September-2014

India end England tour with narrow T20 defeat

•  India’s long tour of England ended on a heartbreaking note as England held their nerves to pull off a thrilling three-run victory in the only T20 International in Birmingham.

•  Chasing a competitive 181 for seven, India needed 17 runs in the final over of the match but captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni could not steer the team home in a contest that went down to the wire at Edbaston.

•  India ended at 177 for five after England posted 180 for seven, thank to captain Eoin Morgan’s 71 runs off 31 balls.

National TSD Rally

•  The Rally of Coimbatore, the fourth round of the third FMSCI Indian National TSD Rally Championship for four wheelers will be held.

•  Organised by the Coimbatore Auto Sports Club, the rally has attracted over 40 competitors.

•  An open TSD event will also be held concurrently with the championship event.

•  It includes a novice and all-ladies class.

Pals Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki to meet in U.S. Open final

•  Serena Williams overwhelmed 17th-seeded Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals to extend her U.S. Open winning streak to 20 matches.

•  If Williams can make that 21 in a row by beating Caroline Wozniacki in Sunday’s final, the 32-year-old American will become the first woman since Chris Evert in the 1970s to win three consecutive titles at the tournament.

Fenesta National tennis championship: Prize money doubled for Nationals

•  The prize money for the Fenesta National tennis championship has been doubled for this year to a total prize purse of Rs. 18 lakh.

•  Making the announcement in a press conference here , the Chairman and Senior Managing Director of DCM Shriram Limited, Ajay Shriram, said that the initiative was to celebrate the organisation’s long association with the game, dating back to the first edition in 1992.

•  Welcoming the move, the president of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), Anil Khanna, responded by announcing a wild card each to the men’s and women’s winners of the event for the Delhi Open.
  Anand fifth in World rankings

• An inactive ViswanathanAnand moved up two places to be fifth in the latest World rankings after USA’s Hikaru Nakamura and Russia’s Sergey Karjakin slipped a few rungs following their below par performances in the Chess Olympiad in Norway last month.

•  World champion Magnus Carlsen held on to the top spot despite losing seven rating points. LevonAronian was the other player to hold a published rating in excess of 2800.

•  The lists: World (top-10): 1. Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2870), 2. LevonAronian (Arm, 2804), 3. FabianoCaruana (Ita, 2801), 4. Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 2789), 5. ViswanathanAnand (2785), 6. VeselinTopalov (2784), 7. Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2782), 8. Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 2777), 9. MaximeVachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2768), 10. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2760).

•  India (top-10): 1. ViswanathanAnand (2785), 2. P. Hari Krishna (2725), 3. K. Sasikiran (2680), 4. ParimarjanNegi (2669), 5. Abhijeet Gupta (2642), 6. ViditGujarathi (2621), 7-8. B. Adhiban (2619), SandipanChanda (2619), 9. Surya ShekharGanguly (2614), 10. S. P. Sethuraman (2613).

• India women (top-10): 1. K. Humpy (2598), 2. D. Harika (2523), 3. Tania Sachdev (2404), 4. EeshaKaravade (2389), 5. Mary Ann Gomes (2355), 6. Padmini Rout (2354), 7. SoumyaSwaminathan (2352), 8. Bhakti Kulkarni (2328), 9. S. Vijayalakshmi (2314), 10. N. Raghavi (2253).

Davis Cup: Doubles win takes France into final

• Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet put France back in the Davis Cup final by winning the doubles and ending the two—year reign of the Czech Republic.

• France makes the final for the first time since 2010. It won the last of its nine cups in 2001.

• The defending champions Czechs needed to win the doubles to keep alive their chances of reaching a third straight final.

Honour for Bopanna

• RohanBopanna has received the Davis Cup Commitment Award, an honour accorded to players who have competed in at least 20 ties.

• The 34-year-old from Karnataka is the ninth Indian to receive the award.

• ShuttlerPrannoy wins Indonesian Masters

• H. S. Prannoy clinched the maiden title of his career after winning the USD 1,25,000 Indonesian Masters Grand Prix Gold.

• Young Indian shuttler H. S. Prannoy clinched the maiden title of his career after winning the USD 1,25,000 Indonesian Masters Grand Prix Gold, following his straight-game victory over local favouriteFirman Abdul

• Kholik in the finals in Indonesia.

• Field Marshal wins Maharaja’s Cup

• Field Marshal (Ranjeet Singh up) won the Maharaja’s Cup (1,600m), the chief event of the races .

• The winner is owned by M/s Harresh N. Mehta and Manav H. Mehta rep. Rohan Bloodstock Pvt. Ltd. and trained by S. Padmanabhan.

• RohanBopanna to receive Davis Cup Commitment Award

• Indian tennis star RohanBopanna will be awarded the Davis Cup Commitment Award in Bangalore on the sidelines of the ongoing World Group play-off tie against Serbia, it was announced by International Tennis

• Federation (ITF).

• The ITF through its national associations, will present Davis Cup Commitment Awards during this weekend’s 2014 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group and zone group ties.

• This new award was conceived as part of the ITF’s 2013 Centenary celebrations, and is presented to Davis Cup players who have shown long-standing dedication to representing their country in this prestigiouscompetition.

• Each award recipient will have competed in a minimum of 20 home-and-away ties or 50 ties at any level of the competition (including week-long zone group events) over their career.

• Besides Bopanna, former Grand Slam tennis champions Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil will also be presented the award after their respective games.

Karun Chandhok set for Formula E debut

• Twenty drivers, including India’s Karun Chandhok, representing 10 teams will kick-start the historic FIA Formula E championship, the world’s first fully-electric racing series, when the 270bhp machines will run on a

• purpose-built circuit around the iconic Bird’s Nest stadium that was build for the 2012 Olympics.

• The 30-year-old Chandhok, only the second Indian after NarainKarthikeyan to race in Formula One, will be driving for Mahindra Racing Formula E team with Brazilian Bruno Senna, also a former F1 racer, as his partner.

• The grid is brimming with ex-F1 drivers besides two female participants in Italy’s MichelaCerruti and Britain’s Katherine Legge, one of the FIA’s Women in Motorsport Ambassadors.

• The championship comprises 10 rounds over nine months in Europe and the US with a grand finale in London June 27, 2015.

• 10-wicket win for West Indies

• Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim completed his third Test century but could not prevent West Indies from romping to a 10-wicket victory early on day five of the opening Test at Arnos Vale Sports Complex

• Mushfiqur was last man out for 116 as Bangladesh, 256 for five overnight, was bowled out for 314 in its second innings.

• The pint-sized wicketkeeper hit 15 fours and one six off 243 balls in five and a half hours.

• Kemar Roach was the best of the host’s bowlers with four for 64, while fellow pacer Shannon Gabriel grabbed two for 25 and left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn, two for 44.

• West Indies, needing just 13 for victory, eased to the target before the lunch interval.

Munawar and Arathi crowned champions again

•  Kozhikode’s Mohammed Munawar and Ernakulam’sArathi Sara Sunil retained the men’s and women’s singles titles in the 45th Seshasayee Kerala State senior badminton championship at the FACT Udyogamandal Club, Eloor .

•  Munawar, unseeded as he had lost early in the lone State-ranking tourney he had played this season, defeated Ernakulam’s fourth-seeded Alwin Francis in straight sets while Arathi, a former international, defeated Thiruvananthapuram’s J.K. Malavika in a repeat of last year’s final.

•  The seasoned pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas brushed aside the top-seeded DilshadKamaludheen and Ram C. Vijay while Kozhikode’s AgnaAnto and M.H. Haritha took the women’s doubles title.

New owner for Mumbai franchise

•  Hockey India announced DoIT Sports Management (India) Pvt. Ltd as the new owner of the Mumbai franchise, taking the total number of teams back to the original six in the Hockey India League (HIL).

•  The Mumbai franchise, originally owned by Dabur, was dismantled recently due to financial issues. Along with Ranchi Rhinos, the pullout had reduced the number of original owners in the HIL to four before Pune came on board as one of the new teams two days back.

•  However, the present batch of players contracted to the Mumbai team would not be retained and would be part of the min-auction to be held towards end of October.

Asian Games

•  17th Asian Games began with a lovely show of colour, light and vibrant music at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium.

•  Nepal led the athletes’ march, following the Korean alphabetical order, and loud cheers were reserved for Japan, China, Afghanistan and, of course, the host team.

•  Each team had been allowed only 130 athletes for the march past but China, a powerhouse in the sporting world, came up with a contingent which was almost double that number or more.

•  The Indian team, which had hockey team captain Sardar Singh as its flag-bearer, looked smart with the men in navy blazers and blue trousers while the women wore green sarees with blazers on top.

•  Saudi Arabia turned up with an all-men team, a bit disappointing considering the progress the country had made by fielding women at the 2012 London Olympics for the first time, but all was forgotten in the dance, music and lights.

•  A lovely display of ring gymnastics by children and later, the treat offered by Korean pop stars Exo, JYJ and Psy lit up the night.

•  South Korean President Park Geun-Hye opened the Games with the simple one-liner as is the custom and a little later, it was time to party.

AbhinavBindra plans to quit shooting

•  India’s Olympic gold medalist AbhinavBindra plans to leave full-time shooting after competing in his favourite 10m air rifle event in the Asian Games.

•  “Tomorrow will mark the end of my professional shooting life!,” “I will however still shoot, compete as a hobby shooter training twice a week.” Bindra, tweeted.

•  Despite giving up serious shooting, Bindra still hopes to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

•  Bindra, who won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this year, failed to make the final at the world championships in Spain.

SauravGhosal missed out on winning the gold medal for India

•  It was Indian squash’s biggest moment at the Asian Games. SauravGhosal, who has been leading the charge here, was just a point away from winning a historic men’s singles gold. But the top seed slipped at the doorstep of victory as Kuwaiti Abdullah Al Muzayen grabbed the gold with a fighting 3-2 verdict at the Yeorumul courts.

•  After winning the first two games in contrasting style, the 28-year-old Ghosal was on match ball at 10-8 but still could not pull it off. Abdullah grabbed the chance with both hands, took risks, raised his game impressively and raced to victory after that.

Sawarn Singh wins bronze in rowing

•  Young rower Sawarn Singh brought some cheers back to the Indian contingent as he clinched the bronze medal in men’s single sculls final at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon.

•  The 24-year-old Singh finished behind Iran’s Mohsen Shadinaghadh, who won the gold medal and silver medallist Kim Dongyong of hosts South Korea.

•  Another rower Dushyant Singh was the only athlete to manage a podium finish for India as he grabbed a bronze in the men’s lightweight single sculls.

Lifetime Achievement award for KapilDev

•  Indian cricket legend KapilDev has been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement award at a ceremony in the House of Lords in London.

•  The award, constituted by the Indo-European Business Forum (IEBF), was presented to the former India World Cup-winning captain for his contribution to the sport and for his work in the field of upliftment of poor and destitute communities through the Khushii society.

SandeepSejwal’s bronze in 50m breaststroke

•  SandeepSejwal won a rare swimming medal for India at the Asian Games, with his coach insisting that better facilities at home would have fetched him the gold.

•  Sejwal won the bronze in the 50m breaststroke with a timing of 28.26s, and it was only the third Asiad medal in the pool by an Indian in the last 28 years.

•  Khajan Singh clinched a silver in 200m butterfly at Seoul in 1986 and VirdhawalKhade bagged a bronze in the 50m butterfly event in Guangzhou four years ago.
  In the News (Persons)

GopalSubramanium

•  Former Solicitor-General GopalSubramanium has withdrawn his letter to the Supreme Court opting out as amicus curiae in the PadmanabhaSwamy temple case.

•  Mr. Subramanium has already swung into action and left for Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala to inspect the temple premises and prepare an additional report on the administration of the temple.

•  Supreme Court sources said the case files had been sent back to him and he was expected to appear in the case in November. They said he decided to withdraw his letter after the court asked him to reconsider his decision.

•  Early this month, he had written to Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, expressing his decision to bow out as amicus curiae. He had also returned the files concerning the case to the Supreme Court Registry.

•  Mr. Subramanium’s report on the condition of the temple and its assets in Thiruvananthapuram had created a storm.

•  The report had complained of corruption and disregard of ethics in the temple’s administration.

Akkineni

•  Legendary actor AkkineniNageswaraRao will be the first Indian actor to be honoured with a postage stamp by the U.S. Post Service (USPS).

•  The Akkineni Foundation of America (AFA) has said that the stamp will be issued on the birth anniversary of NageshwaraRao, who died of cancer early this year.

•  A special release ceremony is being planned by AFA on September 20 in Dallas, Texas.

•  The AFA is also planning to release the stamp in India on December 17 at the first International Akkineni Awards Ceremony being planned at ANR College, Gudivada in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.

Versatile Bapu

•  The man whose pencil etched what was universally accepted as the epitome of beauty is no more.

•  Artist, cartoonist, film director, designer and painter, Bapu (born SathirajuLakshminarayana) leaves behind a legacy as one of the finest filmmakers on the firmament of Indian cinema

•  The director was conferred with Padma Shri last year. He has won the National Film awards twice and the Andhra Pradesh State government’s Nandi awards for 6 of his films in addition to receiving awards from several other institutions.

H.L. Dattu

•  President Pranab Mukherjee has cleared the appointment of Justice H.L. Dattu, the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court, as the 42nd Chief Justice of India.

•  Justice Dattu could become the last Chief Justice of India to be appointed under the collegium system of judicial appointments.

•  If the States ratify the National Judicial Appointments Commission, a constitutional body, the collegium system will come to an end and the executive will get an equal role in appointments to the highest judiciary.

• Justice Dattu will become the Chief Justice of India after the retirement of CJI R.M. Lodha on September 27, 2014. He will hold the post for a little over a year until his retirement on December 2, 2015.

David Haines

• Islamic State (IS) extremists released a video showing the beheading of British aid worker David Haines, who was abducted in Syria last year.

• IS militants recently beheaded two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and posted the videos online after the U.S. began launching airstrikes and humanitarian missions in August to aid waning Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq.

Ian Paisley

• Former Northern Irish First Minister Ian Paisley, the firebrand Protestant leader, died at the age of 88.

• A towering figure during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, he was known for his decades of intransigence and impassioned rhetoric.

• He did what even he once considered unthinkable in May 2007 and entered office with Sinn Fein — the political wing of Irish Republican Army — and as a result restored stable, devolved government to the province.

• In a feat few could match, Paisley co-founded both a church and a political party, leading the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and the Protestant, conservative Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). — AFP

Neel Mukherjee

• Kolkata-born British author Neel Mukherjee’s latest novel The Lives of Others , set in troubled Bengal of the 1960s and centred around a dysfunctional family, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize 2014, in its debut as a global literary award.

• Mr. Mukherjee, who studied at Oxford and Cambridge, was also the only Indian-origin author to be longlisted earlier this year.

• Mr. Mukherjee, now a British citizen, reviews fiction for the Times and the Sunday Telegraph and his first novel, A Life Apart was a joint winner of the Vodafone-Crossword Award in India.Previously, the prize was open only to authors from the U.K. and Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe.For the first time in its 46-year history, the £50,000-prize has been opened up to writers of all nationalities, writing originally in English and published in the U.K.— PTI

SudarshanVenu

• In a significant move, the board of TVS Motor Company has appointed SudarshanVenu, son of VenuSrinivasan, as the Joint Managing Director of the company.

• As a whole-time director, Mr. Venu has already been very active in the affairs of the company.

• In view of this, the board has chosen to elevate him to the position of Joint Managing Director.

VijayanRajes

• VijayanRajes has been elected President of United Planters’ Association of Southern India (UPASI) for 2014-15.

• Mr. Vijayan owns MSP Plantations, Yercaud, and has been serving on the Executive Committee of UPASI since 2002-03.

• N. Dharmaraj has been elected Vice-President, an UPASI release said. — PTI

Subhash Chandra Garg

• Senior IAS officer Subhash Chandra Garg was appointed as Executive Director in World Bank.

• Mr. Garg, a 1983-batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, will have a tenure of 3 years from the date of assuming charge of the post, said an order issued by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet. — PTI

Firoza Begum

• Hundreds of people paid their last respects to NazrulSangeet legend Firoza Begum who died at the age of 84.

• The body of the eminent singer, who had mesmerised Bengalis with her voice for seven decades, was brought to the Central ShaheedMinar in the capital where people from all walks of life paid homage. The singer had been ailing for a long time.

• Born in 1930, Firoza Begum was educated in Calcutta in undivided India and was closely linked with rebel poet KaziNazrul Islam, who is now Bangladesh’s national poet.

Jiten Paul

• Jiten Paul, a veteran journalist and freedom fighter, passed away at a hospital in Agartala, at age of 101.

• With his demise, a brilliant legacy of journalism and social movement in northeast India came to an end.

• He launched Tripura’s first Bengali daily Jagaran in 1953 and had been a guiding force for journalists, intellectuals and social activists for decades.

• He tirelessly worked towards rehabilitation of Bengali migrants from East Pakistan after partition of India and later for people displaced internally due to ethnic strife and insurgency problem in Tripura.
  Before settling down in Tripura, he took part in India’s independence movement in Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh, where he was born in 1914.

• The nonagenarian was actively involved welfare activities and rights movements of journalists till his last days.

Yamaguchi

• Japanese actress and singer Yoshiko “Shirley” Yamaguchi, who was nearly executed in China at the end of World War II, has died at the age of 94 after a life as dramatic as any of her films.

•  Yamaguchi, who was born to Japanese parents in pre-war Manchuria, where her father worked for the railway, entertained Chinese and Japanese audiences posing as a Chinese under her assumed identity Rikoran or Li Xianglan.

•  Some of her movies at this time were seen as pro-Japanese propaganda, including China Nights (1940), in which she starred with Japanese heartthrob Kazuo Hasegawa, and she later expressed regret over them.

•  Arrested after the war as a collaborator, she narrowly avoided execution for treason by revealing her Japanese identity to the Chinese court.

•  Her hit songs included “Fragrance of the Night” and “Suzhou Serenade”, which was banned in mainland China after the war.

•  Following her deportation from China in 1946, she re-launched her career in Japan under her birth name, Yoshiko Yamaguchi, and went on to star in Akira Kurosawa’s Scandal and other films.

•  She also played a leading role in U.S. movies and musicals in the 1950s as Shirley Yamaguchi, including Samuel Fuller’s A House of Bamboo (1955). She married Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi in 1951 but their marriage lasted just four years.

ShahidAfridi

•  The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) named flamboyant all-rounder ShahidAfridi as its new national Twenty20 captain until the 2016 World T20 while MisbahulHaq was retained as the Test and ODI skipper until the 2015 ODI World Cup.

•  Afridi has played 381 ODIs and 74 T20 internationals.

•  Afridi, 34, who captained Pakistan in ODIs and T20 matches in 2010 and 2011 before being removed by the board said he was delighted to get back the responsibility.
  LalithaKumarmangalam

•  BJP’s national executive member LalithaKumarmangalam was appointed as the chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW).

•  Kumarmangalam is from Tamil Nadu and runs an NGO called Prakriti.

AdilZainulbhai

•  Prime Minister NarendraModi has appointed former McKinsey India chairman AdilZainulbhai as the chief of the Quality Council of India (QCI).

•  Zainulbhai, who is currently serving as a senior adviser with McKinsey India, is also on the boards of Reliance Industries, the American India Foundation, Saifee Hospital, SaifeeBurhaniUpliftment Trust, Network 18 as well as on the advisory board of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

AbhishekGanguly

•  Rajiv Mehta, who was previously managing the reins of Puma India as the managing director for nine years, announced his exit from the company.

•  Puma India said that it had appointed AbhishekGanguly as its new Managing Director, taking over the reins of the brand that recently launched the Forever Faster campaign.

•  Mr. Abhishek previously had been spearheading the sales and retail functions for the brand and had joined Puma right at its inception in 2005 as a founding director.

AlokShetty

•  A 28-year-old Bangalore-based architect has been named “young leader of tomorrow” by Time magazine for his pioneering work in designing affordable flood-proof houses for slum dwellers.

•  AlokShetty is among “leaders of tomorrow” who are “working hard to change their worlds today,”

•  Time said as it named six inspirational young persons in its first class of “next generation leaders.”

•  Mr. Shetty, who studied Master’s in architecture at Columbia University, “came at the problem with an approach he brings to all of his projects — marrying smart design with a commitment to sustainability.”

•  Mr. Shetty, working with the Bangalore-based nonprofit Parinaam Foundation, is designing homes for hundreds of slum dwellers whose makeshift houses flood during the heavy rains and become breeding grounds for diseases like malaria.

John Key

•  New Zealand’s conservative Prime Minister John Key swept to a historic election victory on, securing a third term as voters ignored campaign allegations of dirty tricks and mass spying.

•  The resounding win makes Mr. Key the first New Zealand leader able to govern in his own right since proportional voting was introduced in 1996 and means his centre-right National Party has increased its vote in all three elections he has contested.

•  National won 61 of 121 parliamentary seats, up from 59 at the last election in 2011, while the main opposition Labour Party managed only 32, down two, its worst performance since the 1920s.
  Mandolin U. Shriniva

•  The Carnatic music fraternity is in a state of shock over the untimely death of Mandolin U. Shrinivas .

•  He was reportedly being treated for liver failure at the Apollo Hospital .

•  He had lately received a liver transplant and had recovered, but a lung infection proved fatal.

Educationist Kireet Joshi passes away

•  Eminent educationist and former education adviser to the Union government Kireet Joshi passed away after battling cancer. He was 83.

•  Mr. Joshi was selected for the Indian Administrative Services in 1955 and posted as Assistant Collector of Surat, Gujarat in 1956.

•  However, he resigned his job the same year in order to study and practise the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo at Puducherry. He was appointed as the Registrar of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in 1958.

•  In 1976 the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi appointed him as the educational adviser to the Government of India.

•  He was instrumental in redesigning and redrafting of the Bill for VishwaBharati University, Shantiniketan.

•  He is also credited with seeding the idea of the Indira Gandhi National Open University as also of Pondicherry University.

•  In 1981 Mr. Joshi was appointed Secretary of Auroville International Advisory Council.

•  He served as the Educational Adviser to the Gujarat Chief Minister from 2008 to 2010.

RizwanAkhtar

•  Lieutenant General RizwanAkhtar was appointed the new chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in commander-level promotions announced in the country’s powerful Army.

•  Announcement comes as current ISI chief Lt. Gen. Zaheerul Islam and five other lieutenant generals are scheduled to retire from service in the first week of October.

•  Lt. Gen. Akhtar is a graduate of the Command and Staff College in Quetta, National Defence University and the Army War College, U.S.

BibekDebroy

•  The government has set up a panel of experts to suggest ways for restructuring the Railway Board, a long pending issue, to infuse efficiency in the transport behemoth's top decision-making body and run it on professional lines.

• The seven-member committee, headed by economist BibekDebroy, has been tasked to suggest measures to reorganize the Railway Board and its departments so that policy making is separated from day-to-day operations.

•  The panel, which has former cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar as member, has also been mandated to estimate the financial needs of railways and ensure policies to raise resources, internally and otherwise to meet future demands.

Edward Snowden

•  Edward Snowden has been selected among the winners of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “alternative Nobel,” for his disclosures of top secret surveillance programs.

•  The award foundation said the former National Security Agency contractor splits the honorary portion of the prize with Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger.

•  The 1.5 million kronor ($210,000) cash award is shared by Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir, Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission and U.S. environmentalist Bill McKibben.

•  Award foundation director Ole von Uexkull said all winners were invited to the December 1 award ceremony in Stockholm, though he added it’s unclear whether Mr. Snowden, who remains exiled in Russia, can attend.

Govind Mishra

•  Renowned Hindi author Govind Mishra was conferred the 'SaraswatiSamman' for his novel "DhoolPaudhon Par" published in 2008 at a function in New Delhi.

•  Govind Mishra is the second Hindi author who was conferred this honour after it was given to HarivanshRaiBachchan in 1991. Born on August 1, 1939, in Atarra (Banda, Uttar Pradesh), Mishra completed his BA and MA (English) at the University of Allahabad.

•  Giving away the award, constituted by the K K Birla Foundation, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that it has been recognised as the highest literary award in India.
  Panneerselvam

•  O. Panneerselvam will be the next Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He will assume the office for the second time under similar circumstances.

•  In September, 2001, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa had to step down as her appointment as Chief Minister was quashed by the Supreme Court.

•  Mr. Panneerselvam, the AIADMK treasurer, met Governor K. Rosaiah at the Raj Bhavan and submitted a letter and resolution passed by the party legislators stating that he had been unanimously elected leader of the AIADMK legislature party.

• He will be the 28th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu since 1920.

“Pottu Amman dead”

• Dismissing reports that the LTTE’s one-time intelligence chiefPottu Amman had been arrested in Hong Kong, the Sri Lankan Army said he was dead for years.
  The Army had sufficient evidence to believe that the senior member of the rebel Tigers — who is on Interpol’s wanted list in connection with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi — was dead, according to spokesman RuwanWanigasooriya.

• Though charge-sheeted in India in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, his name, along with that of LTTE chief V. Prabakaran, was removed from the list as the designated court observed that both were killed in the Sri Lankan Army’s offensive.

Stress on gender sensitisation in curriculum

•  Gender sensitisation and inclusion will be the core of the curriculum for schools and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) will collaborate with the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) to ensure the textbooks are free from gender biases.

•  The HRD Ministry, which has begun the process of drafting a new education policy, wants curriculum to underline gender issues and has assured that all States and stakeholders will be involved in the process of drafting the new policy.

Academic activities begin at Nalanda varsity

•  Academic activities began at Nalanda University at Rajgir, more than eight centuries after the ancient university was destroyed by a medieval ruler.

•  Out of the 15 students enrolled in the university so far, nine attended classes on the inaugural day in the departments of environmental studies and history, the two subjects which will be taught here in the first session.

•  The students were welcomed by vice-chancellor GopaSabharwal, who also greeted the teachers and staff to the reborn university amidst enthusiasm by those present at the occasion.

First Ajmer literature festival

•  The first Ajmer Literature Festival will begin on September 4.

•  The three-day festival is being organised by the Ajmer Literary Society and its aim “is to build a civilised, cultured and sensitive society for the promotion of art, literature and culture in the country and the world.”

•  To be inaugurated by filmmaker Muzaffar Ali, Mira Ali and Justice (retd.) DalvirBhandari, thinkers, writers, art-lovers and journalists will deliberate on the contemporary challenges faced by the society at present

•  Conceived by poet RasBihari Gaur, the event will be the first of its kind in Ajmer and it will be held in Hindi.

Sulabh begins ‘toilet for every house’ drive from Badaun

•  Taking a cue from Prime Minister NarendraModi’s Independence Day speech, Sulabh International kick-started its nationwide ‘Toilet for Every House’ campaign from KatraSadatganj village in Badaun that has been in the news for the killing of two girls when they ventured out of their homes in the dark to relieve themselves.

•  A U.N. study in 2010 found that more people in India have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet … It’s a shame.
  Modi urged not to visit Renkoji temple.

•  The Punjab-based NetajiSubhashKrantiManch urged Prime Minister NarendraModi not to visit the Renkoji temple in Tokyo where some believe that the ashes of the late freedom-fighter NetajiSubhash Chandra Bose are buried.

•  In a statement here, the Manch observed that if Mr. Modi chose to visit the temple as was reported in a section of the media, it would send wrong signals about the “attitude and intentions” of his government towards Netaji.

Experts divided over posting of ex-CJIs as Governors

•  With the former Chief Justice of India (CJI) P. Sathasivam being appointed as Kerala Governor, a new dimension has been added to the debate on judicial autonomy and accountability.

•  It is for the first time a former CJI is being appointed to a gubernatorial post.
  
   

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