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National News
3 mega projects started in Nagaland
- Eri Silk Development Project
- Apparel and Garment Making Centre in Dimapur
- Muga P3 Basic Seed Station Kobulong in Mokokchung district
Odisha Adarsh Vidyalaya (OAV) project instigated
- 100 Adarsha Vidyalayas has been launched by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik
- Schools will be administered by the Odisha Adarsh Vidyalaya Sangathan of the state.
‘Maa Annapurna Yojna’ launched
- A beneficiary holding the Annapurna card will receive wheat at Rs 2 per kilo and rice at Rs 3 per kilo.
- Currently, Above Poverty Line (APL) card holding families are entitled to a monthly stock of 2.5 kg wheat per member of the family at Rs 7.70 per kg.
Permanent memorial to Kalam at DilliHaat in INA
- Kalam’s possessions from his residence will be brought by the center.
- They will be kept inside the Delhi Assembly till July 27 and thereafter, they will be permanently placed at DilliHaat.
- Delhi government will also have a permanent exhibition on Kalam at Delhi Haat.
Mumbai gets its first-ever AC local train
- Will have 2 ACs of 15 tonnne per coach and electrically operated automatic sliding doors.
- New train will consume 25% lesser energy as opposed to normal rakes.
- Train has been in the making since July 2014 in the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, under an Rs 54-crore project.
Bihar Government imposes complete ban on alcohol
- Bihar would become the fourth state in India to impose a total prohibition of alcohol.
Transnational Skill Standards launched
- Initiatives will make boost for the Government Make in India and Skill India will be benchmarked to United Kingdom across 82 identified job roles and to align to skill standards.
Water Films Festival inaugurated
- Organized by Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS) Limited, as part of the ongoing India Water Week 2016
- Water Resources are the prime input to the growth and prosperity of a nation
- Films can prove to be an effective tool of communication to spread the message of water conservation
International
Stamps issued to mark Shakespeare’s 400th death anniversary
- Ten First Class stamps pay tribute to the genius of Shakespeare
- They will be sold at 8,000 post offices across Britain.
‘Capital punishment rose by 54% in 2015’
- Amnesty International (AI), in its latest Death Penalty Report 2015-16, has said that at least 1,634 people were executed by 25 countries in 2015.
- Report notes that these numbers show an alarming 54% increase over the previous year.
- Most executions take place in China, where such data remains a state secret.
- Asia-Pacific region saw 367 people subjected to the death penalty — more than a ten-fold rise from 2014.
- Pakistan alone accounted for 326 of them.
- West Asia and North Africa saw a 26% rise in executions,
- S. remained the lone country in the Americas to have executed convicts. But the numbers were the lowest since 1991.
- Four more countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2015, taking the tally of abolitionist states to 102.
Business and Economy
Export funding to Iran to Rs 3,000 crore
- Agreement between Exim Bank of India and a consortium of Iranian banks led by Central Bank of Iran
- Financing the purchase of goods and services from India to Rs 3,000 crore, from Rs 900 crore
- Will facilitate an opportunity to Indian companies to penetrate and enhance their footprint in Iran.
Power Grid commissions record Rs 30,300-crore projects
- Navratna Company has commissioned a record Rs 30,300 crore projects in the last fiscal
- Achieved a planned capex of Rs 22,500 crore.
- State run Electric power Transmission Company PowerGrid, commissioned transmission projects worth Rs 30,300 crore during 2015-16.
- Highest-ever commissioning achieved by the company in its history.
ECoR becomes largest freight loading railway zone
- ECoR earned about Rs 15,978.28 crore
- It is 13% more than the previous financial year. It showed an increase of Rs 1961.27 crore in earning.
- In coal loading, the railway zone has carried 4 rakes per day against 72.7 rakes per day in previous financial year.
- Railway carried 2 rakes loading per day from its jurisdiction against 122.4 rakes per day in 2014-15.
Advanced R&D Centre in Pune opened by EMC
- Second CoE of EMC will improve their business by creating their digital future
- Modernize, automate and transform IT through cloud computing.
- The company already has a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.
Orahi acquires Odd-Even.com
- Helps to find partners to commute during the odd-even rule.
- Odd-Even.com was started by Akshat Mittal, a 13- year-old.
- Mittal will be inducted to the company’s advisory board as a technical and domain expert
- Orahi will provide him mentorship on running a carpool business.
Science and Technology
China dispatched Retrievable Satellite to study Micro-gravity
- Aim to help scientists to study micro-gravity and space life science
- Bullet-shaped probe was put into space by Long March 2-D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China’s Gobi desert.
- Second of four scientific satellites under a CAS space program and is returnable.
Smallest diode using a DNA molecule developed
- University of Georgia (UGA) and Israel’s Ben-Gurion University has created the world’s smallest diode using a single DNA molecule.
- The diode as small as that it cannot be seen with conventional microscope.
- findings help to search for silicon chip replacements
- Could lead to the creation of electronic devices that are smaller and more powerful.
‘Fast radio burst ‘afterglow’ came from black hole’
- Radio emission believed to be an afterglow from a mysterious event called fast radio burst.
- Originated from a supermassive black hole in the core of a distant galaxy.
- First ones were only identified in 2007. Their source has remained a mystery.
- Most FRBs have been identified in archival data, making immediate follow-up impossible.
- New event is only the second one to be identified in real
Google now offers ‘health card’ for disease search
- India is the third country to get this feature after the US and Brazil.
- Health cards were rolled out in the US last year and in Brazil two weeks ago.
- Carries an illustration, major symptoms, need for lab tests for diagnosis, most commonly affected age groups and indicates whether a disease is contagious, among other kinds of information.
- In India, the cards are available in Hindi and English.
- Google has worked with AIIMS, Apollo hospitals and Columbia Asia hospitals for this feature.
Environment and Ecology
New Rules on Management of Hazardous Waste
- Include a separate category of items like tyre, metal scrap, paper and certain electronic goods that can be recycled and reused.
- Items banned for import are waste edible fats and oil of animals, household waste, tyres for direct re-use purpose, solid plastic wastes, including PET bottles, waste electrical and electronic assemblies scrap and other chemical wastes especially in solvent form.
- Hazardous waste includes material like lead acid battery scrap, used oil, waste oil and spent catalysts.
- Rules make state governments responsible for environmentally sound management of hazardous and other wastes
- States must also submit annual reports regarding implementation of these rules to environment ministry.
People in News
Iceland PM Sigmundur Davio Gunnlaugsson Resigns
- Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson steps down
- First major casualty of the Panama Papers revelations
- China and Russia are suppressing the news and rejecting any allegations of impropriety by government officials
- Officials in Ukraine, Argentina and other countries are also facing questions about possibly dubious offshore tax-avoidance schemes.
M.H.P.Rao passes away
- Architect of Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS).
- Specially appointed by the then Nuclear Power Board to administer the construction and commissioning of the MAP.
- Served as a member of Southern, Western and Northern Indian Regional electricity boards.
Screenwriter Barbara Turner passed away
- Earned two Emmy norms for “The War Between the Tates” and “Hemingway & Gellhorn”
- Worked on numerous films such as “Petulia”, “Georgia” and “Pollock”.
Sports
Chitra, Varshaa win Gold at WLBS World snooker championship
- Chitra defeated Sandra Bryan, Dannie Findlay and Michelle Brown before advancing over Sharon Kaur 3-0 in the final.
- Varshaa overcame Claire Edgington and Yan Shut before putting it across Jeong Min Park 3-0 in the final.
Mother Dairy partners Delhi Daredevils as principal sponsor
- Brand Mother Dairy will be seen on Delhi Daredevils team jersey, along with the visibility at key spots in the stadium on match days.
- Delhi Daredevils franchise owners are backed by the GMR Group.