The State Bank of India’s (SBI) Shanghai branch has become the first Indian bank to link up with China’s National Advance Payment System (CNAPS). After being a member of the CNAPS, SBI Shanghai can also offer real time transfer of local funds within China by routing them through the PBOC. It eliminates the need of tie up and maintenance of accounts with multiple Banks for fund transfer. The CNAPS provides real-time settlement services for all payments cleared in mainland China, as well as in all clearing banks in offshore yuan centers, such as Hong Kong. The CNAPS system is complemented by its international counterpart, the CIPS (China International Payments System or Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payment System), launched in 2015 with the aim of boosting international use of the Chinese currency, yuan. The CNAP was launched in 2008 by People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

Hon’ble Defence Minister of India Rajnath Singh visited Mozambique from july 28-30 2019.This is the first official visit of Rajnath Singh as a Defence Minister to the African country as well as it is the first time ever a defence minister of India has visited Mozambique.

World Health Organization observe 28 July every year as “World Hepatitis Day” to step up national and international efforts on hepatitis. Director general of WHO: Tedros Adhanom.

Pakistan has opened a 1,000 year old Hindu temple in eastern city Sialkot for worship for the first time since partition on the demand of the local Hindu community.

Infosys has announced the launch of its state-of-the-art Cyber Defence Center in Bucharest, Romania.

The stake sale will be for a total consideration value of up to ₹4,224 crore. It is worth noting that the promoters led by Subhas Chandra own 35.79% of ZEEL. The proceeds will go towards paying off loans worth ₹13,000 crore.

Using a strategic & long term approach, Tx2 works across entire landscapes and encourages trans-boundary collaboration.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) is a member of the World Bank Group. This marks the first such investment from the World Bank Group (WBG) in Pakistan.

Under the aegis of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), the NITI Aayog and has partnered with Facebook-owned WhatsApp to support and promote women entrepreneurs in India. Both will announce an annual calendar of events aimed at capacity building of women entrepreneurs and develop specific programmes aimed at addressing challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. The initiative will target registered users of the WEP forum in India. WhatsApp will also partner with the Women Transforming India (WTI) Awards 2019, a flagship initiative of NITI Aayog and provide $100,000 for the WTI winners. The WTI Awards are organised by the NITI Aayog in partnership with the United Nations. These awards recognize and celebrate the contributions of women who are not just addressing and solving key societal challenges but also challenging the stereotypes and breaking the glass ceiling.

Researchers from China and the U.S. have developed a novel computer model that can help accurately predict air pollution levels in the region a season in advance. The statistical model uses certain climatic patterns related to the oceans which have a regulatory effect on the wintertime air pollution over northern India. The new model could allow the government to forecast aerosol pollution conditions in winter and accordingly improve plans for pollution control. The study found that the inter-annual variability of wintertime aerosol pollution over northern India is regulated mainly by a combination of El Nino — a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean with a global impact on weather patterns — and the Antarctic Oscillation (AAO), a low-frequency mode of atmospheric variability of the southern hemisphere. Both El Nino sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies and AAO-induced anomalies can persist from autumn to winter, offering prospects for a pre-winter forecast of wintertime aerosol pollution over northern India.

The Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel flagged off a mobile library bus service under the “Ghar Ghar Dastak Ghar Ghar Pustak” Scheme of the Delhi Public Library (DPL) on July 31, 2019 in New Delhi.

The 22^nd National Conference on e-Governance 2019 will be held at Shillong, Meghalaya on 8-9, 2019. Theme of the Conference is “Digital India: Success to Excellence”.

India and UK have launched a joint initiative named Innovating for Clean Air (IfCA) that will provide its stakeholders an opportunity to test interventions related to air quality and EV integration. It was launched in Bengaluru.

Shawala Teja Singh Temple has been re-opened for Hindu devotees for the 1st time in 72 years since partition. The temple is located in Sialkot city of Pakistan and was sealed for last 72 years.

Nitin Bagmane was appointed as the interim chief operating officer (COO) of Coffee Day Enterprises by CCD’s board of directors.

On July 26, 2019, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar stated that the average monthly income per agricultural household from all sources is Rs. 6,426 in the country based on the Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households conducted by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) during its 70th round (January 2013-December 2013).

It is worth noting that the Pascall+Watson has designed the new terminal building of Trichy international airport. It is an international architectural firm. The LEAF Awards programme is operated by the Leading European Architects Forum (LEAF), founded in 2001.

It is worth noting that this model will help individuals & small businesses share their digital financial data with third-parties in a secure way. It will apply for the SRO (self-regulatory organisation) licence with the RBI.

Reportedly, the initiative is estimated to save over 4.04 tonnes of carbon emissions per e-car per year. It is a major step towards promotion of cleaner mobility alternatives. This step will, no doubt, fast-track the adoption of e-mobility in Noida.

Mike will now oversee the consolidation of product, content business & market strategy. In addition to this, Nakamura will retain his role as global president of Dentsu X.

Tamil Nadu- Tamil Nadu girl Jerlin Anika has won the gold medal in the World Deaf Youth Badminton Championships held in Taipei last week. Anika bagged four medals in the championship, including the gold, two silver and one bronze. The 15-year-oldAnika is a tenth standard student in the Ouvaiyar government in Madurai.

Renowned Indian sand artist and Padma Awardee Sudarsan Pattnaik has won the People’s Choice Award at a prestigious sand sculpting festival in the United States. He won the award for his sand sculpture ‘Stop Plastic Pollution, Save Our Ocean’ at the 2019 Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival in Boston, Massachusetts. Pattnaik was the sole representative from India and Asia. The award-winning sculpture showed a turtle caught in a plastic bag and a fish with plastic trash such as slippers, bottles and glass inside its body. The tail of the fish is in the mouth of a human, signifying how plastic pollution in the oceans is adversely impacting human beings also when they consume sea food.

The scientists at the IIT-Kanpur have developed two-finger robotic hand (exoskeleton) to help paralysed stroke patients. For the exoskeleton, Prof. Ashish Dutta and Prof. KS Venkatesh have partnered with the University of Ulster (based in the United Kingdom) and their teacher Girijesh Prasad, who belongs to Gorakhpur. The exoskeleton uses a four-bar mechanism and has four degrees of freedom (DOF). It can be used by a patient on the hand. It uses brain signals, with the help of the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) that is worn on the head, and helps paralyzed patients to open and close the movement of their thumb, forefinger and middle fingers for physical practice. The exoskeleton is operated by a MEGA microcontroller of 300 Mhz and powered by a battery. The device will cost around Rs 15,000.

The Philippines has topped the chart with 73 percent of respondents being optimistic about economic growth. Vietnam is on second and Indonesia is on the third.

Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli inaugurated the India-Nepal Logistics Summit in Kathmandu on July 28, 2019. The theme of the summit was “Transforming Logistics Landscape”.

Government has started the 7th Economic Census from July 29, 2019 from Tripura state. The purpose of Economic Census is to get a complete count of all economic units in India. It will be launched in other states and union territories in August and September. The results are expected to be available by March 2020.

Google celebrates 133rd birthday of India’s first woman legislator Muthulakshmi Reddi with a doodle today. Muthulakshmi Reddi was an Indian educator, lawmaker, surgeon, and a social reformer. She was also the first female student at Madras Medical College.