GUJARAT

Diamond exports to fall below $20 billion in 2019-20

The ongoing recession in the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in Surat has taken the sheen out of the glittering diamonds. For the first time in last one decade, exports of polished diamonds are likely to remain below $20 billion due to their continuous fall since April 2019.

According to data complied by Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), exports of polished diamonds between April-July declined 18% to $6.7 billion compared to $8 billion during the same period in previous year.

In July 2019, exports of polished diamond declined 19% to $1.5 billion compared to $2 billion during the same month in previous year.

A majority of diamond units in Surat, including small and medium units, have reduced production capacity by almost 40% to clear their inventories.

INTERNATIONAL

· World Archery suspended Archery Association of India

World Archery (WA)has suspended the Archery Association of India (AAI).Earlier, the WA executive board had given a July 31 deadline to both AAI factions to resolve their disputes, including parallel elections. The decision by WA to suspend AAI is because the matter is now in court.
The participation of Indian archers in international events under the National flag is jeopardised after AAI’s suspension. After the suspensionm, the last event in which Indian athletes can participate is the world youth championships in Madrid from August 19 to 25, 2019. WA is yet to decide whether individual athletes can participate in the Indoor Archery World Series.

· Huawei launches its own Operating System Harmony OS

Huawei Technologieslaunched its own Operating System (OS)named as HongMengOS in Chinese/ HarmonyOS in English. The first version of the OS launched later in 2019.
It is a part of Huawei’s play in the Internet of Things (IoT).
It is used across different devices from smartphones to smart speakers and even sensors.
The next three years, the OS will be used in other devices, including wearables and car head units.Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group is needed to address future challenges in the era of internet of things, and it is hard to deliver a smooth experience across different devices with millions of lines of code. The most expected name of HongMeng, Huawei adopted Harmony for its in-house operating system to solve all these problems features of Harmony have already been used in its premium smartphone models and other devices.

NATIONAL

· Five Thousand five hundred and Ninety five electric buses sanctioned under FAME scheme

Department of Heavy Industry sanctioned 5,595 electric buses under phase II of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) India
The buses are sanctioned to 64 cities in 22 states and union territories for intracity and intercity operations in order to push for clean mobility in public transportation.
The buses are expected to run about 4 billion km are expected to save cumulatively about 1.2 billion liters of fuel over the contract period
This will result in avoidance of 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 emission.

Gk bit: FAME Scheme

Department of Heavy Industry is implementing FAME-India Scheme- Phase-I [Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India from 1st April 2015. The scheme initially up to 31st April 2017 It is extended upto 31st March, 2019 or till Notification of FAME-II.
The Phase-II of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME-India) Scheme proposes to give a push to electric vehicles (EVs) in public transport and seeks to encourage adoption of EVs by way of market creation and demand aggregation.

· Union Government to launch Uber for tractors app to aid farmers

India’s agriculture ministry developed a farm equipment rental app for Indian farmers let with hire tractors, rotavator. This app will be similar to Uber and this corresponding mobile app is expected to be launched by the end of August.
According to surveys about 38K custom hiring centres across India with the capacity to rent 2.5 Lakh farm equipment annually. The Mahindra Group’s start-up on launching Trringo serviceout of Karnataka where it will help farmers book tractors by the hour via a phone call for rental.

The aim of uber tractors project is for the farmers who is not in a position to buy a tractor .

· India first Corporate credit card for SMEs launched by B2B payments startup EnKash

EnKash launched the country’s first corporate credit card called ‘Freedom Card’for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Freedom Card is a true commercial credit card with open acceptance. The Freedom Card aims to grow exponentially with increased credit lines and efficiencies to manage their businesses better in SMP’s will give credit facility for immediate needs and to manage their liquidity.
In India it is the first corporate card that is used to cater to the varied billing cycles as per the working capital cycles of different businesses. The Bank also offers these freedom cards in practise to the people knowledge.

· Cricket Australia unveils new transgender inclusive policy

Cricket Australiaannounced a new transgender-inclusive policy. This policy will enable transgender players to play the game of cricket at the highest levels. The decision aligns in accordance with the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) gender recognition policy and gender diversity guidelines.
The policy sets out a limit for transgender and gender-diverse players who want to play for state and national women’s teams. Australian men’s national cricket team represents Australia in international cricket.
It is oldest teams in Test cricket history playing in the first-ever Test match in 1877.

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