News in Short

• The NITI Aayog has recommended that the government should give Income tax breaks to attract retail investors to make the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) a success.
• The Centre’s think tank driving the NMP, estimated to raise almost ?6 lakh crore for the exchequer over four years.
• Bringing in policy and regulatory changes to scale up monetisation instruments like InvITs and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and expand their investor base have been identified as a critical element for the NMP.
• The government plans to use the InvITs and REITS route to monetise public assets like highways, gas pipelines, railway tracks and power transmission lines.

• Hurricane Ida blasted ashore as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US, blowing off roofs and reversing the flow of the Mississippi River.
• The Category 4 storm hit on the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier.
• Ida’s 150-mph winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland US.Ida will test New Orleans’ flood defences, strengthened after Hurricane Katrina killed 1,800 people in 2005.

• India allrounder Stuart Binny has announced his retirement from international and first-class cricket. Binny represented India in six Tests, 14 ODIs and three T20Is between 2014 and 2016.
• Binny is the son of Roger Binny, a former India selector who was part of the 1983 world cup winning squad.
• Binny scored 194 runs and took three wickets in Tests while in ODIs, he scored 230 runs and took 20 wickets. In T20Is, he scored 24 runs and took one wicket.
• Binny’s most memorable performance in India colours came in an ODI against Bangladesh in 2014 when he broke Anil Kumble’s record for the best individual bowling figures in the format for his country.

• Indian Airforce officers shortlisted for Gaganyaan mission will soon go back to Russia for giving measurements for personalised Spacesuits.
• When Indian astronauts, Gagannauts as they are called, travel into space, they will be on board an Indian spacecraft, largely using Indian technology and Indian training.
• ISRO had outlined a roadmap to put a three-person crew in a low earth orbit by an indigenous GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle.
• The space suits are being made by Russian research, development and production enterprise Zvezda under the contract of Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of Russian space corporation Roscosmos.

• AvaniLekhara became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympics, firing her way to the top of the podium in the R-2 women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 event.
• The 19-year-old finished with a world record equalling total of 249.6, which is also a new Paralympic record.
• She’s the fourth Indian athlete to win a Paralympics gold after swimmer MurlikantPetkar (1972), javelin thrower DevendraJhajharia (2004 and 2016) and high jumper Thangavelu Mariyappan (2016).