Current Affairs Updates : National

July 26: 20 Uttar Pradesh districts declared drought-hit
Uttar Pradesh government has declared 20 of the state's 70 districts as "drought-hit". These are Ballia, Mau, Ghazipur, Basti, Deoria, Sant Kabirnagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Jaunpur, Sultanpur, Rae Bareli, Unnao, Hardoi, Farrukhabad, Mainpuri, Kanpur (Rural), Fatehpur, Kanshi Ram Nagar, Hathras, Barielly and Kannauj.

July 26, 2009: TUEP Programme Launched by Tripura
The state government of Tripura has launched a special employment guarantee scheme for the urban poor, modelled on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). This programmed has been named Tripura Urban Employment Programme (TUEP). This will provide 50 days' guaranteed employment in a year to about 52,000 poor families living in 16 urban civic agency areas, including the Agartala Municipal Council. The wage will be paid @ Rs. 100 per day and this would incur a cost of Rs. 300 million to the state government. It would cost Rs.300 million to implement the new scheme and each worker would be paid a wage of Rs.100 per day.

July 26, 2009: 50 New Hydel Projects by Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh will set up 50 new micro hydel projects with the help of small players.These projects will be ranging with the limit of 5 MW and will be alloted to small players of the power industry.
About Power Resources of Himachal Pradesh:
Five major rivers flowing down the slopes of the Himalayas have blessed Himachal Pradesh abundant water resources. Its power generation potential is 20,416 MW, about 25 percent of India's total hydropower potential. Of these, only 6,419 MW has been developed.

Aug 1 : Andolan Express
The Indian Railways has introduced a new train from Aug 1 which will ply between Hooghly district's Singur to Howrah station everyday. Name is Andolan Express. This is to commemorate Singur Movement, which forced Tata Motors to shift its Nano car factory to Sanand in Gujarat last year and also reversed the party's declining electoral prospects.

July 30, 2009: World's largest solar steam system is at Shirdi
New and Renewable Energy Miniser Farooq Abdullah has recently inaugurated a large solar steam system at Shirdi, which is the world's largest solar power system.

Why Shirdi needs Solar Power ?
This system is designed to cook food for the devotees of Saibaba . The system is capable of generating 3,500 kg of steam every day - enough to cook food for 20,000 people. It's cost is around 1.33 crore. It spreads in 12000 sq meters.

There are other large solar systems in Mount Abu, Tirupati & Satyabhama university at Chennai.

July 31, 2009: New nuclear plants approved for Gujarat, Rajasthan, one each
Two plants with the capacity of 700 MW each will be set up at Kakrapar in Gujarat and Rawatbhata in Rajasthan. This was announced by Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Prithviraj Chavan in Rajyasabha recently. Both of these sites are already having nuclear power plants, with the one at Rawatbhata generating 740 MW of electricity and the one at Kakrapar generating 440 MW.

July 27, 2009: Rs 5500 cr outlay for Jammu & Kashmir
The Planning Commission has approved Rs 5500 crore outlay for various projects in Jammu and Kashmir .It is a 22 per cent hike compared to the funding the state received last year.

July 25, 2009 : A Postal stamp released in memory of Lala Ram Charan Agarwal
A commemorative stamp, issued by the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department, in the memory of veteran freedom fighter Lala Ram Charan Agarwal on his death anniversary