i. The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) will observe 'Ganga Cleanliness Pledge Day' on 02nd May 2017 at various places in the river's basin states to spread awareness and ensure public participation in the program.

ii. The events will be organized in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Hardoi, Bithoor and Vidhur Kuti; Uttarakhand's Srinagar and Devprayag; Patna and Bhagalpur in Bihar; Sahibganj (Jharkhand) and Kolkata (West Bengal).

i. India will give Rs 35 crore to children of freedom fighters in Bangladesh in the next five years under the new 'Muktijodha scholarship' scheme.

ii. India initiated the Muktijodha Scholarship Scheme in 2006 for descendants of the 1971 Freedom Fighters. Until now, more than 10,000 scholarships worth Tk150 million have been disbursed.

i. Former Union minister Ashwani Kumar has been selected by Japan for this year's Spring Imperial Decorations, for his contribution to the strengthening of bilateral ties and promotion of friendship between the two countries.

ii. The Presentation Ceremony for the Investiture of the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun will be held at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on May 9.

i. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was given the ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi. The visiting dignitary will hold delegation level talks with PM Modi.

ii. A number of agreements will be signed in several areas after the talks. The Turkish President is accompanied by senior cabinet ministers and a 150-member business delegation that will take part in a meeting of the India-Turkey Business Forum.

i. Aymanam ward in the Kerala district on became India’s first digitalised panchayat ward. Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment Krishan Pal Gurjar inaugurated the website of the first digitalised panchayat ward number 15 of Aymanam gram panchayat.

ii. The minister launched the website www.digitalaymanam.com at the function.

i. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has inaugurated the State’s first automatic weather station at Dongargaon in Vidarbha region.

ii. With the installation of this station information from the stations would help farmers plan and manage the sowing process better.

iii. In the first phase, information will be shared using SMS, and in the second, all gram panchayats will get half-hourly information on weather conditions.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) has come into force today, aimed to protect the interests of homebuyers across the country and bring transparency.

Here are some key features of the Act-


● It aims to protect the interests of homebuyers across the country and bring transparency.

● The real estate developers will not be allowed to take advances and booking amounts from customers in yet to be launched projects till they are registered with RERA.

● According to the current guidelines, developers have to register their under-construction projects along with all the relevant details with RERA by July 31.

● In case a customer makes three consecutive defaults in payments, the developer will have to give three weeks’ notice to the customer, and if no response is received, the developer can cancel the agreement.

● So far around 13 states and Union Territories (UTs) have reportedly notified their rules. These include Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Delhi.

i. Google has announced the new "Solve for India" initiative, especially for tier-2 cities such as Pune, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Indore, Nagpur, Nashik, Madurai, Kanpur, and Chennai.

ii. This program will aim to support entrepreneurs and developers of the country. Entrepreneurs will now have the opportunity to learn directly from Google engineers. Some of the areas will include agri-tech, healthcare, transportation, education, sanitation and more.

i. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has appointed Syrian refugee and Olympic athlete Yusra Mardini as a Goodwill Ambassador.

ii. Ms. Mardini, who has settled in Germany, participated in the first ever Olympic refugee team at the Rio de Janeiro games in 2016.

iii. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people.