India’s Divya Deshmukh won the World Junior Girls’ Chess Championship after beating Bulgaria’s Beloslava Krasteva in the final round at the Gift City Club in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Top-seeded Divya beat Krasteva in the 10th round with just 26 moves to claim her maiden U-20 title. She finished unbeaten in championship by winning nine of her games while drawing the other two.
In Equestrian, Shruti Vora scripts history as she becomes the first Indian rider to win a three-star Grand Prix event. Shruti along with her astride Magnanimous, scored 67.761 points in the CDI-3 event in FEI Dressage World Cup held in Lipica, Slovenia. She finished ahead of Moldova’s Tatiana Antonenco, who scored 66.552 points.
Veteran rider Shruti Vora has also represented India in Dressage World Championship 2022 and in the Asian Games of 2010 and 2014.
Cloud major Oracle has announced that it will support the training of two lakh students in India in cloud computing, data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and other emerging technologies. Teachers and academicians will deliver the training as part of the curriculum on campus. Specific modules will be offered as a digital learning experience through Oracle MyLearn.
The company and Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation have launched a specialised programme under the state’s massive skill enhancement initiative, Naan Mudhalvan, to provide employment-linked training to students in the state. Since the introduction, over 60,000 students representing engineering, arts, and science streams from more than 900 colleges have registered.
The programme will provide students and professionals with a foundation in cloud computing and a better understanding of other core concepts such as AI, machine learning (ML), data science, or blockchain, the company said.
India’s Index of Industrial Production recorded a growth of 5 percent for April 2024 over the corresponding period of the previous year. The IIP growth rate in April 2023 was 4.6 percent. The IIP slowed to 5 per cent in April, as against 5.4 per cent in March and 5.6 percent in February 2024.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, growth rates of mining sector for the month of April 2024 over April 2023 was 6.7 percent while the manufacturing sector recorded a growth of 3.9 percent and electricity for the same period grew by 10.2 percent.
The Ministry of Textiles has approved the startups in Technical Textiles to boost innovation and sustainability and to foster transformative developments that will shape the industry’s future. Secretary of the Ministry of Textiles Rachna Shah has said this while chairing the 7th meeting of the Empowered Programme Committee of the National Technical Textiles Mission in Delhi
National Technical Textiles Mission’s Grant for Research and Entrepreneurship across Aspiring Innovators in Technical Textiles encourages young innovators, scientists, technologists, and startup ventures in the field of Technical Textiles to translate their ideas into commercial products and make India self-reliant. It supports individual entrepreneurs or start-ups.
The Empowered Programme Committee has approved 7 startup proposals under the GREAT scheme. The Government is providing a maximum fund support of Rs 50 lakhs per startup. As of date, 8 startup proposals have been approved under NTTM, focusing on sustainability, composites, high-performance textiles, Meditech, & smart textiles, driving significant advancements in these areas.
World Blood Donor Day is celebrated each year throughout the world on 14 June to raise awareness of the importance of blood donation and to recognize the contribution of voluntary unpaid blood donors in saving lives & improving health. The first World Blood Donor Day was observed in 2004 & designated as annual global event by the fifty-eighth World Health Assembly in 2005.
The date of 14 June is the birthday of Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian biologist and physician, considered to be the “founder” of modern blood transfusion. Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood groups in 1901, developed the modern system of classification of blood groups, and identified, in 1937, together with Alexander S. Wiener, the Rhesus factor, enabling to transfuse blood
The theme for 2024 is "20 years of celebrating giving: thank you blood donors!"
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party leader, Pema Khandu, took oath as chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh for the third consecutive term at a ceremony held in the state capital Itanagar. He was administered oath of office and secrecy by Governor Lt Gen (Retd) KT Parnaik.
Chowna Mein, who was the deputy CM in the previous Khandu-led governments since 2016, took oath for the same post one more time. In the 2024 assembly elections in the state, BJP emerged victorious by securing 46 seats in the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh assembly.
Ajit Doval to continue as National Security Advisor (NSA) for the third term. PK Mishra will also continue as the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Doval has become the first NSA to be appointed to the key post for three consecutive terms. Ajit Doval's appointment will be co-terminus with the term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi or until further orders.
Around 46% of rural & 53% of urban individuals in India availed of Ayush for the prevention or treatment of ailments in the past year, according to findings of a survey released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Among systems of Ayush, Ayurveda is the most commonly used system for treatment,with 40.5% & 45.5% in rural and urban India respectively.
Ayush refers to the six Indian systems of medicines, namely Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homeopathy are majorly prevalent in the country. The findings are a part of the first exclusive all-India survey on Ayush conducted by National Sample Survey Office from July 2022 to June 2023, as part of the 79th round of the National Sample Survey.
Around 24 per cent of the households have at least one member aware about folk medicine or local health tradition in both rural and urban India. MoSPI’s report states that 79 per cent and 80 per cent of the households in rural and urban India have at least one member aware of medicinal plants and home medicines.
Adani Enterprises' defence arm Adani Defence & Aerospace has entered into an agreement with UAE-based EDGE Group to cater to the military requirements of both global and local customers. Under this, both the firms aim to establish a global platform leveraging the defence and aerospace capabilities of both companies to bring together their respective product portfolios.
The firms will evaluate cooperation across EDGE’s and Adani’s core product domains, including missiles & weapons covering airborne, surface, infantry, ammunition, and air defence products, platforms & systems covering unmanned aerial systems (UAS), loitering munitions, counter drone systems, unmanned ground vehicles (UGV), as well as electronic warfare (EW) and cyber tech.
State-owned Visakhapatnam Port has broken into the top 20 rankings in the Container Port Performance Index 2023 (CPPI 2023), developed by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence. Visakhapatnam Port was ranked 19 in the Index, higher than Mundra Port (ranked 27) run by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ).
The Index is a comparable assessment of performance based on vessel time in port. Visakha Container Terminal Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned unit of J M Baxi Ports & Logistics, runs a 1.35 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) capacity terminal at Visakhapatnam Port on the country’s eastern coast.
The CPPI ranked 405 global container ports by efficiency, focusing on the duration of port stay for container vessels. Its primary aim is to identify areas for enhancement for the benefit of multiple stakeholders in the global trading system and supply chains, from ports to shipping lines, national governments, and consumers.
China’s Yangshan Port clinched the top spot for the second consecutive year, while Oman’s Port of Salalah retained the number two position. In the CPPI by region (West, Central and South Asia) from Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh, Visakhapatnam was ranked 18 with Mundra at 22.
The World Bank will lend support to the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to achieve sustainable waste management in the city. Yhe World Bank held discussions on solid waste management with officials of the State government and the GCC to stop waste dumping in Kodungaiyur by 2026-2027. In a bid to achieve sustainable waste management, the GCC intends to take initiatives.
Which will include, minimize waste by landfill and incineration.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed the release of the 17th instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN Nidhi) scheme. The move will benefit more than 93 million farmers by disbursing more than Rs 20,000 crore.16th Installment of PM KISAN scheme was released on 28th February 2024.
PM-KISAN Nidhi is a central government scheme launched in December 2018 to support the income of farmers by providing an annual financial assistance of Rs 6,000. The money is given in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000 every four months directly into the beneficiaries bank accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer.
