Sworn in a second time, KP Sharma Oli has become Nepal’s 41st Prime Minister. He is known to be pro- China, & with support from CPN-Maoist Centre whose head is Prachanda, he has led his party CPN-UML to win almost two-third majority in Parliament. Another successful elections have also improved Nepal’s image as a democracy before the world.
Acting as a perfect host, India organised the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in New Delhi in January 2018 to mark the 25th anniversary of the ASEAN-India dialogue partnership, 15th anniversary of its Summit-level partnership and 5 years of strategic relations. Based on the theme of “Shared Values, Common Destiny,” the Special Commemorative Summit culminated in the adoption of the Delhi Declaration which would chart the future course of ASEAN-India relations. The summit is crucial to the creation of new ‘rules of the game’ in Asia, at a time when the region is in the throes of a disruptive phase that could well determine the future balance of power.
Since 2014, India has significantly upgraded its “Look East” policy to “Act East” policy & in the past 3 years, Mr Narendra Modi, former president Mr Pranab Mukherjee and former vice president Mr Hamid Ansari visited all 10 Asean countries and Indian naval ships have made port calls at Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Brunei last year.
It was an occasion of great celebration for many when on 4th September 2016, the catholic nun Mother Teresa was proclaimed as a saint in a mass gathering. The canonization ceremony commenced at St Peter’s Square in Vatican City. At the event, Cardinal Angelo Amato addressed Pope Francis and read out a short bio of Mother which was followed by the Formula of Canonization read by Pope Francis in Latin. Later, he performed other rites after which Mother Teresa was announced Saint Teresa of Calcutta.
One of the most renowned nuns who served thousands of poor people in Kolkata, Saint Teresa was born as Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 to ethnic Albanian parents. She left her home when she was eighteen to join the Irish order of Loreto. In the year 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity which presently has more than 4,500 nuns across the globe. Mother Teresa was also awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her immense contribution. She died in 1997.
Speaking on the occasion, Pope Francis praised the generous saint and said, “She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their god-given dignity.” He also added, “She made her voice heard before the powers of the world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crimes of poverty they themselves created.”
Thousands of people from various cities came to attend the event. A 12-member delegation led by Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and delegation from West Bengal and New Delhi including Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal also became a part of the event. Around 1,500 homeless people across Italy were also brought to Rome in buses to be given seats of honor at the celebration and were served a pizza lunch by nuns.
A night filled with cinematic stars and heartfelt speeches, the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards 2016 reflected the landscape of television industry. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the event was held on September 18, 2016 at the Microsoft Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California and was broadcast in the U.S. by ABC. In the event, 68th Primetime Emmy Awards felicitated some of the best television programmes of the United States from June 1, 2015 until May 31, 2016, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
On July 14, 2016, the nominations were declared by Anthony Anderson and Lauren Graham. The limited series, The People V. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story was the most nominated program at the ceremony with 22 appearances in the nominations. Overall, Game of Thrones received the most nominations that year with a number of 23 and was the most nominated drama series also.
Crime anthology The People V. O. J. Simpson, an American Crime Story bagged five major awards at the glittering night. Besides, fantasy drama, Game of Thrones won three awards including Outstanding Drama Series and the most promising fictional television program with 38 wins at the event. The political satire series Veep won Outstanding Comedy Series for the second time in a row as well, while its producer and leading female star Julia Louis-Dreyfus set a new record by winning award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. As far as the series is concerned, it was her fifth consecutive award for it.
In the acting categories, Rami Malek and Tatiana Maslany won awards for their brilliant performance in Mr. Robot and Orphan Black respectively. Jeffrey Tambor won main comedic acting awards for the second time for Transparent. Interestingly, this year major winners were The People V.O.J. Simpson and Game of Thrones, which won nine and twelve awards, respectively.
The gala evening of the 90th annual Academy Awards on 4 March, 2018 was marked with scintillating presence of celebrities from the Hollywood. “The Shape of Water” ruled the charts, winning best picture and best director (for Guillermo del Toro) and also nabbed prizes for production design and original score. Mr Gary Oldman won the lead actor award for his work as Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour” and Ms Frances McDormand earned her second best actress Oscar for her role as a grieving mother in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” Mr Sam Rockwell (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”) and Ms Allison Janney (“I, Tonya”) won supporting actor and actress honors.
Frances Mcdormand, who is the winner of the Best Actress 2018 was also previously nominated for four times for Academy Award nomination. She was previously nominated for Actress in Supporting Role for North Country (2005), Almost Famous (2000) and Mississippi Burning (1988). She also won the Best Actress in Supporting Role for her role in Fargo.
The 2018 Winter Olympics took place from 9th February to 25th February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, South Korea. They are also officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games, and are a major attraction at global level, as grand as the Summer Olympics, but attended and competed by fewer countries and athletes, as only winter sports are allowed.
It was the first Winter Olympics and held at South Korea and the second Olympics held in the country. This 2018 Winter Olympics was also the first Olympics of the 3 successive Olympics to be held in East Asia, the other 2 being Tokyo’s Summer Olympics of 2020 and the Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympics. The event featured a total of 122 events related to 15 sports including additional sports like “big air” snowboarding, mixed doubles curling and mass start speed skating. A total of 2914 athletes from 92 countries associated with National Olympic Committee participated in the event. Norway headed the total medal tally with 39 followed by Germany with 31 and Canada with 29 medals. A total of 307 medals were presented at the events.
Accentuating an inspirational outlook towards specially abled, the fifteenth Summer Paralympics was celebrated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. This year, the event attained the position of being second-most-attended Paralympic Games in history.
The event began with the theme “Todo Mundo tem um Coração” (“Everybody Has a Heart”) and witnessed a huge participation of around 160 National Paralympic Committees with a total of 4,350 athletes. In addition to this, two refugee athletes namely, Syrian-born swimmer Ibrahim Al Hussein and Shahrad Nasajpour, an Iranian discus thrower, also took part in the games as independents. This was the first time a tremendous step was taken by the authorities for the refugees and asylee athletes. Two new sports namely, canoeing and the triathlon were also added in the list of sports this year.
The President of International Paralympic Committee, Phillip Craven spoke on the opening ceremony and invited viewers to “see the true meaning of sport and the true definition of ability”. He said that Paralympians have the ability to change the existing perceptions and open a whole new world of endless opportunity.
The eleven days’ event ended on 18th September in the famous Maracana football stadium. While China spearheaded the league with 239 medals, Britain remained on the second position with 147 medals in total. Ukraine and the United States followed with 117 and 115 medals respectively.
The Closing ceremony was a great success filled with amazing performances filled with enthusiasm and inspirations. The ceremony was dazzled with various concert performances by an array of prominent Brazilian musicians. There was also a formal handover to Tokyo which is to host the 2020 Summer Paralympics. The IPC President also announced that he would bestow the Paralympic Order—the IPC’s highest honor, on the people of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro for their enormous support of the Paralympics.
Ariya Jutanugarn wins The United States Women’s Open Golf Championship, which is one of the thirteen national
championships conducted by United States Golf Association (USGA) and is the oldest of five other major championships of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). The Championship came into being 72 years ago in 1946. The Tournament is usually held in early July and is the third major of the LPGA season. The winner of the event bags a large sum of money which is considered the highest purse in women’s golf. In 2017, the amount was
$5 Million.
Ariya is the first player from Thailand to win the championship. Her win came after she parred the fourth extra hole after earlier finishing regulation at 11-under-par 277. She suffered a back nine collapse before beating her South Korean opponent, Kim Hyo-joo in the playoff at the U.S women’s open.
Through this win, she has joined Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Se Ri Pak and Inbee Park as the only players to win both the US women’s Open and the British Open, which she won in 2016. Some considered the tournament to be the most difficult day of her career, but she walked away bagging the trophy and the cash prize worth $900,000.
Since 2018, the U.S Women’s Open is being held prior to the Men’s tournament in order to provide optimum playing conditions to the world’s best players across the various and finest golf courses that the U.S has to offer.
OYO rooms, more commonly known as OYO, have extended its presence in the Chinese economy.
This expansion is the third overseas expansion after Malaysia and Nepal for the Gurugram-based startup.
OYO is an Indian hospitality service and budget hotel network, founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013 and is exploring the two big markets of India and China, alongside other Eastern countries like Indonesia. It is also set to take its enterprise in United Arab Emirates. In September 2017, OYO had signed a 5 year MoU with the China Lodging Group to facilitate and strengthen collaboration in order to build a worldwide market leading hospitality business. The MoU signed is for both parties to explore opportunities for mutual collaboration in fields like knowledge and technology sharing, strategic alliances – including but not limited to local sourcing and procurement and joint loyalty programs and investments. The multi brand hotel group had made a $10 million equity investment in OYO to become a minority shareholder (less than 5 per cent). Currently, the chain comprises of over 11,000 exclusive or franchised rooms in 26 cities including Hangzhou, Xian, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xiamen and Kunming among others.
It has also launched its services in Shenzhen, also called the silicon valley of China, and is considered one of the busiest and fastest growing ports in the world. It has covered 8 hotels with a room count of around 400.
AsiaOne believes that the reason behind this move is the massive prosperity China’s tourism Industry is witnessing. It enjoys an influx of both domestic and International tourists and their market is considered as fragmented as the Indian hotel market.
The firm has reportedly hired around 60-70 employees to run its operations in China.
Furthermore, a substantial rise in the number of hotels and headcounts is expected in the near future.
United Arab Emirates is planning to expand its horizons and fly its first astronaut into space by the year 2021, when it completes 50 years of its foundation. By the end of 2018, Emirates will have its first astronaut titled, recruited and trained to make history.
This is the first ever space programme to be launched by the UAE and a realization of UAE’s pledge to become a global leader in space exploration over the next 50 years. The recruitment process is rigorous and detailed. Citizens first fill out an online form, the required additional information and supporting documents to the UAE Astronaut programme at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). Men and Women aged above 18 are welcomed and have to go through a screening process which involves basic psychometric tests and medical examinations to determine the fitness of the candidate. Once shortlisted, more advanced and elaborate psychometric examinations will be taken, followed by a final interview round.
The qualified 4 candidates will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) to carry out vital experiments and work that will contribute to the scientific community’s understanding of human space flight to meet future challenges as a part of their training. The selected candidates will be a part of the Astronaut Corp of 2019.
Currently, there are over 2,000 applications received from people aged 18 to 60. This is a very exciting phase for the citizens of the country and their enthusiasm will accelerate the Prime Minister Mohammad Bin Rashid’s goal of launching the first unmanned Arab probe to Mars in July 2020. The orbiter will be called “Amal” or “Hope”. In the far future, UAE also has plans to builds what it calls a “Science City” to replicate life on Mars and aims to create the first human settlement on the red planet.
A new online portal, called the I-Shuttle, has also been launched by the UAE Space Agency for the citizens to engage with and drive their interests in space.
