• International

Kazakhstan President Resigns After Nearly 30 Years in Power

• Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has announced his resignation after nearly 30 years in power.
• The 78-year old leader had ruled the country since it emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
• The Chairman of the Kazakh Senate would take over.
• The announcement came less than a month after the President sacked his government, citing a lack of economic development despite the country’s vast energy resources.

• International

Hawaii to ban plastics at restaurants

• Hawaii would be the first state in the US to ban most plastics at restaurants under legislation that aims to cut down on waste that pollutes the ocean.
• In the US, 500 million plastic straws are used and thrown out every day.
• 95 percent of plastic packaging worldwide is thrown out after being used once.

• Sports

Mukesh Ambani Tops Forbes’ List of World’s Richest Sports Team Owners

• Reliance Industries CMD Mukesh Ambani leads Forbes’ list of richest sports team owners with a net worth of around $50 billion.
• Ambani purchased the IPL team Mumbai Indians through a RIL subsidiary in 2008 for just over $100 million.
• Steve Ballmer (Net worth: $41.2 billion), the American Businessman and Dietrich Mateschitz (Net worth: $18.9 billion) were at 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively.

• Sports

PCB paid $ 1.6 million to BCCI

• The Pakistan Cricket Board paid the BCCI approximately USD 1.6 million as compensation after losing the case in the ICC’s Dispute Resolution Committee.
• The PCB had filed a compensation case against the BCCI in 2018 for an amount of around USD 70 million.
• PCB had sought a huge amount from BCCI for not honouring a MoU signed between the two boards.

• Science and Tech

Water-resistant electronic skin created

• Scientists have created a self-healing electronic skin that could be used in to develop a range of devices from water-resistant touchscreens to aquatic soft robots.
• The material has been developed by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of California.
• The electronic skin is created by printing the novel material into electronic circuits.

• Defence

Indo-Sri Lanka Joint Exercise Mitra shakti-VI to Be Held in Sri Lanka

• Exercise MITRA SHAKTI is conducted annually as part of military diplomacy and interaction between armies of India & Sri Lanka.
• The joint exercise for the year 2018-19 will be conducted in Sri Lanka.
• Troops from 1st Battalion the BIHAR Regiment of the Indian Army and Gemunu Watch Battalion of Sri Lankan Army would be jointly undertaking the exercise.
• The aim of the exercise is to build and promote close relations between armies of both the countries and to enhance ability of joint exercise commander to take military contingents of both nations under command.

• Obituaries

Veteran Journalist Darryl D’Monte passes away

• Senior journalist and environmental activist Darryl D’Monte (74-years) passed away in Mumbai after a brief illness.
• He served as the resident editor of Mumbai editions of The Times of India and The Indian Express.
• He was the founder-president of the International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ) in Dresden, Germany, in 1993.
• Besides a career in journalism, he had a keen interest in environmental issues and took some initiatives for the cause.

• Obituaries

Japan’s Uncle Olympics passed away

• Businessman Naotoshi Yamada, known as ‘Uncle Olympics’, passed away due to heart failure recently.
• He attended all 14 summer Olympics from the 1964 Tokyo Games to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
• He stood out among the audience as he often wore a traditional Japanese jacket and a golden hat while cheering loudly and waving the Japanese flag.

• States

Name change of Nagaland village

• The Centre gave its consent for changing the name of Mangkhi village in Tuensang district of Nagaland to Mungankhun village.
• The central government has given its ‘no-objection’ to rename 22 villages, towns and railway stations across the country since December 2017.
• Some of the cleared proposals are Arikkod as Areekode in Malappura, Kerala and Laxman Garh as Adawala in Rajasamand, Rajasthan.

• Agreements

IBBI, SEBI Sign MoU For Better Implementation of IBC

• The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• The IBBI and the SEBI seek effective implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code) and its allied rules and regulations, which have redefined the debt-equity relationship and aims to promote entrepreneurship and debt market.