- Two US astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley returned from the International Space Station (ISS) on 2 August 2020. The Crew Dragon was designed and operated by Space-X. It is being used for this flight test can stay in orbit about 110 days. NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight was the first crewed flight to launch from the US since 2011. The Demo-2 mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
- The SpaceX Dragon 2 is a class of reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX as the successor to Dragon, a reusable cargo spacecraft.
- Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), under Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), have developed a model to scale up the novel tests using an adaptive strategy and the early phase of COVID-19 as an example.
- The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 was passed in the year 2019. The Bill was introduced by the Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. The bill is for the justice, respect and dignity of women. The Bill criminalises instant triple Talaq among Muslims. It also approves a jail term of three years for the husband. The bill will replace the ordinance passed by the previous government in February. It should be noted that around 20 Muslim countries in the world, including Pakistan and Malaysia, have banned the triple Talaq.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Grand Finale of 4th edition of Smart India Hackathon-SIH (Software) 2020, largest ever online Hackathon in the world and interacted with the participants through video conference. Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ inaugurated the Grand Finale virtually in New Delhi. The Grand Finale was conducted online from 1st to 3rd August, 2020 over a specially-built advanced platform. The Hackathon has been organized by the Ministry of HRD (MHRD), Government of India; All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Persistent Systems and i4C.
- Union Minister for Ministry of Science and Technology Dr. Harsh Vardhan launched Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan 2020-21. VVM is a national level programme for popularizing science among school students of class sixth to Eleventh. Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan is an initiative of Vijnana Bharathi (VIBHA) in collaboration with Vigyan Prasar, Government of India and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) an institution under the Ministry of Education (MoE formerly known as Ministry of Human Resource Development).
- Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare announced the completion of Pan-India Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2. He reviewed the COVID-19 activities of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and DBT-Autonomous Institutions (AIs) in the meeting with DBT. He also launched the establishment of Five COVID-19 Bio Repositories by the DBT at Faridabad, Bhubaneshwar, New Delhi, Pune and Bangalore. Pan India 1000 SARS–CoV-2 RNA Genome Sequencing programme was launched by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in May 2020, was conducted by the autonomous institutes of DBT in collaboration with the national laboratories and clinical organisation.
- Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy launched a one-month long virtual cybercrime awareness programme ‘E-Raksha Bandhan’ in Amaravati. The Aim of the Programme is to create awareness among women, youth and children on Cyber Crimes across the state. It is organized by the Andhra Pradesh Police, CID, FM Radio, Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC), Cyber Peace Foundation (CPF) and other organisations.
