Due to its federal character, the Rajya Sabha has been given two exclusive or special powers that are not enjoyed by the Lok Sabha:

1. It can authorise the Parliament to make a law on a subject enumerated in the State List (Article 249).
2. It can authorise the Parliament to create new All-India Services common to both the Centre and states (Article 312).

• In winter months, the weather conditions over India are generally influenced by the distribution of pressure in Central and Western Asia.
• A high pressure centre in the region lying to the north of the Himalayas develops during winter attracts winds from the Central Asia.
• Jet stream from the west Asia also influence the winter.

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BIMSTEC, which stands for Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, is a multilateral grouping of seven countries: India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

World Water Day, held on 22 March every year since 1993, focuses on the importance of freshwater. World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. World Water Day 2020 is about water and climate change - and how the two are inextricably linked. The campaign shows how our use of water will help reduce floods, droughts, scarcity and pollution, and will help fight climate change itself. By adapting to the water effects of climate change, we will protect health and save lives. And, by using water more efficiently, we will reduce greenhouse gases.

After causing alarm among maize growers in Karnataka, the Fall Armyworm has now surfaced in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

Fall Armyworm (FAW), or Spodoptera frugiperda, is an insect that is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. In the absence of natural control or good management, it can cause significant damage to crops. It prefers maize, but can feed on more than 80 additional species of crops, including rice, sorghum, millet, sugarcane, vegetable crops and cotton.

The GI-tagged Pokkali is a saltwater-tolerant paddy grown in the coastal fields of Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Thrissur districts. Endemic to central Kerala, the variety is now grown in only over 5,000 hectares, a drop from over 25,000 hectares a few decades ago, due to high labour cost and poor returns. "