There are two kinds of awards given by Indian president to language scholars - a certificate of honour and Maharishi Badrayan Vyas Samman.
Scholars in the Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Arabic, Persian, Classical Oriya, Classical Malayalam, Classical Kannada and Classical Telugu languages are eligible.
A certificate of honour is for scholars aged 60 and above.
Maharishi Badrayan Vyas Samman is for scholars between 30-45 years of age.
This distinction is conferred once a year on the Independence Day in recognition of substantial contribution to these languages.
Classical languages
As of now, six languages i.e. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia and Sanskrit have been given the status of classical languages.
The criteria adopted for the eligibility of a language for granting classical language status are
High antiquity of its early texts/ recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years;
A body of ancient literature/ texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers;
The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community;
The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.
The benefits include-
A one-time grant of Rs 100 crore for research and development of the language.
Two major annual international awards for scholars of eminence in the concerned language.
Setting up of a 'Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Languages' can be set up.
The University Grants Commission can be requested to create, to start with at least in Central Universities, a certain number of professional chairs for classical languages, for scholars of eminence in the concerned language.
Global Liveability Index
The index is released by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), research and analysis wing of "The Economist" group, headquartered in London.
It ranks 140 global cities based on their living conditions.
It quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual's lifestyle in the cities worldwide.
The index assigns cities scores on five broad parameters such as stability, healthcare, culture/environment, education, and infrastructure using 30 indicators.
In this year’s Global Liveability Index 2018, Vienna displaces Melbourne as the most liveable city in the world.
It is the first time that a European city has topped the rankings of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) annual survey
The other top 10 cities are Melbourne, Osaka, Calgary, Sydney, Vancouver, Tokyo, Toronto, Copenhagen and Adelaide.
Syrian capital of Damascus continues to be ranked at the bottom, Dhaka in Bangladesh is the second worst and Karachi in Pakistan is the fourth worst.
Indian cities Delhi and Mumbai ranked at 112 and 117 respectively.
This index is in contrast with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs’ Ease of Living Index for 111 Indian cities wherein Mumbai ranked at number 3, far ahead of New Delhi at a low 65th rank.
Hague Adoption Convention
The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption was adopted in the year of 1993.
It protects children and their families against the risks of illegal, irregular, premature or ill-prepared adoptions abroad.
It seeks to prevent the abduction, the sale of, or traffic in children.
It reinforces Article 21 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The convention operates through a system of national Central Authorities.
In India, Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is the nodal agency designated to deal with the provisions of this convention.
Recently, the government of Australia has decided to recommence the adoption programme with India as per this convention.
The Australian government had earlier put the adoptions from India on hold citing the charges of trafficking of childs by the Indian agencies for inter-country adoption.
SUBSEA
Systematic Underwater Biogeochemical Science and Exploration Analog (SUBSEA) research program was proposed by NASA in the year 2017.
It brings together the space and ocean exploration by simulating a Space mission at sea.
The design of SUBSEA is similar to joint human-robotic space missions in which astronauts give directions to robots in surface based on the commands from Earth based science team.
Under this programme, under water remotely based vehicles or robots are operated by ship-based human operators, who inturn receive guidance from remote science team.
The target of SUBSEA 2018 is Loihi seamount, an underwater volcano off Hawaii Island.
The submarine will analyse the warm springs emanating from Loihi.
The purpose behind this is to predict conditions in other ocean worlds such as moons of Saturn (Enceladus) and Jupiter (Europa).
It will also help mission design teams to develop methods for doing operations in deep space environments such as Mars.
Pitch to MOVE
It is a competition organised by NITI Aayog in collaboration with Invest India and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).
It aims to identify and reward the start-ups offering innovative solutions for shared, connected, and environment friendly mobility.
The winners will be awarded in the Global Mobility Summit which will be organised in the month of September, 2018.
The objective is to harness the latest disruption for generating employment and growth in our country.
