1) Govt approves 122 new research projects under ‘IMPRINT-2’ scheme
•Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said, out of over two thousand proposals, 122 best proposals were selected for funding under IMPRINT-2. Of the selected projects, 81 are sponsored by industry.
•IMPRINT is the first of its kind government supported initiative to address the major science and engineering challenges that India must address and champion to enable, empower and embolden the nation for inclusive growth and self-reliance.
2) UK announces new organ donation plan to address Indian-origin shortages
•The UK government has announced new plans to change the law for organ and tissue donation to address the urgent need for organs within the Indian-origin communities in the country.
•The proposed new system of consent for organ and tissue donation is expected to come into effect in England in 2020, as part of a drive to help black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people desperately waiting for a life-saving transplant.
•The announcement comes as a recent report called on the National Health Service (NHS) to take more proactive action to address the high death rate among Indian-origin people in Britain due to low levels of organ donation within the community.
•NHS found that 21 per cent of people who died on the organ donation waiting list in the UK last year were from a BAME background, compared with 15 per cent a decade ago.
3) N Korea has not stopped its nuclear & missile programmes: UN Report
•North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and is violating UN sanctions including a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, U.N. experts said in a new report. A summary of the report by experts monitoring UN sanctions against North Korea, which was sent to the Security Council said North Korea is also violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions.
•The panel of experts said, North Korea attempted to sell small arms and light weapons and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries, including Syrian arms traffickers in the case of Houthi Shiite rebels in Yemen as well as Libya and Sudan.
4) P V Sindhu settles for Silver in World Championships' women's singles title clash
•PTIAce Indian shuttler P V Sindhu finished second best yet again in a major tournament final as she went down tamely to Carolina Marin in the World Championships' women's singles title clash at Nanjing, China.
•The Olympic silver medallist settled for another white metal following a 19-21 10-21 loss to Olympic champion Marin of Spain. Sindhu, who had lost an epic final to Japan's Nozomi Okuhara at Glasgow last year, didn't have answers to Marin's blistering pace in the 45 minutes that the match lasted.
•The second silver meant Sindhu is the only Indian to have four world championships podium finishes. She had won two bronze medals at the 2013 Guangzhou and 2014 Copenhagen editions. Marin became the first woman shuttler to win the world championships thrice. She had won the title in 2014 and the 2015 Jakarta edition.
