#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️Exploration of lithium in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district has moved a step further with one block advancing to the second round of auctions and promising deposits now being found in the initial exploration of another block.

➡️Despite mixed domestic results, India has secured lithium assets abroad, such as in Argentina’s Catamarca province through Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL), and is exploring opportunities in Sri Lanka and Australia.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️LoP is the parliamentary chairperson of the largest political party/ coalition in the Lok Sabha that is not in government.

➡️According to the former Lok Sabha Secretary General PDT Achary, the law is clear that the Speaker is required to recognise the leader of the numerically largest party in opposition as the leader of opposition.
➡️There is no such rule, which requires a party to have at least 10% of the members of the House for recognising someone as the Leader of the Opposition.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️Three new criminal laws - Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) - came into effect across the country on July 1.
➡️They brought widespread changes in India's criminal justice system and ended colonial-era laws - the Indian Penal Code (1860), Code of Criminal Procedure (1973) and the Indian Evidence Act (1872).
➡️Together, these three laws govern the criminal justice jurisprudence - from defining penal offences, prescribing processes for investigation and evidence gathering to governing the process of a trial in court.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the Ways and Means Advances (WMA) limits of State governments and Union territories to ₹60,118 crore from ₹47,010 crore.
➡️This decision is based on the suggestions from a group formed by the Reserve Bank, which included some state Finance Secretaries, and after reviewing the states' recent spending data.
➡️The RBI further said that Special Drawing Facility (SDF) availed by State Governments/ UTs will continue to be linked to the quantum of their investments in marketable securities, issued by the Government, including Auction Treasury Bills (ATBs).

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️India has achieved an outstanding outcome in the Mutual Evaluation conducted during 2023-24 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

➡️The Mutual Evaluation Report of India, which was adopted in the FATF plenary held in Singapore recently, places India in the “regular follow-up” category, a distinction shared by only four other G-20 countries.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️The Finance Commission of India (FCI), a constitutional body, stands as a cornerstone of the country’s fiscal federalism. Through a balanced and fair distribution of financial resources between the Center and the States, it ensures equitable growth across the country.
➡️The Union government has notified the constitution of the 16th Finance Commission under the chairmanship of Dr. Arvind Panagariya for making its recommendations for the period of 2026-31.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️SCO membership allows India to cooperate more with Central Asian countries and address common security issues, despite historically weak relations since 1991.

➡️The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) is a key SCO component, aiding in counter-terrorism exercises, intelligence analysis, and sharing information on terrorist movements and drug trafficking.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has said that the department has finalised a new model of the Producer Price Index (PPI) to efficiently capture input prices in the economy and has shared it with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
➡️The government is also working towards changing the base year of the wholesale price index (WPI) from 2011-12 adding that the government is slo mulling on moving from the WPI to PPI going ahead in line with most G20 economies.
➡️While WPI is an easy and convenient method to calculate inflation. It excludes the service sector, which covers about 55% of GDP. Further, it has an inbuilt bias due to double counting of the same product and doesn’t include exports and imports.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️The Karnataka state government has established a nine-member committee to investigate the contamination of the Kaveri River and propose solutions to address the issue.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️As a part of the Axiom-4 mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has shortlisted two of its four trained Gaganyaan astronauts to travel to the International Space Station (ISS).
➡️However, only one of the shortlisted astronauts will go on the mission which is supposed to take place “no earlier than October 2024,”.
➡️The astronauts will have to go to the United States ahead of the mission to train on the specifics of the ISS.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️Recently, the Union government constituted eight Cabinet committees, with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) getting three new faces and the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) remaining unchanged.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️India's central bank said the country added 46.7 million jobs in the fiscal year ended March, far exceeding numbers in private surveys that point to high unemployment rates in the South Asian nation. The employment growth rate was 6 per cent in 2023/24 versus 3.2 per cent in 2022/23, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) data on measuring industry level productivity and employment showed.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️India has decided to sign and ratify the High Seas Treaty.
➡️The treaty would become international law 120 days after at least 60 countries submit their formal ratification documents.
➡️As of now, 91 countries have signed the treaty, but only eight of them have ratified and made the submission.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️The Supreme Court upheld the maintainability of a lawsuit filed by the State of West Bengal against the Union Government. The suit accuses the Centre of "constitutional overreach" and violating federal principles by deploying the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the state without obtaining prior consent from the state government.
The Centre had argued that the Union government had no superintendence or control over the CBI.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️Recent terrorist attacks in the Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) highlight a significant challenge for the Indian government.
➡️Five Army soldiers were killed and five injured in an ambush by militants. This incident is part of a troubling trend, with five terror strikes in the Jammu division resulting in the deaths of eight security personnel and 10 civilians.
➡️These attacks indicate a shift in militant focus from the traditionally volatile Kashmir Valley to the previously more peaceful Jammu region.

#StudyWithVajiram | ➡️Caste data should be collected during the regular Census by the Census Commissioner, with relevant questions added to the questionnaire.
➡️Sociological and anthropological experts should draft state-specific caste lists, publish them online for public input, and finalize them before providing them to enumerators.
➡️The questionnaire should include questions about sub-caste, caste, larger caste group, and caste surname.
➡️Using internet-enabled devices with preloaded details would simplify and ensure accurate data collection.