1) Vice President Venkaiah Naidu addresses the World Universities Summit 2021
•The Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated and addressed the World Universities Summit as Chief Guest. The Union Education and Skill Development Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan also addressed the summit. The Summit was organized by O.P. Jindal Global University, located at Sonipat, Haryana.
•The theme of the summit was “Universities of the Future: Building Institutional Resilience, Social Responsibility and Community Impact”. The World Universities Summit 2021 provided a platform to bring together over 150 thought leaders to deliberate on the ways in which higher education institutions can strengthen their vision and commitment towards institutional resilience, social responsibility and community impact.
2) DRDO successfully flight-tests indigenously developed MPATGM
•The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight-tested indigenously developed third-generation Man-Portable Antitank Guided Missile (MPATGM) for its minimum range. The missile was launched from a man-portable launcher integrated with a thermal site, and all the mission objectives were met.
3) DRDO successfully test-flights surface-to-air missile ‘Akash-NG’
•The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight-tested the New Generation Akash Missile (Akash-NG), from Integrated Test Range (ITR) off the coast of Odisha. The Akash missile system has been developed by the DRDO’s laboratory in Hyderabad in collaboration with other wings of the premier defence research organisation.
•The Akash-NG weapon system is a surface-to-air missile that can strike targets at a distance of around 60 km and fly at a speed of up to Mach 2.5. The flight data on the missile confirmed the success of the test. DRDO deployed a number of monitoring mechanisms such as electro-optical tracking systems, radar and telemetry.
4) CM KCR to Launch ‘Telangana Dalit Bandhu’ from Huzurabad
•Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao will launch his government’s new Dalit empowerment scheme, now christened Dalita Bandhu, on a pilot basis from the Huzurabad assembly constituency. The scheme, which was to be called Dalit Empowerment Scheme, has now been renamed as Dalita Bandhu scheme. As part of the scheme, eligible Dalit families would be given Rs 10 lakh in cash directly to their accounts. The sanctioned amounts will be deposited in the bank accounts of eligible beneficiaries.
•Poll-bound Huzurabad constituency has five mandals and the total number of Dalit families in this constituency stands at 20,929. All these families will be scrutinised before the final beneficiary list is made. All those found eligible will be extended the benefits of the scheme. Huzurabad constituency has only a total of around 2 lakh voters. Out of the total, CM KCR’s scheme will benefit nearly 21,000 families, which accounts for around 60,000 to 80,000 people, if this scheme is implemented soon.
5) MoRTH’s Secretary Aramane Giridhar gets additional charge as NHAI Chairman
•Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Secretary, Aramane Giridhar (IAS) has been given additional charge of the Chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Present NHAI Chairman, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu has been appointed the new Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand. He took over as NHAI Chainman in October 2019.
6) Ariel Henry to take over as new Haitian Prime Minister
•Ariel Henry has formally assumed the post of Prime Minister of Haiti. He assumed the role of the leader of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation in a ceremony in the capital Port-Au-Prince. Henry was installed as head of a new government in an attempt to stabilize a country on the brink of chaos since the murder of president Jovenel Moise at his residence in the early hours of July 7.
•The swearing-in of Henry, who was named to the post by Moise days before his death, was seen as a key step towards holding elections as demanded by many Haitians.
7) Leftist school teacher Pedro Castillo declared New Peru President
•Rural teacher-turned-political novice, Pedro Castillo became the winner of Peru’s presidential election after the country’s longest electoral count in 40 years. Castillo, whose supporters included Peru’s poor and rural citizens, defeated right-wing politician Keiko Fujimori by just 44,000 votes. Electoral authorities released the final official results more than a month after the runoff election took place in the South American nation.
•The economy of Peru, the world’s second-largest copper producer, has been crushed by the coronavirus pandemic, increasing the poverty level to almost one-third of the population and eliminating the gains of a decade.
8) JNCASR hits Nature Index Top 50 for materials science
•The Jawaharlal Nehru Centre For Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru, has been placed in the top 50 institutions worldwide for advances in materials science by the prestigious Nature Index. The list which includes 18 institutes from China, 12 from the United States and two from the United Kingdom places the JNCASR in the 23rd position globally among universities and institutions as part of its ‘50 Rising Institutions’ list.
•The centre is also the only Indian institute on the list and shares the privilege with others such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University which is in the first place, the University of Texas Austin (fourth), the University of Berkley (12th) and the University of Cambridge (27th). JNCASR president Professor Giridhar U Kulkarni, who is also a materials scientist, described the mood at the centre as being jubilant.
9) Cachar district received National Silver SKOCH award
•Cachar Deputy Commissioner, Keerthi Jalli received the National Silver SKOCH Award a few days ago for ‘Pushti Nirbhor’ (nutrition-dependent), a convergence project on transformation and development entailing setting up Nutri-gardens at houses in Dinnathpur Bagicha village. The village is near the India-Bangladesh border in the Katigorah circle of the Cachar district.
10) Australia’s Brisbane to Host 2032 Olympic and Paralympic games
•The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has voted the Australian city of Brisbane as the host city for the 2032 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games. Brisbane is the third Australian city to host the Olympic Games after Melbourne in 1956 and Sydney in 2000. With this, Australia will also become the only second country in the world, after the United States, to stage the summer Olympic Games in three different cities.
