NATIONAL – DAIRY OF EVENTS

Janjatiya Garima Utsav”

• • Context:As part of the nationwide celebrations of “Janjatiya Garima Utsav”, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs will organise a Special Interactive Meeting of the Hon’ble President of India with beneficiaries of the Ministry’s flagship Central Sector Scholarship Schemes.

• The “Janjatiya Garima Utsav”, being celebrated from 10th May to 9th June 2026.,honours the rich heritage, cultural legacy and invaluable contributions of tribal communities to India.

• Around 200 tribal students from across the country, who are beneficiaries of the Ministry’s scholarship schemes, will participate in the interaction with the Hon’ble President.

Central Sector Scholarship Schemes are

• National Fellowship for Scheduled Tribes (NFST)
• National Scholarship Scheme for Higher Education of ST Students
• National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) Scheme for ST Students

The National Fellowship for Scheduled Tribes (NFST)- (2005–06)

• The National Fellowship for Scheduled Tribes (NFST) is a fully funded Central Sector Scheme that supports meritorious ST students pursuing Ph.D. programmes in India. 
• Every year, 750 fresh fellowships are awarded, and currently around 3,000 students are benefiting under the scheme.

The National Scholarship Scheme for Higher Education- 2008

• The National Scholarship Scheme for Higher Education supports ST students pursuing graduate and postgraduate studies in 265 premier institutions across fields such as Engineering, Medicine, Law, Management and Information Technology.
•  Around 2,500 fresh scholarships are awarded annually, while nearly 7,000 students are currently benefiting under the scheme.

The National Overseas Scholarship (NOS)- (1954–55)

• The National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) Scheme enables meritorious ST students to pursue higher education in globally ranked universities abroad. Implemented in coordination with Indian Missions overseas, the scheme provides 20 fresh awards every year.
• At present, around 70 students are pursuing studies in leading international institutions under the scheme.

 

National Seed Reserve (NSR)

• Context:The Union Agriculture Minister announced the creation of a National Seed Reserve (NSR) with a capacity of 1.74 lakh quintals.

About National Seed Reserve

• It is an initiative under the National Food Security and Nutritional Mission, which functions under the Krishionnati Yojana( 2005).

• • Objective: To ensure the availability of quality-certified and foundation seeds for farmers, particularly during emergencies, natural disasters, or other crisis situations.
  • Implementing Agencies:
    • National Seeds Corporation (1963).
    • State Seed Corporations
    • State Agriculture Departments/UT Administrations where State Seed Corporations are not available.
  • All seeds stored under the NSR will be produced and monitored through the SATHI Portal.

• The SATHI Portal helps in seed traceability, authentication, and inventory management.

 

Samadhan Didi

• Context: The Central Government has introduced “Samadhan Didi”—an AI-powered conversational technology designed to assist citizens in submitting grievances against government departments via an online platform.

About Samadhan Didi

• • It is an AI-based grievance redressal conversational technology that simplifies the process of registering complaints with government officials.
  • This conversational technology functions as a voice-enabled, multilingual grievance registration assistant, featuring intelligent AI-based problem categorization.
  • Citizens can register complaints using voice commands in various languages ​​without needing to identify the specific department or category involved.

• It has been developed by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) in collaboration with Bhashini—India’s AI-based language technology platform.

• • This system operates within a secure government digital infrastructure, ensuring the safety and privacy of user data.

• It is integrated with the Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS).

Key Features

• • It assists citizens who are unsure about where or how to submit their complaints.

• It supports users who are unable to draft their grievances in Hindi or English.

• • It provides step-by-step guidance—in a simple and user-friendly manner—for drafting and submitting complaints.
  • It enables users to describe their issues using ordinary, natural conversational language.

• It eliminates the need for users to manually select the relevant Ministry, Department, Category, or Sub-category.

• This AI system analyzes the complaint and requests additional information if required. Subsequently, it identifies the appropriate official and automatically forwards the complaint to the relevant department.
• Currently, it supports all 22 of India’s scheduled languages; plans are in place to extend its support to additional regional and local languages ​​in the future.

 

India’s New HAD Drone for Weather Research

• Under the ‘Mission Mausam’ initiative, India has successfully test-flown a high-altitude drone.
• Designated as HAD, this drone was designed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) to facilitate precise atmospheric monitoring, environmental pollution assessment, and weather research.
• Launched from the coastal region of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh to an altitude of approximately 4 kilometers, the drone successfully acquired data regarding the Air Quality Index, levels of gaseous pollution, and weather conditions.
• This innovation is considered a major breakthrough, particularly given the inability of conventional drones to collect specific data while operating at such high altitudes.