• Also, under the new definition, the differentiation between the manufacturing and service based MSMEs are being removed.
• The revision of the definition of MSME was done after 14 years since the MSME Development Act came into existence in 2006.

• Thaali Dance, a balancing dance performed to commensurate the celebrations of marriage and child birth is one of the salient attractions of Kutch, Gujarat.
• Tooofaan, one of the famous wild dance of the ocean also known as “Samundar ki Masti” is also a famous dance of Kutch.

• The government has set a target to provide Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to one crore 50 lakh dairy farmers belonging to Milk Unions and Milk producing Companies under a special drive within next two months.
• Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying said, the card will be provided from June to 31st of July.
• The Kisan Credit Card scheme was announced in 1998 to fulfil the financial requirements of the farmers at various stages of farming through institutional credit.
• It is implemented by Commercial Banks, RRBs, Small Finance Banks and Cooperatives.
• The Card is valid for 5 years subject to annual review. 
•  The recent initiatives for KCC  includes farmers engaged in Animal Husbandry & Fisheries.

• June 2 is observed as Telangana Formation Day as this is the day when the Telangana state was officially formed. 
• Telangana is the 29th state of India, formed on the 2nd June 2014.
• After decades of movement for a separate State, Telangana was created by passing the AP State Reorganization Bill in both houses of Parliament.
• Telangana is surrounded by Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh in the North, Karnataka in the West and Andhra Pradesh in the South and East directions.
• Telangana has prominent perennial rivers such as Godavari in the north and the Krishna in the south.
• Other rivers such as Bhima, Manair, Penganga, Akeru, Dindi, Manjeera, Paleru, and Pedda Vagu also irrigate the state.
• Bhima is one of the prominent tributaries of Krishna River in Telangana.
• River Godavari, the other most important river of Telangana, is the second-longest river of the country. 

• Ultraviolet radiation in the 200-300 nanometre range is known to destroy the virus, making it incapable of reproducing and infecting, according to a new research by Pennsylvania State University.
• Ultraviolet radiation is one of two methods for sanitising and disinfecting public spaces from bacteria and viruses the other being chemicals.
• In the broad spectrum of electromagnetic radiation that comes from the sun, and which is transmitted in waves or particles, visible light is just one of several regions that are defined based on the wavelength and frequency of these waves or particles.
• When these regions are arranged according to wavelength, ultraviolet light comes between visible light and X-rays.
• The wavelength of UV light is smaller than that of visible light and greater than that of X-rays.
• The wavelength of ultraviolet radiation is between 10 nanometres and 400 nanometres (1 nanometre is a billionth part of a metre).
• There are three types of UV radiation according to their wavelength, UVA, UVB and UVC.
• Short-wavelength UVC is the most damaging type of UV radiation but it is completely filtered by the atmosphere and does not reach the earth's surface.
• The shorter the wavelength, the more harmful the UV radiation.
• However, shorter wavelength UV radiation is less able to penetrate the skin.

• The Government of India has approved antiviral drug Remdesivir for emergency use in treating COVID-19 patients.
• It was initially manufactured to treat for Ebola and since it has been used to treat for MERS and SERS, both caused by members of the coronavirus family. 
• It doesn’t cure coronavirus but the experimental drug, which may speed up recovery from a COVID-19 infection.
• Recently, the FDA has authorized emergency use of the antiviral drug to treat COVID 19.

• The BCCI has nominated Rohit Sharma for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
• It is the highest sporting honour of the Republic of India.
• It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
• The objective of the award is to recognize the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of 4 years immediately preceding the year during which the award is to be given.
• There will be only one award every year to be given to an individual sportsperson. This condition will be relaxed only in exceptional circumstances.
• The award may be given posthumously if such an occasion arises.