The Daily Brief – 19th September, 2016

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• Seventeen soldiers were killed in a militant attack in Uri area of Baramulla district in Srinagar. Police forces have said that militants stormed into an Army camp in Uri close to the Line of Control (LoC). Four militants have been killed in the encounter. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is currently visiting Srinagar, and Home Minister Rajnath Singh has postponed his visit to Russia and the US, in light of the attacks.
• Making a strong pitch against terrorism, India has sought “concrete action” and setting up of a mechanism by the 120 member countries of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) to ensure effective cooperation to combat the menace. Vice President Hamid Ansari is leading the Indian delegation at the 17th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit being held in Venezuela.
• The launch vehicle PSLV-C35 is set to take of from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on September 26th. It will also carry a a student satellite named PISAT, developed by students of PES University, Bangalore. Another distinction is that the launch could make PESU the first university to have an S-band satellite control centre on its campus. The satellite will be carried along with ScatSat-1, an ISRO satellite designed to provide data for weather forecasting, cyclone detection and tracking services.
• Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced to accord district status to Dadri, which is the biggest sub-division in Bhiwani district of the State. With this, the number of districts in the State will rise to 22.
• The Maharashtra government has decided to give an Aadhar number to every newborn child and link the child’s number with that of its parents. Such Aadhaar-linked children will have to re-enrol themselves once they turn five and submit their biometrics of 10 fingers, iris and facial photograph. The biometrics will have to be re-submitted once the children turn 15.
• Baba Ramdev, renowned Yoga guru, has announced that a mega unit of Patanjali Herbal and Food Park is to be set up in Nepal. The announcement was made during  Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kumar Dahal’s visit to the Patanjali processing unit in Haridwar.
• The Indian Navy’s indigenously built most Advanced Guided Missile Stealth Destroyer ‘Mormugao’ was launched in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is equipped with surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles and anti-submarine rocket launchers. It is also capable of carrying two anti-submarine warfare helicopters.
• The Union Water Resources Ministry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union Agriculture Ministry for speedy implementation of the Namami Gange programme. The MoU will encourage farmers of over 5,000 villages along the Ganga River to take up organic farming to curb pollution caused by chemical fertiliser-laden runoff in the river.
• President Pranab Mukherjee has appointed former IAS officer Alka Sirohi as chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as per Article 316 of Constitution. She will replace Deepak Gupta who demits office on 20th September 2016. She will be in office until the completion of her term on January 3, 2017.
• The Union Government has chosen 105-year-old Kunwar Bai from Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district as the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ mascot. She was recognised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for building toilets by selling off her goats to build two toilets at her home.
• The Indian Railways has launched the Swachhta Saptah (Cleanliness Week) to mark the ‘Swachh Paryavaran Diwas’ (Clean Environment Day). The objective behind the initiative is to spread wider awareness on sanitation and cleanliness in rail premises.
• Gionee India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Haryana government to set up its phone manufacturing hub in Faridabad.

• Writer Meghna Pant has won the Fellows of Nature (FON) South Asia Short Story Award in Nature Writing. The award will be presented to her for her short story People of the Sun at the Kumaon Literary Festival next month. The award seeks to build awareness among public in order to facilitate the conservation of our surroundings.
• Cricketers Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma were conferred with the Arjuna Award for their contributions to sport of cricket, for the years 2015 and 2016 respectively. The award is bestowed upon sportspersons in recognition of their outstanding achievement in sports, and carries a bronze statuette of Arjuna, a scroll and a monetary award of 5 lakh rupees.
• Young Indian shooter Subhankar Pramanick has won the gold medal at the ISSF Junior World Cup for pistol, rifle and shotgun in Gabala, Azerbaijan.
• Nico Rosberg has won the Singapore Grand Prix by beating Daniel Ricciardo. Rosberg’s eighth win of the season, and third in as many races, gives him an eight-point lead in the drivers’ championship over Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who finished third. This was also Rosberg’s 200th F1 race. 
• The ruling United Russia party is expected to win even greater dominance over Russia’s lower house in a parliamentary election held yesterday, showing that support for President Vladimir Putin is holding up despite sanctions and economic slowdown. The election for the Duma, or lower house, is being seen as a dry run for Mr. Putin’s expected presidential campaign in 2018. The election is the first time that voters in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, are helping decide the makeup of the Duma.
• A 24-year-old transgender soldier, Chloe Allen, has become the first woman to serve on the front line of the British Army.
• Scientists in the United States including those of Indian origin have successfully grown three-dimensional lungs in the lab, using stem cells. The laboratory-grown 3D lungs can be used to study diseases including Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) which has been difficult to study using conventional methods, and also test possible treatments for lung diseases.

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