In a significant stride towards self-reliance in defense manufacturing, Goa Shipyard (GSL) has launched the first of two indigenous Pollution Control Vessels (PCVs) for the Indian Coast Guard. Named ‘Samudra Pratap,’ this vessel represents the pinnacle of Indian engineering and innovation in maritime environmental protection.
The launch took place on August 29, 2024, in an event attended by several dignitaries, including Sanjay Seth, Minister of State Defence, and senior officials from the Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy.
‘Samudra Pratap’ marks a historic moment as it is the first time these vessels are being entirely designed and constructed indigenously.
GSL’s collaboration with the Indian Coast Guard has been instrumental in turning the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ into a reality. This vessel, with an indigenous content of 72%, underscores India’s growing capability in shipbuilding and technological advancement. The ship’s construction involved a high level of precision and expertise.
Designed in-house by GSL, ‘Samudra Pratap’ boasts a length of 114.5 meters, a breadth of 16.5 meters, and a displacement of 4,170 tons. The vessel will be manned by 14 officers and 115 sailors and is equipped with state-of-the-art technology for pollution control.
Notably, it features side-sweeping arms to contain oil spills while in motion, an advanced radar system for oil spill detection, and facilities to recover and store various types of oil.
The project has also played a crucial role in skill development and employment generation within the local industry and MSMEs, further contributing to the nation’s economic growth.
Insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) presented the Central Government with a dividend cheque for ₹3,662.17 crore. The dividend cheque was handed over to Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by Siddhartha Mohanty, MD & CEO of the life insurance major.
LIC shareholders approved the final dividend of ₹6 per share for 2023-24 on August 22. In 2022-23, LIC paid a final dividend of ₹3 per share. In March this year, the insurance behemoth had paid an interim dividend of ₹2441.45 Crores, taking the total dividend payout to Centre for 2023-24 to ₹6,103.62 crores.
Currently, the Centre has a majority stake of 96.5 percent in LIC. As of the end of March 2024, LIC had an asset base of over ₹52.85 lakh crore. It continues to be the market leader in the Indian life insurance sector.
National Sports Day is observed on August 29 every year. This day marks the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand. The hockey wizard brought various laurels to the nation and was part of the Indian hockey team which struck gold in the Olympics of 1928, 1932, and 1936. He scored more than 400 goals in his career which spanned over 22 years.
Established in 2012 by the Indian government, National Sports Day seeks to promote national unity, and a healthy lifestyle, and inspire the younger generation to engage in sports.
It is a day to reflect on the importance of sports in our lives, promote physical fitness, and inspire the next generation of athletes.
In a bid to make athletes self-reliant after retirement, Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya launched the ‘Retired Sportsperson Empowerment Training’ (RESET) programme, aimed at making them employable with “necessary skills and knowledge”.
The launch of the programme coincided with National Sports Day which is also the birth anniversary of hockey great Major Dhyan Chand.
The programme is open to all those athletes in the 20-50 age bracket, who have won international medals, participated in international events, or earned national or state-level distinctions recognised by the National Sports Federations, Indian Olympic Association, or the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
Mandaviya noted that the RESET programme would bridge a generational gap by ensuring that the unique skills of retired athletes benefit aspiring athletes. Initially, the programmes will be of two levels based on educational qualifications — Class 12th and above and Class 11th and below.
The minister urged all retired sportspersons to apply for this initiative and actively contribute to the country’s sports ecosystem.
The pilot phase of the programme will be implemented by the Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education (LNIPE). The programme will be offered in a hybrid format, combining self-paced learning via an online portal with an Internship.
Moody’s Ratings has raised its real GDP growth projections for India, forecasting a robust 7.2 percent growth for the fiscal year 2024, up from a previous estimate of 6.8 percent. The New York-based global rating agency has also raised its growth projections to 6.6 percent for 2025, up from 6.4 percent.
The report attributes these revised projections to strong, broad-based growth, driven by resilient private consumption and improved business conditions. Moody’s noted that the Indian economy grew 7.8 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2024, despite tight monetary policy and efforts toward fiscal consolidation.
It also highlighted that both the industrial and services sectors are thriving, as evidenced by the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) remaining above 60 since the beginning of the year. Additionally, the report emphasized the expected strengthening of capital expenditure (capex) cycle, supported by rising capacity utilization and continued government infrastructure spending.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development, under the leadership of Union Minister Smt. Annpurna Devi has launched the new SHe-Box portal, a centralized platform for registering and monitoring complaints of sexual harassment of women in the workplace. The launch event was held in New Delhi. She also launched the new website of the Ministry during the event.
Minister of State for Women and Child Development Smt. Savitri Thakur and Secretary for Women and Child Development Shri Anil Malik along with other officials of the Ministry were also present on the occasion.
The new She-Box portal serves as a centralized repository of information related to Internal Committees (ICs) and Local Committees (LCs) formed across the country,
encompassing both the government and private sectors. It offers a common platform to file complaints, track their status, and ensure time-bound processing of complaints by ICs. It provides assured redressal of complaints and a streamlined process for all stakeholders. The portal through a designated nodal officer will enable real-time monitoring of complaints.
A cornerstone of this initiative to enhance women's participation in the workforce is ensuring that workplaces are safe and secure, enabling women to thrive and succeed. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013, serves to protect women from sexual harassment in the workplace and address their grievances.
In addition to the SHe-Box portal, the Ministry also launched a newly developed website tailored to meet the needs of the Government of India. This website aims to establish a cohesive visual identity across digital platforms, enhancing the government’s engagement with national and global audiences.
Infosys said it has expanded its partnership with American chipmaker Nvidia to develop GenAI-powered solutions for telecom operators. The IT major has developed three generative AI solutions powered by its AI-offering Topaz, which make use of Nvidia NIM inference microservices, Nvidia NeMo Retriever embedding models, and
NeMo Guardrails to customise and deploy generative AI telco domain-specific large-language models.
It has also used Nvidia Riva to allow real-time transcription and translations for call centre agents, according to a regulatory filing. These generative-AI solutions have resulted in up to 61 percent lower latency and 22 percent absolute improvement in accuracy.
Singapore Airlines said it has received approval from the Indian government for the foreign direct investment as part of the proposed merger of Vistara with Air India, a deal that will create one of the world's largest airline groups.
With the clearance in place, the merger that will see Singapore Airlines acquiring a 25.1 percent stake in Air India, is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The proposed merger was announced in November 2022.
Air India is owned by Tata Group and Vistara is a 51:49 joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines.
The merger, which will create one of the biggest airline groups, was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in June.
In March, Singapore's competition regulator CCCS gave a conditional nod for the proposed deal. Before that in September 2023, the deal received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI), subject to certain conditions.
India's financial capital Mumbai emerged as the “billionaire capital of Asia” with more billionaires than China's capital Beijing, as per the 2024 Hurun India Rich List. Mumbai saw an increase of 58 billionaire individuals, taking its total to 386 on the list.
The Hurun list noted, "Home to 25% of the list - Mumbai is not only the billionaire capital of Asia, overtaking Beijing but also the preferred city for Hurun India Rich Listers, followed by New Delhi and Hyderabad.
Among top cities, Mumbai is followed by Delhi, which has added 18 new billionaires, taking its rich list entries to 217.
Hyderabad surpassed Bengaluru for the first time to take the third position in the number of wealthy residents. A surge of 17 new billionaires took the total number in Hyderabad to 104 which is followed by Bengaluru at the fourth position with 100 wealthy individuals.
Other cities top 10 are Chennai (82), Kolkata (69), Ahmedabad (67), Pune(53), Surat (28) and Gurugram (23).
Now, Mumbai is in third position globally in terms of billionaires after New York (119) and London (97).
Mumbai is now home to 92 billionaires compared to Beijing's count of 91. India's financial capital added 26 new ultra-rich individuals having a total wealth of $445 billion to the club at the same time when China's capital city lost 18.
The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, on August 30 of each year, is a day created to draw attention to the fate of individuals imprisoned at places and under poor conditions unknown to their relatives and/or legal representatives.
the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, to be observed beginning in 2011.
Bangladesh has been crowned the new champion of the SAFF (South Asian Football Federation) U-20 Championship football tournament. Bangladesh won the title by defeating hosts Nepal by 4-1 in the final match at the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) ground in Satdobato, Lalitpur. This is the first time that Bangladesh has won this Championship.
Along with Nepal and Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives and Bhutan participated in the competition that started on August 18, 2024. India had won SAFFU-20 in 2019, 2022 and 2023. The SAFF U-20 Championship is a biennial football championship for male footballers under the age of 20 and is organized by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF).
The championship was held for the first time in August 2015 in Nepal.
Prime Minister will address Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2024 at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai. Mr. Modi will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects at CIDCO Ground, Palghar. He will lay the foundation stone of Vadhvan Port. The cost of this project is around 76 thousand crore rupees.
It aims to establish a world-class maritime gateway that will boost the country’s trade and economic growth by catering to large container vessels, offering deeper drafts, and accommodating ultra-large cargo ships. Vadhvan Port, located near Dahanu town in Palghar district, will be one of India’s largest deep-water ports and,
will provide direct connectivity to international shipping routes, reducing transit times and costs. It will be developed as an all-weather Greenfield deep draft major port. The port will comprise nine container terminals, four multipurpose berths, four liquid cargo berths, a Ro-Ro berth, and a Coast Guard berth.
The project will create a cumulative capacity of 298 million metric tonnes (MMT) per annum, including around 23 million TEUs of container handling capacity. It is expected to generate around 12 lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities. On completion, Vadhavan Port will be one of the top ten ports of the world.
This port will enhance India’s maritime connectivity and further strengthen the country’s position as a global trade hub.
The Prime Minister will also inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of 218 fisheries projects worth around one thousand 560 crore rupees. These initiatives are expected to generate more than five lakh employment opportunities in the fisheries sector.
Mr. Modi will also launch the National Roll Out of Vessel Communication and Support System at a cost of around 360 crore rupees.
The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum in alliance with the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation and the Hoover Institution of Stanford University has announced the third edition of the India-US Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) Summit. It will be held in two days - September 9 and September 10, 2024.
The theme of the summit will be “Harnessing Investment Opportunities to Enhance Cross-Border Defense Innovation Ecosystems,” and it will emphasize the significant role of private investment in the defence innovation sector. The event will also showcase the latest innovations and technologies from defence and aerospace startups and companies,
which intend to attract academics, tech professionals, venture capital firms, and accelerators.
The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum was established in 2017. Its headquarters is in Washington DC, it is a non-governmental, independent non-profit, and non-partisan organization. It has a network of over 400 global companies.
Avani Lekhara, a 22-year-old athlete from India, made history by becoming the first Indian woman to secure two Paralympic gold medals. This achievement was marked on when she won the women's 10m air rifle (SH1) event, surpassing her own record set in the Tokyo Paralympics. Alongside her, compatriot Mona Agarwal claimed the bronze medal in the same event.
During the qualification round, Avani showcased her skills by shooting a score of 625.8, securing the second position behind Iryna Shchetnik, who set a new Paralympic qualification record with a score of 627.5. Mona Agarwal, a two-time World Cup gold medallist making her Paralympic debut, performed admirably with a score of 623.1, entering the final in fifth place.
Her pinnacle achievement came in 2021 at the Paralympic Games, where she became the first Indian female Paralympian to win two medals—gold and bronze—in a single event. Her triumphs resonated across India, bringing her recognition and prestigious awards like the Padma Shri and Khel Ratna.
India and Malaysia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Tourism, Government of the Republic of India, and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Government of Malaysia to strengthen cooperation in the field of tourism.
The MoU was signed between Minister of Tourism and Culture from India Shri Ganjendra Singh Shekhawat and Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture of Malaysia Mr. Y B Dato Sri Tiong King Sing.
The main objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding, among others, are:
promotion and marketing of tourism products and services;
expansion in the field of tourism research, training and development,including exchange programs;
encourage investment in tourism infrastructure, facilities, products and services;
exchanging information in the field of medical tourism and encouraging stakeholders to promote the product;
business tourism, which includes meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions (MICE);
promoting cooperation between tourism stakeholders, tour operators, and travel agents;
promotion and development of community-based tourism and eco-tourism and responsible tourism.
Malaysia is one of the important inbound tourist source markets for India. In the year 2022, over 2.5 lacs of Malaysian tourists visited India.
Cashfree Payments, India’s premier payments and API banking solutions provider launched Secure ID at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai in the presence of former RBI Executive Director G Padmanabhan. Secure ID is a comprehensive solution for verifying identities, assessing risks, and preventing fraud.
Cashfree Payments touts over 100 crore verifications and has averted fraud of INR 50 crore+ for businesses.
Secure ID uses cutting-edge AI and LLMs to easily integrate into enterprises’ existing workflows, guaranteeing a smooth user experience throughout onboarding, user data verification, and detecting user-level fraud.
The AI-powered fraud detection system provides unrivalled dependability by detecting suspicious behaviours, abnormalities, and trends suggestive of fraudulent behaviour. SecureID also offers a data-driven risk rating to help users make informed decisions and monitor potential dangers along their journey.
With Secure ID, Cashfree Payments has integrated all of its verification products into a single suite, increasing operational efficiency. This comprises Aadhaar, PAN, DL, Voter ID, Passport, Face Match, Liveness Detection, GeoLocation Check, Bank Account, and UPI ID verification.
Secure ID’s portfolio includes leading companies such as Kotak Life Insurance, Bajaj Finance, Tata AIG, Cred, BookMyForex, Meesho, and Acko General Insurance Limited, demonstrating the platform’s widespread industry usage.
