In Kerala, noted lyricist, author and journalist, Chowalloor Krishnankutty passed away at a private Medical College Hospital in Thrissur 26th June 2022. He was 86.

 

A former Staff Artist with AIR, Krishnankutty penned over 3000 devotional songs and authored more than 200 books. He retired as an Assistant Editor with the Malayala Manorama daily.

 

He won several awards including the Kerala Sahithya Academy Award for satire, Poonthanam Jnanapana and Revathy Pattathanam Awards among others.

 

Chowalloor Krishanankutty also made his mark as a screen writer in Malayalam movies and produced documentaries on some well-known Kathakali artists.  He also served as the Vice-Chairman of the Kerala Kalamandalam..

Source : News on Air

The Central government on Friday(24th June 2022) gave one-year extension in service to Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Samant Goel and appointed senior IPS officer Tapan Deka as Director of Intelligence Bureau.

 

Goel, a 1984-batch IPS officer from Punjab cadre, would continue to be the Secretary of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for a period one-year beyond the presence tenure upto June 30, 2023, a Ministry of personnel order said.

 

Goel was given an extension in service last year too.

 

“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the extension in service of Samant Kumar Goel, IPS (PB:84) as Secretary, Research & Analysis Wing for a period of one year beyond his present tenure up to June 30, 2023, in relaxation of All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958,” the order said.

 

In a separate order, Special Director Intelligence Bureau Tapan Kumar Deka, a 1988 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre IPS officer, was appointed Director Intelligence Bureau for a tenure of two years from the date of assumption of the charge of the post or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

 

Deka will succeed incumbent Intelligence Bureau Director Arvind Kumar, whose tenure ends on June 30..

Source : The Print

Across the globe, there are innumerable people who face physical or psychological torture. While it is a crime under international law, there are many incidents that go unreported. Therefore, to urge all the stakeholders to unite for people who have faced and continue to face the abuse and torture, every year June 26 is observed as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

The United Nations claims that the consequences of torture are that it can turn into a cycle of violence and have a severe impact on the generations to come.

 

HISTORY : The International Day in Support of Victims of Torture not only spreads awareness among the people regarding the human torture being unacceptable in the society but also informs them that it’s a crime. On December 12, 1997, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution, declaring June 26 as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

 

Moreover, the United Nations aims toward the complete eradication of torture from all over the world. The convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment was made effective on June 26, 1987, which is why the UN chose this day to mark International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

 

SIGNIFICANCE : Celebrating the first International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on June 26, 1998, the UN appealed to all the governments, stakeholders, and the members of the global society to stand against this act, and to take action against the torture and those who execute it in every corner of the world. The day is extremely significant, as it unites all in support of those who have been the victims of mental and physical torture..

Source : News18

The forest department officials in India’s snowbound Uttarakhand state have discovered an ultra-rare carnivorous plant in the western Himalayan region for the first time.

 

The plant called Utricularia Furcellata was found in Uttarakhand's Mandal valley, Chamoli district, at an altitude of 4,800 feet by a team of the Research Wing of the Uttarakhand forest in September 2021.

 

The plant was last seen in the country in northeastern Meghalaya state in 1986.

 

The discovery has been documented in the prestigious ‘Journal of Japanese Botany’, which is a 106-year-old journal on plant taxonomy and botany.

 

“It is the first sighting of the plant not only in Uttarakhand but in the entire western Himalayan region,” Chief Conservator of Forest (Research) Sanjiv Chaturvedi told to PTI news agency.

 

Carnivorous plants which generally grow on poor nutrient soil have aroused new interest in the scientific community across the world because of their potential medicinal benefits, the official said.

 

The plant belongs to a genus, commonly known as bladderworts, which uses one of the most sophisticated and developed plant structures for trap and its targets range from protozoa to insects, mosquito larvae and even the young tadpoles.

 

This discovery comes as a part of a project study of insectivorous plants in Uttarakhand..

Source : WIO News

The National Health Authority (NHA) will be hosting its first ever open-to-all hackathon series to drive ideation and innovations around the different building blocks in the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) ecosystem. The series will begin with a hackathon - ‘Round 1: Kickstarting Unified Health Interface (UHI)’ slated for 14th to 17th July 2022.

The hackathon shall be focussed on the Unified Health Interface (UHI) and would aim at mobilising the health start-up ecosystem in India and bringing together individuals and organisations to develop solutions through UHI.

 

Announcing the Hackathon Series, Dr. R.S. Sharma, CEO, NHA said “India has enabled creation of some of the most efficient public delivery systems in the world, as has been witnessed through JAM and UPI, by breaking silos and unlocking network effects. ABDM and UHI will enable the same for the healthcare ecosystem and this Hackathon Series will enable players to collaborate and build solutions which define the future of healthcare.  All are invited to participate in creating a better health ecosystem for every Indian”

 

‘ABDM Hackathon Series - Round 1: Kickstarting UHI’ will focus on two major themes:

 

Innovation Track: Challenge for innovative solutions to power digital health in an open network around various use cases such as teleconsultation, ambulance booking, lab tests, physical consultation booking, lab tests booking.

 

Integration Track: Challenge to accelerate development of applications that are compatible with UHI and integrate these applications with the applications of other such participants to enable digital health transactions on the UHI network.

 

The tentative prize pool for ‘Round 1 – Kickstarting UHI’ isRs. 60,00,000*. This shall be awarded to the top performers on each challenge track on the above-mentioned themes. The solutions shall be assessed by an independent jury..

Source : PIB

Miners in the Klondike gold fields of Canada's far north have made a rare discovery, digging up the mummified remains of a near complete baby woolly mammoth.

Members of the local Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation named the calf Nun cho ga, which means "big baby animal."

 

Paleontologist Grant Zazula said the little tyke, which retained its skin and hair, "is beautiful and one of the most incredible mummified ice age animals ever discovered in the world."

 

The baby mammoth's remains were discovered during excavation through permafrost south of Dawson City in Canada's Yukon territory, which borders the US state of Alaska.

 

The animal is believed to be female and would have died during the ice age, more than 30,000 years ago when woolly mammoths roamed this region alongside wild horses, cave lions and giant steppe bison.

 

The discovery marks the first near complete and best-preserved mummified woolly mammoth found in North America.

 

A partial mammoth calf, named Effie, was found in 1948 at a gold mine in Alaska's interior.

 

A 42,000-year old mummified infant woolly mammoth, known as Lyuba, was also discovered in Siberia in 2007. Lyuba and Nun cho ga are roughly the same size, according to the Yukon government..

Source : NDTV

The Department of Personnel and Training announced on Friday(24th June 2022) that Former Drinking Water and Sanitation Secretary Parameswaran Iyer has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NITI Aayog. Iyer has been appointed for a term of two years.

 

Iyer's term will begin upon the completion of current CEO Amitabh Kant's tenure on June 30, 2022.

 

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Shri Parameswaran Iyer, lAS (UP:81), Retd. as Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog vice Shri Amitabh Kant upon completion of his tenure on 30.06.2022, for a period of two years or until further orders, whichever is earlier, on the same terms and conditions as were applicable in respect of Shri Amitabh Kant," read the official notification from the government.

 

Kant was appointed as the CEO of the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog) on February 17, 2016, for a fixed two-year term. Kant was later given an extension till June 30, 2019. His term was further extended for two years, till this month-end, in June 2019.In June 2021, Kant received another one-year extension.

 

Born in Srinagar, the 63-year-old is an IAS officer from the 1981 batch of the Uttar Pradesh cadre. He is an alumnus of The Doon School in Dehradun and St. Stephen's College, Delhi. .

Source : Business Today

* The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is observed on June 26th.

 

* Aim : To spread awareness about the physical and psychological impact of substance abuse, drug overdose deaths.

 

* The theme 2022 : Addressing drug challenges in health and humanitarian crisis

 

* The UNGA has decided to observe this day on December 7, 1987.

 

* In 2022, the UNODC has started the campaign - “#CareInCrises” - for World Drug Day..

 

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh will take part in the “2022 UN Ocean Conference” at Lisbon, which starts from June 27, 2022.

The conference is co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal.

He will deliver the Keynote address at the Conference on the theme 'Scaling up Ocean Action based on Science and Innovation for the implementation of Goal 14: Stock taking, Partnerships and Solutions'..

Source : PIB

Keeping in view the core ideology of Yoga, the design team at Centre of Excellence for Khadi (CoEK) has designed a range of ‘Wellness wear’ ‘Svadha’ to showcase the versatility of khadi on International Yoga Day. In Atharva veda, ‘Svadha’ means ease, comfort or pleasure, which are truly the attributes of this collection.

The wellness clothing ‘Svadha’ range emphasizes the values of mindfulness and perseverance and is aimed to attract all age groups from Gen Z to young at heart. The wellness wear has used hand-spun khadi in natural hues. The thread of khadi binds the people globally in true sense towards ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’- the world is one family.

Center of Excellence for Khadi (CoEK) has been set up by KVIC, Ministry of MSME at NIFT, with the objective to help Khadi Institutions (KIs) to effectively design, produce and market high quality differentiated khadi products in the Indian and global market..

Source : PIB