1) PM Modi Virtually Addresses 6th Eastern Economic Forum 2021
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually addressed the plenary session of the 6th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), organised in Vladivostok, Russia. An Indian delegation led by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri and comprising leading Indian oil and gas companies are participating in the EEF Summit 2021 in Russia.
•On the sidelines of EEF, Petroleum Minister will also have meetings with Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov to review bilateral energy cooperation in the energy sector and with the Russian Minister for Development of Far East and Arctic Alexei Chekunkov to discuss the collaboration between Indian and Russian companies in that region. Petroleum Minister will also co-chair India-Russia Business Dialogue.
2) India becomes 3rd largest Unicorn ecosystem in the world
•Hurun Research Institute has released the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021, as per which India is the third-largest Unicorn/startup ecosystem in the world. The USA is on top followed by China on second. India has 51 unicorns according to the list. The USA has 396 and China has 277 unicorns.
•Zilingo is the top unicorn in the ranking in India with funding of USD 310. The headquarters of Zilingo is in Singapore. Bengaluru is the top Indian city in terms of the number of Unicorns headquartered in a city. Bengaluru has 31 unicorns followed by Mumbai which has 12 unicorns.
3) India to host conference on International Climate Summit 2020-21
•India is all set to host a key conference as part of the International Climate Summit (ICS) 2020-21 to build a dialogue for India’s transition to clean energy. Policymakers, regulators, industry leaders, experts, and scientists from across the globe are going to be a part of the climate summit.
•Director of CSIR, National Chemical Laboratory, Dr Ashish Lele has underlined the importance of the conference for the future mitigation strategies of climate change. The need to adopt these strategies and the problems arose due to dependence on conventional fuels.
4) Canadian City Burnaby to Observe September 5 As Gauri Lankesh Day
•The Canadian city of Burnaby has declared September 5 as “Gauri Lankesh Day”, as a tribute to the dead journalist on her death anniversary, her sister Kavitha Lankesh. The proclamation issued by the office of the Mayor of Burnaby Mike Hurley said Gauri Lankesh was a courageous Indian journalist who stood up for truth and justice, challenged superstition and social ills, and dedicated her life to serving the poor and oppressed.
•Gauri Lankesh, a left-leaning journalist who brought out a magazine “Gauri Lankesh Patrike”, was shot dead by two assailants on September 5, 2017 evening just outside her house in Bengaluru allegedly for her anti-Hindutva stand.
5) IMF increases India’s quota of Special Drawing Rights (SDR)
•The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has made an allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 12.57 billion to India. (approx USD 17.86 billion). With this, the total SDR holding of India has gone upto SDR 13.66 billion (equivalent to around USD 19.41 billion).
•SDR is one of the components of the Foreign Exchange Reserves (FER) of India. Hence the Foreign Exchange Reserves (FER) has also increased now. IMF has allocated a total of SDR 456 billion to all its member countries out of which India has got SDR 12.57.
6) University of Oxford tops Times World University Rankings 2022
•The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2022 has been announced. The University of Oxford is at the top of the list, followed by the California Institute of Technology and Harvard University at the second and third positions, respectively. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, is placed between the 301-350 position. Incidentally, it is also the only university in the top 350 rankings.
•The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 includes record 1,662 universities from 99 countries and territories. The ranking is based on 13 balanced performance indicators.
7) Vartika Shukla becomes first woman CMD of Engineers India Ltd
•Vartika Shukla took charge as the first woman Chairperson and Managing Director of public sector enterprise Engineers India Ltd. She spearheaded the company’s innovative energy programmes, including biofuels, coal gasification, waste to fuel and hydrogen energy, among others.
8) Paralympics 2020: Archer Harvinder Singh Clinches Bronze in Men’s Individual Recurve
•In Paralympics 2020, India’s ace archer Harvinder Singh has won the bronze medal in the men’s individual recurve open. The 31-year old has become India’s first-ever archer to win a medal in the Paralympics. With this win, India’s medal haul at the ongoing Paralympics Games in Tokyo has reached 13 [2G,6S,5B].
•Harvinder defeated South Korea’s Kim Min Su 6-5 in a shoot-off to win India’s third medal of the day at Tokyo 2020, taking India’s tally to 13. Earlier, United States of America’s (USA) Kevin Mather defeated Harvinder by 6-4 in the semi-final.
9) Tokyo Paralympics: Manish Narwal wins gold in 50m Mixed Pistol
•Indian shooters Manish Narwal and Singhraj Adhana clinched the gold and silver medal respectively in the P4 – Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 final at Asaka Shooting Range. The 19-year-old Manish created the Paralympic record as he amassed 218.2 points to clinch the gold while Singhraj grabbed his second medal of the Tokyo Paralympics with 216.7 points. The Russian Paralympic Committee’s (RPC) Sergey Malyshev won the bronze medal.
•India’s medal tally now stands at 15 at these Paralympics. It has now won three golds, seven silvers and five bronze medals. This is India’s best tally at a single edition of the Para Games. It had won four medals at Rio 2016 and four at the 1984 Paralympics.
