The Daily Brief – 25th July, 2016

India’s first Green Rail Corridor was inaugurated on the 114-km long Rameswaram-Manamadurai stretch in Tamil Nadu. The Green Rail Corridor ensures zero toilet discharge on rail tracks as part of its commitment to clean environment under the ‘Swachh Rail-Swachh Bharat’ initiative. Trains in the section have been equipped with bio-toilets to ensure zero discharge of human waste on the rail tracks.
Renowned violinist Avasarala Kanyakumari has been selected for the prestigious 2016 Sangita Kalanidhi Award. She is the first female violinist in the history of this prestigious award. Sangita Kalanidhi award is given annually to an expert of Carnatic Music by the Madras Music Academy.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government (NDA) is set to reduce the number of Maoist-affected districts. About 20 of the districts that are currently listed as Maoist affected, called the ‘Red Corridor‘, will be taken off the list. The Red Corridor spans 10 States — Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
An open digital repository of marine biodiversity data covering 5,272 species and 1.19 lakh records of these species has been hosted online (http://www.iobis.org) on the Ocean Biographic Information System (OBIS). India is a partner in a global alliance of more than 56 countries for developing the database. In India, the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE), Kochi, was designated as the regional node of OBIS programme.
Kerala Government has launched Kochi Water Metro project, the first ever Water Metro project in the country. The project aims to provide water connectivity to people living between islands in the Kochi agglomeration area and the city.
A 20-member delegation of the Border Guard Bangladesh started a conference with the Border Security Force in Agartala last week. The four-day meeting, being held at the BSF Frontier Headquarters, will discuss terror, cross-border crimes, smuggling and fencing.
India and Mexico are planning out new engagements in bilateral trade and investment ties with a focus on sectors including renewable energy, telecom and medical devices. This was agreed upon during the recent meeting in Mexico of the bilateral High Level Group (HLG) on Trade, Investment and Economic Cooperation.
India and Afghanistan will discuss stepping up defence cooperation when Afghanistan’s Army chief General Sher Mohammad Karimi visits New Delhi in late August.
Phase II of the Rashtrapati Bhavan museum, which will offer the visitor hi-tech storytelling experience through virtual reality and multi-screen projection, will be opened to the public from October 2.
Indian shooter Manavaditya Rathore has won the trap bronze medal in the Champion of Champions match at the Junior World Cup in Porpetto, Italy. Anant Naruka also won a bronze medal in the skeet event of the Junior World Cup
Lewis Hamilton from Great Britain has won the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix title of Formula One. It his overall fourth Hungarian Grand Prix title after winning it in 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2013. Thus he holds the record for the most number of wins (5). It was also his fifth title of the 2016 season after Monaco Grand Prix (May 2016), Canadian Grand Prix (June 2016), Austrian Grand Prix (July 2016) and British Grand Prix (July 2016).
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided not to impose a blanket ban on Russia for the Rio Olympics. The IOC’s announcement follows the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) call for a Rio ban. This was in response to the independent McLaren report that found evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Nepal’s K.P. Sharma Oli has resigned as Prime Minister before facing a no-confidence motion in Parliament he was certain to lose.
China has unveiled the world’s largest amphibious aircraft, called the AG600. It will be used for fighting forest fires and performing marine rescues. Besides, it will reduce China’s dependence on foreign aviation firms for amphibious aircrafts.
Brazilian scientists have identified Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito infected by the Zika virus as another type of Zika-transmitting mosquito. Until now, transmission of the Zika virus was only known through the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same vector that spreads Dengue and Chikungunya.