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The first-ever ‘India Tourism Mart (ITM)’ will be hosted by the Ministry of Tourism in New Delhi from 16th to 18th September 2018. Regarding to this, the Tourism Ministry has partnered with the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) to organize the event. The purpose of the event is to create an annual Global Tourism Mart for India in line with major international travel marts being held in countries across the world. The Mart will provide a platform for all stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industries to interact and transact business opportunities.

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India’s ace squash player Dipika Pallikal has been appointed as Asia’s representative in the prestigious Athletes Advisory Commission of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF). The appointment was made by the CGF. The CGF Athletes Advisory Commission was proposed in August 2017 and had reached out to all 71 member Commonwealth Games Associations (CGAs) to nominate an athlete with the potential to serve the Athletes Commission. Each continent is represented by one athlete in CGFAAC. The Indian Olympic Association/CGA India had proposed the name of Commonwealth gold medallist Pallikal to represent Asia in the CGFAAC. The CGFAAC is the body that represents and speaks on behalf of all Commonwealth athletes. The CGFAAC currently comprises seven highly-accomplished Commonwealth athletes and medallists with significant previous Games and sports, civic and academic leadership experience.

Notes:
Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh will lead the 18-member Indian men’s hockey squad in the 18th Asian Games, which is scheduled to begin in Jakarta and Palembang from August 18. Midfielder Chinglensana Singh Kangujam has been named vice-captain for the tournament and he will be joined by the experienced Sardar Singh, Manpreet Singh, Simranjeet Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad in the midfield. In India’s forward-line, Akashdeep Singh has made a comeback in the squad while experienced SV Sunil, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay and Dilpreet Singh have retained their places in the team. The team’s defence will be handled by Rupinder Pal Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Surender Kumar and Birendra Lakra.

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The 67th plenary meeting of North Eastern Council (NEC) has started at Shillong in Meghalaya on 9th of July, which was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. NEC is a regional planning body of eight Northeastern states. DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh, Governors and Chief Ministers of all the Northeastern states took take part in the 2-day meeting, which is being held for the first time after the Union Cabinet brought NEC under direct control of the Home Ministry. During the meet, they reviewed various presentations on matters related to all-round development of north-eastern region. Apart from this some of the major issues including transformation of several districts in the region, strengthening livelihood programmes, water resources management, doubling farmers’ income by 2022, road connectivity, Implementation of ‘Poshan Abhiyan’ Ayushman Bharat pertaining to the northeastern states were discussed in the plenary.

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The Odisha government and Tata Trust will jointly spend Rs 1,000 crore for development of cancer care facilities in the State over the next 5 years. Under the Odisha comprehensive cancer care programme, a state-of-the-art Tata Memorial Hospital will be set up in Bhubaneswar. The State will provide 25 acres of land free of cost for the hospital. The existing Acharya Harihar Cancer Care Hospital at Cuttack will also be upgraded. A special purpose vehicle called the Odisha Cancer Care Foundation will be constituted as the management entity. It will be under the chairmanship of the Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Department. It was also decided that 15 clinical units having different levels of cancer treatment facilities will be set up across the State. Comprehensive diagnostic facilities will be made available in government medical colleges at Burla, Bhawanipatna, Berhampur, Koraput, and Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.

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The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has launched a mobile help centre “‘Saathi'” to reach out to people undertaking the annual pilgrimage to the 3,880-metre high holy cave shrine of Amarnath. The initiative ‘Saathi’ was launched by Abhay Vir Chauhan , the Inspector General of CRPF (Jammu Sector). The purpose of this initiative is to provide help and information to yatris staying in camps outside the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu. The CRPF personnel of the mobile help centre will be visiting various camps in Jammu and apprising the pilgrims about the security measures to be kept in mind. In addition , the trained CRPF personnel of the centre would provide first aid treatment to people in need and would also be distributing medicines. Beside this, a help desk of the CRPF is already functional at the Bhagwati Nagar Base Camp and another named ‘Madadgaar’ (helper) at the Jammu Tawi Railway Station and other information centres.

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South Korean consumer electronics major, Samsung has set up the world’s largest mobile phone factory in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The facility was inaugurated jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The new plant will help the company raise its capacity in a phased manner, from 68 million units at present, to 120 million by 2020. Presently all Samsung mobile phones, including its flagship Galaxy S9, S9+ and Galaxy Note8, are manufactured at its Noida plant. The Noida factory, which was set up in 1996 , is one of the first global electronics manufacturing facilities set up in India. A bigger manufacturing plant, which is spread over 129000 sq. metres, will help Samsung meet the growing demand for its innovative products and services across the country and also fulfil the company’s goal of making India an export hub for the world.

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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved Lining Project of Son Canal in Shahbad-Bhojpur region of Bihar, which would benefit the agriculture sector immensely in the region. The estimated cost of this project is USD $503 million out of which US $352 million is being provided by ADB. This project on completion will bring immense benefits to agriculture sector of Shahbad-Bhojpur region of Bihar.

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The Gujarat Government has granted religious minority status to Jewish community living in the state. The GR to this effect was issued on July 6 by the state’s Department of Social Justice and Empowerment. As religious minority members professing the faith of Judaism, they shall get the religious minority rights envisaged in the Constitution and various acts and rules of the state government. They shall also get benefits of welfare schemes formulated for religious minority communities within the jurisdiction of Gujarat. With this, Gujarat has become the 3rd state in India to grant religious minority status to Jews after West Bengal and Maharashtra.

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Union Minister of State (I/C) Youth Affairs and Sports, Rajyavardhan Rathore has sanctioned financial assistance of Rs. five lakh to National Level Archer Gohela Boro for her medical treatment. The financial assistance has been given from Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Welfare Fund for Sportspersons. This is in addition to financial assistance of over Rs. 3.37 lakh already provided to her upto January 2018. The archer is suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus combined with other multiple disorder. She hails from village Amguri in Kokrajhar district of Assam.