THE HEADLINES:
- Government forms panel to probe into procurement of services for On-Screen Marking system by CBSE; Appoints Lokhande Prashant Sitaram as CBSE Chairperson.
- India rejects third party involvement in resolving boundary matters with Nepal.
- India successfully flight-tests indigenous RudraM-II Air-to-Surface Missile.
- Prasar Bharati’s WAVES OTT crosses one crore users within two years of launch.
- 21 people killed in Russian strikes across Ukraine.
- In Women’s Cricket, India to take on Hosts England in third and final T20 International at Taunton tonight.
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The government has constituted a one member committee to probe into matters relating to procurement of services for On-Screen Marking (OSM) system by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
The OSM is a new digital evaluation system introduced by CBSE this year for Class 12 board examinations, replacing traditional paper checking.
The committee will be chaired by Chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, S Radha Chauhan. The committee will submit its report within a month to the Department of Personnel and Training.
In another development, Senior IAS officer Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, has been appointed as the new Chairperson of the CBSE. Mr Sitaram was earlier serving as an Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry. His appointment was made in place of Rahul Singh who has been transferred to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare as Additional Secretary.
The government has also appointed Varun Bhardwaj as Secretary in CBSE. His appointment has been made in place of Himanshu Gupta who was serving as the Secretary in CBSE.
Meanwhile, the CBSE today officially activated online portal for verification of marks and re-evaluation of answer sheets of Class 12th students. Our correspondent reports that the facility is available only to those students who have obtained scanned copies of their evaluated answer books.
“Soon the portal was made live malicious actors attempted to disrupt services through a barrage of cyber attacks. The CBSE said that the most recent being a denial of service attack attempt causing 1.5 million hits on the portal within a matter of 2 minutes and more than 1 lakh attempts of unauthorised file access. The board said that its teams remain vigilant and responsive to ensure that the students are facilitated in all ways possible. Based on student feedback, CBSE has further refined the platform, including extending session time limits to make the process more convenient and seamless. The CBSE said that the portal is currently supporting over 8 thousand concurrent users, and more than 16 thousand students have successfully completed their submissions this evening. The portal will remain open till June 6th, and no offline applications or requests submitted after the deadline will be accepted. With Anand Kumar, Saklen Akhtar, Akashvani News, Delhi.”
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A Delhi court today extended the judicial custody of five accused in the NEET paper leak case till 15th of this month. Yesterday, two other accused were sent to 14 days of judicial custody. The CBI has arrested 13 accused in the case, so far. Last month, the National Testing Agency cancelled the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test held on 3rd May amid allegations of paper leak. A re-examination has been scheduled for 21st of this month.
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India has rejected any role for third parties to resolve its boundary matters with Nepal, days after Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah sought involvement of China and the UK to address the long-standing dispute. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, both sides have established bilateral mechanisms to deal with all aspects of the border matter.
Mr Jaiswal said, India also rejects the unwarranted references made in Pakistan-European Union joint statement regarding Jammu and Kashmir. He said, the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are integral and inalienable parts of India.
The Ministry spokesperson also said, the Acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez will be on a four day visit to India starting tomorrow. Mr. Jaiswal said, during her visit, Ms Rodrigues will hold bilateral discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar met Nepal’s ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party Chairperson Rabi Lamichhane and his delegation in New Delhi today. In a social media post, Dr Jaishankar said, their discussions focused on India-Nepal development partnership and people-to-people ties. He added that these have a crucial role in promoting growth and prosperity.
Later, Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with the Nepalese delegation. Both sides expressed their firm resolve to work together for enhancing the special ties between India and Nepal.
Earlier in the day, the visiting delegation from Nepal met BJP President Nitin Nabin in the National Capital as a part of the ‘Know BJP initiative’.
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Deputy President of South Africa Shipokosa Paulus Mashatile called on President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President CP Radhakrishnan in New Delhi today. In a social media post, President Murmu said, India and South Africa share a special friendship which is historic and contemporary, with both countries being ‘leading voices of the Global South’.
During his meeting with Vice President Radhakrishnan, Mr Mashatile was accompanied by a high-level delegation. The two leaders held productive discussions on strengthening the India-South Africa bilateral relations.
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India has successfully conducted flight-tests of the indigenously developed RudraM-II Air-to-Surface Missile from an airborne platform. The tests were carried out by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) under extreme release conditions with critical trajectory establishing the capability of all subsystems. Ministry of Defence said, all the test objectives were fully met. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh lauded the efforts of DRDO, IAF, Defence Public Sector Undertakings, Development-cum-Production Partners and industry stakeholders for the achievement. He said the successful tests demonstrate the growing maturity of indigenous defence technologies and mark a significant step towards Aatmanirbharta in advanced weapon systems.
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India has undergone a remarkable transformation, driven by the principles of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last 12 years. During this period, the Narendra Modi government carried out many flagship initiatives for the welfare and empowerment of the poor, farmers, women and youth. Akashvani News brings you a special feature on the Government’s efforts over the last 12 years across key sectors. Today, we focus on the measures taken by the government towards the ’empowerment of Women’.
“Over the past twelve years, women empowerment in India has witnessed a transformative shift, driven by sustained government efforts to enhance access to healthcare, education, livelihood opportunities, financial inclusion, and leadership roles. The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, launched in 2015, has enabled millions of women to access collateral-free loans to start and expand their businesses. Under the scheme, loans worth more than 40 lakh crore rupees had been disbursed to beneficiaries by March this year, of them, around 17 lakh crore rupees were given to women. Talking to Akashvani News, Vanishri from Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, said that the scheme has motivated her to become an entrepreneur.
The flagship schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, and the Womaniya initiative have collectively strengthened women’s access to banking, savings, and entrepreneurial platforms. Under the Jan Dhan Yojana, a total of over 58 crore accounts have been opened till date and out of these, around 33 crore Jan-Dhan accounts belong to women. Talking to Akashvani News, a resident of Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, Saroj Bala, said that after opening the Jan Dhan account, the full benefits of government schemes are now directly credited to her bank account.
Another key initiative is the Lakhpati Didi programme, which focuses on helping women to achieve sustainable annual incomes of at least one lakh rupees. The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme has contributed to improving the national Sex Ratio at Birth from 918 in 2014-15 to 929 in 2024-25. With sustained policy support and innovative programmes, women are playing a pivotal role in shaping a self-reliant and inclusive economy. Anand Kumar, Akashvani News, Delhi.”
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Prasar Bharati’s digital streaming platform WAVES OTT has crossed one crore registered users in less than two years after its launch in November 2024. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said, the achievement marks a significant step in the growth of country’s public digital media ecosystem. The Ministry said, this reflects the increasing adoption of indigenous digital platforms offering trusted, inclusive and diverse content to audiences in India and across the world.
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Eight people died in a tragic accident at Surat in Gujarat. The accident occurred when two Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation buses collided near Bardoli town. More than 15 injured have been shifted to a nearby hospital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed grief at the loss of lives in the accident at Surat. Mr Modi also announced an ex-gratia of two lakh rupees from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund to the next of kin of each deceased. The injured would be given 50 thousand rupees.
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Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack targeting multiple Ukrainian cities in which at least 21 people including two children were killed and over 100 others were injured. This marks one of Moscow’s largest assaults in recent months.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said civilian infrastructure and energy facilities had been targeted across the country. He urged US to send Patriot missiles to Ukraine.
Russia’s defence ministry said, the strikes had been a response to previous Ukrainian attacks, saying in a statement that the objectives of the strike had all been achieved.
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Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has achieved 23.20 billion transaction counts in the last month. In a social media post, the Department of Financial Services thanked the citizens for embracing digital payments. UPI has emerged as the world’s largest real-time payments platform, anchoring country’s digital economy.
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In Women’s Cricket, the third and final T20 International of the series between India and Hosts England will be played at Taunton tonight. The match will begin at 11 PM Indian Time. The series is levelled at 1-1.
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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert predicting thunderstorm conditions over Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Coastal Andhra Pradesh tomorrow. The weather agency has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall over Andaman Nicobar Islands, Kerala, Mahe, Karnataka, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal till Saturday.
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THE HEADLINES ONCE AGAIN:
- Government forms panel to probe into procurement of services for On-Screen Marking system by CBSE; Appoints Lokhande Prashant Sitaram as CBSE Chairperson.
- India rejects third party involvement in resolving boundary matters with Nepal.
- India successfully flight-tests indigenous RudraM-II Air-to-Surface Missile.
- Prasar Bharati’s WAVES OTT crosses one crore users within two years of launch.
- 21 people killed in Russian strikes across Ukraine.
- In Women’s Cricket, India to take on Hosts England in third and final T20 International at Taunton tonight.
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