Veteran Sri Lankan Tamil leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, who dedicated his political life to pursuing a just solution to the island nation’s Tamil question, passed away in Colombo late on Sunday. He was 91.

Sampanthan, of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), was a sitting MP from the eastern Trincomalee district and led the Tamil National Alliance, the main grouping representing Tamils of Sri Lanka’s war-hit north and east. He was Leader of the Opposition between 2015 and 2018.

First elected to parliament almost half a century ago, Sampanthan was a bold and relentless voice in the House. Since the end of the civil war in 2009, he tirelessly demanded equal rights for Tamils, within a ‘united, undivided, indivisible’ country. Trained as a lawyer, he based his arguments for a political solution on Sri Lanka’s constitutional history and the many promises that the southern Sinhalese establishment made in the past but failed to keep.

Indian badminton stalwart Ashwini Ponnappa on July 30 broke down in tears, announcing she played her last Olympics after she and her partner Tanisha Crasto suffered their third straight loss in the women's doubles competition of the Paris Games.

Ashwini and Tanisha lost to Australia's Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu 15-21 10-21 in their final Group C game on Tuesday. They ended their campaign after losing all their three group matches.

"This will be my last, but Tanisha has a long way to go," said 34-year-old Ashwini, who was playing in her third Olympics, when asked whether she hopes to play in the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Rohan Bopanna has announced that he is retiring from Indian tennis after bowing out of the Paris 2024 Olympics in the men’s doubles first round alongside N. Sriram Balaji on Monday.

The Indian duo lost 7-5, 6-2 to French duo of Gael Monfils and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Bopanna represented India in the Asian Games 2022 in Hangzhou, where he won the gold medal with Rutuja Bhosale in the mixed doubles event.

In September last year, he brought an end to his 21-year Davis Cup career after helping India beat Morocco in their World Group II match.

The Tech Leaders Forum of India (TELFI) was officially launched today at the World Education Conference 2024, hosted by the Federation of Economic Development Association (FEDA) at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University in Dubai.

TELFI, a new initiative aimed at empowering engineers, was unveiled as a key highlight of the conference. The forum is designed to support engineers through various professional activities, including webinars, workshops, and training sessions. Its primary goal is to provide engineers with the resources, knowledge, and network needed to excel in their careers and drive technological advancements both in India and internationally.

Dr. E. Syed Mohamed, President of TELFI, India, expressed enthusiasm about the launch, stating, “TELFI represents a significant step forward in nurturing India’s engineering talent. We aim to create a vibrant ecosystem that fosters innovation and professional growth.”

India on Monday sent humanitarian assistance to Haiti, which included medical supplies like blood transfusion essentials.

The Ministry of External Affairs, on its social media handle, informed about the humanitarian assistance. Sharing a post on Facebook, the MEA said, “India sends humanitarian assistance to Haiti! In solidarity with the people of Haiti, India’s humanitarian assistance containing 9 tonnes of medical supplies left New Delhi today, for Port-au-Prince.”

“The consignment includes blood transfusion essentials, reagents for Immunohematology, Rapid tests and ELISA, among others,” the post by MEA added.

Meanwhile, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of the MEA also shared a post on his X and informed about the humanitarian assistance provided by India to Haiti.

A new project aiming to accelerate the development and accessibility of human avian influenza (H5N1) messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine candidates for manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries has been launched today. The Argentinian manufacturer Sinergium Biotech will lead this effort leveraging the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) mRNA Technology Transfer Programme.

The mRNA Technology Transfer Programme, jointly developed by WHO and MPP, was launched in July 2021 with the aim to build capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for the development and production of mRNA-based vaccines. Sinergium Biotech, a partner in the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme, has developed candidate H5N1 vaccines and aims to establish proof-of-concept in preclinical models. Once the preclinical data package is concluded, the technology, materials, and expertise will be shared with other manufacturing partners, aiding the acceleration of the development of H5N1 vaccine candidates, and bolstering pandemic preparedness efforts.

The US federal government’s total public debt has surpassed 35 trillion dollars for the first time, as recorded at the end of last week, according to the latest data released by the Treasury Department. The total public debt outstanding climbed to 35 trillion dollars on Friday. The data is updated at the end of each business day with data from the previous business day. Just seven months ago, the US national debt surpassed 34 trillion dollars in late December 2023. Three months before that, the US reached a historic milestone by passing 33 trillion dollars. 

V. Vedachalam, an eminent Tamil epigrapher and historian, has been conferred the V Venkayya Epigraphy Award for 2024.

Dr. Vedachalam, who has written and co-written more than 25 books on subjects such as epigraphy, numismatics, temple art, religion, and society, said he was honoured to receive the award named after V. Venkayya, the first Indian Chief Epigraphist to the government of India.

The annual award, instituted by Sunitha Madhavan, the great-granddaughter of Mr. Venkayya, in association with the Tamil Heritage Trust, commemorates the pioneering epigrapher and celebrates exceptional contributions to epigraphy in any Indian language, including discovering new inscriptions, offering fresh interpretations, sharing knowledge through various media, and preserving epigraphic resources.

The Indian delegation has achieved remarkable success at the 54th International Physics Olympiad 2024, held from July 21 to July 29 in Isfahan, Iran. All five Indian participants bagged medals, including 2 gold and 3 silver medals. Rhythm Kedia from Chhattisgarh and Ved Lahoti from Madhya Pradesh bagged gold medals, whereas Akarsh Raj Sahay from Maharashtra, Bhavya Tiwari from Uttar Pradesh, and Jaiveer Singh from Rajasthan were honoured with silver medals. India’s delegation was led by Prof. Deepak Garg (DAV College, Chandigarh) and Dr. Shirish Pathare (HBCSE, TIFR), with Prof. A. C. Biyani (Retd., Govt. Nagarjuna Post Graduate College of Science, Raipur) and Prof. Vivek Bhide (Gogate-Jogalekar College, Ratnagiri) serving as Scientific Observers. A total of 193 students from 43 countries participated in the competition. In the country-wise medal tally, India was placed in the fourth position, jointly with Vietnam. China came at the top, followed by Russia and Romania at second and third position, respectively.

At just the age of 16, Jiya Rai became the youngest para swimmer to cross an English Channel. The teenager is not just the youngest, but also the fastest para swimmer in the world to achieve this feat on July 28-29. Jiya swam through the English Channel from the Abbot's Cliff in England to Pointe de la Courte-Dune in France in a time of 17 hours and 25 minutes from July 28 to 29. She covered a distance of 34 kilometres en route to her feat.

Jiya, who hails from Mumbai with Autism Spectrum Disorder, is the daughter of Madan Rai, the MC-at-Arms serving in Mumbai. The Western Naval Command (WNC) congratulated the young para swimmer on her momentous achievement. "All personnel of WNC convey their heartiest congratulations to Jiya Rai for becoming the world's youngest and fastest female para swimmer to successfully swim solo across the English Channel," the Western Naval Command (WNC) wrote on X.