The Daily Brief – 7th September, 2016

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• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s GSLV-F05 rocket, carrying the INSAT-3DR advanced weather satellite is set to be launched from the  Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The advanced weather satellite is expected to provide a variety of meteorological services.
• The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) carried out the first test of its Light Utility Helicopter (LUH). The Army and the Air Force have indicated that they would possibly order 187 of these helicopters from HAL.
• The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has launched a Telemedicine Services Project for providing specialist medical services at a distance to insured workers.
• The Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has launched the Gas4India  campaign, aimed at promoting the use of natural gas in the country. Gas4India is a unified cross-country, multimedia, multi-event campaign aimed at promoting the use of natural gas in the country in order to move towards a gas-based economy.
• The World Health Organisation has certified India as having eliminated Yaws and Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) from the country. The certificates were presented at the 69th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region held in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka.
• Indian film Thithi has won the best film award at the first BRICS Film Festival concluded in New Delhi. The film festival had opened in New Delhi on 2nd September 2016. Thithi is a dramatic comedy Kannada film co-written and directed by Raam Reddy.
• India and Chile have inked an agreement to expand the scope of their existing Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) by covering more goods for tariff concessions. A PTA between India and Chile was earlier signed in March 2006 and had come into force with effect from August, 2007.
• Mexico has set up its first consulate in south India in Chennai that will cater to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This is the Latin American country’s third consulate in India, with the other two being in Mumbai and Kolkata.
• Angelique Kerber of Germany has qualified to the semi finals of the US Open, defeating Roberta Vinci.

• Anjum Chopra became the first woman cricketer from India to be awarded an honorary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). She was a former India captain, and recipient of the Padma Shri in 2014.
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Sri Lanka to be malaria-free, after certifying that the life-threatening disease had been completely eliminated here. The announcement came at the 69th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region.

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