1. As domestic flights to resume soon, Govt issues guidelines
Airport Authority of India (AAI) has released passenger guidelines keeping in mind a possible resumption of domestic flights. This includes compulsory registering of passengers on a contact tracing mobile application. Further, the guidelines also mention that all the travellers must mandatorily download the Aarogya Setu app, do web check-in, and carry a print-out of the boarding pass. They must wear protective gear, maintain a social distance of four feet from co-passengers and carry 350ml bottle of hand sanitizer with them.
2. Goldman Sachs to honor job and internship offers to 1,460 Indian graduates
Goldman Sachs will be honoring job and internship offers to 1,460 Indian graduates and students this summer. Around half of these offers were for full-time jobs at the bank’s technology centre in Bengaluru, which is its second-biggest office globally. Gunjan Samtani, the Indian head of the bank said that “ the bank was putting in place contingency plans that could allow it to move 40%-50% of its workforce in India back to its offices when the country’s stringent lockdown ends.”
3. Lava decides to shift its export production base and design team from China to India
Handset maker Lava International has decided to shift its China operations to India after the government released its recent policy announcements. The company plans on investing Rs 800 crore in the next five years to boost its mobile phone development and manufacturing operations in the country. Lava International Chairman and Managing Director Hari Om Rai told PTI, “We had around 600-650 employees in China for product design. Now we have shifted designing to India. Our sales requirements for India were met from our local plant. “We used to partially export mobile phones from China to the rest of the world, which will now happen from India.”
4. “A 5-6 teams IPL for women will be great”, says Indian woman cricketer Smriti Mandhana
In a candid conversation on BCCI’s Podcast, ‘The doosra’, Indian opener, Smriti Mandhana has said that a full-fledged women’s Indian Premier League (IPL) can greatly benefit in tapping the talent and would help the national team do well at the global level. She further added that the BCCI is also putting in time and effort at making this possible. “Women’s cricket in Indian is growing massively, especially the domestic circuit. But there’s still a lot of gap between competition between international and domestic circuit which I think will be bridged in 2-3 years,” she added.
5. Akshay Kumar donates wristbands to Mumbai Police that detect COVID-19 symptoms
Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has once again stepped forward to help the COVID-19 frontline warriors in Mumbai by donating 1000 wristbands to the police. These wristbands will help the Mumbai Police to detect COVID-19 symptoms like blood pressure, heart rate, sleep, and will also help in keeping a check on their step count and calories. Further, it will detect if the temperature of a person is higher than usual or not. With this, the Mumbai Police will become the first body in the world that will be enabled to remotely track and manage the health of its personnel with these wristbands.
6. Earth’s largest and hottest shield volcano discovered in Hawaii
The University of Hawaii researchers have revealed that Hawaii’s “Pūhāhonu” volcano currently holds the distinction of being the Earth’s largest and hottest active shield volcano. They have observed that it was nearly twice as big as “Mauna Loa”, which was earlier considered the largest volcano. A shield volcano consists majorly of fluid lava and resembles a warrior’s shield.
7. Facebook purchases Giphy for $400 mn, plans to integrate it with Instagram
On its blog post on Friday, Facebook Inc wrote that it will be acquiring Giphy, a popular website for creating and sharing animated images, or GIFs, and integrate it with its photo-sharing app Instagram. Although the company disclosed the price at which the purchase will happen, it is said that Facebook and Giphy have closed the deal at $400 million. Further, the company has confirmed that Giphy will integrate with Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. “People will still be able to upload GIFs; developers and API partners will continue to have the same access to GIPHY’s APIs, and GIPHY’s creative community will still be able to create great content,” said the vice president of Instagram.
8. Google Chrome to start blocking ads that drain battery, consume network data
Google Chrome has announced that is soon going to start blocking battery-draining ads that consume network data by August-end of this year. By not displaying ads, Chrome could ease the strain on your phone’s battery or your home network capacity. It said it would limit the resources a display ad could use before a user interacts with it. In case an ad reaches its limit, its frame will navigate to an error page, informing the user that the ad has used too many resources.
9. Mohammad Amir tweets to Kohli “Brother is it you?” on seeing his lookalike on TV
Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir recently was watching a Turkish TV series ‘Dirilis Ertugrul Ghazi’ where he came across Indian batsman Virat Kohli’s doppelganger. Amir then took to twitter and jokingly asked Virat Kohli if he was an actor in the popular Turkish drama Dirilis: Ertugrul. By sharing a still from the show. Both these cricketers though hold immense respect for each other share fierce rivalry on the cricket pitch.
10. Researchers discover new parasitic fungus species via Twitter
Researchers of the History Museum of Denmark have found a new parasitic fungus species via microblogging site, Twitter. While biologist Ana Reboleira was scrolling through Twitter, she spotted “tiny dots” on an image of a North American millipede which was shared by her colleague. Soon after, the biologist began digging through museum collections and found the same undocumented fungus on some millipedes. Since it was discovered via Twitter, it has now been named “Troglomyces twitteri”.
11. Trump says US will donate ventilators to India, strengthens the India-US friendship
US President Donald Trump has announced that the US will be helping India fight the coronavirus pandemic. In his tweet, he said, “I am proud to announce that the United States will donate ventilators to our friends in India. We stand with India and @narendramodi during this pandemic. We’re also cooperating on vaccine development. Together we will beat the invisible enemy!” Trump has also thanked PM Modi for his “strong leadership in helping not just India, but humanity” in the battle against the invisible enemy. He had further thanked India “and the Indian people for the decision on HCQ,” adding that it “will not be forgotten.”
12. Amid lockdown, Harayana Police seize 792-kg drugs, more than 73,000 liquor bottles
The police in Haryana, amid the lockdown, have successfully seized 792 kg of drugs, 73,251 bottles of liquor and 37,363 litres of ”lahan” (a raw material that is used for producing illegal liquor) and have arrested 840 people from Ambala, Karnal and Gurugram ranges. Manoj Yadava, the Director-General of Police (DGP), informed the media that 746 cases have been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the perpetrators. As reported by IANS, the DGP in a statement said, “In addition to effective enforcement of the lockdown, we have also launched a crackdown with highly visible police patrolling to make sure that all kinds of criminal elements don’t take advantage of the trying times in any manner.”
13. 22 Northeast insurgents handed to India by the Myanmar army
On Friday, the Myanmar army handed over to India 22 insurgents from the Northeast. These insurgents were brought to India by a special aircraft and were handed over to the police forces of Manipur and Assam where they were wanted, the officials said. Out of the 22 insurgents, ten were wanted in Manipur while the rest in AssamThis move by the Myanmar army has deepened diplomatic and military ties between the two countries.
