TAMILNADU

Small airports make a big splash

Domestic air travellers, particularly those from tier two towns, never had it so good. And the reasons are not far to seek. Many airlines, independent of the Centre’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (popularly known as RCS UDAN), see potential in connecting smaller airports with Metro airports.

A classic example of tier-II airports expanding flight operations is the Tiruchi airport that had connectivity to just Chennai till sometime ago. Now, it directly links Bengaluru and Kochi and also connects with New Delhi via Mumbai.

Also, as part of the RCS, Air Odisha is introducing a 19-seater flight service in the Chennai–Puducherry–Salem–Bengaluru sector.

INTERNATIONAL

· World’s first digital art museum opened in Japan

The world’s first all-digital art museumhas opened at the MORI Building Digital Art Museum in Japan’s Tokyo.
It features around 50 kaleidoscopic installations triggered by motion sensors, which are projected across every surface of the 100,000-square-foot exhibit space with the help of lights.
The museum appears to be a set of halls with black walls without the lights.

· Koala bear genome decoded for first time

The koalasof Australia remained an unsolved mystery among the scientists for their strange eating habits as they enjoy the leaves of eucalyptus that would be toxic or even fatal to most mammals.
Now an international team of 54 scientists has successfully sequenced the marsupial’s whole genome. The whole genome was found to consist of over 26,000 genes.

NATIONAL

· Air India removes ‘Taiwan’ from its website due to China’s pressure

Air India has changed its reference to Taiwan on its website to ‘Chinese Taipei‘ after pressure from China, which does not recognize Taiwan as a separate country.
Global airlines including British Airways, Lufthansa and Qantas now refer to Taiwan as a part of China on their websites.
Air India was given an extension till July 25 to make the necessary changes.
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China(ROC), is a state in East Asia.
Its neighbors include the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south.

Taiwan was returned to Nationalist Chinese control in 1945 following Japan’s defeat in World War II.

· Central Government approves hike in Support Price of Kharif Crops

The government hiked the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy by a record Rs 200per quintal (per 100 kg) that will cost the exchequer over Rs 15,000 crore.
This hike will give farmers 50 percent more rate than their cost of production.
This decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs(CCEA) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

· Cabinet approves funds to boost educational infra

The Union Cabinet approved a proposal for expanding the scope of Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) by expanding its capital base to ₹10,000 crore. HEFA has also been tasked to mobilise ₹1,00,000 crore for Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Higher Education (RISE) by 2022.

HEFA was set up on May 31, 2017, by the Centre as a Nonprofit, Non-banking Financing Company (NBFC) to mobilise extra-budgetary resources for building crucial infrastructure in the higher educational institutions under the government. So far, institutions were getting grant-in aid and under this system funds will be allocated on project basis.

For the first time, the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (NV) and Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) will also be funded by HEFA, in addition to IITS, NITS, IISERS, and other central universities and medical colleges already under its purview.

The approval of the cabinet is to enhance the authorised share capital of HEFA to ₹10,000 crore and provision of additional government equity of ₹5,000 crore in addition to the existing approved government equity.

· Sports Authority of India to be renamed ‘Sports India’

Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathoreconfirmed that name of “Sports Authority of India” (SAI) will be changed as ‘Sports India’.
Daily expenses on food and nutrition of the athletes will be increased.
The Sports Authority of India (SAI) (Hindi: भारतीय खेल प्राधिकरण) is an apex National Sports body, established in 1984.

· Tejas fighter aircraft begins operations from Sulur station, Kerala

Indian- Made Indigenous fighter aircraft Tejas of No 45 Squadron ‘The Flying Daggers’ formally commenced operations from the Air Force Station at Sulur near Coimbatore under Group Captain S Dhankhar.
Tejas is the first advanced Fly-by-wire fighter aircraft designed, developed and manufactured in India by Bengaluru headquartered HAL (Hindutan Aeronautics Limited).
It is equipped with a satellite-aided Inertial Navigation System.
It can fire Air to Air Missiles, carry bombs and Precision Guided ammunition.

· Govt forms panel to upgrade norms for GDP, Economic data collection

The government has set up a 13-member committee to upgrade the norms for computation of economic data at states and districts level in the backdrop of plans to revise the base year for National Accounts or GDP (Gross Domestic Product) calculation.
This Committee will be headed by Ravindra H Dholakia, a retired professor of IIM Ahmedabad.
The panel will also review the concepts, definitions, classifications, data conventions, data sources and data requirements for preparation of State Domestic Product(SDP) and District Domestic Product(DDP).

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