Notes:
The book “The Adivasi Will Not Dance” has been authored by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar. It is a mature, passionate, intensely political book of stories, made up of the very stuff of life. Recently, the book is in news because the Jharkhand government has banned the book on the grounds that it portrayed the Santhal women in a bad light. The writer himself belongs to the Santhal adivasi community, which is numerically among the largest indigenous groups. Shekhar won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puruskar in 2015 for his novel ‘The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey’.

Notes:
The 8th World Renewable Energy Technology Congress & Expo-2017 has started in New Delhi from August 21, 2017. The theme of the 3-day annual conference is “Renewable Energy: What Works”, which focuses on new Green Technologies to ensure clean, reliable and affordable Renewable Energy supplies. It provides an opportunity and open forum to exchange information, share experiences and best practices by bringing together experts, investors and other multi stake holders of i.e. Public and Private Sector, Advisory Groups, Governments, NGOs, Non-Profit organizations Environmentalists and Academia.

Notes:
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has been selected for the prestigious National Agriculture Leadership Award-2017 by the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA) under the chairmanship of well known agriculture scientist Prof MS Swaminathan. Rao. The Chief Minister has been selected for the award for his innovative services rendered to the welfare of farmers and the farm sector. The award will be presented on September 5, 2017 at Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi.

Notes:
The Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary (SWS) is located in Bishalgarh, Tripura and covers an area of 18.53 square kilometres. It is famous for its clouded leopard enclosures. It is woodland with an artificial lake and natural botanical and zoological gardens. It gives shelter to about 150 species of birds and the unique bespectacled monkey, Phayre’s langur. The sanctuary has been developed both as a wildlife sanctuary and as an academic and research centre.

Notes:
Ashwani Lohani, an officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), has been appointed as the new Chairman of Railway Board after AK Mital tendered his resignation following recent train accidents. Presently, Lohani is serving as the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India. Earlier, he served as the Divisional Regional Manager of Delhi and was also ITDC chairman as well as the director of the Rail Museum in the capital.

Notes:
Brian Aldiss (92), one of the most prolific and influential science fiction writers of the 20th century, has passed away in Oxford, England. Aldiss served in India and Burma with the British Army during World War II and later became a bookseller, publishing his first stories in a trade magazine. He was the author of science fiction classics including Non-Stop, Hothouse and Greybeard and Helliconia trilogy. His numerous short stories include Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, formed the basis for Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film “AI”, while his Horatio Stubbs saga was based on his time during the war in Burma and the far east.

Notes:
Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha, has launched a grid-connected rooftop solar programme through the net-metering system at the State Secretariat in Bhubaneshwar in a bid to enable public participation to harness renewable energy. The State government will provide 30% subsidy to the consumers belonging to residential and institutional segments as well as to registered societies and trusts. At present, current investment for installation of a rooftop project is around Rs 70,000 per KW. The web portal “www.rtsodisha.gov.in” was also launched that will provide an opportunity to the stakeholders to interact with customers for timely delivery of services online. Under the programme, consumers can instal solar plants on their rooftops and consume the generated solar power during day time. Excess power can be sold to the grid at 220 v/440 v levels through service cables. The program is being implemented by Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA).

Notes:
The Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR) is located in Latehar District of Jharkhand and covers an area of 1,129.93 square kilometres. Apart from tigers and elephants, leopards, gaurs, sambars and wild dogs live in the reserve. It forms part of Betla National Park and Palamau Wildlife Sanctuary.

Notes:
Nandan Nilekani, the Infosys co-founder and the architect of Aadhaar, has been appointed as the new non-executive chairman of the board of directors of Infosys. The sweeping changes have been made to the board in an attempt to restore stability after the resignation of Vishal Sikka as CEO, and a bitter rift between Narayana Murthy and the board came to the fore. Nilekani’s appointment will allow Infosys to focus on the strategic changes it needs to make in order to capitalize on the attractive opportunities in the years ahead. Nilekani served as Infosys’s CEO from 2002 to 2007.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has recently increased the ‘creamy layer’ ceiling for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category to Rs 8 lakh per annum from the existing Rs 6 lakh for central government jobs. With this, those in the OBC category earning up to Rs 8 lakh per annum would now get reservation benefits.