Category: RECORDS, ALL OTHER excl. Asia & India

** Neeraj nominated for Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award

India’s Olympic gold medal-winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra was on Wednesday nominated for the prestigious Laureus ‘World Breakthrough of the Year’ award, making him the first Indian to be featured in the short-list for this category. He was clubbed alongside tennis stars Daniil Medvedev and Emma Raducanu among others.

The 23-year-old Chopra last year became only the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal and first in track and field in Tokyo with a throw of 87.58 metres in his second attempt. The performance catapulted him to superstar status in India and also brought him worldwide acclaim.

** PR Sreejesh becomes second Indian to win World Games Athlete of the Year Award

In 2020, Indian women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal became the first Indian to win the honour.

Veteran India hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh on Monday won the prestigious World Games Athlete of the Year for his 2021 performances, becoming only the second Indian to receive the accolade.

In 2020, Indian women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal became the first Indian to win the honour for her 2019 show.
Sreejesh beat competition from sport climber Alberto Gins Lopez of Spain and Italy’s wushu player Michele Giordano for the award.

** Tasnim Mir becomes first Indian to claim world no. 1 status in u-19 girls singles

The 16-year-old from Gujarat was rewarded for last year’s stellar run when she had secured titles in three junior international tournaments to jump three places to grab the top position in the junior world rankings.

** Indian doctor who is force against human trafficking wins Robert Burns Humanitarian Award

Dr Digambar Narzary won the prestigious accolade during a special online ceremony which took place on Tuesday to celebrate Burns Night.

The RBHA is supported by South Ayrshire Council and EventScotland and is the first event in ‘Once Upon A Time in Ayrshire’ – a year-long programme that will celebrate Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022.

Dr Narzary is the founder of an organisation called NEDAN which tackles the far-reaching problems that result from human trafficking.

Since its formation in 2004, it’s estimated that NEDAN has rescued and repatriated around 6,100 girls.

Assam

** Abu Dhabi: Indian artist breaks Guinness World Records with giant portraits of UAE Rulers

An Indian artist entered the Guinness World Records’ book with massive portraits of UAE Rulers. Sarans K.K. won the ‘largest professional oil painting by a single artist’ title for his 166.03sq.m artwork created in the main hall of the India Social and Cultural Centre (ISC) in Abu Dhabi

Kerala / UAE

** ‘Crorepati fakir’ is a crusader for girls’ education

At 95, Mathematician Dr Ghasiram Verma is full of enthusiasm. The nonagenarian, originally hailing from Sidi village of Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, is called a ‘crorepati fakir’ because he spent almost everything on girl child education. 

Today, thousands of girls have access to good education with his help and many school buildings have come up with his donations. Dr Ghasiram Verma has settled in America, but visits India for three months every year and spends Rs 50 lakh — half of his pension funds—on educating girls. So far, he has spent over Rs 10 crore on educating girls in his area. 

Rajasthan / USA

** India delivers 3 tonnes of medical assistance to Afghanistan

Prior to this, India has supplied three shipments of medical assistance, consisting of 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine and essential life-saving medicines to Afghanistan.

India has supplied three tonnes of essential life-saving medicines to Afghanistan in the fourth batch of medical assistance to the war-torn country and will provide further humanitarian help to the people there in form of medicines and foodgrains in coming weeks, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Saturday.

** Google to invest up to $1 billion in a partnership with Airtel

The amount will include equity investment as well as a corpus for potential commercial agreements

Bharti Airtel and Google on Friday, January 28, 2022, said that they will partner on a long-term, multi-year agreement to accelerate the growth of India’s digital ecosystem, under which Google intends to invest up to USD 1 billion.

The amount is part of the USD 10 billion ‘Google for India Digitization Fund’, which was announced by CEO of Google and Alphabet Sundar Pichai in 2020, and will include equity investment as well as a corpus for potential commercial agreements, to be identified and agreed on mutually agreeable terms over the course of the next five years, the companies said in a statement.

** DCGI gives nod to Bharat Biotech for intranasal booster dose trials

Experts have noted that an intranasal vaccine as a booster will be easier to administer in mass vaccination drives.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech approval for conducting Phase-III clinical trials of an intranasal booster dose for those who have received both doses of Covaxin.

Only the Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL), Kasauli, certified batches shall be used in the clinical trials, which will be conducted at nine sites, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and Bihar. The Chimpanzee Adenovirus Vectored COVID-19 Vaccine (BBV154) is to be administered through an intranasal route and each single dose is 0.5 ml.

The trials will evaluate BBV154 intranasal vaccine for both the 2-dose primary schedule and booster dose schedule.