- WB CM Mamata Banerjee receives honorary doctorate
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was honoured with a Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt.) degree by the Calcutta University. Banerjee, an alumnus of the university, was recognised for her social service.
The CU has announced that it will bestow the honorary D.Litt on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, an alumnus, for her contribution to social service at its convocation on January 11.
- Indian-Origin Businessman Sunny Verghese Appointed WBCSD Chairman
Singapore-based Indian-origin businessman Sunny Verghese has been appointed as the Chairman of the Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Verghese, 57, Co-Founder and the CEO of Singapore’s agri-business group Olam International Limited, is the first World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Chair from the agri-sector.
- Government to launch new scheme for free treatment of Hepatitis C
The health ministry is set to roll out a National Programme for Control of Viral Hepatitis from the 2018-19 financial year, for which a budget of Rs 600 crore for the next three years has been approved.
With the focus on Hepatitis C, an anti-viral treatment that costs $63,000-94,000 for the full course in the US and Europe will be provided free at all government health set-ups.
About 1.2 crore people are reported to be suffering from Hepatitis C in the country — six times the number of HIV/AIDS patients.
- India 2nd largest contributor to IBM’s 9,000 patents in 2017
Tech giant IBM has received 9,043 patents in 2017, with India accounting for over 800 patents making the country the second highest contributor to the record tally.
IBM inventors received a record 9,043 patents in 2017, marking the company’s 25th consecutive year of US patent leadership and crossing the one lakh-patent milestone.
- Indian Railways introduces OCR Kiosk Machines
Indian Railways continues to take steps based on new technology to facilitate execution of its various activities. It has now been decided to introduce modern Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Kiosk Machines for quick & easy printing of tickets booked through UTS App for mobile phones by suburban commuters.
This new facility will make printing of tickets much simpler and quicker. Under this facility just by simply placing the screen of mobile phone displaying the SMS of the ticket booked through UTS Mobile App in the designated slot provided in the OCR Kiosk machine and the machine will simply read the SMS and print ticket immediately.
- Ministry of Railway Launches SFOORTI Application
In a major digital initiative to help plan the traffic flows and optimize freight operations, Ministry of Railways have launched Smart Freight Operation Optimisation & Real Time Information (SFOORTI) App for Freight Managers which provides features for monitoring and managing freight business using Geographic Information System (GIS) Views and Dashboard.
- Women leadership summit at IIM-B on Jan 13
The 4th Annual Women Leadership Summit will be held at IIM-Bangalore on January 13, 2018. Organised by the student-run Women in Management Club (WIM) of IIM-Bangalore, the theme for this year is ‘Redefining Power for a Newer Tomorrow’. Diversity issues prevalent to both men and women will be discussed during the summit.
- Australia India youth dialogue from Jan. 21
Australia India Youth Dialogue (AIYD), a youth-led dialogue between the young and emerging leaders of both countries, will be held in January. AIYD promotes exchange and partnering across organisations by hosting 15 talented young minds from each country, annually.
AIYD 2018 will be hosted in Mumbai and Delhi from 21-24 January. Delegates will discuss, debate and collaborate on ideas of ‘Digital Disruption’ in fields of democracy, media and workplace.
The sub-themes of the dialogue include the future of democracy – governing and youth civic engagement in a digital age, the future of information –blockchain and cyber security in a digital age and the future.
- US approves ₹800-crore anti-ballistic missile sale to Japan
The White House has greenlighted the sale of four interceptor missiles that Tokyo wants to buy from Washington to “fundamentally” improve its defenses. The missiles can be deployed on land-based Aegis launchers.
The US State Department announced had given preliminary approval for Japan to purchase four SM-3 Block 2A missiles manufactured by Raytheon Co and BAE Systems, related hardware equipment, and technological, engineering and logistics services provided by the US government and contractors.
- Australia to build world’s largest solar-thermal power plant
A proposal to build the world’s largest thermal solar plant has been approved by the South Australian government. It paves the way for the construction of the AU$650 million (US$512mn) facility by a US-based company.
The 150-megawatt facility will harness solar energy by using mirrors known as heliostats to focus sunlight onto one central tower.
- Jeff Bezos Becomes Richest Person Surpassing Bill Gates
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has reached a record high in terms of the amount of wealth owned by a single person. The net worth of Bezos on Monday, reached a whopping $105.1 Billion, as per Bloomberg’s Billionaire Tracker. This ranks Jeff Bezos as the richest person of all time
Previously, the spot was held by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has been left behind by the Amazon genius for the third time now.
Bezos had been ranked as the world’s richest person twice before, back in July as well as October, as the Amazon shares shot to their record high. He managed to cross the $100 Billion net worth mark during the holiday shopping season of 2017 back in November.
