Delhi airport has become the country's first airport to get the net zero carbon emission status under the Airport Council International's accreditation programme, DIAL said on Wednesday.

GMR Group-led DIAL is the operator of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital.

Initially, the airport targeted to achieve net zero carbon emission by 2030, and the target has been achieved well ahead of schedule through various initiatives, including the adoption of renewable energy, development of green airport infrastructures and promotion of electric vehicles, it said in a release.

DIAL said IGIA has become the first airport in India to successfully achieve Net Zero Carbon Emission Airport status under the Airport Council International's (ACI) Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) programme.

Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), the largest IT grouping of schoolchildren in the country, will launch the new free and open source software-based (FOSS) operating system (OS) suite KITE GNU Linux 22.04 here on Friday (August 23, 2024) when a two-day State-level camp for Little Kites is inaugurated.

A total of 130 selected from among 1,200 students, who attended the district-level Little KITEs camp will participate in the programme organised at the KITE Regional Resource Centre, Edappally.

K. Anvar Sadath, CEO, KITE, said the new operating system, an updated 80.04 version, can be used in three lakh computers in public schools in Kerala. Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty will launch the new OS suit.

This appointment follows the release of Sanjeev Kumar from his duties as Chairman, according to a Government Order

M Suresh, Member, Air Navigation Services, Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Tuesday has been entrusted with additional charge as Chairman of AAI. This is subsequent to relieving Sanjeev Kumar of his duties as AAI Chairman, says a Government Order.

Hailing from Tenkasi district in Tamil Nadu, Suresh will hold the post for three months effective Tuesday or until a regular incumbent joins or until further orders, the order said.

Senior IAS officer Amardeep Singh Bhatia has assumed the charge of Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), an official statement said on Wednesday.

He has replaced Rajesh Kumar Singh, who has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty, Department of Defence.

Prior to this, Bhatia, a 1993 Batch from Nagaland cadre, was serving as Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce and was involved in trade policies and free trade agreement negotiations.

In the central government, he has held many important positions in the Ministries of Corporate Affairs and Health and Family Welfare.

Senior IAS officer Govind Mohan on Thursday (August 22, 2024) will take charge as the new Union Home Secretary from Ajay Kumar Bhalla, who completes his five year tenure at the sensitive post, official sources said.

Mr. Mohan, a B.Tech from Banaras Hindu University and PG Diploma from IIM, Ahmedabad, was serving as Union Culture Secretary before his appointment to the top bureaucratic post, next only to the Cabinet Secretary.

A 1989 batch IAS officer of Sikkim cadre, Mr. Mohan has already joined the Union Home Ministry as an Officer on Special Duty.

He has a wide experience of serving both the Sikkim and the Central Governments in various capacities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said he would discuss the peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine as he embarked on a crucial two-nation European tour starting in Poland.

Modi, who landed in the Polish capital Warsaw on Wednesday afternoon, is the first Indian premier to travel to the country in nearly half a century, since Morarji Desai in 1979. On August 23, Modi will become the only Indian head of government to visit Ukraine since its emergence as an independent nation in 1991.

Modi’s stop in Ukraine is expected to last about seven hours and will involve a 10-hour train journey to be carried out in tight security conditions. The visit comes a little more than a month after the Prime Minister made a trip to Russia during July 8-9 for the annual summit with President Vladimir Putin.

The Government on Wednesday signed a loan package of USD 500 million with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to improve access to quality and affordable tertiary health care and medical education in Maharashtra.

The loan will establish four medical colleges attached with tertiary care teaching hospitals incorporating climate and disaster-resilient, gender-responsive, and socially inclusive features in under-served districts, ADB said in a statement.

The project will increase bed capacity in government tertiary care hospitals and envisages hiring of at least 500 new doctors for four new governmental medical colleges, the ADB said.

ADB is helping the state to create an enabling environment through policy actions for recruiting and retaining quality doctors and staff through performance-based incentives, formulate a new talent management policy, and establish India’s first state-led health care and medical education centers of excellence.

The project also aims to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure of people by making available better quality of drugs.

According to a new study, there could be oceans’ worth of liquid water deep in the rocky outer crust of Mars. While scientists have known about water ice at the Martian poles for a long time, this is the first time they have discovered liquid water on the planet.

The study, ‘Liquid water in the Martian mid-crust’, was published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It was carried out by Vashan Wright, Matthias Morzfeld, and Michael Manga of the University of California San Diego.

The findings could help researchers better understand the water cycle of Mars, which in turn could unlock questions related to the evolution of the planet’s climate, surface, and interior. The discovery could also provide impetus to the ongoing search for evidence of life on Mars.

Karnataka is at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution in India. According to a recent report by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), under the Ministry of Power, the state has the highest number of public electric vehicle charging stations (PEVCS) in the country, most of them in Bengaluru.

As per the report, there are 5,765 PEVCS in the state, of which 4,462 are in Bengaluru Urban alone. Similar reports released by Vahaan and Yatra portals in 2023 and 2024, respectively, also showed Karnataka taking the lead in EV charging stations.

Energy department officials said this achievement underscores the state’s commitment to sustainability and clean energy. “According to recent data, Karnataka has set a remarkable benchmark with its electric vehicle infrastructure, and Bengaluru city is leading the charge. Bangalore Urban District alone boasts 4,462 EV charging stations, representing over 85% of the state’s total. This highlights Bengaluru’s pivotal role in Karnataka’s impressive achievement, underscoring the city’s commitment to advancing sustainable transportation,” a release from the department said. Karnataka was also the first state to introduce an EV policy in 2017. This initiative was further bolstered in 2021 with incentives for all stakeholders.

Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde today inaugurated the first ‘Solar Village’ in the state. The Manyachiwadi village in the Patan Taluka of Satara district has become the first ‘Solar Village’ in Maharashtra.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde asserted that the state government is committed to promoting the use of renewable energy and reducing the dependency on traditional power sources.

He further said that the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lessened the burden of electricity bills in the state. He also mentioned that the state government provides a 90 to 95% subsidy to farmers for setting up solar pump sets under the Mukhyamantri Saur Krushi Pump Yojana.

Deputy Chief Minister and Energy Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that 12 thousand megawatts of electricity will be generated in the state through solar energy in the next one and a half years. He added that this will ensure that farmers can get free electricity during the day, when most of the agricultural activities are done.