The Daily Brief – 22nd June 2018

Renowned music composer A.R. Rahman has been appointed as the Brand Ambassador of Sikkim. According to the notification issued by the Chief Secretary, A.K. Srivastava, Mr. Rahman will promote and project the state’s achievements nationally and globally. Earlier Rahman was made state’s Brand Ambassador of tourism and business.

At a meeting of the National Space Council on June 18, 2018 US President Donald Trump ordered the US Defence Department and the Pentagon to create a “Space Force”, an independent sixth branch of the armed forces. The Space Force military branch would be “separate but equal” to the Air Force. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would oversee the creation of the force. Trump was joined by Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the recently revived space council as well as NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

The world’s first of its kind and state-of-the-art International Centre for Humanitarian Forensics (ICHF) was launched at the Gujarat Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar, Gujarat on June 20, 2018 with the aim to provide service to the nation and to the entire world when the need arises. The centre is a joint venture of the regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in India, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives and also Gujarat Forensic Science University. The centre will aid humanitarian efforts during emergencies and natural disasters such as the work carried out by Red Cross.

India and Maldives are engaged in a series of high level meetings to end the logjam in the relations over strategic issues, sources have confirmed. Maldivian Ambassador Ahmed Mohamed had met Foreign Secretary, Vijay Keshav Gokhale last week and diplomats and officials held another meeting. Further, a high-level meeting of defence officials is scheduled.

Telangana, which came into being in 2014, went for a major reorganization of its districts in October 2016: from the original 10, they went up to 31. This exercise had interesting fallout. Around 450 villages went “missing”. These included those that were located on the borders of two districts, or those that were removed from one mandal and appended to another. And then there were those villages whose names were changed after the formation of the State and the new districts.

The inaugural U.S.-India 2+2 Dialogue will take place on July 6. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis will host External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Washington, D.C., for the dialogue that will focus on strengthening strategic, security, and defense cooperation as the United States and India jointly confront global challenges.

The number of hungry people in the world has risen for the first time in more than a decade, according to a United Nations There are now approximately 38 million more undernourished people in the world, rising from 815 million in 2016.

Punjab Government has launched “i-Hariyali” App, as part of the strategy formulated under the Mission Tandrust Punjab, to ensure a clean, green, healthy and robust Punjab, with the active participation of masses. The main aim behind this app is to inspire more and more people to plant maximum saplings so as to save the environment from pollution hazards.

Surat smart city from Gujarat was selected for “City Award” for showing great momentum in implementation of projects under India Smart Cities Awards 2018 especially in categories of urban environment, transport and mobility and sustainable integrated development. Total nine awards in three categories including Innovative Idea Award, Project Award, and City Award were announced by Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under India Smart Cities Awards 2018.

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