The Daily Brief – 6th September, 2016

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• The Union Health Ministry has launched the “Leprosy Case Detection Campaign (LCDC)” to eradicate leprosy from the country. The 2-week-long massive campaign was launched by Union Health Minister J P Nadda.
• Assam-based ecologist and conservation activist Bibhuti Lahkar has won the prestigious ‘Heritage Heroes Award’ of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). With this, he became the first Asian to win this prestigious environmental award. He was presented the award at the IUCN’s ongoing World Conservation Congress in Honolulu, Hawaii. Lahkar has been working in the Manas National Park area to conserve grassland flora and fauna.
• The Odisha Government has launched the Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana (BKRY) for the development of girls in three districts of the state. The scheme was launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and will be implemented in Ganjam, Dhenkanal and Angul districts on a pilot basis for three years.
• Eminent economist, consultant and banker Dr. Urjit Patel has assumed charge as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Dr. Patel succeeds Raghuram Rajan who completed his tenure after serving a three-year term.
• The Sports Ministry has announced cash awards for paralympic medallists at the Rio Olympics. The Rio Paralympics will start this week, and India has sent its biggest ever contingent of 17 athletes.
• The Supreme Court has directed the Karnataka government to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days to ameliorate the plight of farmers.
• Priyanka Yoshikawa, an Indo-Japanese, has been crowned as Miss Japan. Ms. Yoshikawa, born in Tokyo to an Indian father and a Japanese mother, vowed to continue the fight against racial prejudice in homogenous Japan, where multiracial children make up just two percent of those born annually.
• The oldest surviving cricket player in the world, Lindsey Tuckett of South Africa has passed away at the age of 97. Tuckett represented South Africa in nine Test matches against England between 1947 and 1949. The distinction of the oldest surviving cricketer in the world now passes to another South African player, all-rounder Johnny Watkins, who is 93.

• Serena Williams has qualified to the US Open Quarterfinals. This was her 308th win at a Grand Slam match, and with this, she becomes the holder of the highest number of wins at Grand Slam matches, surpassing Roger Federer, the previous record holder.
• The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has taken the Giant Panda off its endangered list, due to conservation efforts by the Chinese government. The Giant Panda is now classified as ‘vulnerable‘.
• The European Space Agency‘s (ESA) Rosetta space probe has located its lost Philae lander, wedged in a “dark crack” on a comet. After being launched in 2004, Rosetta took 10 years to accelerate and catch up with comet 67P. In November 2014 it released Philae, achieving the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet.

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