The Daily Brief – 4th September, 2016

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• The Union Home Ministry has announced that chilli-filled grenades have been dispatched to the Kashmir Valley for crowd management, as an alternative to pellet guns.
• In a first, the Indian Railways has deployed ‘intelligent video analytics’ to assess crowd density at major railway stations and initiate crowd control measures when the number of passengers/visitors exceeds a prescribed limit. The technology incorporated in the integrated security system will give an automatic alert to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel to set in motion certain Standard Operating Procedures that include a temporary ban on the issue of platform tickets and closure of parking lots till normalcy is restored.
• The Indian Medical Association has issued a Zika alert in the country. The alert has been sounded in light of rising cases of viral fever, dengue and chikungunya across the country, and local mosquito transmission of Zika identified in Singapore. Local mosquito transmission implies that mosquitoes in the area are infected with the Zika virus and are spreading it to humans.
• Noted Odia poet Dr Hrushikesh Mallick will be honoured with the 37th edition of prestigious Sarala Award for his outstanding poetry. Further, Dr Gopal Chandra Panda will be awarded with the Ila Panda Memorial Music Samman, while Dr Dinanath Pathi will receive the Ila Panda Memorial Art Samman posthumously.
• India has extended a $500-million line of credit to Vietnam to deepen their defence cooperation and signed 12 agreements including a deal to construct offshore patrol boats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc, said the two countries have decided to elevate their strategic ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to provide it a new momentum.
• A new docu-drama is being made on the life and work of Mother Teresa. The Mother will be shot in Kolkata, where she arrived in 1929 and where she founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1948.

• Former pace bowler Zaheer Khan has been made an honorary life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). He became the 24th Indian cricketer to be bestowed the honour.
• The United States and China formally joined the Paris climate deal. The move by the world’s two biggest polluters is seen as a major step forward for the 180-nation treaty, which sets ambitious goals for capping global warming. Mr. Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping handed ratification documents to UN chief Ban Ki-moon. India is, however, seeking greater “flexibility”, in the climate accord and does not want to commit to ratification by the year-end.
• President Duterte of Philippines has declared a ‘state of lawlessness‘ in the country, following the bombing of a night market there. The attack has been attributed to Islamic militants, and left 14 persons dead.

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