The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International has its headquarters at Chicago, has honoured TN Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami with Paul Harris Fellow recognition. The Paul Harris Fellow recognition is accorded to honour people who render efficient services in providing drinking water, sanitation, prevention of diseases, environment, world peace etc., to its people.

United States (US) based Aerospace Company Boeing, has delivered the last 5 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters to Indian Air Force (IAF) at the Air Force Station, Hindan, Uttar Pradesh. This final 5 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters were part of a deal that was signed by Indian Government & Boeing in the year 2015 to deliver 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters. These Apaches were deployed at the Leh air base amid stand-off with China in Ladakh.

The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism organised its Virtual Counter-Terrorism Week 2020 from 6-10 July 2020. The theme of 2020 Counter-Terrorism Week  was “Strategic and Practical Challenges of Countering Terrorism in a Global Pandemic Environment”.

In Madhya Pradesh, more than 24,000 migrant labourers have already got permanent employment through the ‘Rozgar Setu’ portal. This includes 79.5% men and 20.5% women. Job cards of around three lakh 55 thousand migrant labourers have been prepared. Along with this, employment has been provided to one lakh 89,959 migrant workers under MNREGA.

Amid the restricted judicial functioning owing to the Covid-19 outbreak, an e-Lok Adalat is being held in Chhattisgarh to ensure the administration of justice continues where the virtual hearings are to be conducted through video conferencing. The e-Lok Adalat intended to swiftly settle pendant cases is cited as the first such attempt in the country. Over 3 thousand cases will be heard in more than 200 benches of various districts across the state including the high court in Bilaspur. There will be live streaming of an e-Lok Adalat to be inaugurated by the high court Chief Justice P R Ramachandra Menon”, stated Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, executive chairman of the Chhattisgarh State Legal Services Authority

In the wake of the financial crisis faced by the people and the lawyers owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the high court and Chhattisgarh State Legal Services Authority decided to organize e-Lok Adalat for resolving the pending cases. “Cases related to money like settlements, accident claims, bouncing of cheques besides family disputes among others are usually resolved by Lok Adalat”, Justice Mishra said. In case the parties and lawyers face difficulty in connecting through video-conferencing, they can present their cases even through WhatsApp video call, he stated and further added that if the first time experiment to hold e-lok Adalat emerges successful, it will be continued further.

Bangladesh has made COVID-19 negative certificates mandatory for its citizens travelling abroad. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on July 12, 2020 that the decision was taken during an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by the Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen.

For the first time, Indian Railways has loaded special Parcel train beyond the country borders to Benapole in Bangladesh with dry chillies from Andhra Pradesh. Guntur and its surrounding areas in Andhra Pradesh are well known for chilli cultivation. The quality of this farm produce is internationally renowned for its uniqueness in taste and brand.

The IIT-Delhi has developed an ozone-based decontamination device to reduce bio-medical waste and enable safe re-use of N-95 face masks. The device, called Chakr DeCoV, will help re-use a mask up to 10 times. It was launched via a video-conference by Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey.

The mechanism was developed by an IIT start-up — Chakra Innovation —  which has been approved by the Indian Medical Council of Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV). The device can decontaminate an N-95 mask in 90 minutes, following which it can be re-used 10 times.

Delhi

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has become the first Indian firm to hit a market capitalisation mark of Rs. 12 lakh crore. The shares price of the company surged to a record high of Rs. 1,947 on 13 July 2020, after which the Market cap of the firm rose to Rs 12.32 lakh crore.

NITI Aayog presented India’s second Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development 2020. The HLPF is the foremost international platform for follow-up and review of progress on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said that Indian Railways will be the largest Railway in the world to have 100 percent electrification replacing diesel at the India Global Week-2020. It will be the world’s first Green Railways running on 100 per cent clean energy by 2030

According to the United Kingdom’s government’s figures released on 10 July 2020, India has become the second largest Foreign Direct Investor in the United Kingdom (UK) after the United States in 2019, by investing in 120 projects and creating 5,429 new jobs in the UK.The United States of America remains as the top source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of the UK, delivering 462 projects and 20,131 jobs. The List is followed by India, Germany, France, China and Hong Kong.

Russia has become the first nation to successfully complete the human trials of COVID vaccine. Russia’s COVID vaccine has proven to be effective, as per the results of the trials.

World Allergy Week is a global campaign of the World Allergy Organisation (WAO), which aims to raise awareness of the impact of allergy in our communities.

Australia has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in response to fears over a new national security law imposed by China. The new law undermined “Hong Kong’s own basic law” and the territory’s current level of autonomy from Beijing. Canada has also suspended its extradition treaty, while the UK has offered citizenship options to Hong Kong residents.

Hockey India Executive Board held an Emergent Executive Board meeting naming Manipur’s Gyanendro Ningombam as the Officiating President of Hockey India. This was following the resignation letter of Mohd Mushtaque Ahmad received by Hockey India on 7 July 2020 due to his personal and family commitments. Gyanendro Ningombam has served as the Editor of Meeyam, an evening daily newspaper in Manipur.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs on 10 July 2020 hosted a Webinar along with Facebook India in New Delhi. It was for sensitization of Members of Parliament from Scheduled Tribe (ST) Constituencies on Going Online As Leaders (GOAL) Project. Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda and Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Renuka Singh Saruta also participated in the Webinar.

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) of NITI Aayog has launched the ATL App Development Module for school children across the country, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of AtmaNirbhar Bharat. The ATL App is an online course by AIM and is completely Free. The course has been jointly developed by AIM and Indian startup, Plezmo.

An UN-led report released found that the world dumped a record 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste last year. Just 17.4% was recycled. The Global E-waste Monitor 2020 report found that China, with 10.1 million tonnes, was the biggest contributor to e-waste, and the United States was second with 6.9 million tonnes. India, with 3.2 million tonnes, was third.