Ericsson and UNICEF Partner to Map School Internet Connectivity in 35 Countries
Networking and telecommunications company Ericsson entered into a global partnership with UNICEF to help map internet connectivity in schools across 35 countries by the end of 2023.
This is part of the Giga initiative, led by the United Nations Children's Fund and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which was launched last year (2019). Ericsson is the first private sector partner to make a multimillion-dollar commitment to the initiative, which aims to connect every school to the internet.
Mapping the internet connectivity landscape for schools and their surrounding communities is a critical first step towards providing every child with access to digital learning opportunities.
In addition to funding, Ericsson will commit resources for data engineering and data science capacity to accelerate school connectivity mapping. Specifically, Ericsson will assist with the collection, validation, analysis, monitoring and visual representation of real-time school connectivity data.
The data generated through the mapping will enable governments and the private sector to design and deploy digital solutions that enable learning for children and young people.
EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan Resigns
The embattled European trade commissioner, Phil Hogan, resigned his post after an outcry over his breaches of coronavirus rules during a golfing break in Ireland.
Hogan issued a statement apologising to the Irish people and the EU commission for causing hurt and embarrassment, ending his attempts to ride out the controversy and keep his post as a key player in Brexit talks.
Hogan said that it was his decision to quit and he was not forced to quit.
The leaders of Ireland's three governing parties welcomed the resignation.
South African President Grilled over COVID-19 Graft Scandals
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa faced tough questioning by lawmakers over COVID-19 corruption scandals, days after he asked ruling party members to refrain from stealing money meant for the poor.
Many South Africans have been dismayed to see the country's widespread graft problem infiltrate efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus. South Africa has the world's fifth largest virus caseload with more than 600,000 confirmed infections.
Ramaphosa has been accused of being soft on corruption amid concerns that implicating too many senior leaders of the ANC could split the ruling party.
Having secured the presidency on an anti-corruption ticket after predecessor Jacob Zuma was pressured to resign amid multiple scandals in 2018, Ramaphosa has been under pressure to show that his government is taking a tough stance on the scourge.
The Reserve Bank of India is to conduct open market operations or OMO of government securities worth Rs. 20,000 crore in two tranches.
On a review of current and evolving liquidity and market conditions, RBI has decided to conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of govt securities under Open Market Operation (OMO) for an aggregate amount of Rs. 20,000 cr in two tranches of Rs. 10,000 cr each.
The auctions will be conducted in August and September and the results will be announced on the same day.
Eligible participants need to submit their bids and offers in electronic format on the RBI core banking solution (E-Kuber) system.
Mahindra Signs MoU with Israeki Firm - REE Automotive to Develop Electric Commercial Vehicles
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), (a part of Mahindra Group) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with REE Automotive, a Tel-Aviv, Israel based start-up firm to explore development and manufacturing of electric commercial vehicles for the global market.
The corner modular architecture of REE integrated with the design, engineering, sourcing, ecosystem and production capacity of Mahindra will provide zero emission vehicles, including the autonomous vehicles.
This will improve Mahindra's capabilities in the Electric Vehicle (EV) sector.
This partnership aims to provide 2-2.5 lakh electric commercial vehicle units over years to support the needs of REE's global customers and potential volumes of domestic and international markets of Mahindra.
REE will utilise the Mahindra's global presence, volume flexibility capability, engineering and product development.
Innoviti and Visa Partner to Develop Installments Platform for Face-to-Face Transactions
Innoviti Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd.(Innoviti) and Visa have partnered to develop an installment platform, which will enable the issuers to extend credit to their cardholders at face-to-face Point of Sale (PoS) in India. The installments platform with the suite of platform capabilities leveraging Innoviti's uniPAYNEXT platform and Visa's APIs, provides shoppers the ability to choose how they pay during the purchase.
As part of this partnership, Innovity and Visa plan to collaborate and pilot a variety of installment use cases.
Initially, the platform will be piloted with one bank and enabled for key electronic merchant chains on Innoviti's platform.
It will finally be extended to other banks, merchants, and payment service providers through easy to use APIs, using which they can develop more use cases.
IIT Alumni Council to Build World's Largest & Fastest Hybrid Quantum Computer
The Indian Institute of Technology's Alumni Council signed an agreement with Lomonosov Moscow State University and Russoft to access and transfer key technologies from Russia to build the world's largest and fastest hybrid quantum computer in India.
The objective of the agreement is to use technology in the areas of healthcare, agriculture, transport and logistics, pollution and weather forecast to achieve the mission of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
The agreement with Russia is the first step to aggregate global key technologies from front runners.
Under the agreement, the Russian state-owned companies will transfer critical modules in cryogenics, cryptography and modularised cloud management technology to IIT Alumni Council. The deal with the companies, which are key Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) owners, are part of the Quantum Mission.
Quantum Computing, which is several million times faster than the largest supercomputer in India, will make existing supercomputers obsolete.
Goyal Launches National GIS-enabled Land Bank System
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal launched the national GIS-enabled land bank system, which will help investors to get real-time information about the availability of industrial land and resources.
Goyal expressed confidence that other states/UTs will be onboarded by December 2020, as the project has been launched for six states.
The system is being developed by integrating the Industrial Information System (IIS) with state GIS (Geographic Information System).
This is a prototype only and will be developed further with inputs from states to make it an effective and transparent mechanism for land identification as well as procurement.
The IIS portal is a GIS-enabled database of industrial areas/clusters across the states.
Government Lines Up over 20 Bills for Monsoon Session of Parliament
The Centre has lined up an intensive legislative agenda with over 20 bills for the monsoon session of Parliament beginning on September 14.
The ministries are not only preparing to push through bills that have been passed in one House of Parliament but also introduce fresh legislation.
According to sources, the government's top priorities include discussions on border dispute with China and India's response to Covid-19 pandemic and 11 bills to replace ordinances passed between March and August. However, the ministries have already begun the spadework to push fresh bills.
The bills that are high on the government's agenda include the Companies (Amendment) Bill, Major Port Authorities Bill, Aircraft (Amendment) Bill, Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, National Commission for Homeopathy Bill, Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Bill, Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, Persons in Destitution (Protection, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill and Manual Scavenging Amendment Bill.
Congress Appoints Gaurav Gogoi as Deputy Leader
Congress president Sonia Gandhi appointed Gaurav Gogoi as the party's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu as its whip in the Lower House of Parliament.
Sonia also appointed Jairam Ramesh as chief whip in Rajya Sabha and formed a five member panel for Rajya Sabha strategy.
The panel will comprise Jairam Ramesh, Ahmed Patel and K. C. Venugopal apart from Leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and deputy leader Anand Sharma.
Government Working on Giving Shape to New Air Defence Command
The defence ministry is likely to make an announcement in October on setting up of a new air defence command under the broad principle of convergence among the three services. The new air defence command will handle certain air assets like missiles of the Indian Army.
A high-level committee was appointed earlier this year to frame contours of the new air defence command with a focus on ensuring jointness among the three services.
The initiative was part of Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat's mandate to redesign all existing military commands to help them effectively deal with all future security challenges.
The air defence command is likely to be based in an area under the IAF's Delhi-headquartered Western Command or its Central Command headquartered in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh.
The Air Defence Command will bring all the air assets of the IAF, the Indian Navy and the Indian Army.
Guinness World Record: Illayaram Sekar Solves Six Rubik's Cubes Underwater in 2.17 Minutes
It is one thing to solve a Rubik's cube under normal circumstances, but completely another to hold one's breath and do this skill-intensive activity back-to-back while sitting underwater. Illayaram Sekar who holds multiple Guinness world records in cubing said that it took over a year of practice to get the breathing right while cubing at high speeds.
The latest feat is his sixth Guinness world record and his most special yet- Sekar has solved six Rubik's cubes in 2 minutes 17 seconds while being submerged in an enclosed glass tank. Sekar's latest record was successfully attempted in August, exactly six years after a similar attempt using five cubes by an American was recognised as a Guinness world record in 2014.
Working as a Rubik's cube trainer at a private school in Chennai, Sekar has many Guinness records to his credit. But the latest one stands out, as the Guinness team had themselves reached out to him and certified this record, after seeing media reports about the same. It is said that it takes a minimum of three months for Guinness to approve a record and announce it, but in Sekar's case, the team certified it, barely within six days of it being submitted.
Marieke Lucas Rijneveld Youngest Author to Win International Booker Prize
Dutch Author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld won the 2020 International Booker Prize for the literary fiction book 'The Discomfort of Evening'. Rijneveld became the youngest author to win the prize at the age of 29.
The Booker Prize Foundation is a registered charity, it is responsible for the award of The Booker Prize for Fiction and for The International Booker Prize.
The Book was first published in Dutch in 2018 and eventually translated into English by Michele Hutchison.
Under the rules of the prize, the award of 50,000-pounds will be split equally between the author and translator Michele Hutchison, giving equal recognition to both.
Delhi Government Launches 'Healthy Body, Healthy Mind' Fitness Campaign for Students Confined in Homes
Delhi Government launched the Fitness Campaign – "Healthy Body, Healthy Mind", for the students who are confined in their homes because of the lockdown imposed on schools and colleges due to COVID-19 pandemic.
As a part of the "Healthy Body, Healthy Mind" campaign, a YouTube channel has been started which uploads a video on every Wednesday, by which the students can practice for a week to maintain fitness and make up for the loss of physical activities amid pandemic.
Togo First in Africa to Eradicate Sleeping Sickness
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Togo has become the first African country to eliminate sleeping sickness as a public health problem.
It received "validation" of the sickness' elimination after not reporting a single case in the past 10 years.
"Togo is a pathfinder in eliminating sleeping sickness, a disease which has threatened millions of Africans.
Sleeping sickness, or human African trypanosomiasis, is caused by parasites which are transmitted by infected tsetse flies and is only found in 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Supreme Court Upholds UGC Decision
The Supreme Court ordered that no state government and universities can promote final year students without holding final year university examinations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the Court gave states the discretion to approach the University Grants Commission (UGC) for an extension of the deadline by which final year exams should be completed.
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said if any state it cannot conduct exams by that date, they must approach the UGC for new dates to hold the exam.
The Supreme Court had reserved its order on a batch of pleas challenging a circular of the University Grants Commission (UGC) mandating to conduct the final term exams in all affiliated universities by the end of September.
Dusit International to Re-enter India, Announces Partnership with Jain Group
Thailand's Dusit International, one of Asia's fastest-growing hospitality chains, announced its expansion into India with real estate and hospitality major Jain Group. The tie up between the Jain Group and Dusit International will set up a new 126-room property at an investment of Rs. 75-80 crore in Kolkata's New Town Rajarhat, marking another foray by the Jain Group into the hospitality sector.
Slated to open in the second quarter of 2022 as part of Jain Group's high-end residential development project, Dream One, Dusit Princess Serviced Suites Kolkata, will also be the first Dusit-branded property in India.
India is one of the top source markets for Dusit Hotels and Resorts worldwide, with Indian travellers second only to Chinese in terms of room nights generated in 2019.
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