1. The 15th India-EU summit will be held through video conference on July 15, 2020. During the summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold detailed talks with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on a wide range of issues.
2. The Gujarat state government has decided to extend the time frame of ‘Gujarat Solar Power Policy 2015’ till December 31, 2020. The announcement was made by the State Energy Minister Saurabh Patel at Gandhinagar on July 9, 2020.
3. The Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC) established by the NITI Aayog has initiated a skill development programme in Andaman and Nicobar Islands to provide employment-oriented training and skill development to the marginalized section.
4. Kerala Health Department has prepared a special action plan to contain the super spread of COVID in coastal regions of Thiruvananthapuram district. The Poonthura region, where the super spread is confirmed will be treated as a special cluster.
5. Indian Army has banned 89 mobile applications including Facebook, Instagram, PUBG, Zoom, POPXO, Tik Tok, Snapchat, ShareIt and dating apps like Tinder and Bumble. The decision has been taken to curtail leakage of information, as per Indian Army sources.
6. China plans to build six to eight nuclear reactors per year between 2020 and 2025 to raise its total capacity to 70 gigawatts, 43.5 percent up from the end of May 2020, as per reports. The nation is expected to bring its total capacity either in operation or under construction to around 200 GW by 2035.
7. Veteran Bollywood actor and comedian Jagdeep passed away at the age of 81 on July 8, 2020. His original name was Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jaffrey and he was the father of popular comedian Javed Jaffrey. The late actor had gained immense popularity for his role of Soorma Bhopali in the popular Bollywood film ‘Sholay’.
8. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on July 8 launched Bhubaneshwar Land Use Intelligence System (BLUIS) to monitor changes in all the government lands in Bhubaneshwar.
