 The Parliament approved a legislation to help the government bring back fugitives involved in white-collar crimes to stand trial in India. The fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 will become law after the President’s assent and will empower the government to seize both local and overseas assets of alleged offenders, such as Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. This will help the government confiscate properties of fugitives even before they are convicted. The bill also provides for confiscation of benami properties. ED will be the apex agency to implement the law. |
| Source- The Livemint |
 The 2nd Young Superintendent of Police Conference was held in New Delhi on July 26, 2018. The 2-day conference was inaugurated by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The conference was organized by Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D). |
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 West Bengal state assembly dominated by Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress Government has unanimously passed resolution to change state’s name to ‘Bangla’ in all three languages – Bengali, Hindi and English. The name change will only become official when resolution gets approval from Union Home Ministry and Parliament passes Bill. The main reason cited by State Government for changing name of West Bengal to Bangla is that whenever there is meeting of all states, West Bengal figures at bottom of the list, as it is prepared according to alphabetical order. With change in its Bangla, it will appear (or leapfrog) to fourth place after Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in list of states in alphabetical order. |
| Background : The move of comes West Bengal state assembly to change name of state comes almost two years after it first passed a resolution to change the name of the State in August 2016. The state government had earlier submitted a proposal to the Centre to change the name of West Bengal to to Bengal in English, Bangla in Bengali and Bangal in Hindi. The proposal was turned down by Union Home Ministry. |
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 Union Government has announced that Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF) Scheme will be open to all potential researchers from 2019 and not limited to candidates from IISc, IITs, NITs, IIEST and IISERs. The decision was made after Government failed to find adequate number of candidates for PMRF this year. Only 135 fellowships were finally offered against 1,000 positions. |
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 Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India-assisted emergency ambulance service through video conferencing from New Delhi. The inaugural function of emergency ambulance service was held in Jaffna, Northern Province, of Sri Lankan. The project is another milestone in wide-ranging development partnership between India and Sri Lanka. Jaffna is third province in Sri Lanka, were India-assisted emergency ambulance service has been launched. The service was earlier introduced in two provinces of Sri Lanka with grant assistance from India. It is planned to be expanded to remaining seven provinces of Sri Lanka. For this project, India in total has given grant of $22.8 million- $7.6 million for the first phase and $15.2 million for the country-wide expansion. This is largest ever Indian grant project in Sri Lanka after India funded housing project. |
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 The Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik launched the 'Green Mahanadi Mission'. The CM launched the mission by planting a sapling on the bank of river Mahanadi during his visit to Boudh and Subarnapur districts in western Odisha. The 'Green Mahanadi Mission' is a plantation drive under which 2 crore saplings will be planted along the Mahanadi river and its tributaries. The main objective of the mission is to stop soil erosion on river banks and recharge the groundwater reserve. |
| Source- The Hindu |
 The first meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Committee on Border Haats was held in Agartala, Tripura. The Joint Committee also visited Border Haat at Kamlasagar in Sipahijala District, Tripura and Tarapur in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh. Both sides noted positive impact of Border Haats on livelihoods of people living in areas adjoining Haats. They also held extensive discussions on issues related to review of operations of four functional Border Haats viz. Kalaichar (Meghalaya), Balat (Meghalaya), Kamlasagar (Tripura) and Srinagar (Tripura). They also made suggestions for improvement, timeline for setting up six additional Border Haats that have been agreed to earlier by both sides and roadmap for further expansion of Border Haats. They also agreed that next meeting will be held in Bangladesh on mutually agreed dates. |
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 Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan has unveiled the first of a kind Air Quality and Weather Forecast System, SAFAR at Chandni Chowk in New Delhi. The giant true colour LED display will give real-time air quality index on the 24x7 basis with colour coding along with 72-hour advance forecast. The new system can track UV-Index, PM1, Mercury and Black carbon in real time and will provide health advisory and related precaution. |
| Source- All India Radio (AIR News) |
 Ministry of Home Affairs sponsored Student Police Cadet (SPC) Programme was launched nationally in Gurugram, Haryana. It was launched by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the presence of Union Human Resources Minister Prakash Javadekar. The programme aims to build bridge between Police and larger community through school students by inculcating values and ethics in them through classes in school and outside. |
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Programme will broadly cover two topics
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| Handbook: Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) with support of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has prepared handbook for imparting instructions. It will also enable learning through group discussions and audio-visual mediums. Implementation: It will be steered by state level committee headed by Principal Secretary, Home Department with Principal Secretary, Education and Director General of Police (DGP) as members. Besides, similar committee will be formed at district level, headed by District Magistrate with District Inspector of Schools and Superintendent of Police (SP) as members. Funding: Central Government has released amount worth Rs.67 crores to states for implementation of programme. Besides, amount of Rs 50,000 has been earmarked for each school for educational aids, training and contingency. |
 Five central oil PSUs – IOCL, ONGC, GAIL, OIL, and NRL have signed agreement for executing 1500 Km North-East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid. It is a major initiative to connect all North-East States to National Gas Grid. It will be implemented under Centre’s ambitious Urja Ganga Gas Pipeline Project. |
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