1) Railways Ministry launches RailCloud Project, NIVARAN-Grievance Portal and CTSE Scheme
•Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu launched the following Initiatives:-
1. Rail Cloud Project.
2. NIVARAN-Grievance Portal (First IT Application on Rail Cloud).
3. Cashless treatment Scheme in Emergency (CTSE) Scheme.
•About the Schemes in Brief-
1. RailCloud
•RailCloud is another step towards Digitization of Railways. Rail Cloud works on popular Cloud Computing system. It aims to improve customer satisfaction, improve revenue and effective, efficient and safe operations.
2. NIVARAN
•‘NIVARAN-Grievance Portal’ is the first IT application to be launched on the RailCloud. It is the platform for resolution of service related grievances of serving and former railway employees.
3. Cashless treatment Scheme in Emergency (CTSE)
•With an aim to provide immediate care to its retired employees in Golden Hour, the Railway Board has rolled out a Cashless treatment Scheme in Emergency (CTSE) in empanelled hospitals for retired employees and their dependent family members.
2) Health Ministry of India launches the National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination 2017-22
•Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare launched the National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination (2017-22). The Strategic Plan gives year wise elimination targets in various parts of the country depending upon the endemicity of malaria in the next 5 years.
•This plan focuses on the states such as Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The strategies involve strengthening malaria surveillance, establishing a mechanism for early detection and prevention of outbreaks of malaria, effective indoor residual spray and augmenting the manpower and capacities for effective implementation for the next five years.
3) 22nd World Petroleum Congress (WPC) International Conference held in Istanbul, Turkey
•The 22nd World Petroleum Congress (WPC) International Conference was held recently in Istanbul, Turkey. Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan visited Istanbul to represent India at the Conference.
•The theme for 22nd World Petroleum Congress was ‘Bridges To Our Energy Future’. WPC was first organized in year 1993. Currently, it is being held at the interval of three years.
4) Indian scientists discover supercluster of galaxies 'Saraswati'
•For the first time in the country, a team of Indian scientists has claimed to have discovered an "extremely large supercluster of galaxies", Saraswati, in the universe.
•The supercluster was discovered by Shishir Sankhyayan, a PhD student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Pratik Dabhade, IUCAA research fellow, Joe Jacob of the Newman College, Kerala, and Prakash Sarkar of the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur.
5) Tata Sons appoints Aarthi Subramanian as Chief Digital Officer
•Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, has appointed Aarthi Subramanian as the conglomerate's chief digital officer. Subramanian, who is an executive director at TCS, will join Tata Sons in August. She will, however, continue with TCS in a non-executive capacity.
•Subramanian is the second TCSer whom Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran has picked up to be a part of his core team after Suprakash Mukhopadhyay.
6) Google acquires Bangalore-based artificial intelligence firm Halli Labs
•American technology giant Google has acquired Bangalore-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm Halli Labs for an undisclosed sum.
•The firm becomes the latest AI start up to be snapped by a technology giant after a spate of similar acquisitions by firms such as Microsoft, Facebook, Apple among others.
