After two years of Europe-centric Nobel Prizes in Literature (Jon Fosse, Annie Ernaux), the Swedish Academy has looked east this year. It has awarded the 2024 prize to South Korean writer Han Kang “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”.

In awarding the top prize to a 53-year-old Asian writer at the peak of her writing career, the academy has ensured a wider readership of an “innovator in contemporary prose” who with her experimental style has conjured up universal tales of the human condition. With a radical and poetic imagination, she writes about women battling patriarchy, violence, grief and also about historical wrongs and injustices.

The US and India have announced grants of over USD 2 million for joint research projects aimed at advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies for social good.

This announcement was made during an event hosted by US Ambassador Eric Garcetti and Seth Center, Acting Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technologies, along with Indian Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh and other top officials, the US Embassy said in a statement.

A total of 17 projects, 11 focusing on AI and 6 on quantum technologies, will receive nearly USD 120,000 each. These projects aim to tackle critical societal challenges, including AI-assisted early cancer detection and advancements in quantum computing. The grant competition is part of the broader US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).

Saudi Arabia was thwarted Wednesday in its bid to join the UN's human rights council, which is charged with protecting freedoms globally, after coming sixth in a vote of UN members for one of five regional seats.

Ethiopia and Qatar were among the 18 countries elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council for three-year terms, despite campaign groups previously alleging rights violations in both countries.

"This vote to deny Saudi Arabia a seat on the UN Human Rights Council matters. For far too long, (Crown Prince) Mohammed bin Salman's regime has acted as if it has complete impunity to commit grave human rights abuses, safe in the knowledge that its international partners would look the other way," said campaign group Reprieve.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in August registered a year-on-year decline of 0.1%, a significant drop from the 4.7% growth recorded in July. This decrease is on account of reductions in the output of mining and electricity, alongside a notable slowdown in manufacturing for the month, the National Statistical Office (NSO) data showed.

As per the data, mining output fell by 4.3% in August, a sharp fall from the 3.8% growth recorded in the previous month. Electricity output fell by 3.7%, down from 7.9%. Manufacturing output slowed to 1% in August, compared to 4.4% in July.

Data indicated that 11 out of the 23 manufacturing sectors saw a fall in output growth during August, with sectors including food products, beverages, paper, coke, and refined products among those affected. Output in various use-based categories saw a slowdown, with capital goods growing by 0.7%, intermediate goods by 3%, infrastructure goods by 1.9%, and consumer durables by 5.2%. Conversely, output in primary goods contracted by 2.6%, while consumer non-durables saw a decline of 4.5% during the month.

Subhash Prasad Gupta, presently Ambassador of India to the Republic of Suriname, has been concurrently accredited as the next High Commissioner of India to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with residence in Paramaribo, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement on Friday.

Gupta is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 2006 batch.

He is expected to take up the assignment shortly, the MEA added.

In July this year, Gupta was appointed as India's next Ambassador to Suriname.

Notably, India and Suriname share close, warm, and friendly relations, reinforced by cultural and people-to-people contacts bridged by the Indian Diaspora's arrival dating back to one and a half centuries, according to MEA.

The Army Chief, General Upendra Dwivedi on Friday, officially launched "Agniastra," a portable multi-target detonation device, during the Army Commanders Conference in Gangtok.

This device was developed by Major Rajprasad RS from the Indian Army's Corps of Engineers and is seen as a major advancement in both conventional and counter-terrorism operations.

According to Indian Army officials, the device holds "tremendous potential" for use in room interventions, remote bunker or hideout destruction, and reserve demolitions. Speaking about its capabilities, they added, "It has tremendous potential in both conventional and counter-terrorist operations like room intervention, remote bunker/hideout bursting, and reserve demolition."

The India Digital Agri Conference 2024 was organized in New Delhi on Friday to explore the transformative potential of digital agriculture. Speaking on the occasion Agriculture and Farmers’ welfare Secretary Dr. Devesh Chaturvedi emphasised the relevance of the digital mission in leveraging technology and data-driven solutions to modernize Indian agriculture. He also stressed on the pivotal role of digital agriculture in transforming the agricultural landscape of the country.

The Agriculture Ministry said that the conference aimed to foster knowledge exchange, showcase cutting-edge innovations and encourage cross-sector collaboration. It also said that by bringing together policymakers, industry experts, entrepreneurs, academicians, researchers and farmers the conference paved the way to shape the future of agriculture in the digital era.

The government has given L Satya Srinivas, Additional Secretary in Department of Commerce, the additional charge of CEO of public procurement portal GeM.

The additional charge was given as the last CEO of the Government e Marketplace (GeM) P K Singh has been appointed as secretary in the renewable energy ministry.

Srinivas is an officer of the 1991 batch of the Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Indirect Taxes).

"We are honoured to announce the appointment of Shri L Satya Srinivas, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, Government of India, as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Government e Marketplace on additional charge," GeM said in a post on social media platform X.

About 91 thousand internship opportunities have been offered by 193 companies so far on the portal for the Prime Minister Internship Scheme. The internship portal, launched on a pilot basis on 3rd of this month by the government, will be opened for registration by applicants today. The portal was opened for companies to post the opportunities. The government aims at providing 1.25 lakh internship opportunities during Financial Year 2024-25.  It will be implemented through an online portal pminternship.mca.gov.in. The total cost of the pilot project will be 800 crore rupees. The government aims to provide internships for one crore candidates in the age group of 21 to 24 years, over a period of five years. An intern will receive monthly financial assistance of five thousand rupees for 12 months and a one-time grant of six thousand rupees. As per the sources, opportunities are available across 737 districts, spread over 36 States and Union Territories. The opportunities are spread across 24 sectors including oil, gas and energy, travel and hospitality, automotive and banking and financial services.

The central government has given its in-principle approval for Bihar’s second tiger reserve in Kaimur district. This decision follows a proposal from the Bihar government to develop the Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary (KWLS) into a tiger reserve, confirmed the state’s Forest, Environment and Climate Change Minister, Prem Kumar, on October 8, 2024.

Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in Bihar’s West Champaran district was the only one till now. “This is a major step forward for wildlife protection in Bihar,” Kumar told this reporter. “However, additional technical approvals from the Centre are still required before we can issue the formal declaration. The work on developing KWLS as a tiger reserve has begun.”

The National Tiger Conservation Authority's (NTCA) centre and technical committee gave its in principle approval at its 12th meeting.