The Union Government has approved 450 crore rupees for Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim under the Swadesh Darshan scheme. 
•    It was approved by the Union Tourism Ministry for the development of Heritage circuit in Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Ramayana Circuit in Uttar Pradesh, North East Circuit in Sikkim and Coastal Circuit of Tamil Nadu. 
•    The Heritage Circuit in Uttarakhand: It covers Jageshwar-Devidhura-Katarmal-Baijnath sites with total project cost of approximately 83 crores rupees. 
•    Coastal circuit in Tamil Nadu: It envisages development of Chennai-Mamamallapuram-Rameshwaram-Manpadu-Kanyakumari. 
•    The total project cost is of approximately 100 crores. 
•    Ramayana Circuit in Uttar Pradesh: It envisages development of two destinations, Chitrakoot and Shringverpur. 
•    North East circuit in Sikkim: It includes development of cultural centre, paragliding centre and craft bazaar for mountaineering and meditation hall at approximate project cost of 95 crores. 
•    The Heritage Circuit in Madhya Pradesh: It covers developing Tourism Infrastructure Gwalior-Orchha-Khajuraho-Chanderi-Bhimbetka-Mandu. 
•    The total project cost is of approximately 100 crore rupees.

Shri Bandaru Dattatreya , the Minister of State for Labour and Employment inaugurated the first phase of Tele-medicine services of ESIC here today for providing specialist medical services at a distance to insured workers. 
•    With this Employees State Insurance Corporation’s(ESIC) Model Hospital Basaidarapur has been connected with three ESIS dispensaries at Katihar (Bihar), Unnao (UP) and Rudarpur (Uttrachal). 
•    As the three dispansaries came live on line , the Minister interacted with staff and patients at these centres. 
•    In all, three specialized ESIC Hospitals will be connected with eight ESI Dispensaries at remote locations of the country where there are no specialized ESI healthcare services available. 
•    These include hospital at Rajaji Nagar in Bengaluru to be connected to dispensaries at Korba and Khursipar Bhilai,in Chhattisgarh. 
•    The other hospital Joka in Kolkatta to be connected to dispensaries at Shillong, Agartala and Andaman & Nicobar. 
•    Secretary Labour, OSD Labour, Members, ESI Corporation, Director General, ESIC and other dignitaries’ also graced the occasion.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on 6 September 2016 successfully completed test flight of indigenous Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) Bengaluru.
•    The HAL LUH is a light, single-engine helicopter that is powered by the Safran HE Ardiden-1U engine.
•    In addition to two pilots, the helicopter can fly six passengers at sea level, with load capacity reducing with altitude.
•    The LUH’s engine delivers 750 kilowatts of power, permits flight operations at as high as 6500 metres.
•    Limited series production will be done in Bengaluru, and the 610-acre Tumakuru unit is slated to commence production in 2018-19.  
•    The Tumakuru plant will ship about 30 LUHs annually, starting in 2019-20.
•    In phase II, the production will be ramped up to 60 helicopters per year.
•    HAL intends to speed up flight-testing of the LUH by distributing it over three prototypes.
•    HAL hopes to obtain initial operational certification by end-2017.
 

A large number of protesters at Mandya - the heartland of the Cauvery basin around 100 km from Bengaluru - blocked traffic for the second day against the court's ruling that Karnataka should release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu for 10 days, nearly twice what it had been sharing.
•    The protesters also cooked in large pots and played volleyball on the highway. 
•    The police have barricaded roads to Mandya, where schools and colleges have been closed till tomorrow. 
•    Protests on the highway have affected traffic between two major cities, Bengaluru and Mysuru.
•    Security has also been raised at dams as protests spread to various parts of the district. A group also stood neck deep in the river.
•    A large protest has also been organized at state capital Bengaluru and on Friday, political parties have called for a shutdown in Karnataka.
•    Tamil Nadu had moved court after Karnataka released far less water this year than was decided in 2007 by a court-appointed tribunal.

Sonam Kapoor joined Gems Education, UNICEF, Reliance Group and the Global Goals Campaign to launch the World’s Largest Lesson India programme on the occasion of Teacher’s day here on Monday. 
•    The actress says that a proper education can build a great future and lead a child to imbibe good qualities.
•    Launched in September 2015, lessons have taken place in 160 countries. 
•    The materials included lesson plans, comic books and an animated film introduced by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, tennis champion Serena Williams and international football star Neymar Jr.
•    In India alone, the World’s Largest Lesson reached an estimated 3 million children who watched an animation film on the Global Goals.
•    Sonam Kapoor is an Indian actress who appears in Bollywood films. Kapoor is one of the highest-paid actresses in the industry. 
•    She has been nominated for four Filmfare Awards.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday is set to hear the diesel vehicle ban case. 
•    The tribunal had on July 18 asked the Delhi's transport authorities to cancel registration of diesel-fuelled vehicles that were older than 10 years. 
•    Two days later, it asked the Delhi Government to first focus on vehicles order than 15 years. 
•    The Centre was expected to oppose the tribunal's order to phase out more than 15 years old diesel vehicles in Delhi. 
•    The Union Government had on July 29 challenged the NGT's order to phase out diesel vehicles, saying there was no legal provision for the move described by a carmaker as a "corporate death penalty". 
•    The Supreme Court has also stopped registration of new diesel vehicles with engine capacity of 2000CC and above and ordered all diesel taxis to convert to compressed natural gas. 

Urjit R Patel on 4 September 2016 assumed charge as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
•    The handover ceremony will take place on 6 September 2016.
•    Patel had been serving as the Deputy Governor since January 2013.
•    Patel succeeds Raghuram Rajan, who after serving a three-year term, is going back to academia.
•    On 20 August 2016, the appointment committee of cabinet approved the appointment of Patel for three years.
•    Urjit Patel headed a panel that recommended landmark changes to monetary policy in India. The changes included a switch to inflation-targeting and the creation of a panel to set interest rates.
•    In January 2016, he was reappointed as the Deputy Governor in Charge of monetary policy, the department he headed from 2013.
•    Earlier between 1990 and 1995, he had worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) covering US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar.
•    He carries a doctorate from Yale University.
•    He also carries M Phil from Oxford.

The Odisha Government on 3 September 2016 launched the Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana (BKRY) in three districts of the state.
•    The scheme was launched for the development of girls.
•    The scheme will be implemented for three years in Ganjam, Dhenkanal and Angul districts on a pilot basis.
•    The objective of the Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana is to improve Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) and Child Sex Ratio (CSR) in the three districts.
•    The BKRY will ensure enrolment of girls in elementary education.
•    It will track dropout girls from schools and create a better environment for them.
•    The scheme will create awareness on gender discrimination against girls, their health, nutrition and education.
•    According to the provision of BKRY, the state government will spend 3.5 crore rupees for the three-year planned scheme, which is expected to be completed by 31 March 2019.

The USOF, which is maintained by the government, was formed to help fund projects to boost connectivity in rural areas. 
•    The money for this fund comes through a ‘Universal Access Levy,’ charged from the telecom operators as a percentage of various licenses fees being paid by them.
•    Last month, Telecom Secretary J.S. Deepak had said that about Rs.10,000 crore will be spent in the current financial year from the USO Fund to execute various digital infrastructure projects to boost connectivity in rural areas. In the last fiscal, about Rs.3,000 crore was spent from the USOF.
•    The official added that another scheme — funded by the USOF — to connect Left wing extremism (LWE)-affected areas in ten identified states in on the “verge of completion.” “Together, these will help take forward the Digital India drive.”
•    As on date, the total available fund in USOF is more than Rs.47,411.56 crore. 
•    The total collection since the scheme was started in 2002-03 stands at about Rs.78,587.31 crore, while total amount disbursed for various initiatives to boost rural connectivity is about Rs.31,175.75 crore, according to government data.
•    The Centre is also in middle of executing the Bharat Net project which aims to connect all of India’s households, particularly in rural areas, through broadband by 2017.

Sedition or defamation cases cannot be slapped on anyone criticising the government, the Supreme Court said on Monday. 
•    “Someone making a statement to criticise the government does not invoke an offence under sedition or defamation law. 
•    We have made it clear that invoking of section 124(A) of IPC (sedition) requires certain guidelines to be followed as per the earlier judgement of the apex court,” a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U.U. Lalit said.
•    The observation came as advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for an NGO, said sedition was a serious offence and the law on it was being grossly misused for stifling dissent. 
•    He cited the examples of sedition charges being slapped on agitators protesting against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project and cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, among others.