John Abraham, a veterinary-doctor-turned-inventor, has received the patents for inventing biodiesel from the waste of slaughtered chicken. This biodiesel offers mileage of around 38 km a litre. This biodiesel costs around 40% of the current diesel price and cuts down on pollution by half.
Mr. Abraham stated that pigs and birds have single stomach which offers higher fat saturation and under room temperature this makes it easy to render oil. 1 liter of biodiesel can be produced from 100 kg of chicken waste. The lower pollution and higher mileage is because chicken waste contains 62% fat which offers key energy content of Cetane at 72, while in normal diesel it is 64 only. The high Cetane value of 72 in leads to shorter ignition delays which provides more time for fuel combustion and this leads to less exhaust emission and more efficiency. Smoke levels are also reduced by over 47%.
Mr Abraham and three of his students are presently working on developing biodiesel from pig waste.
On 26th July, 2021, Kargil Vijay Diwas’s 22nd Anniversary is being celebrated across the country. The Nation will be paying tributes to the Martyrs on Kargil Vijay Diwas.
This year, the Golden Victory of Bangladesh Liberation is also being celebrated by India. At the War Memorial in Drass, as part of commemoration of the Indian Armed Forces victory in the 1971 war, a Victory Flame will be received around nine in the morning which will then be followed by the Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations.
The Kargil War was an armed conflict fought between India and Pakistan from 3rd May to 26th July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and along the Line of Control (LoC). The Indian Air Force played a major role in acting jointly with the Indian Army ground troops to flush out the troops of the Pakistan Army from vacated Indian positions along the LoC. Operation Safed Sagar was the codename of this mission. The cause of the war was that Pakistani troops disguised themselves as Kashmiri militants to enter the Indian border and took positions on the Indian side. At initial stages of the war, Pakistan blamed it on the independent Kashmiri insurgents, but documents found from the casualties and later statements by Pakistan showed the involvement of Pakistani paramilitary forces which was led by General Ashraf Rashid. The Indian armed forces gave them a major beating and drove them out of the country.
On 26th July, 2021, Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education announced that the government of India is planning to set up a National Research Foundation (NRF) with the primary aim to strengthen the country’s research ecosystem.
A budget of Rs 50,000 crore has been announced as total proposed outlay for the NRF over a 5 year period.
The National Research Foundation (NRF) will be functioning as a structure that will connect the industry, academia and the R&D of the country. One of the primary aims of setting up the NRF is the facilitation and growth of research capabilities and outcomes in those institutions (colleges, universities, etc) where research capacity is currently developing. The National Research Foundation (NRF) will also support and fund multi-institutional, large scale, multi-investigator, high impact, multi-nation or interdisciplinary projects which will be dine in association or collaboration with the relevant departments or ministries as well as governmental and non-governmental industries of the country.
Formerly known as the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, and this ministry is responsible for the countrywide implementation of the National Education Policy. Dharmendra Pradhan is the present Union Minister of this department.
13 years old Japanese skateboarder Momiji Nishiya won the gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She became one of the youngest gold medalists ever at the Olympic Games.
Marjorie Gestring, is the youngest gold medal winner of the Olympics. At the 1936 Berlin Games she dominated the women’s diving competition. During that time she was only 13 years and 268 days old.
The participants told that they wish to see even more participants in the women’s category in the future Olympic Games.
On 26th July, 2021, Yogi Adityanath the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh launched the ‘MyGov-Meri Sarkar’ portal.
This portal will be beneficial to the people of the state as they will be able to put forward their suggestions, views and feedbacks. This portal aims to become an innovative platform for joining the public with the government and hence will improve governance in the state. This portal will also improve public participation.
Four new sports have been introduced in the Tokyo Olympics. They are karate, skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing.
Martial art, since the 1970s, has been a candidate for Olympic inclusion but the organizers never agreed to accept this sport until the Tokyo Games presented the perfect opportunity to showcase this sport from its homeland.
The three days of competition will be held at Nippon Budokan and will feature talented kumite competitors in three weight divisions. Due to its resurgent popularity in televisions and movies, viewers are hoping to enjoy this sport.
Ken Nishimura, Naoto Sago’s, Steven Da Costa. Miho Miyahara, Sandra Sánchez and Japan’s Kiyou Shimizu of the women’s competition.
Skateboard’s debut was done by the organizers to attract the young audiences. The audiences will be able to see high-flying stunts and tricks. The competitors are between 12 to 47 years.
Nyjah Huston of USA in men’s street; in women’s park, 13-year-old Sky Brown.
There will be at least three days of competition spread over an eight-day period. The events will mostly be determined on the day based on surf conditions. Since the year 1995, the International Surfing Association has been lobbying for the inclusion of this sport, and it makes a debut in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Carissa Moore, USA, is the reigning world champion. Stephanie Gilmore, Australia, record-tying seven world titles. On the men’s side are Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira.
In recent years climbing has reached new heights and hence it makes its debut in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic. In the lead discipline, Climbers scale a 15-meter wall which is filled with variety of holds. Bouldering involves dynamic movements and in the Speed category a race to the top is held between the participants.
Adam Ondra of Czech Republic and Slovenia’s Janja Ganbret.
At a two-year celebration of his government, today Karnataka Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa announced his resignation. This announcement ends the weeks of speculation floating around regarding calls for his removal by a BJP section in the state.
BS Yediyurappa became the first Chief Minister in the south of the BJP. He came to power in the year 2019 after a dramatic coup after the Janata Dal Secular-Congress government crashed out after 17 of its members handed in their resignations. Most of those who had resigned later joined the BJP and even contested elections and many among them were even accommodated in the state’s cabinet.
Disgruntled BJP leaders of the state had continuously attacked BS Yediyurappa over allegations of corruption and also accused him of allowing his son Vijayendra interfere in the state’s government. The BJP put off a tough call in Karnataka for months as Yediyurappa was very important to the party’s rise in Karnataka.
China announced new rules under which profit tutoring in core school subjects has been barred to ease financial pressures on families. China’s private educational firms are bracing for a hit after the announcements were made. The rule changes sent shockwaves across the country’s private tutoring sector triggering a sell-off in the shares of the educational companies which includes the US-listed Gaotu Techedu and TAL Education Group.
China had put the country’s for-profit education sector under scrutiny with the aim to reduce cost burden on parents that has contributed to a drop in birth rates and to relieve pressure on school children.
In the month of May, the Chinese government announced that it would allow couples to have up to three children, from the previous two child policy. Keeping this in mind China has been making certain changes in the rules of the country. The government’s moves to rein in the nation’s powerful tech firms such as Didi Global Inc and Ant Group Co have sent global investors fleeing.
Indian Space Research Organisation’s merchandise programme which will be customised space-themed has taken off in partnership with multiple companies. Following the launch of this programme, all those interested will be able to purchase authorised products of ISRO such as T-shirts, scale models, space-themed educational games, mugs, science toys, etc.
ISRO believes this can create awareness and kindle interest among the children, students and public of the nation in this domain of space science & technology and can also the achievements of the organization.
So far, eight companies have registered with ISRO to manufacture the organization’s merchandise. They include 1947IND (Bengaluru), Indic Inspirations (Pune) and Ankur Hobby Centre (Ahmedabad). ISRO went ahead with this initiative after many companies approached them regarding the creation of such customised products.
Under this programme, ISRO will share the general arrangement drawings, themes, images or any such other designs that will help these registered companies to launch the merchandises. Catalogues of ISRO will be updated on a timely basis, and it will be made available to these companies who will use this for the 2D drawings and 3D models for creating the various merchandises so as to ensure accuracy and intellect.
The rates will reasonable as ISRO is not charging any brand value.
Bangladesh is going to launch its own social media platform named ‘Jogajog’ which is an alternative to the globally popular Facebook and ‘Alapon’ which will be an alternative of WhatsApp.
Boithok app which is an alternative to Zoom online and Surokkha App which is used for the purpose of vaccine registration.
Rudreswara Temple which is located at Palampet, Mulugu district, in the state of Telangana has been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. On 25th July, 2021 this decision was taken at the 44th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee. Ramappa temple was proposed by the government of India as its sole nomination for UNESCO World Heritage site tag, 2019.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the year 2020s World Heritage Committee (WHC) meeting of the UNESCO could not be conducted and hence, the nominations for 2020 and 2021 were discussed via online meetings. These meetings are currently underway. There are 21 Members in the World Heritage Committee with the current Chair of the Committee being China.
On 25th July, 2021 the Green Sohra Afforestation Campaign at Sohra (Cherrapunji) was launched by Home Minister Amit Shah. “Evergreen Northeast”, was the slogan given for this campaign highlighting the importance of tree plantation and afforestation. This campaign will be run by the Assam Rifles and the Meghalaya.
For the plantation drive, Assam Rifles will adopt the entire locality of Cherrapunji. 80% and above of the total land areas of this region has been prepared for the plantation of long lifespan trees and the remaining areas would be used for nurseries, ornamental plants and animal feed. Eco-tourism would also benefit the locals of the state.
Under the Jal Jeevan Mission initiative, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and the state government have decided to provide pure drinking water to every household through taps. Providing clean drinking water to the families, some living in the remote areas of the state is a challenge that will be fulfilled.