The Daily Brief – 17th August 2019

Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and Surya Kant has cleared the Chardham highway project, which will connect four holy places of Uttarakhand through 900-km all-weather roads. The apex court also asked the Union Environment and Forest Ministry to form the high-powered committee by 22^nd August to look into the environmental concerns.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has announced that a massive campaign will be launched to make India free of single-use plastic at Sau Paulo in Brazil. He said that a series of meetings will be held with all the stakeholders including state governments to chalk out a concrete plan to make it a people’s campaign to realise the ultimate target.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has embarked on a three-nation visit to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on 17^th August, 2019. This will be the first ever high level visit to the three Baltic countries. The visit is aimed at the context of increasing political engagement, as well as intensified trade and commercial ties.

President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, presented the Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman 2019 awards and certificate of honour to the scholars of Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Pali, Prakrit, Classical Kannada, Classical Telugu, Classical Malayalam and Classical Odiya. Instituted in 1958 by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman awards are annually conferred on Independence Day.

Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched his government’s flagship programme called ‘Village Volunteers System’. It aims to provide government services at the doorsteps of people. The scheme will involve more than 2.8 lakh volunteers and each volunteer will cover 50 families in each village. Each volunteer will be given identity cards and an allowance of Rs. 5000 per month.

Tamil Nadu awarded the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Award to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan for his stellar work in promotion of science and technology. The 62-year-old space scientist is a native of Kanniyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. He is popularly known as the ‘Rocket Man’. He is a recipient of several awards including Dr Vikram Sarabhai Research Award (1999). The former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu late J Jayalalithaa announced the award in 2015.

Kapil Dev-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) has extended the term of Ravi Shastri as the Head Coach of the Indian Men’s Cricket Team for two years. He will serve as the Head Coach till the World Cup T20 2021. Ravi Shastri was first named as the Head Coach of Team India on July 11, 2017, to serve the post till ICC World Cup 2019.