Guru Padmasambhava (‘Lotus-Born’)

Why in News:?
In Bihar, a two-day International Conference on the legacy of Guru Padmasambhava began at Nava Nalanda Mahavihara in Rajgir recently took place.

Features:
📍According to tradition, he was a native of Udyāna (now Swat, Pakistan.), an area famed for its magicians.

📍Guru Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche, was a prominenspiritual figure in the eighth century.

📍His jayanti is still celebrated each year in India at the Hemis Festival in Ladakh on the tenth day of the Tibetan lunar month, usually in June.


#artandculture

Navratna Status

Why in News: ?
The Ministry of Finance upgraded four public-sector enterprises, SJVN, Solar Energy Corporation, NHPC and RailTel Corporation of India, to the 'Navratna' status.

Categorization of PSUs: The government classifies Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) into three categories:

📍 Maharatna
📍Navratna
📍Miniratna


Criteria for Navratna Status: To qualify for Navratna status, a PSU must meet the following criteria:

✔️ Be a Miniratna-I, Schedule 'A' company

✔️Have an 'excellent' or 'very good' MoU rating in three of the last five years

✔️Achieve a composite score of 60 in six performance indicators

✔️Report a net profit of more than ₹5,000 crore for three consecutive years

✔️Maintain an average annual turnover of ₹25,000 crore for three years

✔️Have an average annual net worth of over ₹15,000 crore for three years


#economy

India's Deepthi Jeevanji wins bronze in women's 400m T20 category in Paris Paralympics, clocking 55.82 seconds 🏅🇮🇳

Read here - https://www.hindustantimes.com/sports/others/deepthi-jeevanji-wins-bronze-in-womens-400m-t20-category-in-paris-paralympics-101725385585755.html

Namibia

📍Why in News:
Namibia plans to cull hundreds of its most majestic wild animals, including dozens of elephants and hippopotamuses, to provide meat for its 1.4 million people

📍Location: Namibia, country located on the southwestern coast of Africa.

📍Borders: It is bordered by Angola to the north, Zambia to the northeast, Botswana to the east, South Africa to the southeast and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

📍Capital: The capital of the country is Windhoek

#geography

For the first time in the history of Himachal Pradesh, 2 lakh employees and 1.5 lakh pensioners of the state did not get salaries and pensions on September 1 due to the ongoing financial crisis. Just days ago, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had announced that his Cabinet ministers would not take their salaries for the next two months.


Himachal currently has a huge debt of about Rs 94,000 crore. This financial burden along with freebies has weakened the financial condition of the state to a great extent, due to which the state government has to take new loans to repay the debt. The state government has liabilities of about Rs 10,000 crore and employees are unlikely to get salary and pension even today