Sustainable Growth Pillar is an important pillar of India–US Strategic Energy Partnership co-chaired by NITI Aayog and USAID. The SG pillar entails energy data management, energy modelling and collaboration on low carbon technologies as three key activities.

In the joint working group meeting of the Sustainable Growth Pillar on July 2, 2020, an India Energy Modeling Forum was launched.

There exist energy modelling forums in different parts of the World. The Energy Modelling Forum (EMF) in USA was established in 1976 at Stanford University to connect leading modelling experts and decision makers from government, industry, universities, and other research organizations. The forum provides an unbiased platform to discuss the contemporary issues revolving around energy and environment.

In India, there was no formalized and systematic process of having a modeling forum. Even then, various think-tanks/research organizations like TERI, IRADe, CSTEP, CEEW, NCAER, etc., have been consistently developing scenarios and contributing through modelling studies and analyses to provide required inputs to MoEF&CC and other relevant ministries, including NITI Aayog.

The India Energy Modelling Forum will accelerate this effort and aim to: Provide a platform to examine important energy and environmental related issues; Inform decision-making process to the Indian government; Improve cooperation between modelling teams, government, and knowledge partners, funders;

Facilitate exchange of ideas, ensure production of high-quality studies; Identify knowledge gaps at different levels and across different areas; Build capacity of Indian institutions.

NITI Aayog will initially coordinate the activities of the forum and finalizing its governing structure. The forum would include knowledge partners, data agencies and concerned government ministries.

Skill India Mission has enhanced opportunities to access employment both locally and globally: PM

Referring to the portal launched recently to map skilled workers, PM states it would help the workers, including the migrant workers who have returned to their homes, access jobs easily

PM highlights the vast potential of the country to capitalize on skilling opportunities and supplement global demand Posted On: 15 JUL 2020 1:57PM by PIB Delhi

5 years of eventful journey of Skill India has seen expansion of skill training and inculcation of entrepreneurial spirit Posted On: 15 JUL 2020 5:43PM by PIB Delhi

A digital conclave was organized today to mark 5 glorious years of the Skill India Mission and the World Youth Skills Day.

In his message to the Conclave, the Prime Minister exhorted the youth to skill, reskill and upskill in order to remain relevant in the rapidly changing business environment and market conditions. He congratulated the youth of the country on the occasion and said the world belongs to the youth due to their ability to acquire new skills all the time.He stated that the Skill India Mission launched five years back on the same day has led to creation of a vast infrastructure for skilling, reskilling and upskilling and enhancing opportunities to access employment both locally and globally.Detailed text of the Prime Minister’s message can be seen at:

On this occasion, Union Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Dr.MahendraNathPandey said that our youth is the biggest asset and an important force in the economic growth, and social development of the country. We will focus our energies on increasing the versatility of different skills, making them suitable to meet the industry demands with the support of new technologies, nationally and globally.

The Minister of Statefor Power, New & Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, ShriR.K.Singhalso addressed the Digital Skills Conclave.On this occasion, the Directorate General of Training started two regional offices, which were e-inaugurated, one at Union Territory ofLehand another at north eastern state ofManipur. The Lt. Governor of Leh Shri RK Mathur inaugurated the Leh branch.A few State Skill Development Ministers also addressed the Digital Skills Conclave via video messages. These include Minister from Gujarat, Karnataka, Assam, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Inaugural address was given by Secretary, MSDE Shri Praveen Kumar. Chairman of National Skill Development Corporation Shri A.M.Naikalso addressed the conclave.All stakeholders of the system, including the extensive network of trainees going into lakhs, participated in the conclave. An audio-visual was shown about innovative solutions by skill trainees during COVID-19 while another audio-visual was also played on Skill Mapping.

The 5 years of the Skill India Mission have been worthwhile and seen a large number of achievements, including expansion of skill development infrastructure and facilities, and inculcation and support of entrepreneurial spirit:

Skill India Mission: The efforts of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and other Central Government Department Ministries involved in skilling saw more than one crore youth joining the Skill India Mission every year, to meet demand of Skilled Workforce.

Increase in ITI capacity: There has been a substantial increase in the size of the ITI ecosystem, close to 5000 ITIs have been established over the last 5 years with total number of institutes close to 15,000. The enrolled candidates have increased to 27.56 lakh in these ITIs over the last 5 years. The ITI capacity has been increased to 34.63 lakhs, an increase of 85.5% over 2015. Upgradation of ITIs has been undertaken through 63 course curricula upgraded with industry consultations, 35 new trades and 11 Industry 4.0 courses being introduced.

Training Under Pradhan Mantri KaushalVikasYojana (PMKVY): Under PMKVY, a total of 92 lakhs candidates have been trained so far across 37 sectors in more than 250 job roles PMKVY is a flagship scheme under MSDE. A special focus was placed on the agricultural sector and 3.42 lakh were trained in special farming. Some special projects were also taken up under which 5514 Jail Inmates and 5549 misguided youth were trained in Delhi.

PMKK: To improve the quality of short-term training, 720+ Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras as Model Skill Centres were opened in 704 districts in India. These are based upon Aspiration, Quality and Self Sustainable principles.

International Collaboration: Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurshipmet officials from counterparts working in skill development across countries like Singapore, UAE, Japan, Canada, Australia to further build capacity for skilled workforce in the country, jointly work on transnational standards and bridging demand for skilled workforce in these countries by collaborating with them and supplying them with trained professionals.

Increased participation in Apprenticeship Programmes: Various initiatives taken on the Apprenticeship intervention saw a 44% increase in enrolment of apprentices and 10% increase in establishments participating in apprenticeship training, as compared to FY 18-19. A total of 8.61 lakhs people have been engaged under National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) with around 85,000 establishments hiring the apprentices.

Jan ShikshanSansthan (JSS) Scheme: During the last financial year, a total of 4.10 lakhs beneficiaries trained under JSS Scheme as compared to 1.67 lakhs trained during 2018-19, 2.5 times increase over a period of six months.

eSkill India Platform: In a technology driven environment, e-learning is pivotal in deepening the reach of skilling opportunities for the Indian youth. NSDC created an e-Skill India, a multilingual e-learning aggregator portal, providing e-skilling opportunities to the Indian youth. eSkill India leverages the skilling opportunities from Indian and global leaders in online learning, by consolidating online courses curated by leading knowledge organizations that share NSDC’s commitment of making India a Skill Capital of the World. eSkill India provides anytime, anywhere skilling —beyond the boundaries of location and time. The courses are available in English, Hindi and 9 regional languages. The learners are guided through self-paced interactive videos and quizzes. The portal has more than 500 courses and close to 2.5 lakh students have registered themselves on it

Vision Report 2025: MSDE has prepared its Vision Report 2025 in consultation with various stakeholders. The Draft Vision Report 2025 was discussed in multiple review meetings held under the Chairpersonship of Secretary, MSDE along with the heads of various wings of the Ministry and attached organizations viz. DGT, NSDA, NSDC and NIESBUD &IIE.

Initiatives for Women: To mark the celebration of International Women’s Day on 8th March 2020, a two-year programme namely Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) programme was launched by MSDE at IIM Bangalore, Karnataka. The fellowship programme has been conceptualized under the World Bank loan assisted Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) Programme. Out of the total 75 Fellows selected, 32 are women candidates (43 % of the total).

Initiatives for COVID-19: A Task Force of the Ministry, which was constituted to plan the strategy in light of COVID, has submitted its report on 16/4/20, with its recommendations in the various areas including steps needed to be taken urgently for the growth of the sector, strategies for Framing Policies which were facing obstacles, preparation of Business Plan for Sector Players to start functioning, steps that Ministries can take for encouraging Make in India and to secure and increase India's share in World exports.

While the Ministry had made available all campuses of NSTI/ ITI for isolation/ quarantine facilities, as per reports received so far, 12 NSTI/ ITI buildings have been requisitioned by the District Authorities in light of Corona. Similarly PMKVY training partners have also provided their premises for such facilities, including for a temporary hospital.

Institutions under MSDE ecosystem have been active in manufacture of masks and hand sanitizers. While the JSSs have so far made more than 30 lakh masks, the ITI system has built more than 20 lakh masks, PMKVY Training Partner made 20 lakh masks. Total 70 lakh masks were created to support the local administration.

A number of innovations have been done by ITIs and NSTIs to assist the fight against COVID-19. These include design and development of design robot (to serve food/ medicine to patients) and tele-presentation robot (for enabling tele-monitoring and telemedicine) by ITI Cuttack. ITI Berhampur designed an Aerosol Box which tightly protects the face of the health provider. NSTI developed an aero blaster and handed it to the District Administration for sanitizing the city.

SWADES: A collaborative initiative of the Ministries of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Civil Aviation and External Affairs, SWADES (Skilled Workers Arrival Database for Employment Support) is a skill mapping exercise of the returning citizens under the Vande Bharat Mission. SWADES aims to create a database of qualified citizens based on their skillsets and experience to tap into and fulfil demand of Indian and foreign companies.

ASEEM: In order to improve the information flow and bridge the demand-supply gap in the skilled workforce market, MSDE recently launched ‘Aatmanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM)’ portal to help skilled people find sustainable livelihood opportunities. The Artificial Intelligence-based platform has been envisioned to strengthen workforce career pathways by handholding them through their journeys to attain industry-relevant skills and explore emerging job opportunities. 24 lakhs candidates trained under the PMKVY and Fee-based courses are available on ASEEM. 1.5 lakhs candidates trained in ITIs under Directorate General of Training have also been added and data captured under SWADES (Skilled Workers Arrival Database for Employment Support) is available for employers. Also, working on adding data of all the 1.2 Crore candidates trained under PMKVY 2.0.

Posted On: 15 JUL 2020 1:48PM by PIB Delhi Minister of State for Shipping (I/C) Shri Mansukh Mandaviya has reviewed the development activities of Vallarpadam Terminal of Cochin Port. It is envisaged as first trans-shipment port of India, managed by DP World.

Shri Mandaviya directed officials to chalk out the strategy to tackle the various challenges and actualize the vision of Trans-shipment Hub of India and pioneer hub in the South Asia.Shri Mandaviya said “We are developing trans-shipment facility on Indian port to ensure that Indian cargo trans-ship through Indian Port. Resolving various issues of Vallarpadam Terminal is one of the top priority of the Ministry of Shipping.”

Trans-shipment Hub is the terminal at the port which handles containers, stores them temporarily and transfers them to other ships for the onward destination.The Kochi International Container Trans-shipment Terminal (ICTT), locally known as the Vallarpadam Terminal is located strategically on the Indian coastline. It successfully fulfills all the criteria which are needed to develop it as trans-shipment hub which include:

It is best positioned Indian port with regard to proximity to International sea routes; It is located at least average nautical distance from all Indian feeder ports; It entails a connectivity which has multiple weekly feeder connections to all ports on West & East Coast of India, From Mundra to Kolkata;

It has proximity to key hinterland markets of India; It has the infrastructure to manage large ships and capacity to scale it up as per requirement.

Vallarpadam Terminal of Cochin Port is proposed to be developed as most preferred gateway for South India and leading trans-shipment hub of South Asia.

Indigenous production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) needs to be scaled up to a level where the production is economically viable, says a report which identified a list of APIS that need prioritized manufacturing and the associated advantages.

The report titled ‘Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients- Status, Issues, Technology Readiness, and Challenges’ was brought out recently by Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous organization under the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India.

It was released along with a white paper on ‘Focused Interventions for ‘Make in India’: Post COVID 19’ by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science & Technology, Health and Family Welfare and Earth Sciencesat a virtual function on 10th July 2020. Dr. V K Saraswat, Member S&T Niti Aayog &Chairman TIFAC Governing Council, and Prof. Pradeep Srivastava, Executive Director, TIFAC, Shri. Sanjay Singh, Scientist ‘G’ and Shri Mukesh Mathur, Incharge (F&A), TIFAC were also present on the occasion.

The major recommendations given in the report include focus on engineering and scale aspect of technology development, need for Mission mode Chemical Engineering with defined targets for uninterrupted synthesis of molecules and to create mega drug manufacturing clusters with common infrastructure in India and the technology platform to be developed for biocatalysis towards reducing process steps for cost optimization and for fluorination, Investment on priority in fermentation sector of large capacity and scale supporting techno-economic feasibility, attention to technologies like hazardous reactions, flow chemistry, cryogenic reactions, and membrane technology.

The report further suggests chiral building blocks through biocatalysis for production of niche intermediates involving enzymatic reactions or fermentation as an area of potential exploitation for Indian API industry and focus on antiviral drugs, which require nucleic acid building blocks - Thymidine/ Cytosine Adenine/ Guanine none of which are manufactured in India because of lack of cyanation plants.

The report recommends for Government encouragement of Indian companies working in chemical segments such as steroids, amino acids, carbohydrates, nucleosides, etc., to collaborate for technology development or quick technology transfer as well as the need for closer academia-industry interaction for technology development and commercialization.

COVID 19 pandemic has firmly put the focus of our Nation on being "AtmaNirbhar". The TIFAC White Paper titled ‘Focused Interventions for 'Make In India' post-COVID 19’ brought out the strengths, market trends, and opportunities in five Sectors, including Healthcare, which are critical from country's perspective. This paper strongly brought out the import dependence for APIs, especially from China. In view of changing geo-political scenario and recalibrated trade alignments, it is imperative that India become self-reliant in production of APIs.

The pharmaceutical industry in India is third largest in the world, in terms of volume, behind China and Italy, and fourteenth largest in terms of value. It has a strong network of 3,000 drug companies and about 10,500 manufacturing units with a domestic turnover of Rs 1.4 lakh crore (USD 20.03 billion) in 2019, with exports to more than 200 countries in the world.

Despite a very strong base, due to low-profit margins and non-lucrative industry, domestic pharmaceutical companies have gradually stopped manufacturing APIs and started importing APIs, which was a cheaper option with increased profit margins on drugs. With the availability of cheaper APIs from China, the pharmaceutical industry relies heavily on imports. The imports from China have been increasing steadily and now stand around 68%. To address this, TIFAC has recommended policies to address the requirement of APIs in short & medium term to make our country self-reliant.

Corosure Kit is a step towards Prime Minister’s vision and exhortations to innovative youth to ensure a healthier and self-reliant India - Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ Posted On: 15 JUL 2020 5:08PM by PIB Delhi

Union Human Resource Development Minister, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal'Nishank' e-launched the World’s most affordable RT-PCR based COVID-19 diagnostic kit developed by IIT Delhi and approved by the ICMR and DCGI in New Delhi today

Maharashtra government recently informed the Bombay High Court that more than ₹2.5 crore had already been spent on the construction of a national monument of the general Tatya Tope at Yeola in Nashik district.

The Central government has sanctioned funds to the extent of 75% of the estimated cost while the rest will be borne by the State.

Background: A PIL was filed in the court seeking a direction to authorities to change the place sanctioned for the monument from Yeola taluka to a plot in Angangaon village in Yevla tehsil of the same district, which belongs to the Irrigation department.

However, the Court has declined to provide an interim relief on the belated approach and said 50% of the construction work of the monument had already been completed.

About Tatya Tope: Also known as Ramachandra Pandurang Tope, he was one of the most notable Indian freedom fighters and a general in the Rebellion of 1857.

Born in 1814 in Nashik, Maharashtra, Tatya Tope was the only son of Pandurang Rao Tope and his wife Rukhmabai Tatya Tope was an intimate friend and the right hand of Nana Sahib, the adopted son of Peshwa

In May 1857, Tatya Tope won the battle over the Indian troops of the East India Company at Kanpur He forced General Windham to retreat from the city of Gwalior.

He collaborated with Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi to seize Gwalior. Tatya Tope was defeated by Sir Colin Campbell (later Baron Clyde) on December 6, 1857. He was hanged on April 18, 1859, in General Meade’s camp at Shivpuri.

Reversing the 2011 Kerala High Court decision, the Supreme Court has upheld the right of the Travancore royal family to manage the property of deity at Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram.

The Temple has been in the news since 2011 after the discovery of treasure worth over Rs. 1 lakh crore in its underground vaults.

What was the case? The central legal question was whether Utradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the younger brother of Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the last Ruler of Travancore, could claim to be the “Ruler of Travancore” after the death of the ruler in 1991.

The court examined this claim within the limited meaning of that term according to the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act, 1950 to claim ownership, control and management of the ancient Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple.

The judgment: The Supreme Court (SC) has reversed the 2011 Kerala High Court decision,which had directed the Kerala government to set up a trust to control the management and assets of the temple.

The court said that, as per customary law, the shebait rights (right to manage the financial affairs of the deity) survive with the members of the family even after the death of the last ruler. The court defined ‘shebait’ as the “custodian of the idol, its earthly spokesman, its authorised representative entitled to deal with all its temporal affairs and to manage its property”.

Directions: Accepting the royals’ submission that the temple is a “public temple”, the court issued a slew of directions for its transparent administration in the future.

It directed the setting up of an administrative committee with the Thiruvananthapuram District Judge as its chairperson. The other members would be a nominee of the trustee (royal family), the chief thanthri of the temple, a nominee of the State and a member nominated by the Union Ministry of Culture. This committee would take care of the daily administration of the temple.

It also ordered a second committee to be constituted to advise the administrative committee on policy matters. This would be chaired by a retired High Court judge nominated by the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court.

Who had the ownership, control and management of the Padmanabhaswamy temple before 1991? (Have a brief overview of the events): All the temples which were under the control and management of the erstwhile Princely States of Travancore and Cochin were under the control of the Travancore and Cochin Devaswom Boards before 1947.

However, as per the Instrument of Accession signed between the princely states and the Government of India, since 1949, the administration of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple was “vested in trust” in the Ruler of Travancore. The state of Kerala was carved out in 1956 but the temple continued to be managed by the erstwhile royals.

In 1971, privy purses to the former royals were abolished through a constitutional amendment stripping their entitlements and privileges. In 1991, when the last ruler’s brother took over the temple management, it created a furore among devotees who moved the courts leading to a long-drawn legal battle. The government joined in; supporting the claims of the petitioner that Marthanda Varma had no legal right to claim the control or management of the temple.

Why Article 366 is in News? The High Court (HC) had ruled that the successor to the erstwhile royals could not claim to be in control of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple after the amendment of definition of ‘Ruler’ in Article 366 (22) of the Constitution of India.

The definition of Ruler was amended by the Twenty Sixth (Constitutional) Amendment Act, 1971, which abolished the privy purses. Article 366 (22) reads, “Ruler” means the Prince, Chief or other person who, at any time before the commencement of the Twenty Sixth (Constitutional) Amendment Act, 1971, was recognised as the Ruler of an Indian State or was recognised as the successor of such Ruler.

After facing flak from the transgender community, the Centre has done away with the requirement of a medical examination for trans persons applying for a certificate of identity in its latest draft rules framed under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.

Overview of the draft ‘Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020’: All educational institutions are to have a committee which transgender persons can approach in case of any harassment or discrimination. The “appropriate government” is also required to take adequate steps to “prohibit discrimination in any government or private organisation or establishment.”

States will be responsible for “timely prosecution of individuals” charged under Section 18 of the Act which proscribes offences against the transgender community and penalties therein. The offences would be punishable with imprisonment for six months upto two years, with a fine.

State governments will have to set up a Transgender Protection Cell under the District Magistrate and DGP to monitor cases of offences against transgender persons and implement Section 18.

Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019: Definition of a transgender person: It defines a transgender person as one whose gender does not match the gender assigned at birth. It includes trans-men and trans-women, persons with intersex variations, gender-queers, and persons with socio-cultural identities, such as kinnar and hijra.

Intersex variations is defined to mean a person who at birth shows variation in his or her primary sexual characteristics, external genitalia, chromosomes, or hormones from the normative standard of male or female body.

Prohibition against discrimination: Any person who is found to be compelling a transgender person into bonded labour denying right of public passage to a transgender person, evicting a transgender from his/her place of residence, causing physical, sexual, verbal, economic and emotional abuse, can be penalised with imprisonment of not less than six months, that can extend up to two years.

The bill has a provision that provides transgender the right of residence with parents and immediate family members.

Background: The law was a consequence of the directions of the Supreme Court of India in the National Legal Services Authority vs. Union of India case judgment, mandating the Central and State governments to ensure legal recognition of all transgender persons and proactive measures instituted for their welfare.

It calls for establishing a National Council for Transgender persons (NCT). The NCT will consist of: Union Minister for Social Justice (Chairperson) Minister of State for Social Justice (Vice-Chairperson) Secretary of the Ministry of Social Justice

One representative from ministries including Health, Home Affairs, and Human Resources Development.

Other members include representatives of the NITI Aayog and the National Human Rights Commission. State governments will also be represented. The Council will also consist of five members from the transgender community and five experts from non-governmental organizations.

PRAGYATA guidelines on digital education released. The guidelines include eight steps of digital learning that is, Plan- Review- Arrange- Guide- Yak (talk)- Assign- Track- A These steps guide the planning and implementation of digital education step by step with examples.

These are only advisory in nature and state governments can formulate their own rules, based on local needs. The guidelines outline suggestions for administrators, school heads, teachers, parents and students on the following areas:

Need Assessment. Concerns while planning online and digital education like duration, screen time, inclusiveness, Balanced online and off-line activities. Modalities of intervention including resource curation, level wise delivery etc. Physical, mental health and well-being during digital education.

Cyber safety and ethical practices including precautions and measures maintaining cyber safety.

Need for guidelines on online education: To mitigate the impact of the pandemic, schools will not only have to remodel and re-imagine the way teaching and learning have happened so far, but will also need to introduce a suitable method of delivering quality education through a healthy mix of schooling at home and schooling at school.

At the upcoming Virtual “EU- India Summit”, Leaders expected to give a kickstart to negotiations on the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) as the EU-India FTA is known, which have failed to be resumed despite several commitments by the leaders, including at the last E.U.-India summit in 2017.

Challenges ahead: Negotiators are still “quite far apart” due to what Europe perceives as India’s “protectionist stance”.

Besides, Make in India programme has been accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis and recent pronouncements that India wants to go ‘Self reliant’ has added to the situation.

India- EU trade: Trade with India formed under 3% of the E.U.’s global trade, which is “far below” what was expected of the relationship. Conversely, the E.U. is India’s largest trading partner and investor, and accounts for 11% of India’s global trade.

About BTIA: In June 2007, India and the EU began negotiations on a broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) in Brussels, Belgium. These negotiations are pursuant to the commitment made by political leaders at the 7th India-EU Summit held in Helsinki on 13th October 2006 to move towards negotiations for a broad-based trade and investment agreement on the basis of the report of India-EU High Level Technical Group.

Significance: India and the EU expect to promote bilateral trade by removing barriers to trade in goods and services and investment across all sectors of the economy. Both parties believe that a comprehensive and ambitious agreement that is consistent with WTO rules and principles would open new markets and would expand opportunities for Indian and EU businesses.

The negotiations cover: Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Investment, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Remedies, Rules of Origin, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Competition, Trade Defence, Government Procurement, Dispute Settlement, Intellectual Property Rights & Geographical Indications, Sustainable Development.

What’s the issue now? Negotiations have been languishing since 2013 when the talks collapsed over certain demands from the EU such as greater market access for automobiles, wine and spirits, and further opening up of the financial services sector such as banking, insurance and e-commerce.

The EU also wanted labour, environment and government procurement to be included in the talks. India’s demand for easier work visa and study visa norms as well as data secure status, that would make it easier for European companies to outsource business to India, were also not received enthusiastically by the EU countries.

Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh.

It is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

What is the dispute? The landlocked mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh is the subject of an unresolved dispute between Azerbaijan, in which it lies, and its ethnic Armenian majority, backed by neighbouring Armenia.

It is the second largest in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is named the “Jewel in the crown of Kashmir” or “Srinagar’s Jewel”.

The lake is part of a natural wetland, including its floating gardens. The floating gardens, known as “Rad” in Kashmiri, blossom with lotus flowers during July and August.

The lake is located in the Zabarwan mountain valley, in the foothills of the Shankracharya hills, which surrounds it on three sides.

Located in the State of Assam. It is the single largest undisturbed and representative area in the Brahmaputra Valley floodplain.

It was declared as a National Park in 1974. It has been declared a tiger reserve since 2007. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Sitein 1985.

It is recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International. Much of the focus of conservation efforts in Kaziranga are focused on the ‘big four’ species— rhino, elephant, Royal Bengal tiger and Asiatic water buffalo.

Kaziranga is also home to 9 of the 14 species of primates found in the Indian subcontinent.

World Youth Skills Day: 15th July is marked as World Youth Skills Day. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2014.

Theme for 2020: “Skills for a Resilient Youth”. The day also marks the 5th anniversary of the launch of Skill India Mission.