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The Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched a contest “#Childline1098” to spread awareness on human trafficking and to mark the 2018 World Day against Trafficking in Persons. In it, people are invited to share images of the Childline 1098 logo that they spot at unique locations and send it with a tagline. The #Childline1098 contest carries a cash price of Rs 2,000. The details of the contest are available on the Facebook and Twitter accounts of the ministry. The Childline 1098 is India’s first 24-hour, free, nationwide emergency phone service for children in need of aid and assistance. At present, it is operational at 450 locations including 76 key railway stations. As Railways often act as carriers of trafficked children, the Ministry signed an MoU with the Ministry of Railways to rescue and rehabilitate runaway, abandoned, kidnapped and trafficked children via Railways.

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The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) has organized 2nd meeting of National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyaan on 24th July 2018 in New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Rajiv Kumar, the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog. In it, it was declared that Month of September to be celebrated as National Nutrition Month (NNM) every year. During the meeting, the National Council approved to include 32 new districts in the current year 2018-19 under POSHAN Abhiyaan by which it will saturate all the districts of the UTs which are left to be included under Phase-I and Phase-II. The POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) was launched nationwide from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan on 8th March 2018. It aims to ensure holistic development and adequate nutrition for pregnant women, mothers and children.

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South Africa is hosting the 10th edition of BRICS Summit 2018 in Johannesburg on July 25 with theme “BRICS in Africa – collaboration for inclusive growth and shared prosperity in the 4th industrial revolution”. In it, the heads of the five BRICS nations viz. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are participating. They are expected to deliberate on global hot-spot issues, international peace and security, global governance and trade issues among others. The five BRICS countries account for 26% of the world’s landmass and are home to 43% of the world’s population. The bloc is composed of emerging markets and the developing world.

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In Cricket, Pawan Shah has created history by registering the 2nd highest individual score in Under-19 internationals against hosts Sri Lanka in the first innings on the 2nd day of the final ‘Youth Test’ in Hambantota on July 25, 2018. The Indian innings was declared when the 18-year-old Pawan Shah from Pune was dismissed at 282. His score came off 332 balls with 33 boundaries and a six in just under 7 hours. With this score, Shah became the 2nd Indian to score a double-century after Tanmay Srivastava, who had scored 220 against Pakistan in Peshawar in September 2006. Though, he failed to beat Australian Clinton Peake’s 304 not out against India in Melbourne in 1995, which is still the highest score at this Under-19 level.

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The 18th UNICEF International Children’s Film Festival 2018 has been inaugurated by West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi in Kolkata on July 25 in which 36 films from 17 countries would be screened. The 2018 theme is ‘Value of Girls’, which will be promoted through films, workshops and discussions. The festival has been organised by Cine Central, one of the oldest cine clubs of the country in collaboration with the UNICEF, Nandan and Talash Society. The inaugural film is Moana from the USA. After screening of the opening film, the 2nd phase of the festival would be held from August 9 to 12 at Nandan, and then the festival will be taken across the state and the films will be screened in different district towns till September 30. Other films to be screened in the festival include Doctor Funes Formula (Mexico), White Bridge (Iran), The Monkey King – Uproar in Heaven (China), The Magicians (Netherlands), The Shamer’s Daughter (Denmark), Giraffada (France), We are the Best (Sweden).

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The Odisha government has launched a plantation drive ‘Green Mahanadi Mission’ to stop soil erosion and recharge groundwater reserve of Mahanadi river. Under the mission, more than 5 crore saplings will be planted over an area of 41,000 hectares. The plantation will be done on either side of major rivers of Odisha as well along roadside length of about 5,000 km over a period of five years at an expenditure of around Rs 5,000 crore. To provide additional livelihood opportunities to the locals, the volunteers will plant fruit-bearing trees like mango, jackfruit and jamun within one kilometre radius of the river bank. Apart from Mahanadi, plantation will also be done on the banks of river Tel and Ib. The plantation drive will be implemented jointly by the departments of Forest, Horticulture and Watershed Development.

Notes:
India’s first public sector hotel “Hostess” run entirely by women for women will come up in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The flagship project of the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) has been launched by the state Tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran. ‘Hostess’ will offer state-of-the-art facilities, including automated security features, technology-oriented check-ins and check-outs, laundry service, complimentary breakfast, microwave oven and fitness centre. The facility will have 22 AC rooms and two AC dormitories to host 28 people at a time. Rooms will be charged Rs 1,500 and the dormitory facility Rs 500 for four hours.

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The Haryana government has recently constituted an inter-district council, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, to identify the developmental priorities of the State. The inter-district council will prepare district specific action plans, assessment of development needs, and delegate powers to panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies. Further the body will regularly review the progress of various flagship programmes of the Centre and the state governments. The finance minister, development and panchayat minister, urban local bodies minister, presidents of zilla parishads, mayors of municipal corporations and presidents of municipal councils or committees at district headquarters would be permanent members of the council.

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The book “When Coal Turned Gold: The Making of a Maharatna Company” has been authored by Partha Sarathi Bhattacharyya, the former chairman of Coal India Ltd (CIL). The author tells the story of how he dealt with the Dhanbad coal mafia, how he changed the way the industry was perceived, how he dealt with the trade unions and the government and, most importantly, how he was able to script one of the greatest success stories the country had ever seen. In all, it’s the story of Coal India Ltd’s (CIL) transformation from a hugely loss-making enterprise since its formation in the 70s into a profitable Maharatna PSU. It must be noted that CIL contributes to around 82% of India’s coal production and is headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal.

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The National Traders Conclave 2018 has been organized by Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) in New Delhi from July 23 to 25 to address various grievances of the trading community and focus on effective solutions. A speaker of CAIT informed that among the rising problems in trades in recent times, FDI in both multi and single-brand retail and merger of Walmart and Flipkart are posing huge challenges on Indian Market. Regarding to this issue, CAIT demanded that the Centre stop the Walmart-Flipkart deal saying it would encourage predatory pricing and benefit only investors and promoters. The conclave, which is being attended by 1,500 trade leaders, had decided to launch a nationwide movement against the deal. The traders’ union also demanded that the government form a policy for e-commerce and constitute a regulatory authority for such businesses. The headquarters of CAIT is located in New Delhi.