NATIONAL NEWS

 SDG India Index 2024

•  The NITI Aayog's SDG India Index 2023-24 shows that India's overall Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) score rose to 71 in 2023-24, up from 66 in 2020-21.
• Uttarakhand and Kerala are top-performing states with a score of 79 and Bihar is ranked as the worst performer.

NITI Aayog

World Population Prospects Report 2024

• According to the UN's World Population Prospects report, India's population is expected to peak at 1.701 billion in 2062.
• India is currently the most populous country in the world, with a population of 1.451 billion people. With 1.419 billion inhabitants, China comes in second, while the US comes in third with 345 million.

United Nations

NE-RACE portal

• Union Minister for the Development of the North East Region Jyotiraditya Scindia launched the North East Region Agri Commodity E-Connect (NERACE) designed to benefit the farmers of the region and help position it as a hub of high-value horticultural products in the international market.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Lithuania

• Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda was sworn in for a second five-year term.

Lithuania

Indo-Norway Blue Economy

• India and Norway held the 11th Foreign Office Consultations meeting to bolster ties to diversify cooperation in the fields of blue economy, renewable energy, climate & environment, CCUS, green hydrogen, solar and wind projects.

Norway

ECONOMY & BANKING

Index of Industrial Production (IIP)

• Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation released IIP data of May in which it rose 5.9% in May this year over the corresponding period of the previous year. The IIP growth rate in May 2023 was 5.7%.

IIP

AgriSure Fund by NABARD

• NABVENTURES, a subsidiary of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) arm, has launched a Rs 750-crore agri fund for startups and rural enterprises.
• The fund will provide support through investments in sector-specific, sector-agnostic, and debt Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), as well as direct equity support to startups.

NABARD

Science & Technology & ENVIRONMENT

NASA’s CHAPEA project

• Recently, four volunteers who were sealed inside a simulated Mars habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston in CHAPEA ("Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog") Project returned to their regular life after 378 days.
• They were living on Mars Dune Alpha, a 1,700-square-foot (158 square meters) 3D-printed habitat designed to feel like an isolated Red Planet outpost.

James Webb Space Telescope

• NASA released a pair of images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope showing two galaxies - one nicknamed the Penguin and the other the Egg - in the process of merging in sort of a cosmic ballet as the U.S. space agency marked two years since it unveiled the orbiting observatory's first scientific results.

NASA

‘DD-Robocon’ India 2024

•  IIT Delhi and Prasar Bharati hosted  the two-day Robot Competition ‘DD-Robocon’ India at Thyagaraj Stadium in Delhi.
•  The winning team from DD-Robocon will represent India at the international Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union Robocon 2024, which will take place in QuangNinh, Vietnam.

Prasar Bharati

Eco-friendly solvents

• A team at Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) Guwahati, an autonomous institute of Department of Science & Technology, has identified Ionic Liquids (ILs) which can be promising sustainable alternatives to the toxic chemicals currently in use for the silk protein extraction process.
• Traditionally, toxic chemicals like sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, and lithium bromide have been used to extract silk proteins, fibroin and sericin from various types of raw silk fibers, an important step in the process of making silk from cocoons.

New species of dogfish

•  Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India have discovered a new species of deep-water dogfish shark, Squalus hima, from the Sakthikulangara fishing harbour in Kerala.

Zoological Survey of India

IMPORTANT DAY

Savindhan Hatya Diwas: June 25

• The Government has decided to observe June 25, the day the Emergency was declared in 1975, as “Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas” to commemorate the “massive contributions” of those who endured “inhuman pains" of the period.

International Malala Day 2024

• International Malala Day was observed on July 12, coinciding with the birthday of Malala Yousafzai. The day celebrates her remarkable life and enduring legacy as a champion for girls’ education. 

SPORTS

ISSF Junior World Cup 2024

• Sabeera Haris has bagged the bronze medal in women’s trap event at ISSF Junior World Cup 2024 in Porpetto, Italy.

Olympic Esports Games

• The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that it has partnered with the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Saudi Arabia to host the inaugural Olympic Esports Games 2025 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

IOC

PERSON IN NEWS

Sudarsan Pattnaik

•  Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik received a Golden Sand Master Award at the International Sand Sculpture Championship for creating a 12-foot depiction of a sand chariot carrying Lord Jagannath and his devotee and a 14th-century poet Balaram Das.

Justice Aalia Neelum

• Justice Aalia Neelum took oath as the first Chief Justice of Pakistan's Lahore High Court in presence of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz at the Punjab Governor's house, becoming the first woman to be elevated to the court’s top position.

Pakistan