1) East Bengal to honour Milkha Singh with Bharat Gaurav Award

a) East Bengal will confer its Bharat Gaurav Award (Pride of India) upon the Legendary athlete Milkha Singh.

b) He will be honoured with the prestigious award on the East Bengal Foundation Day (1 August 2016). Along with the award, a cheque of 2 lakh rupees will also be presented to him.

c) Special awards along with a cash prize of Rs.1 lakh each will be given to East Bengal greats Shyam Thapa and Shyamal Ghosh. The trophy for the best footballer of the year will be given to South Korean midfielder Do Dong Hyun who will also receive Rs.50,000.

2) World Hepatitis Day 2016 observed with theme Elimination

a) World Hepatitis Day was observed worldwide on 28th July 2016. The theme for this year is ‘Elimination’.

b) The theme for the 2016 focuses on elimination of hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. The theme can be easily adapted for local use to achieve elimination, greater awareness, increased diagnosis and key interventions including universal vaccination, blood and injection safety etc.

c) To elevate the theme of elimination NOhep, a global elimination movement, will be launched to bring people together and provide a platform for people to speak out, be engaged and take action to ensure global commitments are met and viral hepatitis is eliminated by 2030.

3) India’s CSIR ranked World’s 12th Best Government Institute

a) The Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR) has secured 12th position among the best government institutions in the world, as per the prestigious Scimago Institutions Rankings.

b) Out of 746 institutions, France’s National Centre for Scientific Research was ranked first followed by Chinese Academy of Science, China. The institutes were ranked on the basis of research performance, innovation and social impact.

c) CSIR had improved its position among government institutes after being at 14th spot for three consecutive years as per an official statement. Also the overall global ranking of CSIR has improved from 110 to 99th position.

4) Lok Sabha passes Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016

a) The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016 to amend the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) (CLPR) Act, 1986 has been approved by the Lok Sabha.

b) The bill seeks to prohibit the employment of children below 14 in all occupations and enterprises, except those run by his or her own family. The bill seeks to make child labour a cognizable offence attracting a jail term of up to three years and penalty up to fifty thousand rupees.

c) Children below 14 will be allowed to work only in family enterprises, that too after school hours. The bill also defines children between 14 to 18 years as adolescents and bars their employment in any hazardous occupations.

d) The bill aims to restrict the employment of children below 14 years in factories and establishments.

5) India’s first green rail corridor launched between Rameswaram and Manamadurai stretch

a) The nation’s first Green Rail Corridor, a 114-km long Rameswaram-Manamadurai stretch in Tamil Nadu which ensures zero toilet discharge on rail tracks, was inaugurated recently by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu.

b) Trains in the section have been equipped with bio-toilets ensuring zero discharge of human waste on the rail tracks. A total of 35,104 bio-toilets had been provided initially, 7,000 more new bio-toilets have been made operational now.

c) Besides, Railway Minister Prabhu also inaugurated high speed upgraded Wi-Fi facility, set up in association with Google, at Chennai Central Railway Station and a similar facility at Tiruchirappalli through video conferencing. He also launched a traditional medicine centre under Ayush at Perambur Railway Hospital.

6) India, US discover major Natural Gas Reserve in Indian Ocean

a) Scientists from India, the United States and Japan have struck upon a large natural gas deposit in the Bay of Bengal, the first potentially producible discovery of its kind in the Indian Ocean.

b) The Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 is the second joint exploration for gas hydrate potential in the Indian Ocean. It focused on the exploration and discovery of highly concentrated gas hydrate occurrences in sand reservoirs.

c) The gas hydrate is located in coarse-grained sand-rich depositional systems in the Krishna-Godavari Basin. A total of 42 holes were completed in 147 days at water depths ranging from 1519 to 2815 meters with sub-seafloor completion depths ranging from 239 to 567 meters below the seafloor.

7) Union Cabinet approves setting up of AIIMS in Bhatinda

a) Centre has approved the setting up of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Punjab’s Bhatinda district.

b) The institution shall have a hospital with capacity of 750 beds which will include emergency/trauma Beds and AYUSH Beds, private beds and ICU Speciality and Super Speciality beds.

c) In addition, there will be an administration block, AYUSH block, auditorium, night shelter, hostels and residential facilities. The project will be completed in a period of 48 months and cost of the project will be Rs. 925 crore.

8) India becomes first contributor to UN Trust Fund for sexual abuse victims

a) India has contributed $1,00,000 to a trust fund set up for victims of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, becoming the first country to make a contribution to the fund.

b) India has historically been one of the largest troop-contributing countries in peacekeeping operations and is currently ranked as the second largest contributor of military and police personnel.

9) Parveen Rana to replace Narsingh Yadav for Rio Olympics

a) Indian wrestler Parveen Rana will soon replace veteran wrestler Narsingh Yadav in the Olympic squad.

b) Rana has been nominated by Wrestling Federation of India for the 74kg freestyle quota place after Narsingh tested positive for a banned steroid.

10) Union Government approves 1601 crore rupees for Himayat programme in J&K

a) Centre has approved Rs 1601 crore for Jammu and Kashmir under skill development initiative Himayat to train 1.24 lakh local youths in vocational courses.

b) Under the reanimated Himayat programme, 1.24 lakh youths from both the rural and urban areas of the state would be imparted training in various job-intensive vocational courses over the next three years.

c) PIA would be selected by State Level Project Appraisal Committee in which experts from National Institute of Rural Development and DDU-GYK will participate along with the officers of the state government.

d) The state is establishing Himayat Mission Management Unit at the state level within one month whereas the JKSRLM will oversee the overall implementation of the program in the state.

11) International Tiger Day observed

a) International Tiger Day is held annually on July 29 to give worldwide attention to the reservation of tigers. It is both an awareness day as a celebration.

b) The goal of the day is to promote a global system for protecting the natural habitats of tigers and to raise public awareness and support for tiger conservation issues.

c) It was founded in 2010 at the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit, with the aim to double the big cat population by 2022.