Union Home and Cooperation Minister launched India’s first cooperative-based taxi service ‘Bharat Taxi’ to be available across the country within 3 years.
About Bharat Taxi
- Cooperative model: Where drivers or Sarathis are the real owners, not corporations or external investors.
- Four Core Principles: Ownership, Security Cover, Dignity, Equitable Distribution.
- Share Capital: Each Sarathi becomes an owner with maximum share capital of ₹500.
- Bharat Taxi retains only 20% of profits for operations; the remaining income goes directly to Sarathis.
- Sarathi Didi: Separate window in app, to pick up woman by ‘Sarathi Didis.
- Others: Benefits like free treatment up to ₹5 lakh, insurance, affordable loans, subsidies, and all schemes for gig workers, etc.
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1 sourceExposition of the Holy Devnimori Relics at Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka was inaugurated recently.
About Devnimori Relics
- Devnimori is an Buddhist archaeological site located near Shamlaji in Aravalli District, Gujarat.
- Site was first explored in 1957 by archaeologist Prof. S. N. Chowdhry.
- Excavations Include:Sharira Stupa (ones with bodily relics of Buddha or important monks) containing relic caskets with sacred ashes, a copper box, and gold and silver foil.
- One casket bears an inscription in Brahmi script and Sanskrit reading “DashabalaShariraNilaya” — “abode of bodily relic of Lord Buddha”
- Period: 3rd–4th Century CE.
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1 sourceICANN will convene its Public Meeting in Mumbai from 7-12 March 2026, hosted by National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
About ICANN
- Genesis: Formed in 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.
- Functions: Oversee huge and complex interconnected network of unique identifiers that allow computers on Internet to find one another; help co-ordinate how IP addresses are supplied to avoid repetition or clashes, etc.
- Does not control content on Internet, cannot stop spam and does not deal with Internet access.
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1 sourceBharat GenAI will complete text models in all 22 scheduled languages this month as per Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology.
- Currently, supports 15 Indian languages.
About Bharat GenAI
- First government supported national initiative to develop a range of sovereign foundational AI models tailored to Indian languages and societal contexts.
- Spans multiple modalities, including text (Large Language Models), speech (Text-to-Speech and Automatic Speech Recognition), and vision-language systems.
- Spearheaded by: IIT Bombay, with participation from several other institutions.
- Active Technology Innovation Hubs (TIH): In IIT Bombay and IIT Madras under National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS).
Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir asks to do away with the model of Union Territories (UTs) with Assembly model from the Constitution.
UTs with Assembly in India
- Currently, there are 3 UTs with the Legislative Assembly – National Capital Territory of Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir.
- Constitutional Provisions
- Article 239A authorizes Parliament to create legislatures/Council of Ministers for UTs.
- Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 was enacted under this provision which provides for Legislative Assemblies and Council of Ministers for certain UTs.
- Article 239AA (69th Amendment) provides for Legislative Assembly and Council of Ministers for the NCT of Delhi.
- Article 239A authorizes Parliament to create legislatures/Council of Ministers for UTs.
In recent times, many State Governors have walked out of the State Assemblies without completely reading the Governor’s address prepared by the State Cabinet.
About Governor’s Address to State Legislature
- Article 176: At the commencement of the first session after each general election to the Legislative Assembly and at the commencement of the first session of each year, the Governor shall address -
- the Legislative Assembly or,
- in the case of a State having a Legislative Council, both Houses assembled together and inform the Legislature of the causes of its summons.
- Nature of address: Reflects the policies and legislative agenda of the elected government.
- Judicial interpretation: Supreme Court held that the Governor’s address is an executive act performed on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. (Nabam Rebia v. Deputy Speaker (2016)).
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1 sourceAmid rising EV adoption and energy storage needs, India is rethinking its battery strategy to reduce dependence on lithium-ion technology and strengthen energy security.
Sodium-ion battery vs Litium Ion Battery
Protests in Lok Sabha prevent Prime Minister’s reply to the Motion of Thanks.
About Motion of Thanks
- Article 87 (1) provides that at the commencement of the first session after each general election to the Lok Sabha and at the commencement of the first session of each year the President shall address both Houses of Parliament assembled together and inform Parliament of the causes of its summons.
- Under Rule 17 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, discussion on matters referred to in the President’s Address takes place on a Motion of Thanks moved by a member and seconded by another member.
- Amendments allowed: Opposition members may move amendments expressing regret that the Address omitted or inadequately covered certain issues.
