1. JEE Advanced to be conducted on August 23: HRD Ministry
HRD Minister, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal announced that the JEE Advanced Exam will be conducted on August 23. The minister also confirmed that the JEE (Main) exam conducted to carry out admissions in engineering colleges will be held from July 18 to 23 and the NEET exam for admission into medical colleges will be conducted on July 26. Dr. Pokhriyal later offered his best wishes to the students appearing for the JEE Advanced examination through Twitter.
2. The last super flower moon of 2020 occurred on Thursday
Supermoon- also known as the ‘Super Flower Moon’ – was witnessed by all on Thursday and it was the last supermoon of 2020. The Super Flower Moon was seen from 6:45 a.m. EDT (4:15 p.m. IST) onwards. As confirmed by NASA, the full supermoon appeared on Thursday evening and stayed till Friday morning. The first supermoon of 2020 was seen in February, followed by one appearance between March 9 and March 11. The term “supermoon” coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 refers to either a new or a full moon that occurs within 90 percent of perigee, its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit.
3. 15-yr-old boy accused & sued for the theft of $24M crypto by investor
Michael Terpin, a US cryptocurrency investor has accused an 18-year-old New York high school senior, Ellis Pinsky, of cybercrime and stealing $24million cryptocurrency in 2018. Terpin has also sued him for the same. He has further accused the then 15-year-old boy of “leading a “gang of digital bandits” and stealing from victims after gaining control of their smartphones through ‘SIM swaps’”.
4. Black Panther found in Goa’s Netravali Sanctuary
Goa’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant recently spotted a Black Panther in the Netravali wildlife sanctuary in South Goa and took the chance to capture and share a picture of the same. “A great glimpse of Goas rich wildlife. Black Panther camera trapped at Patiem beat of Netravali wildlife sanctuary,” the CM tweeted. The forest department officials are now trying to find out if there was only one of its kind, or does it have companions too. This is the first time a Black Panther has been spotted in the sanctuary.
5. Dia Mirza to stay UNEP Goodwill Ambassador till 2022
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has decided to extend actress Dia Mirza’s National Goodwill Ambassador’s term till 2022. The actress will be playing her role as the National Goodwill Ambassador for another 2 years. Appreciating the actor’s efforts to create and spread environmental awareness in India, the UN body has regarded her contribution as ‘greatly valued’. Dia is also a United Nations Sustainability Development Goals Advocate, and has been on the frontline for stressing on the importance and need of environmental conservation in India.
6. Vista Equity Partners acquires 2.3% stake in Jio Platforms by investing $1.5 bn
Reliance Jio Platforms is going to sell its 2.3% stake to Vista Equity Partners for $1.5 billion. Vista is a global investment firm whose agenda is on developing enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled companies that are catalysts of change. After this investment, Vista becomes the second largest investor in Jio Platforms after Facebook. “We are excited to leverage the professional expertise and multi-level support that Vista has been offering to its investments globally for the benefit of Jio,” Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries said in a statement.
7. Goods train in Maharashtra run over 14 migrant workers
16 migrant workers were run over by an empty freight train in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra early this morning. While 14 died on the spot, two among the 16 later succumbed to injuries. “All the 20 workers were walking from Jalna to Bhusawal, which is about 150 kilometres. They stopped after walking for about 45 kilometres for some rest and fell asleep on the tracks. A goods train ran over them at around 5.15 am,” said inspector Satish Khetmalas of Aurangabad rural police. These migrant workers were going to board a “Shramik Special” train to return to Madhya Pradesh.
8. Instagram glitch enabled iOS users to post extra-long images on their feed
Instagram users on Thursday complained of seeing some really long post on their feed only to later find out that it was a glitch. This glitch allowed users to post extra-long pictures. Instagram since always has had a fixed size for pictures and fixed nature of how pictures must appear on your screen but because of the bug, Instagram was somehow unable to resize the images. This, however, was faced only by IOS users as Instagram worked perfectly fine for Android users.
9. Pravin Amre labels Ravindra Jadeja as the best Indian cricket team fielder ever
Former Indian cricketer Pravin Amre has regarded Ravindra Jadeja as the best Indian cricket team fielder India could ever have. “He has great anticipation, has a good throw and has won many matches for the Indian cricket team through his fielding,”, said the former cricketer. Jadeja is lauded by all the cricket enthusiasts for the 115 catches he has taken in 263 international matches he has played.
10. Xiaomi launches its flagship smartphone, Mi 10 5G
Xiaomi officially launched Mi 10, flagship smartphone. The Xiaomi Mi 10 is available in two storage models and has two different color options to choose from. The smartphone is also powered by the top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC. The price of this model in India is Rs. 49,999 for the 128GB storage variant, Rs. 54,999 for the 256GB variant. Both these variants are available in two colors that include Coral Green and Twilight Grey.
