NITI Aayog has announced the launch of the ‘NITI GearShift Challenge’ as part of the e-FAST India initiative. This pioneering hackathon aims to foster innovative business models for the adoption of zero-emission trucks in India, addressing the nation’s pressing economic and environmental challenges.

NITI Aayog has also invited students, transport service practitioners, academics, and researchers to develop innovative business models that address financial, technical, and operational challenges in the adoption of electric trucks. The program has garnered participation from e-FAST India knowledge partners, financial institutions, and industry forums.

The ‘NITI GearShift Challenge’ is being organised in collaboration with IIM Bangalore, Smart Freight Centre India, WRI India and other institutions. NITI Aayog said that the hackathon will unfold in two rounds. It said that the GearShift Challenge marks a pivotal move towards sustainable freight transportation in India.

The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Friday gave its approval to rationalise the provisions for zero electricity bills for domestic consumers by restricting subsidy to 'one family one meter' and interlinking power connections with ration cards.

In a meeting held here under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the state Cabinet has decided to abolish the entire subsidy on electricity bills of chief minister, former CMs, speaker, deputy speaker, ministers, MP, MLAs, former ministers, chairman of boards/ advisors, OSDs, all Class-I and Class 2 employees of the government/corporations/boards, including IAS, IPS and other officers and all income taxpayers, according to a statement.

Previously, electricity bills for up to 125 units/month were free in Himachal Pradesh.

Uttarakhand and Kerala have taken the top spot among states in NITI Aayog’s SDG India Index 2023-24, which assesses sustainable development across states on the basis of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Overall, India’s SDG score improved to 71 points in 2023-24 from 66 points in 2020-21, supported by progress made in poverty reduction, economic growth, and climate action.

The SDG India Index, which evaluates progress made across 16 goals on a scale of 1 to 100, rated Kerala and Uttarakhand as the best performing states with a score of 79 points each, while Bihar emerged as a laggard with 57 points, followed by Jharkhand at 62 points. Compared to 2020-21 scores, which was the last time NITI Aayog published the index, Punjab, Manipur, West Bengal, and Assam recorded the highest increase of 8 points to 76, 72, 70, and 65 points respectively.

Carlos Alcaraz overpowered seven-time champion Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) on Sunday to retain his Wimbledon title and win his fourth Grand Slam crown. It was a rematch of last year’s championship match on the grass of the All England Club, which Alcaraz won in five sets.

The Spanish third seed, who becomes just the sixth man to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back, denied Djokovic a record 25th major in a display of brutal power.

This one — played in front of a Centre Court crowd that included Kate, the Princess of Wales, in a rare public appearance since announcing she has cancer — was much easier for Alcaraz, at least until he stumbled while holding three match points as he served for the victory at 5-4 in the third set.

Spain is the king of European soccer for a record fourth time. For England, it’s another agonizing near-miss in the team’s decades-long tale of underachievement.

Completing a tournament the team dominated from start to finish, Spain beat England 2-1 in the European Championship final on Sunday with Mikel Oyarzabal the unlikely match-winner in the 86th minute.

Oyarzabal, a backup striker who came on as a substitute for captain Alvaro Morata, slid in to poke home a left-wing cross by Marc Cucurella, just when the game at Berlin’s Olympiastadion seemed destined for extra time.

“The Indian economy will grow around 7% in the current fiscal year and is on track to maintain a similar growth rate for several years,” NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani said on July 12.

Mr. Virmani said there are new challenges facing the country and they will have to be dealt with. "Indian economy will grow at 7% plus minus point 0.5%... I expect that we are on track to grow at 7% for several years from today," he told PTI in an interview.

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) pegged the FY25 gross domestic product (GDP)growth rate at 7.2%. Responding to a question on the decline in private consumption expenditures in the last fiscal year, Mr. Virmani said it is actually recovering now.

A Chinese rocket start-up has suffered yet another launch failure, resulting in the loss of three satellites as part of a commercial constellation being assembled for global weather forecasting and earthquake prediction.

Hyperbola-1 – a 24-metre (79ft) high solid-fuel rocket produced by iSpace – lifted off on Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China’s Gobi Desert.

“The rocket’s first, second and third stages flew normally, but the fourth stage suffered an anomaly and the launch mission ended in failure,” the company said, adding that the specific reasons for the failure would be announced as soon as possible after detailed investigations, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Friday.

Essar Energy Transition (EET) on Friday announced setting up of Europe's first hydrogen-ready combined heat and power plant (CHP) at its Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port in the UK.

The building of the power plant is a key part of EET's overall $3 billion of energy transition initiatives in the North West of England.

The company aims to complete the project, EET Hydrogen Power in 2027, it said in a statement.

The investment will support EET Fuels' ambition to become the lowest carbon process refinery, globally and EET Hydrogen's ambition to become the leading low carbon hydrogen producer in the UK. It will also provide low carbon power to other industrial users in the region to support their decarbonisation targets.

Wanindu Hasaranga on Thursday stepped down as the Sri Lanka captain in T20 Internationals ahead of their upcoming three-match series against India.

India will tour Sri Lanka for a limited-overs series which begins with the three T20Is to be played on July 26, 27 and 29 at the Pallekele International Stadium, followed by three ODIs in Colombo.

Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to inform the public that National Men's 20I Captain Wanindu Hasaranga has decided to resign from the captaincy, a release from Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said.

Hasaranga said it is in the best interest of Sri Lanka Cricket that he decided to relinquish the captaincy duties and remain in the side as a player, the release added.

The long hunt for a long-theorised type of black hole has reached a successful conclusion. A new study, published in journal Nature, revealed compelling evidence of a massive black hole residing at the heart of the Omega Centauri star cluster. It is the closest of its kind to our solar system, only 18,000 light-years away.

The newly discovered black hole, estimated to be at least 8,200 times the mass of our sun, falls into the category of intermediate-mass black holes. Scientists believe these black holes formed during the early stages of galaxy evolution, filling a crucial gap in our understanding of black hole development.