The Daily Brief – 8th July 2019

As a part of housing project meant for war affected people, the first model village built with Indian assistance under the Model Villages Program was inaugurated at Ranidugama in Gampaha in Sri Lanka. The fully constructed houses were handed over to beneficiaries. India has partnered with Sri Lankan Ministry of Housing and Construction and Cultural Affairs to build 100 model villages which will consist of a total of 2400 houses all across Sri Lanka.

A batch Bangladeshi civil servant will be trained at the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), Mussoorie in Uttarakhand for a period between 2019 and 2025. This training is based on a MoU signed in February 2019 between NCGG and Ministry of Public Administration, Government of Bangladesh, in this regard during 5th meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission (JCC). NCGG is an institute under Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).

Border Security Force (BSF) has launched a massive exercise, code named as Sudarshan, to fortify Anti-Infiltration Grid along Pakistan border in Punjab and Jammu on 1 July, 2019. It will cover entirely over 1,000-km length of India-Pakistan International Border out of which Jammu shares about 485-km and Punjab about 553-km. BSF was formed on 1 December 1965 in the wake of India-Pakistan 1965 War.

Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu released a book titled ‘Vivekadeepini’, a concise book of aphorisms (a memorable expression of a general truth or principle) initially written by Adi Shankaracharya, one of India’s greatest spiritual and literary geniuses. It is a summary of Prashnottara Ratnamalika. Adi Shankaracharya is 8th century Indian philosopher and theologian who consolidated the doctrine (or Philosophy) of Advaita Vedanta (Monism).

The United States of America (USA) won FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 title after beating Netherlands in final at Lyon, France. The victory underlines USA’s status as dominant force in international women’s football as they claim World Cup title for 4th time (earlier 1991, 1999 and 2015) in 8 editions. US were already the 1st team to appear in 3 consecutive finals.

At the Grand Prix of Spain Women’s Wrestling India’s top wrestler Vinesh Phogat won her 1st gold medal after shifting to 53kg category and Divya Kakran won gold in 68kg category in Madrid, Spain. India finished 2nd with 130 points in team championship behind Russia with 165 points. Pooja Dhanda in 57kg category, Seema in 50kg category, Manju Kumari in 59kg category and Kiran in 76kg category won silver.

Australian Aboriginal site ‘Budj Bim Cultural Landscape’ in south-west Victoria has been added to UNESCOS’s World Heritage List at a meeting in Baku, in Azerbaijan. It was created about 6,600 years ago by the Gunditjmara people. It is older than pyramids, Acropolis and Stonehenge. Volcano Budj Bim lava flows, which connect these 3 components, have enabled Gunditjmara to develop one of the largest and oldest aquaculture networks in the world.