Weekly Update: July 27, 2020 - July 31, 2020

With a lot in our hands, it often becomes difficult to keep track of what has happened while we were busy. Hence, in this section (Weekly Update) of my blog, I attempt to share some of the important things that happened in a week: Monday-Friday. Let's start!

July 27, 2020 (Monday)

:::As per the information available on Aarogya Setu app, figures of Corona Cases were as follows:

Confirmed - 14,35,456

Recovered - 9,17,568

Deceased - 32,771

:::Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) had earlier sought government's intervention to turn around the hospitality industry. A few days later, Pune Restaurant and Hoteliers Association issued a statement saying that a minimum of 8,500 restaurants have closed down. Almost 2 lac employees have returned to their native place. It has been estimated that hotels and restaurants have suffered a loss of Rs.250 crore during the lockdown.

:::After banning 59 Chinese apps like TikTok, ShareIt and WeChat, the I-T Ministry took another bold step against China and banned 47 more apps that were reported to be the clones of these Chinese apps. The ban has been imposed citing concerns over data privacy violations. Amid arguments being raised saying that not every app is Chinese, the I-T Ministry justified that there are apps that are not Chinese but their servers are based in China and China is using these servers to collect data of the users.

:::The Ministry of Earth Sciences launched Mausam, a mobile application designed by India Meteorological Department (a 134 years old department). The app can be used by India Meteorological Department, or IMD, to communicate weather information and forecast to the general public. This is the first mobile application for the general public. The previous mobile application by IMD, Meghdoot, was a joint initiative with Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR); however, it was only for farmers and not for the general public. The link to download Mausam from Google Play Store is mentioned below:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.imd.masuam&hl=en

:::According to a research published in British Ecological Society journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, an AI Tool has been developed that identifies an individual bird. This eliminates the need to mark birds for identification. As per the researchers from France, Germany, Portugal and South Africa, the process of developing the AI Tool involves collecting thousands of labelled images of birds and then using this data to train and test AI models. The tool works with the accuracy of over 90% for the wild species and 87% for captive finches.

:::India paid tribute to its beloved Ex-President, APJ Abdul Kalam, on his 5th death anniversary. He was the 11th President of India. He passed away after suffering cardiac arrest while delivering a speech at IIM Shillong. #RememberingAbdulKalam trended all over social media and millions of people shared their love for him.

July 28, 2020 (Tuesday)

:::Najib Razak, Ex-Prime Minister of Malaysia, was found guilty of all seven corruption charges. These charges were linked to a Multi-Billion scandal of 1MDB, 1Malaysia Development Berhad. 1MDB was founded by Najib Rzak with the help of Malaysian Financier Jho Low to promote economic development of Malaysia. Instead, these funds were diverted to private pockets. Najib Razak has been sentenced to a 12-year jail term with a fine of Rs.370 crore, while Jho Low continues to maintain its innocence.

:::Vaidehi Vekariya and Radhika Lakhani, two female residents of Surat, made India proud by discovering an Earth crossing asteroid. The fourteen year young girls discovered the asteroid by studying the images from the University of Hawaii telescope. The asteroid has been named HLV2514. According to SPACE India, the asteroid is expected to cross Earth's orbit in One Million years. The same has been confirmed by NASA.

:::Reliance Brands, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, acquired 15% stake of Ronnie Screwvala in a Bengaluru based e-commerce company, Zivame. It was founded in 2011 by Richa Kar to encourage its female customers to shift to online shopping for lingerie from the conventional brick-and-mortar shopping and provide them privacy while shopping. Zivame is going strong in the market with more than 30 retail stores and with a presence in more than 800 partner stores. Reliance Brands is now looking to acquire 100% stake in the company.

July 29, 2020 (Wednesday)

:::As per Aarogya Setu App, Corona Cases reached the following figures:

Confirmed - 15,31,669

Recovered - 9,88,029

Deceased - 34,193

:::For the first time in thirty four years, the Union Cabinet approved a new National Education Policy. The draft of new National Educational Policy was prepared by a panel led by ISRO Chief K Kasturirangan, and it was submitted to the Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal last year. Some of the major changes being introduced are:

1) MHRD will now be the Education Ministry.

2) 10+2 system will be replaced by 5+3+3+4 where first five years will cover 3 years of pre-school and two years of 1st and 2nd grade, next three years will cover grades from 3-5, following three years will cover grades from 6-8 and final four years will cover grades from 9-12.

3) Coding will now be taught to students from 6th grade.

4) The new Education Policy allows schools to follow a multi-disciplinary approach. Students will be allowed to study different subjects of their choice.

5) Students will also be given the opportunity to pursue internships from grade 6th to 12th.

:::Maruti Suzuki reported its first ever quarterly loss of Rs.249 crore in fifteen years. The loss reported by the company is for the period of April-June 2020. It is being said that the loss is due to lockdown. The lockdown period hit the production and sales of the company, and it also led to disruptions in the supply chain.

:::The first batch of five Rafale Jets landed in Ambala Airspace, after covering a distance of around 7,000 kilometers. The fleet consisted of two types of jets: three single seater jets; and, two twin seater jets. These game changer jets are expected to boost India's combat capabilities and they will be officially inducted into the IAF as a part of its No 17 Squadron, Golden Arrow.

July 30, 2020 (Thursday)

:::Corona Cases as per reported on Aarogya Setu app stood as follows:

Confirmed - 15,83,792

Recovered - 10,20,582

Deceased - 34,968

:::Ashutosh Bhakre, a Marathi actor, was found hanging at his parents home in Nanded, Maharashtra. The 32 years young actor was best known for films like Bhakar and Ichar Tharla Pakka. He was married to a Marathi actor, Mayuri Deshmukh. It is being said that he was suffering from depression. The reasons behind his suicide are not yet known; however, the case of accidental death has been registered and it is being investigated further. As per the officials, the actor in his last video talked about why people think about dying from suicide and shared it on social media.

:::In a bid to seek signs of past life on Mars, NASA has launched a rover named Perseverance. The main jobs of the rover, as mentioned by NASA on its website, are to seek signs of ancient life, and collect rock and soil samples. The total duration of the mission is at least one Mars year, which is about 687 Earth days. The rover was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and it is expected to land on Jezero Crater, Mars, on February 18, 2021. The total cost of the mission is estimated to be around $2.4 Billion.

July 31, 2020 (Friday)

:::Corona Cases as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:

Confirmed - 16,38,870

Recovered - 10,57,805

Deceased - 35,747

:::After a long wait of nearly 22 years, the Lord Shiva statue will return to India. It is a 4 feet tall 10th century stone statue. It was stolen from Rajasthan's Ghateshwar Temple in 1998 and it was smuggled to the UK in 2003. The UK authorities offered their support after receiving the information and pursued the matter with a private collector who was in possession of the idol in London. He voluntarily returned the idol to the Indian High Commission in the UK in 2005. The statue is now all set to be returned to the Archaeological Survey of India.

:::The Government of India restricted the import of color TV sets. This has been done to boost the local manufacturing of TV sets, and also to reduce inbound shipments of non-essential items from countries like China. India till now had the maximum import of color TV sets from China and Vietnam, followed by various countries like Malaysia, Hong Kong, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, and Germany. The restriction has been imposed for TV sets of all sizes ranging from 36cm to 105 cm, and LCD TV sets below 63cm. As an effect of the restriction, the importers will now have to seek import licence from Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). Manish Sharma, CEO and President of Panasonic India, has welcomed the move by stating that it will definitely have a positive impact on domestic assembling.

That is all for this week. I hope that the blog was useful and it helped you in catching up with what happened. If you have anything to contribute, then please feel free to comment. Do share this blog with everyone and help them too.

*Disclaimer: The information has been presented in this blog after reviewing various news articles. In case you find any article, or if you have any article, that states some facts differently, then share them in the comment section. Please keep the publishing date of the article in mind as it may be an update on the article which was published previously, or it may contain outdated information if it was published before the date mentioned in this blog.