The Daily Brief – 11th September 2018

India’s ace sprinter Hima Das was appointed as Sports Ambassador of Assam to inspire budding players of northeastern state to aim big and young generation to take up sports seriously. She was the first Indian athlete to win gold medal in track event at IAAF World U20 Championships held in Tampere, Finland. In 2018 Asian Games (Jakarta), she had won silver medal in 400 m. She is nicknamed ‘Dhing Express’ after her village in Assam.

The World Hindu Congress (WHC-2018) was held in Chicago, United States with a theme of “Sumantrite Suvikrante” — “think collectively, achieve valiantly”. This second edition was organized to commemorate 125 years of Swami Vivekananda’s historic Chicago address on September 11, 1893 and was attended by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu. World Hindu Congress (WHC) is global platform for Hindus to connect, share ideas, inspire one another, and impact the common good. The inaugural WHC was held in November 2014 in New Delhi since then, it is held once every four years.

Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Prakash Javadekar inaugurated the World Summit on Accreditation (WOSA-2018) in New Delhi. The biennial was organized by National Board of Accreditation (NBA) with main focus (theme) on “Challenges and Opportunities in Outcome Based Accreditation”. It saw participation of accreditation agencies from across world on common platform to share best practices.

Bengaluru International Airport Ltd. (BIAL), which operates Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) has signed agreement with Portuguese software firm Vision Box to introduce face recognition based passage system technology. It replaces manual boarding passes verification by automatic biometric boarding procedure. On complete implementation, this will be first end-to-end face recognition-based walk through experience in Asia and largest in the world.

Nepal has refused to participate in inaugural joint military exercise of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries scheduled to be held in Pune, Maharashtra. Armies of BIMSTEC members including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and Nepal were to participate in it. Apart from Nepal, Thailand will also not be participating in military exercise and will be represented by observer.

A representation of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel statue

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the world’s tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel named as the ‘Statue of Unity’ on October 31, 2018. The statue is currently under construction on Sadhubet island at Sardar Sarovar Dam in Bharuch district, Gujarat. The statue will highlight the works of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, popularly known as the ‘Iron man of India’. The ‘National Unity Day’ or Rashtriya Ekta Diwas commemorates Sardar Patel every year on 31 October (his birthday).

The Union Government has announced that the treatment of childhood cancer will be covered under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana or Ayushman Bharat Scheme. Vinod Kumar Paul, a member of NITI Aayog also said that 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres will be opened across India by 2022 under the scheme. The centres will provide comprehensive health care for diseases like diabetes, cancer, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.comprehensive health care for diseases like diabetes, cancer, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. The scheme will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay on September 25, 2018.