Economy
Sandip Verma : UK’s Minister of Energy and Climate
- Recently visited India and discussed for various issues including energy and climate with green investment.
- UK and India are looking forward to working with India on sectors like renewable and nuclear energy, hydro-power and biomass energy and anaerobic digestion.
- Suggested for India should consider a Green Investment Bank (GIB) like in Edinburgh here.
Bihar plans to set up two film cities
- State, Art and Culture Minister Vinay Bihari said that two film cities will be set up film cities in Valmikinagar in West Champaran and Rajgir in Nalanda districts.
- For this, the culture department had earmarked 26 acres of land in Rajgir and that it is in process to identify land at Valmikinagar for the same.
India’s Fastest Train Rolls into Taj City
- During its trial run, it touches a speed of 160 km an hour, a high-speed train from New Delhi to Agra.
- According to Railway department, it was the highest speed recorded by a train in the country.
- The train reached Agra in 90 minutes, covering a distance of 200 km,
Australian firm NSL Consolidate to set up plants in Telangana
- An Australian firm has come forward to set up iron ore pellets units in Telangana with an initial investment of INR 1,000 crore.
- Under the first phase, the Australian firm will establish a unit in Karimnagar. The second unit will come up in Siddipet. The two units together will provide employment to 1,000 people.
Myanmar with the help of Unicef collect data on child labour
- To elimination of child labour in the country, The Myanmar government and the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) are planning to collect data on child labour as part of a four-year plan.
- The four-year plan started Jan 1 this year and will end Jan 30, 2017.
France and India to tackle climate change
- French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius offered a proposed credit line of 1 billion Euro to enable sutainable urban development.
- France is scheduled to hold the “Paris Climate 2015” event with an ambition to bring the planet back on track with a global warming of less than two degree Celsius.
People in News
Sanjeev Marik: Odisha’s director general of police
- A 1981 batch Indian Police Service officer, at present he is special director general of police (headquarters).
Kamla Beniwal: Governor, Gujarat transferred to Mizoram
- Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva will shift to Ahmedabad to take additional charge.
Ravi Thapar:the Indian envoy to Niue
- Ravi Thapar has also been accredited as the Indian envoy to Niue, a South Pacific Ocean island with a population of some 1,400 people.
- An island of 260 sq km, Niue is located 2,400 km northeast of New Zealand.
Bharat Vir Wanchoo: Governor of Goa
The president has accepted the resignation of Bharat Vir Wanchoo as governor of Goa and has appointed Margaret Alva, governor of Rajasthan, to discharge the functions of the governor of Goa.
Hasina Parker: Mafia Don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister
- Hasina Parker, the elder sister of absconding mafia Don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, died in a private hospital.
- She lost her son Danish in a road accident.
D.Y. Patil: Acting Bengal governor
- Bihar Governor D.Y. Patil sworn in as acting governor of West Bengal in place of M.K. Narayanan who relinquished office and left the city during the day.
Event in News
Prime Minister Dedicates Udhampur- Katra New Railway Line to the Nation
- The Katra – Udhampur section is a part of ambitious 326 Killometer long Udhampur- Katra-Quazigund- Srinagar -Baramulla Railway Line (USBRL) Project of Northern Railway.
- The newly constructed Udhampur – Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Rail Line is 25.6 km. long, consisting of the 9.4 km. long Udhampur- Chak Rakhwal and 15.5 km. long Chak Rakhwal- Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra sections.
- The bridge on River Jhajjar is the longest Steel Girder Bridge in India with a height of 85 m and with two spans of 154m each.
Telangana: Police studying policing in New York, London
- In a bid to teach the better policing, a team of police officials from Telangana will soon visit New York and London to study their policing methods.
- The move is expected as part of the efforts to modernize the force in the new state, including Hyderabad.
New Austraila Visa center in Jalandhar
- The Australian government opened a new visa application centre in Jalandhar.
- For the first time, the Australian high commission in New Delhi issued more than 100,000 tourism visas to Indians in a single financial year (July 2013-June 2014).
- Twp such centres have been opened recently in Mumbai (South) and Pune.
Miscellaneous
SC decision on Shariat: Historical judgment
- SC said that there is no legal sanctity of Shariat
- Supreme Court ruled that Shariat or Islamic courts have no legal sanctity and fatwas must not violate the rights of individuals guaranteed by law.
Malarial outbreak in Tripura: International doctors to check
- Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an independent international medical humanitarian organization is all set to extend its help to control the outbreak of malaria in Tripura.
- Over 60 people have died due to the disease and thousands have fallen ill in the past one month.
TERI, USGBC join hands for green buildings
- The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) signed up an agreement with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to design and construct green buildings in India.
- TERI’s GRIHA project along with USGBC’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) share common goals in promoting green buildings.
- This partnership between USGBC and TERI promises to take green buildings to the next level in India. India is already the third largest market for LEED outside the US.
Uri-II Hydro Electric Project (HEP)
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 240-Megawatt Uri-II Hydro Electric Project (HEP) located in Baramulla district of Kashmir.
- Second power project on the Jhelum river in Uri area and is located downstream of 480-MW Uri-I HEP.
- The Uri-II HEP has a concrete gravity dam which is 52-metre high and 157-metre long with four spillways of nine metres each.
India and Australia joints experiment man-robot tasks on Mars
- Indian and Australian space scientists and students are carrying out experiments to compare how well human astronauts and robotic vehicles can work together and perform tasks on Mars.
Book / Authors
Book Title: Meena Kumari: The Poet
- Author: Translated by Noorul Hasan;
- Book belongs to noted Bollywood actresses Meena Kumar who was also a poet. This book contains a compelling selection of her poems in the original Urdu and in English translations.
Book Title: Mussoorie and Landour: Footprints of the Past
- Author: Virgil Miedema and Stephanie Spaid Miedema
Awards
Neeti Kailas: Bagged the 2014 Rolex Award for Enterprise.
- An Indian woman entrepreneur has designed a non-invasive, portable device that detects hearing loss in babies.
- The battery-powered device works on the science of measuring auditory brain-stem response (ABR) that taps into ongoing electrical activity inside the brain.
Aasif Mandvi, Satya Nadella, Subra Suresh, Beheruz Sethna:
- These are the four India-born Americans who were honoured on the eve of US Independence Day on 4 July 2014. All of them belongs to different fields of life and they were honoured for their contributions.
Sports
Women’s Wimbledon Tennis Open: Kvitova won title
- Petra Kvitova of Czechslovakia won the women’s single of Wimbledon Tennis Open of 2014.
- She defeated the Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-0.
Sania Mirza: achieved a career-best rank of number five in the world
- Sania Mirza along with her Zimbabwean doubles partner Cara Black were ranked career-best fifth in the latest WTA Doubles rankings.
- Sania started her professional tennis career in 2003.
Indian pistol shooter Jitu Rai: Ranked No. 1 in the world
- Jitu Rai, who belongs to 10m air pistol category, became World Number 1 pistol shooter.
- International Shooting Federation (ISSF) decided the ranking of the shooters which has awarded him the ranks.