1- Four Indian scientists receive William Harvey Award 2015

Four Indian scientists from the Aligarh based Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) under Aligarh Muslim University have jointly awarded the prestigious William Harvey Award 2015. They were selected for this award in the field of Hematology for their work in the rare Hemoglobin C (Hb C) disease.

Recipients of Award are Saeedul Hasan, Arif Kafeel Akhtar, Shagufta Qadri, Suhailur Rahman.

Hemoglobin C disease

This disease is widely prevalent in West African and Mediterranean countries and not common in the Indian sub-continent. Those afflicted from this disease suffer nutritional anaemia and do not respond to the treatment.

About William Harvey Award

The award is named for scientist William Harvey (1578- 1657). It is given by the American Society of Hypertension. Mr. Harvey has pioneered in development of first accurate account of how the heart and circulatory system operated.

2- Skill Development Ministry inks MoU with Health & Family Welfare Ministry on skill development

Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on skill development. The MoU seeks to establish a framework for joint action to address the need for skilled human resources in the health sector. It also seeks to achieve the national goals of skilling youth and to upgrade the quality and reach of human and infrastructural resources. The MoU will help to significantly increase the present capacities in areas of health sector to a minimum of one lakh trainees.

Thus it will leverage the existing infrastructure of public and private sector healthcare institutions by providing training against various short term job roles. It will also play important role innovative technology with the help of skilled workforce to focus on National Healthcare Policy 2015 for quality, affordability healthcare services in the country.

3- India, US ink MoU to establish PACESetter Fund

India and United States (US) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation to establish the PACESetter Fund in New Delhi. The MoU was signed by Richard Verma, US Ambassador to India and Upendra Tripathy, Secretary, Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). The PACESetter Fund seeks to support the Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy (PEACE) track of the US-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE). In turn, it will accelerate the commercialization of off-grid clean energy with the help of early-stage funding grants to develop and test innovative systems, products and business models.

US-India PACE is a flagship initiative on clean energy that combines the resources of several US agencies and different Ministries of India. It was established with a corpus fund of about 50 crore rupees with both the countries contributing equally. A steering Committee comprising the Secretary of the MNRE and US Ambassador to India and 3 representatives from each side has been constituted to oversee the fund management.

4- Winners of 2015 Wimbledon Championship Titles of Tennis

The 2015 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament held from 29 June to 12 July 2015. The tournament had taken place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. It was the 129th edition of the championships and the 48th edition in the Open Era.

Men’s Singles Title: Defending Champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia won the 2015 Men’s Singles Wimbledon Title. In the final match, he defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland by 7-6(7-1), 6-7(10-12), 6–4, 6-3 score. It is Djokovic’s 3rd Wimbledon Title (2011, 2014 and 2015) overall 12th men’s single Grand Slam title.

Women’s Singles Title: Serena Williams of United States has won Women’s Singles Wimbledon title at 2015. In the final match played she defeated Garbine Muguruza of Spain by 6-4, 6-4 score. It is Williams’ sixth Women’s Singles Wimbledon title (2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2015) and overall 21th Grand Slam title.

Women’s Doubles Title: Sania Mirza (India) and Martina Hingis (Switzerland) pair won the 2015 women’s Doubles Wimbledon Title. In the final match, they defeated Russian pair of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina by 5–7, 7–6 (7–4), 7–5 score.

Men’s Doubles Title: Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands) and Horia Tecău (Romania) pair won the 2015 men’s Doubles Wimbledon Title. In the final match they defeated Jamie Murray (UK) and John Peers (Australia) pair by 7–5, 6–4, 6–4 score.

Mixed Doubles Title: Leander Paes (India) and Martina Hingis (Switzerland) pair won the 2015 Mixed Doubles Wimbledon Title. In the final match, they defeated Alexander Peya (Austria) and Tímea Babos (Hungary) pair by 6-1, 6-1 score.

Boys’ Doubles Title: Sumit Nagal (India) and Lý Hoàng Nam (Vietnam) pair won the 2015 Boy’s Doubles Wimbledon Title. In the final match they defeated Reilly Opelka (US) and Akira Santillan (Japan) pair by 7–6(7–4), 6-4 score. 

5- ‘Buddha In A Traffic Jam’ wins best original screenplay award at the Madrid Film Festival

‘Buddha In A Traffic Jam’ film has won the best original screenplay in a Foreign Language award at the Madrid International Film Festival. The film is a political satire directed by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri. It stars Arunoday Singh and Mahi Gill in a lead role along with Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi and introduces Anchal Dwivedi.

Besides this award category, the film was also nominated in other two categories viz. the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Lead Actress in a Foreign Language Film to actress Mahi Gill in the Madrid International Film Festival. Earlier the movie was premiered in the 2014 edition of Mumbai International Film Festival in the India Gold category. The film was also bestowed awards and was the opening film in the 7th Global Film Festival 2015.

6- India, Kyrgyzstan ink 4 pacts during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit

India and Kyrgyzstan have signed 4 pacts/ agreements to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two nations. These agreements were inked during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgystan as part of his official visit to 5 Central Asian countries and Russia.

Signed agreements are

• Agreement on Defence Cooperation: It was signed to deepen cooperation between both countries in matters relating to security, defence, military education and training. It also covers provisions to conduct of joint military exercises, exchange of military instructors, exchange of experience and information and observers etc.
• MoU and Cooperation in the field of Elections: It was signed to deepen cooperation in matters relating to legislation on elections and referendums. It also covered rights of elections process stakeholders, modern systems and technologies as well as other issues of election administration.
• MoU on cooperation in the sphere of Standards: Seeks to strengthen and enhance technical cooperation in the fields of conformity assessment, standardization and sharing of expertise on mutual trade. It also aims at exchanging necessary information and expertise in this regard between the two parties. Signatory parties are Ministry of Economy of Kyrgyzstan and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
• Agreement on Cooperation in Culture: To deepen cultural cooperation between both countries in areas such as preservation of cultural heritage, theatre, youth festivals and organisation of folk arts. It also seeks to boost cooperation in of publishing and translation of literature, culture, sports and physical exchange of archival materials, geography, history etc.

Besides signing these agreements, both nations also released Indo- Kyrgyz Joint Statements to increase regional cooperation and connectivity in the various fields including Political cooperation, regional and global level cooperation, Defence cooperation, Economic cooperation, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, Cultural and humanitarian cooperation.

7- NABARD to provide Rs 30,000 crore credit to farmers for irrigation

State-run National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has set a target of providing 30,000 crore rupees as credit to farmers for irrigational purpose. It was announced by Bank’s Chairman and Managing Director Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala in Mumbai on the occasion of 34th Foundation Day of NABARD. This credit will be provided over the next three years i.e. till 2018 and for this NABARD already has sanctioned 1,000 crore rupees. This funding will be in addition to the government’s 50,000 crore rupees of loans to farmers over the next five years (till 2020) under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY).

Besides, it was also announced that NABARD has been accredited as the national implementation agency for climate change at the rural level by the Green Climate Fund (GCF). It should be noted that, NABARD is only the banking entity from South Asia to be shortlisted for the purpose by GEF. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank among others are the 20 such entities which have already been shortlisted.

8- India, Turkmenistan ink 7 pacts to enhance regional cooperation & connectivity

India and Turkmenistan have signed 7 pacts/ agreements to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two nations. These agreements were inked during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Turkmenistan as part of his official visit to 5 Central Asian countries and Russia.

The signed agreements are

• MoU on Supply of Chemical Products: It was signed between the India’s ‘Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited’ and the Turkmenistan’s Turkmenhimiya’.
• MoU Foreign Service Institutes of both nations: It was signed between Foreign Service Institute of the Ministry of External Affairs of India and Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.
• Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Sports: It was signed between Union Ministry of Youth Affairs And Sports of India and State Committee for Sport of Turkmenistan.
• Programme of Cooperation In Science And Technology: It was signed between both governments for the period of two years viz. 2015-2017.
• MoU on Cooperation in Yoga and Traditional Medicine: It was signed between respective entities of both governments.
• MoU on Cooperation in the Field Of Tourism: It was signed between respective entities of both governments.
• Agreement in the field of Defence: It was signed between respective entities of both governments.

Besides signing these agreements, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov held extensive discussions on bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest at regional and international level. Both leaders also released an Indo-Turkmen Joint Statements to increase regional cooperation and connectivity.

9- QS University Rankings: BRICS 2015 released

The QS Intelligence Unit on 8 July 2015 released the QS University Rankings: BRICS 2015. This 2015 edition reflects the increasingly strong global presence of leading Chinese universities with the top three spots going to Tsinghua University, Peking University and Fudan University. All BRICS countries that is Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are represented within the top 20, however China’s dominance is clear throughout the ranking.

Highlights of the QS University Rankings 2015

• Driven by strong performance in the two global reputational surveys, of academics and employers, Chinese universities take seven of the top 10 spots and almost half of the top 50.
• With 53 institutions in the top 200, Russia is second only to China, which has 67 universities featured. Yet only seven Russian institutions make the top 50, compared to China’s 21, Brazil’s 10, and India’s 9 institutions.
• Russia’s Lomonosov Moscow State University falls by one position this year, but retains a highly respectable fourth place.
• India’s top representative the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore got the fifth place.
• Brazil makes its first appearance with the Universidade de São Paulo at ninth place.
• South Africa’s University of Cape Town stood at the 14th place.
• South Africa has 5.5 percent of the BRICS’ top universities despite comprising only 1.7 percent of the population of the BRICS nations. In addition, eight of these 11 are in the top 100.

Top 10 Universities

Top 10 Universities in India 2015

10- CBI constituted 40 members team to probe multi-crore Vyapam scam

Vyapam: Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal/Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB)

Vyapam scam was in news in July 2015 as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 12 July 2015 constituted a special team of 40 officers, under a Joint Director level officer, to probe the multi-crore Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh. Vyapam scam is an admission and recruitment scam involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in Madhya Pradesh. The scam involved a collusion of undeserving candidates, who bribed politicians and MPPEB officials through middlemen, to get high ranks in these entrance tests.

The CBI constituted the team following the direction of Supreme Court (SC) of India. SC bench headed by Chief Justice of India HL Dattu on 9 July 2015 transferred the probe of all cases related to Vyapam scam to the CBI. It also asked the agency to file its report before it on 24 July 2015. Earlier, the case was being handled by a Special Task Force and was monitored by the High Court.

11- Union Government appointed lawyer Rodrigo Oreamuno to arbitrate Vodafone tax case

The Union Government on 12 July 2015 appointed international lawyer Rodrigo Oreamuno to arbitrate with the UK telecom major Vodafone in the 20000 crore rupees tax case on its behalf. Oreamuno replaces former Chief Justice of India RC Lahoti, who recused himself in May 2015. Vodafone already named Yves Fortier of Canada as its nominee on the panel. Now, Oreamuno and Fortier would name a third arbitrator, who will act as a chairman of the tribunal for the case.

The Union Government and Vodafone had earlier decided to appoint Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf of the International Court of Justice as the third arbitrator. However, he declined to be part of the three-member panel in June 2015.

Background

According to the Indian government, the tax liability on Vodafone is 20000 crore rupees. The said tax liability of Vodafone in India arose from the purchase of Hutch Essar in 2007 for 11 billion US dollar, as it involved cross-border transfer of Indian assets. Although, the basic tax demand were 7990 crore rupees. In June 2013, the Cabinet approved the conciliation with Vodafone to resolve the capital gains tax dispute related to its 2007 purchase of Hutch Essar for 11 billion dollars.

Earlier in May 2014, India withdrew a conciliation offer to Vodafone on the issue saying the telecom major had initiated arbitration without waiting for the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal decision on another transfer pricing dispute.  The UPA-II Government led by former PM Manmohan Singh wanted the transfer pricing dispute to be settled first so that conciliation talks with Vodafone on the Hutchison Essar deal could go ahead.

12- USA designated Tunisia as 16th Major Non-NATO Ally

The United States of America (USA) on 10 July 2015 formally designated Tunisia as the 16th Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA). Earlier, the decision to confer the MNNA status on Tunisia was announced by the President Barack Obama on 21 May 2015 during Tunisian President Caid Essebsi’s visit to Washington.

The MNNA status offers tangible privileges including eligibility for training, loans of equipment for cooperative research and development, and Foreign Military Financing for commercial leasing of certain defense articles by the USA to Tunisia.

About Major Non-NATO Ally status

• It is a designation given by the United States government to close allies who have strategic working relationships with U.S. Armed Forces but are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
• While the MNNA status does not automatically include a mutual defense pact with the USA, it does confer a variety of military and financial advantages that otherwise are not obtainable by non-NATO countries.
• It was first created in 1989 when section 2350a, otherwise known as the Nunn Amendment, was added to Title 10 (Armed Forces) of the United States Code by Congress.
• List of MNNAs: Tunisia, Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Jordan, New Zealand, Argentina, Bahrain, Philippines, Thailand, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan, Afghanistan.
• During a 2015 Camp David summit with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, the Obama administration considered designating Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar as MNNAs.

13- Patnitop Tunnel, India’s longest road tunnel, set to open in 2016

Patnitop Tunnel: Located on Jammu-Sri Nagar National Highwary (NH1A) in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir. The Patnitop Tunnel was in news on 13 July 2015 as the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari attended a ceremony when the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) engineers drilled a hole through the final section of the tunnel between Chenani and Nashri.

The Patnitop Tunnel or Chenani-Nashri Tunnel is touted as India’s longest road tunnel.

Features of Patnitop Tunnel

• It connects Chenani in Udhampur with Nashri in Ramban district on the National Highway-1A (NH1A).
• It’s objective is to make the NH1A all weather friendly by avoiding frequent disruptions to traffic that occur due to snowfall and avalanche in winter at Patnitop.
• The 9.2 km tunnel, which is part of the ambitious 286 km-long four-laning of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, will reduce the distance between two cities — Jammu and Srinagar — by around 30 km.
• It will also reduce the existing road distance between Chenani and Nashri on the highway from 41 km to 10.89 km.
• Work on the tunnel was started on 23 May 2011 and is likely to be opened to traffic in July 2016.
• The state-of-the-art tunnel project is being built at a cost of over 2500 crore rupees.

14- Tata Steel’s West Bokaro Division conferred with Golden Peacock Environment Management Award 2015

Tata Steel’s West Bokaro Division was on 11 July 2015 conferred with the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award (GPEMA) 2015 in New Delhi. It was presented by the Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar to Sanjay Rajoria, General Manager of West Bokaro, Tata Steel of Jharkand.

Tata Steel won the coveted award for its responsible environmental practices and resource management while upgrading the skills of employees through training as new technologies evolve.

About Golden Peacock Environment Management Award

• It is annual award and presented for attaining significant achievements in the field of Environment Management during the previous year.
• It is awarded to manufacturing as well as service organizations both in the Public and Private domain located in India.
• It provides not only worldwide recognition and prestige to the winning organisation, but a competitive advantage in driving business of the firm.
• It was instituted by the World Environment Foundation (WEF) in 1998.
• Yes Bank received the 2014 award.

15- Green Signals: Ecology, Growth, and Democracy in India written by Jairam Ramesh

The book Green Signals: Ecology, Growth, and Democracy in India was in news in the second week of July 2015. It was written by former Union Environment and Forest Minister (Independent Charge) Jairam Ramesh.

It unveils the story of environmental policy making in India from the perspective of a pivotal decision maker. It chronicles India’s environmental decision-making since the 1991 movement, telling the story of how, for the first time, the doors of the environment ministry were opened to voices, hitherto unheard, into the policy-making process. It also takes us through India’s coming of age in the global environmental and climate change community to take on a leadership role that is progressive, proactive, and steeped in national interest. Further, the book also addresses the challenges involved in trying to ensure economic growth with ecological security.

At present, Jairam Ramesh is Chair of the Future Earth Engagement Committee, a research platform on global sustainability. He is also a member of the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh. He also authored Mobilising Technology for World Development (Co-editor, 1979) and Making Sense of Chindia: Reflections on China and India (2005).

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