The Daily Brief – 3rd September, 2016

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• The first BRICS film festival has begun at the Sirifort Auditorium Complex in New Delhi. The film festival is the run up to the BRICS summit which is to be held in Goa in October 2016. The 5 day festival will act as a platform for people of the film industry of BRICS member countries to explore areas of cooperation in the domain of cinema and culture.
• The Union Government has notified the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) for providing apprenticeship training to over 50 lakh youngsters in order to create more jobs. The Scheme has an allocation of 10,000 crore rupees with a target of 50 Lakh apprentices to be trained by 2019-20. It is a first of its kind scheme notified to offer financial incentives to employers.
• The Supreme Court, in its latest ruling pertaining to the Cauvery water dispute, has asked Karnataka to consider taking steps to release Cauvery water to distressed Tamil Nadu.

• Justice Chelameswar, sitting judge of the Supreme Court,  has sent a communication to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) T.S. Thakur, expressing his disinclination to participate in the powerful Supreme Court collegium meetings. The collegium system is currently used for the appointment of judges in India. In a landmark Supreme Court judgement last year, the NJAC (National Judicial Appointments Committee) Law was scrapped. Justice Chelameswar had been the lone dissenting judge on this five-judge bench. The NJAC sought to replace the existing collegium system. The body was to consist of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, two senior most judges of the SC, the Union Law Minister, and two eminent persons nominated by the Prime Minister, CJI, and Leader of Opposition of the Lok Sabha.
• Curfew was re-imposed in parts of Kashmir following fresh violence in 10 districts, which left more than 70 persons injured.
• The canonisation of Mother Teresa in the Vatican will be marked by India with the release of a commemorative postage stamp. India Post will on the day issue a souvenir sheet on Mother Teresa, acclaimed the world over for her work among the poor.
• The annual socio-religious Solung festival of the Adi tribe has started in Arunachal Pradesh. The Solung festival is a 5-day long agro-based festival, and is celebrated every year by the Adi tribe in the first week of September.
• Maharashtra has ranked highest in Ease of Doing Business (EDB) in Indian states, according to a report by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
• A report from Climate Transparency has shown that global greenhouse gas emissions from the G20 countries has continued to increase. The report comes ahead of the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit to be held on September 4-5 in China. The report shows that between 1990 and 2013, the absolute carbon dioxide emissions of G20 countries, which account for three-fourths of global carbon dioxide emissions, went up by 56 per cent. India received a ‘medium’ rating with good scores for emissions, share of renewables in total primary energy supply (TPES) and climate policy, but poor scores in carbon intensity, share of coal in TPES and electricity emissions. The worst overall performers were Australia, Argentina, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the first time has successfully sequenced DNA in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The genome sequencing was undertaken for the first time in microgravity as part of the Biomolecule Sequencer experiment performed by NASA.
• Nelson Mandela’s first known television interview which was recorded almost six decades ago, may have been found by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The 24-second clip was reportedly filmed during a break at the infamous 1956 Treason Trial which lasted four-and-a-half years. Soon after the interview, Mandela went underground until his arrest on August 5, 1962, which ultimately saw him spend 27 years in prison, before becoming the first democratically-elected President of South Africa.

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