# Assembly polls

• The election commission of India has announced the dates of assembly polls in the states of Tamil nadu, Assam, West bengal, kerela and union territory of puducherry.

• The elections will be held between march 27 and april 29.

• The counting of votes will be held together on may 2.

• Some important announcements were arrangements for candidates to file their nominations online. also, voting will be allowed for an additional hour, keeping in mind covid-19 safety guidelines.

# India out of recession

• India’s economy returned to growth terrain in the third quarter of 2020-21, with a 0.4% rise in the gdp.

• Although, national statistical office estimate the economy to contract 8% during the full fiscal.

• The GDP shrunk in the first two quarters by 24.4 % and 7.5% respectively.

• Agriculture continued to grow strongly with a 3.9% rise in GVA in Q3, also manufacturing and construction resurged after two bad quarters.

# Vaccination centre

• The union health ministry on friday announced options for advance self registration , on site registration and facilitated cohort registration for potential beneficiaries of the second round of covid-19 vaccinations.

• The second round will cover those aged 60 and above and those 45 plus with comorbidities.

• The beneficiaries would be able to self register in advance by downloading the CO-win app or through other apps like aarogya setu.

# Second wave of infections

• India is unlikely to see a second wave in infections.

• This is predicted by one of the India’s leading mathematicians, manindra agrawal, deputy director, IIT kanpur.

• She is involved with the national “super model” initiative led by the Department of science and technology.

# Coffee output

• Untimely rains and hailstorms has caused large scale berry dropping of coffee plants.

• It is expected to impact arabica and robusta coffee productions by 30%.

• India’s total coffee output for the year was estimated at 3.42 lakh MT against last year’s 2.98 lakh MT.