1) PM Narendra Modi receives Global Goalkeeper Award
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the 2019 Global Goalkeeper Award. He received the award for Swachh Bharat Mission from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Swachh Bharat Mission was launched on October 2, 2014, aims to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage in the country.
•Global Goalkeeper Award is a “special recognition” by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The award celebrates a political leader who has “demonstrated their commitment to the Global Goals through impactful work in their country.
2) PM Narendra Modi receives Global Goalkeeper Award
•President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the sixth ”India Water Week-2019” being organised with the theme of ”Water cooperation-coping with 21st-century challenge’ at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The President emphasised on the need to store and capture the rainwater by utilizing existing reservoirs, dams, other water bodies.
3) PM Modi Inaugurates Gandhi Solar Park at UN Headquarters
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a 50 kilowatt ‘Gandhi Solar Park’ at the UN headquarters. PM Modi and other leaders also released a commemorative postage stamp of Mahatma Gandhi, at the programme ”Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi in the Contemporary World” at the UN headquarters. The event was hosted to celebrate the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, which will underline the continuing relevance of Gandhian thoughts and values in today’s world.
4) ICGS ‘Varaha’ commissioned by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh
•Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has formally commissioned the Indian Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel ‘Varaha’ at the Chennai Port Trust. The vessel includes Integrated Bridge System, automated power management system, high power external firefighting system, indigenously built Integrated Platform Management System and help traversing system. The ship also carries four high speed boats including two rigid hull inflated boats for boarding operation, search and rescue, law enforcement and maritime patrol.
5) Ponung Doming becomes Arunachal’s first woman Lieutenant Colonel
•Army officer Ponung Doming became the first woman officer from Arunachal Pradesh to be elevated to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Army. She was commissioned into the Indian Army as a Lieutenant in 2008. She was promoted as a Major in 2013. She is currently posted in Pune, Maharashtra. She had completed her graduation in civil engineering. She served the UN Peacekeeping force in Congo in 2014.
6) Adam Harper to get SASTRA Ramanujan prize for 2019
•The SASTRA Ramanujan prize for 2019 will be awarded to Adam Harper. Mathematician Adam Harper is an Assistant Professor with the University of Warwick, England. The prize is conferred annually on mathematicians from across the world who are less than 32 years of age and working in an area influenced by the genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. The prize carries a citation and an award of $10,000.
•The award was instituted in 2005 and awarded by SASTRA University on its campus near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu.
7) Amitabh Bachchan to be honoured with Dada Saheb Phalke award
•The country’s highest film honour, the Dadasaheb Phalke award, will be presented this year to Amitabh Bachchan. This award is given for his outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema. The Dadasaheb Phalke award comprises a Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus), a shawl and a cash prize of ₹1,000,000.
•The award very appropriately comes in the year that marks Mr Bachchan’s golden jubilee in cinema. He made his debut in 1969 with Khwaja Ahmad Abbas’ Saat Hindustani. Mr Bachchan has been honoured with the Padma Shri in 1984, the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015.
•Dadasaheb Phalke award was introduced by the government in 1969 to commemorate the “father of Indian cinema” who directed Raja Harischandra (1913), India’s first feature film, and it was awarded for the first time to Devika Rani, “the first lady of Indian cinema”.
8) Godavarthi Venkata appointed as next Indian Ambassador to Guinea Bissau
•Godavarthi Venkata Srinivas was appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Guinea Bissau. He will succeed Partha Satpathy. A 1993 batch-IFS officer, Srinivas is presently the country’s Ambassador to the Republic of Senegal.
