After 18 years of negotiations Russia has finally become a formal member of the World Trade Organisation(WTO). Russia is ready to cut import tariffs on goods, including food and cars and to ease controls on foreign companies entering its financial and telecom sectors. Russia joins as the 156^th member of the WTO.

Union Tourism Ministry has granted heritage status to the Castle Naggar (Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation's prime hotel in the Kullu valley).

Naggar was the capital of the former Kullu state for about 1460 years.

The castle was established by Raja Sidhi Singh in the 16^th century.

It bears traditional architecture called Kathloonmi, which uses a combination of stones and wooden beams.

The apex court extended the ban on tourism activities in the core areas of tiger reserves. The apex court made the observation after the Centre made a mention of its affidavits filed in the court for permission to review its earlier guidelines for conservation of tiger. The apex court earlier on July 24 had imposed an interim ban on tourism in core areas of tiger reserves on the basis of same guidelines. The ban extended would remain in place at least till next hearing on August 29, 2012.

Pakistan is against India’s move to fill the Nimoo-Bazgo dam in Jammu and Kashmir, worrying it could slash Islamabad’s share of water from the Indus River.

Nimoo-Bazgo is a hydro-electric project near Alachi village in Leh district. It has power generation capacity of 45 MW.

As per an inquiry done by Water and Power Development Authority secretary Muhammad Imtiaz Tajwar, Pakistan’s former Indus Waters Commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah is responsible for the delay in the issue and losing the opportunity to take the Nimoo-Bazgo project with a neutral expert or a court of arbitration. The report makes Shah responsible for falling short to establish how India had managed to secure carbon credits for the Nimoo-Bazgo project. It held that Shah could not collect documentary evidence regarding accumulation of carbon credits by India during the probe. Countering this, Pakistan blames late response of India with the project details, despite reminders.

Pakistan Govt has conferred its highest civilian honor Nisan-i-Imtiaz on famous Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto.

Manto is popular for his Urdu short stories, especially those that explored the impact of the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947.

Some of his famous short stories include Toba Tek Singh, Bu (Odour), Khol Do (Open It) and Thanda Gosht (Cold Meat).