Notes:
Sawai Singh Shekhawat, the Jaipur-based poet and writer, will be honoured with Meera Puruskar by Rajasthan Sahitya Academy for his contribution to Hindi literature. The award function will be held in October 2018. He has published seven books of poetry and his first Rajasthani story “Koonpal” was translated in Hindi, Telugu & Dogari. He served as Editor for Bakhat and Rajasthan Vikas magazines.

Notes:
According to the ‘Credit Suisse Family 1000 in 2018’ report, India has been ranked third globally in terms of number of family-owned businesses with 111 companies having a total market capitalisation of $839 billion. Indian family-owned companies generated a 13.9% annual average share price return since 2006, compared to 6% recorded by their non-family-owned peers. The report is published by the Credit Suisse Research Institute (CSRI). The list is topped by China, followed by United States. As per report, in terms of number of family-owned businesses within the non-Japan Asian region, the list is dominated by China, India and Hong Kong. These three jurisdictions together account for around 65% of the non-Japan Asian section of CSRI’s database, and have a combined market capitalisation of $2.8 trillion (or 71%) of the market share.

Notes:
Anushka Sharma has been bestowed with the prestigious Smita Patil Memorial Award 2018 at the 34th edition of Priyadarshni Academy’s Global Awards in Mumbai, Maharashtra on September 19. The Priyadarshni Academy is a non-profit, socio-cultural and educational organization.

Notes:
According to Mercom India Research, the total installed capacity of solar power generation of India has crossed 25 giga watts (GV). This includes both large-scale and rooftop solar. The utility-scale solar PV projects in India accounts for over 22.5 GW of installed capacity & the rooftop solar projects account for over 2.4 GW as of date. Karnataka is the top solar state of India followed by Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan. Mercom India Research forecasts solar installations of approximately 8.3 GW in CY 2018. Out of this, over 5 GW of solar projects have been installed in the first half of the year. Installation rates are forecasted to decline in the second half due to lack of a strong project pipeline. The solar installations in 2019 are also expected to be flat as longer commissioning timeline will push approximately 1.3 GW of large-scale projects from 2019 to 2020.

Notes:
India has decided to place four more reactors under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. Accordingly, two Russian-designed Pressurised Light Water Reactors and two Pressurised Heavy Reactors being built with Indian technology will be covered. With this, a total of 26 Indian nuclear facilities will be under the international nuclear energy watchdog IAEA. This was stated by Sekhar Basu, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, at the 62nd General Conference of IAEA Vienna, Austria, on 19th September 2018.

Notes:
In the latest round of reshuffle of Parliamentary panels, the former Union Minister Kalraj Mishra has been appointed new Chairman of the standing committee on Defence. He succeeded B.C. Khanduri, who has been delivering a series of critical reports on the defence preparedness and slammed the government for critical low stock of armaments. In the latest 2018 March report of Khanduri, it was pointed that 68% of equipment with the armed forces was in the vintage category. Apart from this, Chintamani Malviya has been appointed new Chairman of Coal and Steel panel with another BJP MP from the same State, Chintamani Malviya. There are no changes in Finance Committee and External Affairs Committee, both headed by Congress leaders. Finance Committee is headed by Veerappa Moily. The External Affairs Committee is headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

Notes:
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has signed a MoU with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to set up a state-of-the-art Integrated Control Room for Emergency Response (ICR-ER) Integrated Control Room for Emergency Response. ISRO will render its technical expertise for setting up of proposed ICR-ER whereas the project will be executed under overall supervision of MHA. The proposed Control Room is expected to be established in next one-and-a-half year. The ICR-ER will cater to the requirement of Disaster Management as well as Internal Security. ICR-ER will address the requirement of receipt of information on near real-time basis, strategic level monitoring, situation awareness, command and control, preparedness and response in the diverse internal security situation and disaster related emergencies. Resultantly, it will increase the operational effectiveness and will be helpful in rendering timely response / assistance during various emergency situations.

Notes:
India and Sri Lanka have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for construction of a 5000-metric ton temperature controlled warehouse in Dambulla of Central Province. The warehouse will be constructed with an Indian grant assistance of 30 crore Sri Lankan rupees for fruits and vegetables to minimize its post-harvest losses. This initiative will benefit the farming community by reducing the wastage particularly in the peak season when there is surplus production. This project is in continuation of Government of India (GoI)’s efforts to partner with Government of Sri Lanka in people oriented development projects. India’s overall commitment of development assistance to Sri Lanka stands at a total of around 3 billion US dollars, out of which 550 million US dollars is pure grant assistance.

Notes:
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has proposed to the Andhra Pradesh government its plans to establish a drone manufacturing facility in Anantapur district, a cyber security centre in Amaravati, and turn Rajahmundry and Vijayawada airports into asset positioning bases. IAF also plans to set up a major helicopter training facility at Donakonda in Prakasam district. IAF currently has a base at Arakkonam near Chennai, while the Navy has INS Dega in Visakhapatnam.

Notes:
Saudi Arabia will be the third “strategic partner” of the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It was announced after Prime Minister Imran Khan returned from his first foreign trip to the cash-rich kingdom. The CPEC is the flagship project of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aimed at enhancing Beijing’s influence around the world through China-funded infrastructure projects. The CPEC aims to construct and upgrade the transportation network, energy projects, a deep-water port at Gwadar and special economic zones to eventually support Pakistan’s industrial development as a manufacturing hub by 2030.