- 3 India-born scientists to be awarded by US’ Marconi Society
Bengaluru-born 28-year-old Google research scientist Ananda Theertha Suresh in New York has won the Paul Baran Young Scholar award for 2017.
Kailath, 82, from Pune and a former professor at Stanford, is the Hitachi American Professor in Engineering Emeritus at the reputed university. He was also conferred with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award, in 2009.
Netravalli, 71, a native of Ankola on Karnataka’s west coast, studied at Mumbai’s Elphinstone College and graduated in electrical engineering from IIT-Bombay before migrating to the US in 1967 for his post-graduation and doctorate from Houston’s Rice University.
- Halimah Yacob- 1st Female President of Singapore
Halimah Yacob, a former speaker of parliament, was declared elected as Singapore’s first woman president after the returning officer announced she was the sole candidate to qualify for the contest.
Aiming to strengthen a sense of inclusivity in the multicultural city-state, Singapore had decreed the presidency, a largely ceremonial post, would be reserved for candidates from the minority Malay community this time.India gets its First State of the art homoeopathy research lab
- ZSI releases first compendium of animal Species in Indian Sundarbans
In a first, the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has published an compendium of animal species in the Indian Sundarbans, estimating that there are 2,626 of them in the fragile island ecosystem. The listing includes a diverse 25 phyla, as they are biologically classified.
The Indian segment of the Sundarbans part of a UNESCO World Heritage site forms, part of the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta across 9,630 sq. km, distributed among 104 islands.
- India to grant citizenship to Chakma, Hajong refugees
Amidst the uproar over Rohingya Muslims, nearly one lakh Chakma and Hajong refugees, who came from the erstwhile East Pakistan five decades ago and currently living in camps in the Northeast, are set to get Indian citizenship.
The move came following an order of the Supreme Court, which in 2015 had directed the Central government to grant citizenship to the Chakma and Hajong refugees, mostly staying in Arunachal Pradesh.
Chakmas and Hajongs were originally residents of Chittagong Hill Tracts in the erstwhile East Pakistan who left their homeland when it was submerged by the Kaptai dam project in the 1960s.
The Chakmas, who are Buddhists, and Hajongs, who are Hindus, also allegedly faced religious persecution and entered India through the then Lushai Hills district of Assam (now Mizoram).
- FM Constitutes GoM to Monitor IT Challenge in GST
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi to monitor and resolve the IT challenges faced in the implementation of GST.
The GoM will be assisted by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN).Besides, a Committee on Exports has also been constituted under the convenorship of the Revenue Secretary Dr.Hasmukh Adhia to look at the issues of export sector and to recommend the GST Council suitable strategy for helping the export sector in the post-GST scenario.
6. Government Launches Hackathon to Promote App Ideas
The Ministry for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has launched a nationwide hackathon ‘OpenGovDataHack’ to support and showcase potential ideas/talent from inner India.
As part of the start-up eco-system development programme, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) have collaborated to conduct the hackathon at Jaipur, Chennai, Noida, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Hyderabad and Surat.
- Sachin Tendulkar launches project to develop the poorest ward in Munbai
Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was launched Mission-24 — a programme aimed at improving the quality of life in one of Mumbai’s poorest wards through collaborative efforts in the next 24 months.
The area ranks the lowest in human development index (HDI) among all the 24 administrative wards of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
- Kerala to open India’s First transgender Exclusive Clinics
In a relief to thousands of transgenders in the state, the Kerala government is all set to open exclusive TG clinics and begin sex-change surgery in the state-run medical colleges for the first time.
The step is part of the state government’s various initiatives to bring the marginalised group to the forefront of the society as envisaged in the state Transgender Policy, unveiled for the first time in the country in 2015.State Startup Conference in New Delhi.
- RBI to Introduce Rs 100 Coin to Mark MG Ramachandran’s Birth Centenary
The Centre is all set to roll out Rs 100 coins for the first time in the country. The Ministry of Finance has issued a notification regarding the introduction of Rs 100 coins to commemorate the birth centenary of AIADMK founder Dr MG Ramachandaran and renowned Carnatic singer Dr MS Subbulaksh.
The Reserve Bank of India will also issue new Rs 5 and Rs 10 coins to honour the former Tamil Nadu chief minister and the Bharat Ratna-winning singer.
- PayU Ties up With IRCTC
PayU, a payment gateway provider, has collaborated with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), to provide an option to pay for rail tickets booked on the IRCTC website.
PayU will now be available as a payment option under MPS (Multiple Payment Services) on the IRCTC website at the payment stage of booking an e- ticket.
- Paytm Partners with NPCI
Paytm Payments Bank (PPB) has partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch a RuPay-powered digital debit card.
With the PPB Digital debit card, customers will now be able to transact at all merchants who accept credit and debit cards.
The RuPay-powered digital debit card will be issued to all customers who have opened their bank accounts with PPB.
- Japan PM Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad for India─ Japan Annnual Summit
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Ahmedabad at the start of a two-day visit to host Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, with the two leaders aiming to further shore up economic and strategic ties between their nations.
Abe is the second world leader to be received by Modi in Gujarat after Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2014.
- Italy’s Parliament passes bill outlawing fascist propaganda
Italy’s lower house of parliament approved a bill aimed at curbing fascist propaganda, more than 70 years after the death of wartime dictator Benito Mussolini.
The draft law, proposed by the ruling Democratic Party (PD), follows a politically charged summer, with human rights groups warning of growing racism in Italy in the face of mass immigration across the Mediterranean from Africa.
- 14-yr-old Indian wins two bronze medals at Asian chess event
Rishabh Shah from Mumbai won two bronze medals in the under-14 rapid and blitz formats of the 2nd Western Asia Youth Chess Championship which recently concluded at Waskaduwa in Sri Lanka.
Third-ranked Rishabh (ELO 1,667 points), who trains at the South Mumbai Chess Academy, started with a win against Sri Lanka’s Alwala A D Hansaja Ramith in the opening round.
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