News in Short

• Singapore will make some incoming travellers wear an electronic monitoring device to ensure that they comply with coronavirus quarantine.
• The devices will be given to incoming travellers, including citizens and residents, from a select group of countries who will be allowed to isolate at home rather than at a state-appointed facility.
• Similar measures using electronic wristbands to track peoples' movements during quarantine have been used in Hong Kong and South Korea.
• Travellers to Singapore are required to activate the device, which use GPS and Bluetooth signals, upon reaching their home and will receive notifications on the device which they must acknowledge.

• The Indian government has cleared the staging of 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) in the UAE from September 19 to November 10.
• The ICC called off this year’s T20 World Cup which paved the way for BCCI to host the IPL this year. T20 World Cup was scheduled to be held in October – November and the window will now be used by the BCCI for the IPL.
• The BCCI maintained that hosting the tournament in India was its topmost priority. However, the alarming situation in the country compelled them to explore other venues before they settled with UAE.

• The first astronauts launched by SpaceX company departed the International Space Station for returning to Earth with a rare splashdown.
• NASA’s astronauts bid farewell to the three men left behind as their SpaceX Dragon capsule undocked and headed toward a descent by parachute into the Gulf of Mexico.
• The astronauts’ homecoming will cap a mission that ended a prolonged launch drought in the U.S., which has relied on Russian rockets to ferry astronauts to the space station since the end of the shuttle era.

• The National Education Policy (NEP) has dropped Mandarin or ‘Chinese’ from its list of examples of foreign languages that can be taught in schools.
• The language was included in the draft version of the Policy released in May 2019 but was missing from the final Policy document approved by the Union Cabinet this week.
• The plan for teaching Mandarin in Indian schools and Hindi language instruction in Chinese schools was part of an Education Exchange Programme signed by both countries in 2006, which was renewed by Prime Minister Modi during his visit to China in 2015.

• Lewis Hamilton claimed his seventh British Grand Prix victory in dramatic fashion, crossing the line on three wheels after a puncture in the final lap.
• The win took Hamilton to 87 career victories, and move within four of Michael Schumacher’s Formula One record.
• He is also firmly in contention for a seventh Drivers’ Championship, leading second-placed Bottas by 30 points.