News in Short

• A type of aurora in Mars, which is in the form of lights occurring on the Red Planet, can help track water loss from the Red Planet's atmosphere.
• The phenomenon on Mars, called a proton aurora, happens during the day and gives off ultraviolet light.
• The proton aurora is generated indirectly by hydrogen derived from Martian water which is in the process of being lost to space.
• The summer warming and dust activity seem to cause proton auroras by forcing water vapour high in the atmosphere.

• The government has appointed TV Somanathan as secretary in the expenditure department of the Ministry of Finance.
• Prior to his appointment as expenditure secretary, Somanathan was commercial taxes commissioner and principal secretary (Planning & Development) in the Tamil Nadu government.
• Somanathan is a 1987 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre and was earlier the Joint secretary in Prime Minister’s office.

• Amit Khare, an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer from the 1985 batch of Jharkhand cadre, replaced R Subrahmanyam as the Human Resource Development (HRD) Higher Education Secretary.
• Khare will also hold additional charge of Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy.
• Khare is currently Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

• The coveted Miss World title for the year 2019 was won by Jamaica's Toni-Ann Singh, beating her contenders from France and India.
• Suman Rao, who represented India in the annual beauty pageant, came in third while France's Ophely Mezino came in a close second. 
• India's Suman Rao, who is from Rajasthan, had earlier won the Femina Miss India title in June.

• The Ministry of Railways has accorded sanction to the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai to roll out 45 rakes (720 coaches) of the Vande Bharat Express.
• The Railway Board cleared the decks for the ICF to proceed with the procurement process immediately with the specifications issued by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO).
• Vande Bharat, also known as Train 18 is the first engine less train developed indigenously by the railways.