Bobsledder banned for life from Olympics

Russian bobsledder Alexey Voevoda has been given a life ban from the Olympics for anti-doping violations at the Sochi Games where he won two gold medals. The decision comes two weeks after the IOC banned Russia from next year’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics for what it called “unprecedented systematic manipulation” of the anti-doping system. He won gold in the two-man and four-man bobsled.

India’s first design university ‘World University of Design’ opens campus

India’s first and only design university, World University of Design opened it campus at Sonipat, Haryana. The campus is situated on NH1 in Rajiv Gandhi Education City (NCR), Sonipat, the largest planned integrated city for education in India. WUD is India’s first university dedicated to education in the creative domain; WUD underlines the movement of design from being purely vocation-oriented to becoming academic-oriented; and from certificate & diploma stage to degree, postgraduate degrees, research and doctoral programmes.

Golden Jubilee celebrations of Indian Women Pilots Association held

The golden jubilee celebrations of Indian Women Pilots Association (IWPA) were held recently. During the celebrations the Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha stated that India has the maximum number of women pilots in the world. The IWPA was founded in Mumbai in the year 1967 by five ladies, namely Chanda Sawant Budhabhatti (first woman to obtain an FAA Commercial Pilot certificate), Mohini Shroff, Rabia Fatehally, Dr. Sunila Bhajekar and Capt. Durba Banerjee (in 1956 was the second woman commercial pilot of India). The IWPA then was the 5th national organisation of its kind in the world, next to the British Women Pilots Association, Australian Women Pilots Association, German Women Pilots Association and Finnish Women Pilots Association.

Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh resigns

Incumbent Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has resigned from his post, a day after the results of the assembly election were announced in the state. Governor Acharya Devvrat, asked him to continue in the office along with his council of Ministers to discharge the functions till an alternative arrangement is made or the new government is formed. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrested power from the Congress, winning close to a two-thirds majority with 44 seats in its kitty in the 68-member assembly.

Delhi ranks 7th in Most Expensive Office Locations list

Delhi has emerged as one of the most expensive premium office locations in the world. Ranked 7th in the list, rent of Delhi’s premium office location is higher than San Francisco and Dubai, according to the latest report by JLL India, a real estate services firm. Mumbai is at 16th position in the list. The top spot is again taken by Hong Kong and there is huge margin between the rent rates between Hong Kong and London (West), which is second in the list. New York, Beijing, Tokyo are on the third, fourth and fifth position respectively.

Indian Hockey Umpires named as umpires for 2018 Hockey Men’s World Cup

Indian Umpires, Raghu Prasad and Javed Shaikh, were named in the panel of umpires for next year’s Hockey World Cup to be held in Bhubaneswar. Besides Prasad and Shaikh, amongst those appointed are Golden Whistle umpires Spain’s Francisco Vazquez, Martin Madden of Scotland and Simon Taylor of New Zealand.

Naseem-Al-Bahr 2017: India, Oman conducts naval exercise

The 11th edition of Naseem-Al-Bahr (Sea Breeze) 2017 Naval exercise between India and Oman was held at Said Bin Sultan Naval Base, Wudam in Oman. The year marks 24 years of Indian Navy-Royal Navy of Oman bilateral exercises that has been a biennial feature since 1993.

UK tops Forbes’ List of Best Countries for Business in 2018

The United Kingdom has topped Forbes’ rankings of best countries in the world for business in 2018 for the first time, up from fifth last year. The list ranks 153 countries on 15 factors including property rights, innovation, taxes and red tape. The UK is followed by New Zealand and the Netherlands, while India was ranked 62nd on the list. The UK’s $2.6 trillion economy is the fifth largest in the world. The world’s second (China) and third (Japan) biggest economies rank 66th and 21st, respectively. Chad ranks last for the third straight year.

India’s First National Rail and Transportation University to come at Vadodara

The Union Cabinet has approved proposal of Ministry of Railways to set up first ever National Rail and Transport University (NRTU) in Vadodara to skill its human resources and build capability. The University will be set up as Deemed to Be University under de novo category as per UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2016. The first academic program is expected to be launched in July 2018.

India, Myanmar sign MoU for Rakhine State’s development

India and Myanmar signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at developing Myanmar’s Rakhine state. It was signed by Foreign secretary S Jaishankar and Myanmar’s deputy minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement U Soe Aung. Under this MoU, Government of India proposes to take up, among others, a project to build prefabricated housing in Rakhine State so as to meet the immediate needs of returning people.

OEC 2017 kicked off to foster Sustainable River Basin Management

Odisha Environment Congress 2017 kicked off with an aim to foster ‘Sustainable River Basin Management’. OEC-2017 kicked off at Regional Museum of Natural History in Odisha. The integrated approach to river basin management is needed with a focus on water-use-efficiency in both agricultural as well as industry. This may save adequate water for the river to serve itself. Conscious efforts by all to reduce pollution load on the river system would be beneficial to both human societies as well as to nature.

DARPAN Project launched for Financial Inclusion of Rural Population

The Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha launched DARPAN- “Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India” Project to improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve ‘financial inclusion’ of the unbanked rural population. The goal of the IT modernization project with an outlay of Rs. 1400 Crore is to provide a low power technology solution to each Branch Postmaster (BPM) which will enable each of approximately 1.29 Lakhs Branch Post Offices (BOs) to improve the level of services being offered to rural customers across all the states.