- Prime Minister Narendra Modi will confer the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration on Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, 31st October at the Statue of Unity in Gujarat. The Prime Minister’s Awards have been comprehensively restructured this year to recognize the contribution of civil servants in the strengthening of service delivery and redressal of public grievances.
- An Indian tri-services contingent comprising 200 personnel will participate in the multi-lateral exercise Kavkaz-2020 in Southern Russia in September 2020. The tri-services exercise will see participation from SCO member nations and Central Asian countries including China and Pakistan.
- India’s Neelakanta Bhanu Prakash won the first-ever gold for India in Mental Calculation World Championship at Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) held in London recently. With the feat, the 20-year-old won the ‘World’s Fastest Human Calculator’ title.
- Mountaineer Anita Kundu has been chosen for the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in the ‘land adventure category’. She will be honoured with the award on August 29, 2020. She is the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest from both the Indian and the Chinese sides.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) chief, Tedros Adhanom announced recently that nine COVID vaccines have been included in its COVAX global vaccines facility portfolio and a further nine candidates are under evaluation.
- The Bangladesh government is planning to begin the relocation of Rohingyas to the newly built facility at Bhashan Char Island after the monsoon season. The move is aimed at giving the refugee community from Myanmar a better place for living.
- India and Uzbekistan held the first meeting of their National Coordination Committee on August 24, 2020. The committee has been set up to monitor the implementation of the mutually agreed projects between India and Uzbekistan.
- The Indian Government, Maharashtra government and Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation has signed a loan agreement of USD 500 million with the Asian Infrastructure Investment bank (AIIB) for Mumbai Urban Transport Project-III.