• In a bid to bring together the Indian scientists abroad and India based researchers for conducting joint researches in India, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) launched a scheme named ‘Visiting Advanced Joint Research Faculty’ (VAJRA).
• Under this scheme, scientists or senior researchers abroad – of Indian origin or otherwise – can collaborate with faculties here.
• The broad areas of research like energy, health, advance material and others would be promoted under the scheme.

2. Government launches Liveability Index for 116 cities to measure quality of life

• The central government has launched the “City Liveability Index” – a first of its kind initiative introduced by the Urban Development Ministry – to measure the quality of life in 116 major cities including capital cities and those with population over one million.
• The cities will be assessed on a comprehensive set of 79 parameters to capture the extent and quality of infrastructure including availability of roads, education and health care, mobility, employment opportunities, emergency response, grievance redressal, pollution, availability of open, green spaces, and culture.

3. PSLV-C38 Successfully Launches 31 Satellites in a Single Flight

• ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C38 successfully launched the 712 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
• This is the thirty ninth consecutively successful mission of PSLV.
• The total number of Indian satellites launched by PSLV now stands at 48.
• One of the 30 co-passenger satellites carried by PSLV-C38 was the 15 kg NIUSAT, a University/Academic Institute satellite from Nurul Islam University, Tamil Nadu, India.
• The remaining 29 co-passenger satellites carried were 14 international customer satellites from USA (10), United Kingdom (3), Belgium (3), Italy (3), Austria (1), Chile (1), Czech Republic (1), Finland (1), France (1), Germany (1), Japan (1), Latvia (1), Lithuania (1) and Slovakia (1).

4. Maharashtra government to launch ‘My Plant’ mobile app on tree plantation

• Maharashtra forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar announced that a mobile app named ‘My Plant’, which would help in recording data about tree plantations in the state, would be launched on July 1.
• Using this app, people and organisations can feed the data about the saplings they have planted with the forest department, which would help it in creating a database of trees.
• The forest department has set a target of planting four crore saplings through public participation between July 1 and 7.