Month: June 2021

** Coast Guard inducts three ALH MK-III helicopters

They have been developed with in-house customisations HAL

The Coast Guard on Saturday inducted the first three of 16 Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) Mk-III designed and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

“The ALH Mk-III marine version has been designed and developed with in-house customisation of 19 additional equipment by HAL to meet Coast Guard requirements,” a Coast Guard statement said.

** ₹498 cr. for Innovations for Defence Excellence challenge approved

It will support nearly 300 start-ups, MSMEs and individual innovators

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the budgetary support of ₹498.8 crore to Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) challenge under the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) for the next five years. The iDEX framework and establishment of the DIO by the Department of Defence Production (DDP) is aimed at promoting innovation and indigenisation in the aerospace and defence sector at the start-up level.

** Mizo man with ‘world’s largest family’ passes away

Zion-a Chana, chief of a Christian cult, had 39 wives and 94 children

Zion-a Chana, patriarch of a Christian cult who held the world record for being the head of the world’s largest family, passed away at a private hospital in Aizawl on Sunday. He was 76.

** GST Council cuts tax rate on COVID-19 essentials

Council largely agrees to go ahead with GoM’s recommendations

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been waived for two critical drugs against COVID-19 and black fungus, Tocilizumab and Amphotericin B, while tax rates have been reduced to 5% on 14 major pandemic relief goods, including testing kits and hand sanitisers, from prevailing rates in the range of 12% and 18%.   

Ambulances, which are currently taxed at 28%, will now attract a GST levy of 12%, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday, announcing these concessional rates following a meeting of the GST Council to discuss the indirect taxes levied on COVID-19 supplies.   

** Indian-origin journalist wins Pulitzer Prize for exposing China’s vast infrastructure for detaining Muslims

Megha Rajagopalan from BuzzFeed News is among two Indian-origin journalists who won the U.S.’ top journalism award on Friday

Megha Rajagopalan, an Indian-origin journalist, along with two contributors has won the Pulitzer Prize for innovative investigative reports that exposed a vast infrastructure of prisons and mass internment camps secretly built by China for detaining hundreds of thousands of Muslims in its restive Xinjiang region.

Tampa Bay Times’ Neil Bedi won for local reporting. Ms. Bedi along with Kathleen McGrory has been awarded the prize for the series exposing a Sheriff’s Office initiative that used computer modelling to identify people believed to be future crime suspects. About 1,000 people were monitored under the programme, including children.

Mr. Bedi is an investigative reporter for the Tampa Bay Times

** BRO sets up 2 centres of excellence

They have been established to achieve excellence in road safety as well as foster growth in construction of roads, bridges, air fields and tunnels: Defence Ministry

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday inaugurated two centres of excellence established by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) at Seema Sadak Bhawan in New Delhi. At the event, Mr. Singh also flagged off the first-ever solo women motorcycle expedition by Kanchan Ugursandi to Umling La Pass, Ladakh and back.