NATIONAL
UPDATES:
1. Neelakurinji flowers bloom after 12 years : The neelakurinji will bloom
in the Anamalai hills near Munnar, a phenomenon that occurs once in 12 years.Spread
over 3,000 hectares of rolling hills, Munnar is home to this rarely occurring
neelakurinji flower plants.These plants take another 12 years for the seeds to
sprout again and grow up to 30 to 60 centimetres high.
2. Chattisgarh CM to launch
‘Mobile Tihar’ : Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh launched the ‘Mobile Tihar’
(Mobile Festival) under the Sanchar Kranti Yojna (SKY).The scheme is for
distribution of smart-phone to women and students in the station covering 45
lakh women and 5 lakh students.Under the programme, 460,000 students of
Chhattisgarh’s colleges and 4 million women staying in rural areas will be
given smartphones.
3. LS passes bill to revamp
homoeopathy council : A bill seeking to replace the Central Council of Homoeopathy (CCH) with a
board of governors and aimed at bringing accountability and quality in
homoeopathy education system was passed by the Lok Sabha.The government will
reconstitute the CCH within a year.As per the bill, the members of the board of
governor will replace the existing functionaries of the CCH.
4. 3. Munshi Premchand’s 138th birth anniversary : On the occasion of the 138th
birth anniversary of Munshi Premchand, President Ram Nath Kovind paid tribute
to the writer and novelist.Born on July 31, 1880, as Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava
near Varanasi, Premchand used his pen name for his dramas, novels and stories.
Among his works, ‘Godaan’ is deemed as one of the
finest Hindi novels.
5. IT ministry launches
“e-Aksharayan” : The IT ministry launched a desktop software “e-Aksharayan” to enable
editing of text printed on scanned documents.The software can be downloaded for
free from its website.The software supports editing in seven Indian languages –
Hindi, Bangla, Malayalam, Gurmukhi, Tamil, Kannada & Assamese.
6. Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill
passed in LS : The Lok Sabha has passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2018 which
replaces the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance promulgated on April 21 2018.The
bill stipulates punishment for perpetrators of rape, particularly of girls
below 12 years and death sentence has been provided for rapists of girls under
12 years.The investigation of all cases of rape has to
be completed within 2 months.
INTERNATIONAL
UPDATES:
1. World’s first UN Certified Football Club : The Forest Green Rovers
Football Club was recognised by the United Nations as the World’s first
certified carbon neutral football club.The UN campaign, launched in 2015,
encourages companies, organisations, governments and citizens to reduce their
climate footprints.The aim is to achieve a climate neutral world by the
middle of this century.
2. Mars closest to earth in 15
years : At 57.6 million kilometres apart, Mars will be closest to Earth in over 15
years.With Mars and Sun on each side, the rare event will witness all three
celestial bodies falling in a straight line.This will also be the closest the
red planet comes to Earth until October 2020.Back in 2003, Earth and Mars were
“only” 56 million kilometres apart- the closest it came in over 60,000 years.
3. U.S. eases export controls on
India : The US has eased export controls for high-technology product sales to
India by designating it as a Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) country.The
granting of STA-1 status to India comes after the US recognised India as a
Major Defence Partner in 2016.Currently there are 36 countries on STA-1 list.
India is the only South Asian country to be on the list.
4.Indo-Nepal forum to be set up for tourism : A forum will be set up
between India and Nepal for mutual consultation and promotion of tourism by the
countries.In a meeting held on July 6, 2018 of the joint
working group of the two countries it was decided that an Indo-Nepal Tourism
Forum should be set up.The forum will have representation from the government
and private sectors of both the nations.
5. 3rd BRICS Film Festival
concluded : The 3rd BRICS Film Festival took place in Durban, South Africa, along with
the International Durban Film Festival from 22-27th July, 2018.“Newton”
won the Best Film and “Village Rockstars” won two awards at the third edition
of the BRICS Film Festival.The Best Actress award went to Bhanita Das.The film
festival is aimed at celebrating world-class film productions from the BRICS
nations.
OTHER
UPDATES:
BUSINESS/ECONOMY:
1. RIL
reclaims its top slot : Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) regained its
status as the country’s most valued firm by market capitalisation (m-cap) on
31st July 2018.It replaced Tata Group’s Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
from the top slot.Reliance Industries had crossed the $100-billion market
capitalisation mark.The m-cap figure of companies changes daily with stock
price movement.
SPORTS:
1. Smriti
equals fastest T20 half-century : India’s batswoman Smriti
Mandhana equalled the record for the fastest half-century in women’s T20
cricket during a Kia Super League.Mandhana equalled New Zealand’s Sophie
Devine’s record of a half-century off 18 balls, set against India during a T20
International in 2015.Mandhana also smashed the tournament record for the
fastest fifty.