Pudhumai Penn Scheme

• It is launched by the government of Tamil Nadu.
• The Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Memorial Marriage Assistance Scheme is transformed as the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Higher Education Assurance Scheme.
• The Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Memorial Marriage Assistance Scheme worked with the objective of reducing the marriage burden of girl children to their parents.
• The Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Higher Education Assurance scheme is titled as the Pudhumai Penn scheme.
• The beneficiaries of the Marriage assistance scheme will be given a sum of either Rs. 25,000 or 8 grams of gold or a sum of Rs. 50,000 and 8 grams of gold at the time of marriage of the girl child.

Why Pudhumai Penn scheme?

• Only 24.5% of those who applied under the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Memorial Marriage Assistance Scheme were actually found eligible to benefit from it when verified with the Tamil Nadu Integrated Poverty Portal Service (TIPPS).
• If all the applications received under the scheme were to be accepted and assistance provided, the State exchequer would need a sum of over Rs. 3,000 crore.
• However, the new scheme to provide assistance for a girls’ higher education would boost the Gross Enrolment Ratio.
• The scheme also ensures the empowerment of women by way of encouraging higher education among them.

• Under the Scheme, all girls who studied from class 6-12 in government schools will be paid Rs. 1000 a month, till they complete their under graduation, diploma, and ITI courses.
• The amount will be directly deposited into their bank account.
• The students will be eligible for other scholarships too.

Status Report on India’s External Debt 2021-22

• The External Debt Management Unit (EDMU) in the Department of economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, has released 28th edition of the Status Report on India’s External Debt 2021-22.
• India’s external debt, at US$ 620.7 billion as at end-March 2022, grew by 8.2 per cent over US$ 573.7 billon as at end-March 2021.
• External debt as a ratio to GDP fell marginally to 19.9 per cent as at end-March 2022 from 21.2 per cent a year ago.
• Foreign currency reserves as a ratio to external debt stood slightly lower at 97.8 per cent as at end-March 2022 than 100.6 per cent a year ago.
• The long-term debt estimated at US$ 499.1 billion, constituted the largest chunk of 80.4 per cent, while the short-term debt, at US$ 121.7 billion, accounted for 19.6 per cent of the total.
• The short-term trade credit was predominantly in the form of trade credit (96 per cent) financing imports.
• Commercial borrowings (CBs), NRIs deposits, short-term trade credit and multilateral loans together accounted for 90 per cent of the total external debt.

Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) Yojana

• On the occasion of Teacher's Day today, the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has announced development and upgradation of 14,500 schools cross India under the Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) Yojana.
• The PM-SHRI schools will have a modern, transformational and holistic method of imparting education.
• Emphasis will be on a discovery oriented, learning centric way of teaching.
• Focus will also be on modern infra including latest technology, smart classrooms, sports and more.
• It is an initiative of the Ministry of Education.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

• In data communications and networking, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a method of digital data modulation, whereby a single stream of data is divided into several separate sub-streams for transmission via multiple channels.
• OFDM uses the principle of frequency division multiplexing (FDM), where the available bandwidth is divided into a set of sub-streams having separate frequency bands.
• Orthogonal signals are signals that are perpendicular to each other.
• A main property of orthogonal signals is that they do not interfere with each other.
• It is this aspect of 4G that lets people use social media, download music in an app, and live-stream videos on mobile devices.

Diamond Rain

• Diamond rain forms when hydrogen and carbon found in the interior of these planets are squeezed by the high pressure and form solid diamonds that sink slowly further into the interior.
• With methane, in particular, the intense pressures can break the molecule apart, releasing the carbon.
• The carbon then finds its brethren, forming long chains.
• The long chains then squeeze together to form crystalline patterns like diamonds.
• The dense diamond formations then drop through the layers of the mantle until it gets too hot, where they vaporize and float back up and repeat the cycle — hence the term "diamond rain."
• A new study has found that “diamond rain” may be more common on ice giant planets like Neptune and Uranus.
• Diamond rain also occurs in Saturn and Jupiter.
• The gas giants of the system, Jupiter and Saturn, are made almost entirely of gas: hydrogen and helium.
• It's through the rapid accretion of those elements that these huge planets managed to swell to their current size.
• In contrast, Uranus and Neptune are made mostly of water, ammonia and methane.