Environment Minister inaugurates advanced System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting, SAFAR

  • Environment Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has inaugurated the most advanced System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting (SAFAR) at ChandniChowk in Delhi.
  • The system will give out real-time air quality index on 24x7 basis with colour coding, along with a 72-hour advance forecast.
  • SAFAR will be implemented in four cities: Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
  • The system was developed indigenously by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and made operational by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Kerala top, Bihar last in Public Affairs Index 2018

  • According to the Public Affairs Index 2018, Kerala is the best-governed state in the country. Bihar came up the worst.
  • Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka and Gujarat are the other states in the top five states delivering good governance.
  • Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha ranked the lowest on the index.
  • Among the small states – with the population less than two crore – Himachal Pradesh topped the list of states with good governance, followed by Goa, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.

India to remain fastest growing major economy till 2019-20: Asian Development Bank

  • India will continue to be the fastest growing major economy, ahead of China, with a growth rate of 7.3% in 2018-19 and 7.6% in 2019-20.
  • The growth in India will be driven by increased public spending, higher capacity utilisation rate and uptick in private investment.
  • Economic growth in China is expected to decrease to 6.6% in 2018 and further to 6.4% in 2019.

IIT Kanpur develops online tool to help people deal with mental health issues

  • The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has developed an online tool, called TreadWill, to help people cope with issues related to mental health.
  • The online tool has been developed by the Computer Science and Engineering and Humanities and Social Sciences, HSS (Psychology) departments.
  • TreadWill is a website designed to help people deal with stress, low mood, lethargy and other depressive symptoms.
  • The system consists of different online exercises, questionnaires and games, to help people deal with mental health issues.

NASA launches online toolkit to promote commercial use of satellite data

  • NASA’s Technology Transfer program has created an online resource to promote commercial use of its satellite data.
  • With the Remote Sensing Toolkit, users will now be able to find, analyze and utilize the most relevant data for their projects.
  • Through its constellation of Earth observation satellites, NASA collects petabytes of data each year.

Lakshya Sen wins Badminton Asian Junior Championships title

  • Indian badminton Lakshya Sen defeated top seed Indonesia’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn to win the gold medal at the Badminton Asian Junior Championships in Jakarta.
  • India has won gold at the event after six years.
  • Other Indian shuttlers who have won a medal at the Championship include Gautam Thakkar (Gold) in 1965, Pranav Chopra/Prajkta Sawant (Bronze) in 2009, Sameer Verma (Silver) and P.V. Sindhu (Bronze) in 2011, P.V. Sindhu (Gold) and Sameer Verma (Bronze) in 2012.

India wins 4 medals in Junior Asian wrestling meet

  • India’s Sajan claimed the gold in the 77kg wrestling category as India won 4 medals in total, including two silver and a bronze, on the first day of the Junior Asian Championships.
  • Vijay and Aryan Pawar had to settle for silver medals in the 130kg category.
  • Kumar Sunil won a bronze in the 87kg, rounding off India’s medal tally.

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