The Daily Brief – 19th April 2019

The second edition of the maritime exercise between Navies of India and Vietnam was held off Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam with an aim to boost operational cooperation. The exercise was undertaken as a part of the ongoing overseas deployment of eastern fleet ships to South East Asian countries. The first edition was conducted from May 21 to 26, 2018 at Da Nang, Vietnam.

The Face of Disasters 2019 report was released by the Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) with an aim to bring about a conversation on building a sustainable future, which is beyond response to disasters. India is experiencing extremes of too little and too much rainfall in 2019. There is a significant drought condition even before the onset of summers. Himalayan glaciers are melting, with serious implications for the whole region.

Sri Lanka’s first satellite Raavana-1 weighing around 1.05kg with a size of 1000 cubic cm was launched into space from NASA’s Flight Facility on Virginia’s east shore. The satellite was designed and built at the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan by two Sri Lankan research engineers. Its camera mission is to capture images of Sri Lanka and its neighbouring countries.

World Heritage Day 2019 was observed across the world on April 18 with the theme Rural Landscapes. UNESCO defines a World Heritage Site as a “natural or man-made area or a structure that is of international importance, and space which requires special protection. UNESCO passed a resolution on November 1983 approving the idea of observing April 18 as “International Monuments and Sites Day”. This has been referred to as the World Heritage Day.

The TIME’s 100 Most Influential People-2019 list was released on April 17, 2019 naming the world’s most influential pioneers, artists, leaders, titans and icons of the year. Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, public-interest litigators Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy, who spearheaded a historic legal battle for LGBTQ rights in India, are among the Indians who have been included by TIME in its 100 most influential people in the world list.

The 4th Resilient Cities Asia-Pacific (RCAP) 2019 Congress was organised by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and hosted by South Delhi Municipal Corporation from April 15 to 17, 2019 in New Delhi. Launched in 2010, Resilient Cities is the annual global platform for urban resilience and climate change adaptation where dialogues are conducted to forge partnerships, with the ultimate goal of identifying implementable solutions and creating lasting impacts for cities in the region.

Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia has regained the world number one spot in the men’s 65kg freestyle category, as per the latest rankings issued by United World Wrestling on April 17, 2019. The 25-year-old, who had won gold in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games and a silver in the World Championships in 2018, secured 58 ranking points ahead of Akhmed Chakaev of Russia, who has 21 points. Punia had first reached the world number one spot in November 2018.

Jaideep Sarkar has been appointed as India’s next High Commissioner to South Africa. Sarkar, a 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, is currently serving as India’s ambassador in Bhutan. He has served in Indian Missions in Tokyo, Seoul and Bangladesh as well. The government also appointed Suhel Ajaz Khan, presently serving as India’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Saudi Arabia, as next Ambassador to Lebanon.