Uttarakhand
- Uttarakhand high court asks state counsel to get info on Pancheshwar dam hearing.
- The Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday while hearing a PIL related to the Pancheshwar dam project in Champawat district directed the state counsel to seek instructions from the district magistrates of Champawat, Almora and Pithoragarh districts about the protocol of public hearings for the project. Hearings were scheduled on August 9, 11 and 17.
- Situated near the Indo-Nepal border, The Pancheshwar Multipurpose Development Project is the biggest joint initiative in the Mahakali Treaty, signed between India and Nepal in 1996. However, the proposed dam will submerge around 134 villages in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts that border Nepal and Almora.
INTERNATIONAL
- Oldest man in the World Yisrael Kristal aged 113 died in Israel.
- World’s oldest man, Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal (aged 113) who was recognised by Guinness World Recordslast year (on March 11, 2016) as the world’s oldest living man, died in Israel.
Mr Kristal was born in Poland on September 15, 1903 and later moved to Israel in 1950.
- Facebook launches Youtube Competitor called Watch.
- Facebook launched Youtube competitor called ‘Watch’
- Watch is a platform for all creators and publishers to find an audience, build a community of passionate fans, and earn money for their work.
- In the first phase“Watch’’will be introduced to a limited group of people in the US and plan to bring the experience to more people soon.
National
- Oxford University launches Tamil, Gujarati Online Dictionaries
- Oxford University Press(OUP) launched online dictionaries in Tamil and Gujarati as part of its special focus on Indian languages.
- Oxford Global Languages (OGL) is a major initiative from Oxford Dictionaries aims to build dictionaries and lexicographical resources for round 100 of the world’s languages and to make them available online.
- Davinder Singh Kang is the first Indian to Qualify for Javelin Throw Finals
- Davinder Singh Kang becomes the first Indian to qualify for the final round of the javelin throw World Championships.
- He had an22min his opening throw and then came up with 82.14m in his second.
- He is the first ever Indian who is qualified in the men’s javelin throw final round in any World Championship.
- SEBI allows MCX to launch Gold Option.
- The Multi Commodity Exchange Limited (MCX), the country’s largest commodity exchange has received capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) approval to launch options trading in gold.
- It will allow investors and hedgers to minimize their price risk at a fraction of the cost compared to currently available futures trading.
- The MCX is the country’s largest metals and energy commodity bourse. It is country’s first listed commodity futures exchange that facilitates online trading, and clearing and settlement of commodity futures transactions, thereby providing a platform for risk management. It began functioning in November 2003 and operates within the regulatory framework of the Forward Contracts Regulation Act, 1952 (FCRA, 1952). It offers futures trading in bullion, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, energy, and a number of agricultural commodities (mentha oil, cardamom, potatoes, palm oil and others). Globally, MCX ranks no. 1 in silver, no. 2 in natural gas, no. 3 in crude oil and gold in futures trading.
- Water storage of 91 major reservoirs up by 4%.
- The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending on August 03 was 67.683 BCM which is 43% of total storage capacity of these reservoirs, according to the press information bureau.
- This percentage was at 39 for the week ending on July 27. The level is 104% of the storage of corresponding period of last year and 97% of storage of average of last ten years.
- The total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 157.799 BCM which is about 62% of the total storage capacity of 253.388 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country. 37 Reservoirs out of these 91 have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW.
- The Western region includes States of Gujarat and Maharashtra. There are 27 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 27.07 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 14.74 BCM which is 54% of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 43% and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 47% of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is better than the storage of last year and is also better than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period.