Central Government

"The NMC may continue to adopt the old pattern of permissible percentage of non medical teachers for the time being, subject to the outcome of the pending court cases", said Union Health Minister in its order. However, the subject of reducing the percentage of non medical teachers in non-clinical departments of medical colleges is pending before the court.

A bench comprising Justices M.R. Shah and Sanjeev Khanna told the Kerala government counsel to send out its officers to those families, where it has recorded a Covid death. The Kerala government has recorded over 40,000 Covid deaths and it has received over 23,000 claims so far.

Prior to August 5, 2019 -- when the Centre announced its decision to abrogate J&K's special status and divided it into two Union Territories -- the dividends of Centrally sponsored schemes didn't reach a common man due to Article 370 -- a temporary provision of the Indian Constitution -- being in vogue.

A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh told Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, that the government needs to clarify why 19 women candidates have been fixed for the year 2023, according to the notification issued by UPSC. The bench asked the Central government to bring on record the total number of women candidates, along with the over tally, who took the NDA examination in 2021.

The Centre claimed that this goes a long way in harming the country's federal structure. "We have recently seen letters being written by chief ministers of some states about the exclusion of their state's tableaux in the Republic Day Parade. This is unmistakably linked to regional pride and projected as an insult to the people of the state by the Central Government. This script also plays out almost every year. Perhaps the Chief Ministers have no positive agenda of their own when they have to resort to the same old trick using misinformation year after year," government sources said.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya released the postal stamp at a virtual programme, and termed India's vaccination drive as the "most successful in the world". "Today, on the occasion of #1YearOfVaccineDrive, a postal stamp has been issued on the indigenous Covaxin developed jointly by ICMR and Bharat Biotech, realizing PM Narendra Modi ji's dream of Self-reliant India," Mandaviya said in a tweet.

In a series of tweets, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, said, "In order to enhance the safety of the occupants in motor vehicles carrying up to 8 passengers, I have now approved a draft GSR notification to make a minimum of 6 airbags compulsory." "The ministry already mandated the implementation of fitment of the driver airbag w.e.f. July 1, 2019 and front co-passenger airbag w.e.f. January 1, 2022," Gadkari said.

As on date 93 PSKs, 428 POPSKs and 36 Passport Offices are operational. The Programme has recently been connected to more than 176 Indian Missions/Posts through Global Passport Seva Programme (GPSP), providing "seamless" delivery of passport services to the Indian diaspora, the ministry has said. The PSP-V2.0 is a continuation and enhancement of PSP-V1.0, an e-Governance instrument, which introduced "unprecedented transformation" in delivery of passport related services to citizens, the ministry added.

In its response to a petition filed by advocate Ashwini Upahadhay, the Central government said it has requested the Law Commission to undertake an examination of various issues relating to the Uniform Civil Code and to make recommendations thereof. The government submitted that the purpose behind the Constitution's Article 44, seeking a Uniform Civil Code for the citizens, is to strengthen the object of "The Secular Democratic Republic" as enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution.

The scheme, which entails addition of approximately 10,750 circuit kilometres of transmission lines and approx 27,500 MVA transformation capacity of substations, will facilitate grid integration and power evacuation of approximately 20 GW of RE power projects in seven states - Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. The scheme is targeted to be set up with a total estimated cost of Rs.12,031.33 crore and Central Financial Assistance (CFA) at 33 per cent of the project cost i.e. Rs. 3,970.34 crore, a cabinet communique said.