Current Affairs Today – July 26 2015

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Indian Affairs 

Government constitutes ‘All India Council of Sports’

• The Govt. of India has constituted ‘All India Council of Sports’. The council will be an advisory body for the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. While the advice rendered by the council will be duly considered by the government, it will not be binding and obligatory on the government.
• The council may organize national, international conferences, seminars, symposia etc, for promotion of sports and games in the country. The Council will be headed by a President in the rank of Minister of State and will include four Members of Parliament, Sports personalities, coaches, sports experts.
• The Council will meet from time to time, at least once in a quarter, and deliberate on matters relating to the promotion and development of sports and games in the country.

The Council will have the aims and objectives as indicated below:

• preventing drug abuse in sports, fraud of age and sexual harassment of women in sports;
• bringing professionalism, transparency and good governance in functioning of National Sports Federations;
• ways and means to raise resources for the promotion of sports and games in the country;
• promotion of sports sciences and sports medicine;
• augmenting sports infrastructure and ensuring its proper utilization;
• issues arising out of match fixing and other malpractices in competitive sports; and
• ways and means to promote indigenous games in the country
• early identification of sports talent and nurturing of the identified talent;
• Integration of sports in educational curriculum in schools, colleges and universities;
• Welfare measures for sportspersons

Awards

PM awards journalists at ICAR function

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi today presented journalist Gargi Parsai and five others with Chaudhary Charan Singh Award for Excellence in Journalism in Agricultural Research and Development, 2014 at Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s 87th foundation day celebrations held here.
• Parsai, currently working as Associate Editor with “The Hindu” newspaper has been writing on agriculture, food security, water resources and rural development in a career spanning 37 years.

Science & Technology 

Two navigation satellites launched by China

• China launched two new satellites into space as it builds a domestic satellite navigation system named “Beidou, or Compass” rivalling US’s Global Positioning System
• The satellites, designated BDS (short for BeiDou Navigation Satellite System) M1-S and M2-S were put into a medium-Earth orbit (MEO) about 13,700 miles (22,048 km) above Earth
• The two satellites launched Saturday are the 18th and 19th of the BeiDou system and the 2nd and 3rd for the third phase (BeiDou-3) of the network.

Environment

• Researchers spotted Six new species of spiders in Kerala

4,000-year-old human skeleton discovered near Stonehenge

• A well-preserved skeleton of a Bronze Age teenager, dating back to 4,000 years, has been discovered in a foetal position near the prehistoric monument Stonehenge in UK.
• The skeleton, believed to be that of an adolescent child, was discovered by University of Reading archaeologists excavating Wilsford Henge in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire.

Sports

Roelant Oltmans appointed India hockey coach till Rio Olympics

• High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans was appointed coach of the Indian hockey team, replacing Paul van Ass, who was unceremoniously sacked after a bitter spat with Hockey India president Narinder Batra.
• The 61-year-old Dutchman, who has been associated with Indian hockey for close to three years now, will be at the helm of affairs at least till next year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
• The decision to appoint Oltmans was taken at a meeting between Sports Authority of India’s director general Injeti Srinivas and Batra.

Indian eves finish third in Volvo Invitational U-21 hockey tournament

• India’s under-21 women hockey team has finished third at the Volvo Invitational tournament. at Breda, The Netherlands. they recorded a penalty shoot out win against England.
• In the penalty shoot-out, India’s star goal-keeper Inderpreet Kaur saved all the shoot-outs and Deep Grace Ekka scored the winning goal for India.

Special Olympics World Games 2015

• The 14th edition of Special Olympics World Summer Games is being held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles from 25 July to 2 August 2015.
• Over 7,000 athletes representing over 170 countries are taking part in these games and will compete in 25 sporting events ranging from weightlifting to the triathlon.
• Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports acitivity for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
• 14-year-old Ranveer Saini becomes 1st Indian golfer to play in Special Olympics World Games.

Indian Women Wrestling Team Bags Silver In Kazakhstan Presidential Cup

• The Indian women’s wrestling team finished second in the fifth Senior International Wrestling Tournament which is also known as Cup of the President of Republic of Kazakhstan in Astana.
• Eight-member team of Indian women’s wrestling team bagged silver medal in the event that was held in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.Vinesh (48kg), Lalita Sehrawat (55kg) and Anita (63kg) of the team performed splendidly in their respective categories
• The team received a prize money of USD 10,000 along with a trophy and medals for its effort while host country Kazakhstan bagged the top spot, by defeating Mangolia which settled for the third position.

Obituary

Former Union Minister Bijoy Handique passes away

• Former Union Minister and a six-time Lok Sabha member from Assam, Bijoy Krishna Handique passed away at the age of 82. He was the veteran leader of Indian National Congress from the Northeast state of Assam.
• Handique was first elected to Lok Sabha from Jorhat in 1991 and continued winning in six successive elections.
• Handique has earlier served as a Rajya Sabha member from 1980 to 1986 and as minister of state for defence and parliamentary affairs (2004-2007), chemicals and fertilizers (2006-2009).
• Handique has also served as minister of state first for mines and later for development of Northeastern region from 2009 to 2011 in the UPA governments under Manmohan.