Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) Chief Muthuvel Karunanidhi (94-year) passed away due to age-related illness in Chennai.
He was in medical treatment for the past 11 days at Kauveri hospital Chennai.
Today, Madras High Court grants permission to bury M Karunanidhi behind Anna Samadhi on Marina beach.
Note:
Muthuvel Karunanidhi was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms and twenty years between 1969 and 2011.
He has also made contributions to Tamil literature, having written stories, plays, novels, and a multiple-volume memoir.
He was popularly referred to as Kalaignar in Tamil Nadu by his supporters.
National Affairs
2. TRAI integrates its mobile app DND 2.0 & MyCall with UMANG platform
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has integrated its mobile apps ‘DND 2.0’ & ‘MyCall’ with UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) Platform.
UMANG is developed by National e-Governance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
TRAI MyCall is an intuitive and user-friendly application for Crowdsourced Voice Call Quality Monitoring.
DND (Do Not Disturb) services app enables smartphone users to register their mobile number under DND and report spam messages or calls to avoid Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC)/Telemarketing Calls/SMS.
3. 3rd India-Nepal coordination meeting starts in New Delhi
The three-day India-Nepal Coordination meeting (3rd) has been started in New Delhi.
Nepal’s seven-member delegation headed by Inspector General of Nepal Armed Police Force ‘Shailendra Khanal’ is taking part in the meeting.
Several important matters like security scenario along the border, coordination meetings at field level, sharing of information about crimes and criminals, training of armed police personnel and mutual visits by officers of two countries will be discussed.
4. Centre urges all states to enforce 2011 Sports Code
According to Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, the Union Government has urged all states to enforce the 2011 Sports Code so that it is followed by the state federations.
Sports Code of 2011 lays down very specific guidelines as to how the elections will be conducted.
Some sports federations have been derecognised because of certain lacunae in their functioning.
5. Nikhil Nanda appointed as the Chairman and MD of Escorts
Nikhil Nada has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (MD) of the farm and construction equipment maker company ‘Escorts’.
He succeeded his father Rajan Nanda who passed away due to brief illness.
Nikhil is an alumnus of Wharton Business School, Philadelphia and key member of the company’s board since 1997.
Note: The Escorts Group is an Indian engineering company that operates in the sectors of agri-machinery, construction and material handling equipment, and railway equipment.
6. The World’s first thermal battery plant inaugurated in Andhra Pradesh
The Andhra Pradesh Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has unveiled the world’s first -ever thermal battery plant to boost renewable sources of energy production and reduce the dependence on non-renewable fossil fuel-based energy generation.
It will help in mitigating carbon emissions, is best suited for grid balancing and stabilisations.
The renewable sources of energy production and reduce the dependence on non-renewable fossil fuel-based energy generation.
It will also be used to store energy for telecommunication, commercial establishments, electric vehicles and highway charging stations.
Note: The technology Manufactured by the Bharat Energy Storage Technology Private Limited (BEST).
Appointments
7. Ivan Duque sworn in as Colombia's next president
Colombia's President-elect Ivan Duque (42-year) has been sworn in as the country's 60th president.
Duque is expected to appoint a cabinet consisting largely of little-known technocrats, with the same number of women and men.
Note: The President of Colombia is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Colombia.
Banking & Finance
8. Bajaj Allianz General Insu. & Vijaya Bank enter bancassurance tie-up
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has been entered into a bancassurance deal with Vijaya Bank.
It will enable distribution of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance products through the Vijaya Bank’s network of 2,129 branches across the country.
Under this strategic tie-up, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance will offer personal lines of insurance products such as health, personal accident, home, motor and travel along with a commercial line of insurance products.
Sports
9. Young Saudi gamer wins FIFA eWorld Cup
Saudi national Musaed Aldossary (18-year) has been crowned champion of the FIFA eWorld Cup Grand Final.
He battled it out against Belgium’s Stefano Pinna to clinch the USD 250,000 prize in the contest held at the O2 in London.
Mosaad Aldossary has won 4-0 on aggregate against Belgium’s Stefano Pinna in the two-legged final.
Note:
FIFA eWorld Cup is the computer-console version of the FIFA football tournament.
Around 20 million gamers had vied for spots in the annual eWorld Cup, with 32 making it to the finals.
Mosaad Aldossary also collected an invitation to the world soccer body's Best FIFA Football awards in September and a gleaming new trophy.
10. Facial recognition system set to be used in 2020 Olympic security
A facial recognition system will be used across an Olympics for the first time during the 2020 Games.
The NeoFace technology developed by NEC Corp. will be customized to monitor every accredited person including ‘athletes, officials, staff and media’ at games villages and media centers.
The system is expected to effectively eliminate entry with forged IDs, reduce congestion at accredited waiting lines and reduce athletes' stress under hot weather.
Note:
By introducing the face recognition system, facial images of every accredited person for the Olympics and Paralympics will be collected after the approval process and stored in a database to be used to verify identities at accreditation checkpoints.
Its biometric identification technology is used at airports and elsewhere in 70 countries, including Japan.
