The Daily Brief – 28th August 2018

The third edition of Indian Ocean Conference was held in Hanoi, capital city of Vietnam from 27-28 August 2018. It was inaugurated by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Min, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam. The theme of the annual conference is “Building Regional Architectures”. Indian Ocean Conference has been initiated by Delhi based think tank India Foundation along with its partners from Singapore, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), one of India’s premier avian research institutes, will start operating its first regional centre or avifauna observatory on the campus of Wetland Research and Training Centre near Chilika Lake (Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon), Odisha. The avifauna observatory will carry out research on avian disease by collecting samples and monitor Nalabana Bird Sanctuary. BNHS founded on 15 September, 1883 and headquartered in Mumbai, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research.

India’s first flight using biofuel will fly from Dehradun (capital of Uttarakhand) to Delhi. The first ever biofuel test flight was conducted by SpiceJet on its turborporp Q-400 plane. With this India will join elite club of nations who have operated flight on alternative energy source like biofuel. India will be first developing nation to experiment biofuel test flight. The world’s first dedicated biofuel flight (by Dreamliner Boeing 787-9) was flown for first time from Los Angeles (US) to Melbourne (Australia) in January 2018 by Australian carrier Qantas.

The G20 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting was held in Salta, Argentina from 23 to 24 August, 2018 with the theme of ‘Building consensus for fair and sustainable development”. It took place as part of Sherpa Track for 2018 G20 Leaders’ Summit, which is to be hosted by Argentina by end of 2018. Its three key issues for the agenda were future of work, infrastructure for development, and sustainable food future. It concluded with adaptation of declaration that reflects G20’s commitment towards promoting policies and actions that catalyze digital transformations. The G20 comprises of total 19 countries- Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, India, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, South Africa, UK and US-plus European Union (EU).

Neena Varakil won silver in women’s long jump. Veteran long distance runner Sudha Singh and Dharun Ayyasamy finished second in women’s 3000m steeplechase and men’s 400m hurdles respectively.

Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal won bronze after her defeat by world no.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in straight games of 17-21, 14-21 in their semifinal clash. She became the only second singles player and the first female one to win an Asiad bronze after Syed Modi, who had won a bronze in 1982.

India’s Muhammed Anas and Hima Das bagged the silver medal in the men’s and women’s 400 metres races respectively. While Anas completed the race in 45.69 seconds to be second, Hima clocked 50.79 seconds to take the second place in the women’s race.

Dutee Chand won silver in the women’s 100 m event. With this, she won the country’s first medal in 20 years in a women’s 100 event. India’s last medal in this event was a bronze, which was won by Rachita Mistry in 1998 Asian Games.

Fouaad Mirza became the first Indian to win an Asian Games individual equestrian medal since 1982. He finished second with a score of 26.40 in the individual equestrian jumping event behind Japan’s Oiwa Yoshiaki. Further, he along with his teammates Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Malik and Jitender Singh guided India to a second-place in the equestrian team event.