THE HEADLINES,

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses UN High-Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought; Says India is working towards restoring 2.6 crore hectares of degraded land by 2030.

• India’s per-capita carbon dioxide emission is lowest amongst big economies says Union Minister Piyush Goyal.

• Lok Sabha notifies Pashupati Kumar Paras as leader of Lok Janshakti Party in the Lower House.

• Centre relaxes electronic filing of Income Tax forms; Allows submission in manual format to authorized dealers till 30th June.

• India emerges as 14th most charitable country in the World.

• More than 25.87 crores doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in the country so far.

• UK PM Boris Johnson delays easing of Corona restrictions until July 19. 

• NATO leaders declare China a constant security challenge.

• India to take on Afghanistan in Asia Cup Soccer Qualifiers in Doha today.

• ICC announces prize money for World Test Championships Final winner and runner-up.

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As many states are relaxing lockdown norms, we advise our listeners not to lower their guard as the COVID-19 pandemic remains a threat to our health. Please stay at home unless it is essential to go out and continue to follow the four simple steps --

• Wear a face mask.

• Maintain Do Gaz Ki Doori for social distancing

• Focus on hand and face hygiene.

• And, get vaccinated.

For any COVID related information and guidance contact National helpline numbers -- 011-23978046 and 1075.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said three million hectares of forest cover has been added in India over the last ten years. He said this has enhanced the combined forest cover to almost one fourth of the country's total area. The Prime Minister was virtually addressing a UN 'High-Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land Degradation & Drought'. Mr Modi said India is also working towards restoring 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. This will contribute to India's commitment to achieve additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of  carbon dioxide equivalent.

Mr. Modi listed steps taken by India to deal with the land degradation issue. He said that India has taken the lead to highlight land degradation issues at international forums.

The Prime Minister stressed the need to devise effective strategies for land restoration while promoting indigenous techniques. He gave the example of the Banni region in Rann of Kutch in Gujarat to illustrate how restoration of land can start a virtuous cycle.

He said land is the fundamental building block for supporting all lives and livelihood. He pointed out that land degradation affects over two third of the world today. He cautioned that if left unchecked, it will erode the very foundations of societies, economies, food security, health, safety and quality of life.

In the spirit of South-South cooperation, India is assisting fellow developing countries to develop land restoration strategies.

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Union Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India’s per-capita carbon dioxide emission is the lowest amongst big economies. He said the ambitious renewable energy target of 450 Gigawatts by 2030 shows India's commitment towards the United Nations 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. Speaking at the UN Trade Forum 2021, the Minister said that Climate justice should be protected and developed countries should reconsider their pattern of consumption and focus on sustainable lifestyles. Mr Goyal said India has taken many bold steps on clean energy, energy efficiency, afforestation and bio-diversity. India has also encouraged global initiatives like International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

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Pashupati Kumar Paras has replaced Chirag Paswan as leader of Lok Janshakti Party in Lok Sabha. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla approved the recognition of Mr Paras as the LJP floor leader in the Lok Sabha. Earlier five of the LJP's six MPs had met Speaker Om Birla  and submitted him a written request for appointing Pashupati Paras, removing Chirag Paswan from the position. The rebellion was led by Pashupati Paras, Hajipur MP and the younger brother of late LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan. Four LJP MPs -- Chandan Singh, Veena Devi, Mehboob Ali Kaiser and Prince Raj -- backed Mr Paras as the leader of party's parliamentary board, leaving party national president Chirag Paswan isolated. Mr Paras was then unanimously elected as the LJP Parliamentary leader in Lok Sabha.

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External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar concluded his three day visit to Kenya yesterday. During the visit, Dr Jaishankar and his Kenyan counterpart held bilateral consultations at which they hailed the cordial and historic relations between the two countries. Both Ministers positively noted the mutual desire to expand bilateral cooperation under the Kenya- India Joint Commission Framework. This underscores their commitment to the relationship playing a greater role in regional and global context. The two sides deliberated on the impact of Covid-19 situation globally and called for joint efforts to combat the disease as well as consolidate economic collaboration during the pandemic and post-Covid-19 period. They emphasized the need for equitable and affordable access to vaccines and ensuring treatment for all.

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In view of the difficulties reported by taxpayers in electronic filing of Income Tax Forms 15CA/15CB on the portal www.incometax.gov.in, it has been decided that taxpayers can submit the aforesaid Forms in manual format to the authorized dealers till June 30th, 2021. Finance Ministry said that authorized dealers are advised to accept such Forms till June 30th, 2021 for the purpose of foreign remittances. A facility will be provided on the new e-filing portal to upload these forms at a later date for the purpose of generation of the Document Identification Number.

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World Giving Index 2021 report says, India is 14th most charitable country. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown giving trends across the world. Released by the Charities Aid Foundation’s (CAF), this year’s survey highlights the impact of lockdowns on charitable giving. India is now in the Top 20 most generous countries in the world. This is up from the 10-year global rank of 82. Australia and New Zealand, where the survey was undertaken in the weeks before the first wave of the pandemic took hold, maintained their top 10 rankings.

The report says, Scores for India rapidly improved between 2017 and 2019, and this improvement was maintained during 2020. The improvement in India is seen across all the age groups and amongst both men and women. 61 per cent of Indians helped strangers; 34 per cent volunteered; and 36 per cent  donated money.

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Procurement of wheat in ongoing Rabi Marketing Season 2021-22 is continuing smoothly in the procuring states and till now over 425.77 Lakh Metric Tonnes of Wheat has been procured. This is an all time high, as it has exceeded previous high of 389.92 LMT of RMS 2020-21.

About 47.53 Lakh farmers have already been benefited from the ongoing procurement operations with MSP value of over 84 thousand crore rupees. Paddy procurement in the ongoing Kharif season is continuing smoothly in the procuring States with purchase of over 826 LMTs of paddy against the last year's corresponding purchase of more than 743 LMT. About 122.24 Lakh farmers have already benefited from the ongoing KMS procurement Operations with MSP value of over one lakh 56 thousand crore rupees.

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Reserve bank of india has added mobile prepaid recharges’ as a biller category in Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). This will be implemented on or before August 31, this year. BBPS started as an interoperable platform for repetitive bill payments. At present, Direct to Home (DTH), Electricity, Gas, Telecom and Water bill payments are included in BBPS. This system provides standardised bill payment experience, centralised customer grievance redressal mechanism, prescribed customer convenience fee and ensured availability of a bouquet of anytime, anywhere digital payment options.

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Reserve Bank of India has released a Consultative Document on Regulation of Microfinance. It has been released for harmonising the regulatory frameworks for various regulated lenders in the microfinance space. Key proposals of the documents are, common definition of microfinance loans for all regulated entities, Capping the outflow on account of repayment of loan obligations of a household to a percentage of the household income. It also recommends, a Board approved policy for household income assessment. It also asked for introduction of a standard simplified fact sheet on pricing of microfinance loans for better transparency and display of minimum, maximum and average interest rates charged on microfinance loans on the websites of regulated entities.  

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The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has reached more than 25.87 crores so far.  Over 20 lakh 99 thousand vaccine doses were administered as first dose and more than one lakh 16 thousand vaccine doses given as second dose in the age group 18 to 44 years yesterday.

"Since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive, more than 4 crore 34 lakh 35 thousand people across 37 States and UTs have received their first dose. Over 8 lakh 33 thousand received their second dose. On Day 150 of the vaccination drive yesterday, more than 35 lakh 96 thousand vaccine doses were given. 31,84,503 beneficiaries were vaccinated for 1st dose and 4,11,959 beneficiaries received 2nd dose.Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have administered more than 10 lakh beneficiaries of the age group of 18 to 44 years for the first dose of COVID vaccine. Suparna SaikIa, AIR news,  Delhi."

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Amidst the rapidly improving situation of corona infection in Chhattisgarh, the average positivity rate has come down to about 1.3 percent. While the recovery rate from CoVID infection has increased to more than 97 percent. 600 New corona-infected patients were found in the state yesterday. Out of the 28 districts, in 25 districts cases were reported in double digits.

"Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has appealed to the people of the state to take special precautions keeping in mind the increasing number of corona cases in New Delhi as well as in the neighboring states. The Chief Minister has said that after the opening of the lockdown, the positivity rate has increased again in some states. He said that special precautions need to be taken in all areas of the state, especially in Bastar division. He has appealed to the people to follow the Covid appropriate behavior. Apart from this, the Chief Minister has said that all eligible people must get vaccinated saying that it is the strongest way to avoid corona infection. Vikalp Shukla, AIR News, Raipur."

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Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana is aimed to provide free food grains to 80 crore poor people of the country badly affected by Covid-19 pandemic. The scheme recently extended till Diwali festivals by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also covering the thousands of migrant laborers under the One Nation- One Ration Card. Apart from 2 lakh 69 thousand local beneficiaries, large number of migrant laborers are also taking benefit of this scheme in the Union territory of Dadara Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu.

"Poor people covered under the National Food Security Act in the Union territories of Dadara Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu are getting free food grains due to Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana. Dadara Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have also implemented One Nation- One Ration Card scheme. Director of Food and Civil Supply Department of Daman Suresh Meena gives more details.

Another beneficiary of this scheme, Sapna Chaudhari said that no one can steal my ration due to Mera Ration application.

With Pradip Bhavsar in Daman, Yogesh Pandya, AIR News, Ahmedabad."

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Odisha government has urged the Centre to revise the private vaccine allocation ratio for the state. In a letter to the centre, the state government has pleaded that since the presence of private hospitals in the state is very low, the centre may revise the vaccine allocation ratio for Odisha.

"As of now, the private hospitals account for only 5% of the total healthcare sector in the state. Hence, the letter argues, that under the existing vaccine distribution ratio of 75:25, Odisha may lose out on its proportionate share of 25% vaccine allocation to the private hospitals. Thus, it has requested the centre to revise the allocation ratio from 75:25 to 95:5. Meanwhile, the current covid-19 active caseload of the state has dipped to less than 60 thousand, from more than 1 lakh, just about a month back. On the other hand, with only less than 48 hours left for the statewide lockdown to come to a close, the state govt is likely to announce its decision on lockdown, soon. Girish Chandra Dash AIR News Bhubaneswar."

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In Tamilnadu, more than 25 thousand 561 covid patients recovered from the pandemic. Over 12 thousand fresh covid cases were registered yesterday. A total of 254 deaths were reported. More than one lakh 36 thousand people are under treatment. More than one lakh 60 thousand samples were tested through RT PCR. Coimbatore and Erode continued to register more than thousand covid patients each. Chennai is well below the thousand mark and has registered 828 fresh covid cases yesterday.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced delaying the lifting of all restrictions in England till 19th of July as delta variant of COVID-19 spreads. The lockdown was to end on 21st of June. In a press briefing, he said this decision will save thousands of lives as the government speeds up its vaccination drive. Mr Johnson said he is 'confident' the delay will not need to be longer than four weeks. He said that by July 19, two-thirds of the adult population will be double-vaccinated, including everyone over the age of 50. The gap between the two doses for over 40s is also being reduced to eight weeks from 12 to provide the maximum protection against the variant sooner.

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NATO leaders have declared China a constant security challenge and said the Chinese are working to undermine global order. In a summit statement in Brussels, NATO leaders said that China’s goals and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security. They called on Beijing to uphold its international commitments and to act responsibly in the international system.NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned China is coming closer to Nato in military and technological terms. But he stressed the alliance does not want a new Cold War with China. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of European and North American countries formed after World War II as a bulwark against Russian aggression.

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Apart from disseminating information and creating awareness amongst masses, Radio also has its role in preservation and promotion of ancestral traditional values in the society. For  physically challenged people radio is not just a source of entertainment in the society, but it has become a skill learning centre whereby they are earning their livelihood. On the occasion of Golden Jubilee year or AIR Leh, our Leh correspondent files this report:

"Radio plays a crucial role in the life of people living in far flung areas of Ladakh where medium of mass communication is very limited. However Radio proves very beneficial to many people who even learn their life skills and earn livelihood with it. One such person from Zangskar valley is Mr. Tsering Tundup who is physically blind but his effort to learn to play musical instrument “Surna” made him  self reliant.

He speaks about his encounter with his Surna Teacher Ali Mohammad through All India Radio Leh. With Ramesh Chandra this is Phuntsok Wangmo reporting from Leh Ladakh."

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With less than 40 days left for the Tokyo olympics, Indian players are gearing up for the event. In the Olympics series today, we will talk about India's fencing hope for the Tokyo Olympics---Bhawani Devi.

"Born on 27th August in 1993 in Chennai, the exceptional fencing player Bhawani Devi is a name to reckon with. She has created history by becoming the first Indian women fencer to qualify for the Olympics. Bhawani Devi has lent a new identity to India in the discipline of fencing and has earned praise at the internationnal level for her hardwork and gumption. Swordfighting was introduced in the schools of Tamilnadu in 2004. Bhawani played her first international match in Turkey when she was merely 14. Bhawani Devi began her incredible journey by winning medals in the team events. In 2012, Bhawani won her first individual Bronze medal in the Junior Commonwealth Championship at Jersey. Bhawani Devi bettered her performance in the 2014 Asian Games in the Philippines and went on to win the silver medal. She became the first Indian to achieve this feat. A year later , she won silver in the under-23 Asian Championship in Mongolia and the Flemish Open in Belgium. In 2017 in Canberra, Bhawani created history by winning the gold medal in the senior Commonwealth Fencing Championship and becoming the first Indian to do so. Bhawani Devi attributes her succes to her parents.

Currently, Bhawani Devi is rigorously preparing for the Tokyo Olympics.

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In Asian Cup Soccer Qualifiers, Sunil Chhetri-led India will look to garner full points when they will face Afghanistan in their last Group E match at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha today. The 105th-ranked India only need to avoid defeat against the 149th-ranked Afghanistan to confirm the third spot behind leaders Qatar on 22 points and second-placed Oman on 15 points in Group E.

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The ICC has announced prize money for winner and runner-up of World Test Championship Final. The winning team of the final between India and New Zealand will receive about 12 crore rupees along with an ICC Test Championship Mace. The losing team will receive 6 crore rupees approximately. The final match will start on June 18 at Ageas Bowl, Southampton. The prize money for the team finishing third in the ICC WTC standings will get 3.38 crore rupees, while the team on fourth position be awarded 2.62 crore rupees. ICC has announced that cash prize for fifth finisher is 1.5 crore rupees, while the remaining four teams will get 75 lakh rupees per team.

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Take a look at the weather forecast for today.

Jammu will have a partly cloudy sky with possibility of rain or thunderstorm or dust storm. The minimum temperature will be 24 degree Celsius while the maximum will be around 35 degrees.

Srinagar will have a partly cloudy sky with possibility of rain or thunderstorm or dust storm. Temperature will hover between 15 and 29 degree Celsius.

Leh will have a generally cloudy sky with light rain or drizzle  . The minimum and maximum temperature will be between 10 and 23 degree Celsius.

Gilgit will  see a partly  cloudy sky . The temperature will hover between 17 and 39 degree Celsius.

Muzaffarabad will have a generally  cloudy sky with possibility of rain or thunderstorm or dust storm. The minimum temperature will be 21 degree Celsius and maximum will be around 35 degrees.

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NEWSPAPERS HEADLINE:

• India's active count below 10 lakh mark, headlines The Statesman.  New Covid-19 cases lowest in 74 days, writes the paper.

• SII- partner, Novavax reports 90% effective, says focused first on developing countries, reports The Indian Express.  SII to produce it as Covovax, writes The Tribune.

• Immunity lasts at least a year after infection, gets stronger after jab, reports Hindustan Times, quoting a study by Rockerfeller University and Weill Cornell Medicine.

• NATO leaders declare China is now global security challenge, reports The Asian Age.

• "G7 accommodates Indian stand on need for Internet curbs", headlines The Hindu.

• The Asian Age, quoting the Prime Minister's address to the United Nations, headlines, "We'll restore 'degraded' land for a healthier planet." "Committed to save mother Earth" is the headline in The Pioneer.

• "Delhi tiptoes towards new normal with fingers crossed", writes The Times of India.

• People throng markets, flout Covid norms as States open, reports The Pioneer.  8,000 vehicles in 60 hours, tourists throng Shimla, writes The Tribune.

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