Bihar

 

• Nitish distributes portfolios, keeps home ministry; Sushil Modi gets finance, commercial taxes.

 

• The portfolios for other ministers are as follows:-

  Nand Kishore Yadav– Road construction

  Shrawan Kumar– Rural development and parliamentary affairs

  Ram Narayan Mandal– Revenue and Land Reforms

  Jai Kumar Singh– Industries, Science and Technology

  Pramod Kumar– Tourism

  Krishnandan Verma– Education

  Maheshwar Hazari– Building Construction

  Vinod Narayan Jha– PHED

  Shailesh Kumar– Rural Works

  Suresh Kumar Sharma– Urban Development and Housing

  Kumari Manju Verma– Social Welfare

  Vijay Kumar Sinha– Labour Resources

  Santosh Kumar Nirala– Transport

  Rana Randhir Singh– Cooperative

  Khurshid alias Feroz Ahmad– Minority Welfare and Sugarcane Development

  Vinod Kumar Singh– Mines and Geology

  Madan Sahni– Food and Consumer Protection

  Krishna Kumar Rishi– Art and Culture

  Kapildeo Kamat– Panchayati Raj

Dinesh Chandra Yadav– Minor Irrigation and Disaster Management

Ramesh Rishideo– SC, ST Welfare

Brij Kishore Bind– Backward and EBC Welfare

Pashupati Paras– Animal and Fish Resources

• New cabinet has 1 woman, 1 Muslim

 

• Bihar’s new cabinet does not appear to be fair to the fairer sex with one woman representing half of the state’s 10.38 crore population. Even the representation of Muslims has reduced from four in the previous cabinet to one in the new one.
• While JD(U)’s Cheriya Briarpur MLA Kumari Manju Verma is the only woman minister, its Sikta MLA Khurshid alias Firoz Ahmad is the sole minister belonging to the minority community.

INTERNATIONAL

 

·       Caeleb Dressel becomes first ever Swimmer to win three gold medals in one night at worlds Championship.

 

• The 20-year-old Caeleb Dresselas America’s newest star of the pool recently became the first swimmer to win three gold medals on a single night at either the worlds or the Olympics.

 

• Caeleb Dressel accomplished this feat at 2017 FINA World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

 

·       Shahid Khaqan Abbasi declared as interim Pakistan Prime Minister

 

• Pakistan Muslim League selected Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to be the interim Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• Nawaz Sharif recently resigned as Pakistan Prime Minister after the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding public office.

 

·       Sri Lanka and China sign $1.1 billion Hambantota Port Deal.

 

• Sri Lanka signed $1.1 billion deal to the United States of America to sell a 70% stake in the strategic Hambantota deep-sea port to China.
• It is a deep-water port in the southern tip of Sri Lanka.
• The deal was signed between Sri Lanka Ports Authority(SLPA) and China Merchants Port Holding Company (CMPort)
• These sea lines run through several major maritime choke points such as the Strait of Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Malacca and the Lombok Strait as well as other strategic maritime centres in Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Somalia.

 

·       July 30 – United Nation’s World Day against Trafficking in Persons.

 

• TheUnited Nations World Day against Trafficking in Personsis observed on  30 July across the world.
• This year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) selected ‘Act to Protect and Assist Trafficked Persons’ as the focus of the Day.
• The theme aims at one of the most pressing issues of the largest mixed migration movements of refugees and migrants.

National

 

• Indian Scientists develop Gelator to remove oil from spills.
• Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram have developed gelator that can suck up oil and congeal it. The gelator is hydrophobic material that has property of oleilophilic (oil-loving) and takes up oil when it comes in contact with it. It can be used to recover marine oil spills with a simple, efficient and cost-effective method.
• It is developed using a cheap raw material mannitol and cellulose pulp through a one-step process.
• ‘Muntra’ – India’s first unmanned tank

 

• Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)has developed India’s first unmanned tank, which has three variants namely surveillance, mine detection and reconnaissance in areas with nuclear and bio threats.
• It is calledMuntra (Mission UNmanned TRAcked)and has been rolled out of the Chennai lab.
• The tanks will facilitate Indian Armed forces in conducting unmanned surveillance missions. Muntra-S developed for unmanned surveillance missions, whereas Muntra-M is built for detecting mines.

 

• Eight national waterways will be unveiled soon

 

• As many as 32 new national waterways in the country have been considered technically feasible for development of shipping and navigation.

 

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon inaugurate eight national waterways (NW).

 

• Out of 106 newly—declared national waterways (NWs), 32 NWs are considered technically feasible so far. Out of these 32 NWs, the development of seven NWs has been approved.

 

 

• Centre plans to remote-map canals

 

• The Centre plans to link all canals via a geographical information system that would allow them to be remotely mapped.

 

• The Central government has earmarked Rs. 77,595 crore to states to complete a range of irrigation projects that have been stuck for decades owing to lack of funds, with the water ministry committed to ensuring that 99 such projects would be completed by 2020. Twenty-three would be completed by 2016-17 and 31 by 2017-18. One of the major reasons for the projects to remain incomplete was inadequate provision of funds by the concerned State governments.

 

• Some of these canals could be hundreds of kilometres long and some much smaller.