NEWS 26-06-2017. NEWS FOR 27-JUN (TUESDAY) 1. The urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has launched its first liveability index which will rank the country’s 116 major cities based on the quality of life.The index named ‘City Liveability Index’ will cover cities with a population above one million, including the capital cities.The index will help cities to analyse where they stand in terms of the quality of life.The index will assess cities based on a comprehensive set of 79 parameters such as availability of roads, education, healthcare, employment opportunities, grievance redressal, pollution, cultural and entertainment opportunities & other laid down parameters. 2. Department of Science and Technology recently launched VAJRA (Visiting Advanced Joint Research) Faculty scheme. The scheme will enable NRIs and overseas scientific community to participate and contribute to research and development in India.Under this scheme, foreign researchers abroad of Indian origin or otherwise can collaborate with faculties in public funded Indian institutions. The researchers would receive grants at par with those in their own countries. They would be given USD 15,000 in the first month of residency and USD 10,000, for the remaining months. The scheme would promote broad areas of research like energy, health, advance material among others. 3. India and Russia have finalized a roadmap to further boost bilateral defence cooperation during the 17th India-Russia intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation held at Moscow. The meeting was co-chaired by defence minister Arun Jaitley and his Russian counterpart General Shoygu. The agenda for the discussion ranged from joint development of futuristic weapon systems to a major upgrade of military-to-military ties. India and Russia had signed a protocol that aims to enhance cooperation between both the countries in the field of political and military dialogue, exercises, exchange of visits, military cooperation and training. 4. India and Portugal have signed 11 pacts after in-depth talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa in areas like counter-terrorism, space and climate studies. This is the first-ever bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Portugal. India thanked Portugal for its support for India’s permanent membership of UNSC, and of Multilateral Export Control Regime. 5. According to the World Population Prospectus: The Revision released by the United Nations, India with 1.3 billion inhabitants would surpass China’s population of 1.4 billion by 2024, to become the World’s populous country.Despite the drop in universal fertility rates, the UN report expects the world’s total population to hit 9.8 billion by 2050. As per the report, the world’s population is at present 7.6 billion up from 7.4 billion last year. The increase in population was spurred by the relatively high levels of fertility in developing countries. With an addition of 82 million people every year, UN expects a continuation of the upward trend in population size. At this rate, the world population is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and surpass 11.2 billion in 2100. 6. The world No.11 Kidambi Srikanth accomplished his second successive Super Series win by defeating reigning Olympic champion Chen Long in the Australian Open summit clash in Sydney. Chen Long is World No.6 and also the current All England champion. Srikanth had lost all of his previous five encounters with Chen Long. Srikanth has also become the fifth player in the world to take part in three successive Super Series finals by reaching the summit clash in Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. Last Week, Srikanth had won the Indonesian Open title. In the last edition of Australian Open tournament, Srikanth was a semi-finalist. < < Back