18th JUNE 2025 ENGLISH TNPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS PDF TNPSC SHOUTERS
Free Drinking Water ATM Machines in Chennai City - Chief Minister M.K.Stalin Inaugurates
- 50 free drinking water vending machines installed by the Chennai Water Board at a cost of Rs. 6.04 crore in crowded places in Chennai City have been brought for public use.
- Chief Minister M.K.Stalin, who attended the inaugural ceremony held at 10 am on Wednesday at the Chennai Marina Beach, inaugurated the operation of the automatic drinking water vending machine installed there for public use and also inaugurated the operation of the machines installed in other parts of the city from there through video conferencing.
- Deputy Chief Minister M.K.Stalin, Ministers K.N. Nehru, Shekarbabu, Mayor Priya, government officials and officials of the Water Drainage Board, including many others, participated in the event.
- The Tamil Nadu Information Commission is functioning in Nandanam, Chennai. This Commission is the body that hears petitions and complaints on the second appeal under the Right to Information Act.
- Initially, the Tamil Nadu Information Commission was constituted with the State Chief Information Commissioner and 2 State Information Commissioners.
- After that, the number of State Information Commissioners was increased from 2 to 6. In that regard, retired IPS officer M.D. Shakeel Akhtar is working as the Chief Information Commissioner. In addition, 4 people namely Thamaraikannan, Priyakumar, Thirumalai Muthu and Selvaraj are holding the post of Information Commissioners. It was in this context that the posts of two Information Commissioners were lying vacant.
- In this situation, the Governor of Tamil Nadu R.N. Ravi has ordered the appointment of advocates V.P.R. Ilamparithi and M.Natesan (Karnataka advocate) as State Information Commissioners for the posts of two Commissioners vacant in the State Information Commission. V.P.R. Ilamparithi, who has been appointed as the Information Commissioner, was an Additional Advocate of the Government, and M. It is also reported that Nadesan was a Karnataka lawyer.
- A high-level committee headed by Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah has approved Rs. 2006.40 crore as Central Government assistance for the relief and reconstruction project after the floods, landslides and heavy rains that occurred in Himachal Pradesh in 2023.
- The committee, which includes the Finance Minister, Agriculture Minister and the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, recommended financial assistance to the state from the Relief and Rehabilitation Fund under the National Disaster Response Fund.
- The High Level Committee has approved a relief package of Rs. 2006.40 crore for the State of Himachal Pradesh to help the State in carrying out rescue and rehabilitation activities due to the damage and devastation caused by floods, heavy rains and landslides during the 2023 monsoon.
- Out of this, Rs. 1504.80 crore will be provided as Central Government’s contribution from the Rescue and Rehabilitation Fund under the National Disaster Response Fund. Earlier, on December 12, 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs had approved additional financial assistance of Rs. 633.73 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund to the affected Himachal Pradesh.
- In the financial year 2024-25, the Central Government has released Rs. 20,264.40 crore to 28 States under the State Disaster Response Fund and Rs. 5,160.76 crore to 19 States under the National Disaster Response Fund.
- In addition, the Central Government has released Rs. 4984.25 crore from the State Disaster Mitigation Fund to 19 states and Rs. 719.72 crore from the National Disaster Mitigation Fund to 8 states.
- Leading rating agency (ICRA) has said in its latest outlook that India's GDP growth for 2025-26 will be 6.2%. At the same time, gross value added growth will also decline from 6.4 percent to 6 percent.
- In terms of inflation, the Consumer Price Index is expected to be above 3.5 percent. At the same time, the Wholesale Price Index will be above 1.8 percent in the current financial year.
- The fiscal deficit for 2025-26 is expected to be 4.4 percent of the GDP, ICRA has predicted. The current account deficit is expected to be 1.2 percent to 1.3 percent during the same period.
- The Union Budget for 2025-26 is expected to include significant income tax relief, interest rate cuts, EMIs and food inflation, which will boost household incomes. At the same time, the slowdown in exports is likely to continue in the short term.
- The Panchayati Raj Ministry is set to sign a MoU with Bhashini, the National Language Translation Mission under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
- This will bring more inclusiveness and enable the use of cutting-edge language technologies in Panchayati Raj administration. The MoU will be signed tomorrow (June 19, 2025) in New Delhi.
- The event will be attended by Minister of State for Panchayati Raj Prof. S.P. Singh Baghel, Secretary, Ministry, Shri Vivek Bhardwaj, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Shri S. Krishnan and other senior officials.
- The initiative is a collaboration to expand multilingual access on the digital platforms and external activities of the Panchayati Raj Ministry.
- This will bring the initiatives, programmes, etc. of the Panchayati Raj Ministry to a wider audience through advanced translation technologies. This is a major initiative to make the Ministry’s websites accessible in multiple languages.
- This will enable stakeholders, especially elected representatives and citizens in rural areas, to access governance structures in their own languages.
- The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, participated in the External Action Session of the G7 Summit held in Kananaskis. He delivered a speech on the theme ‘Energy Security in a Changing World: Diversity, Technology, Infrastructure’. He thanked the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Mark Carney, for the invitation and congratulated him on the 50th anniversary of the G7.
