Category: Life & Style

Starting December 1, 2024, Thailand will implement an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system for visa-exempt visitors, including those from India. This program seeks to simplify immigration procedures and improve tracking of foreign nationals, in line with Thailand’s initiatives to improve national security and visitor management. This statement follows Thailand’s decision to expand visa exemptions in July 2024.

The ETA will apply to nationals of 93 countries who are now visa-free, except travellers from Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia. Each ETA allows for a single entry and is valid for up to 60 days, with the possibility of a 30-day extension.

The ETA application procedure will be completed online, with no fees required, assuring a pleasant experience for travellers. The ETA system will be implemented with an e-Visa system, which will be merged by June 2025, resulting in a consolidated online application.

Holders of an ETA can use automated immigration clearing gates, which speed up the admission process by reading QR codes. However, overstaying will result in penalties, such as daily fines. While the ETA expedites immigration, it does not ensure entrance, as border officers have discretion.

As the first female fighter pilot to join the Indian Air Force’s elite 18 ‘Flying Bullets’ squadron, which flies the Indian-made LCA Tejas fighter jets, squadron captain Mohana Singh has accomplished a historic first. Singh recently took part in the historic ‘Tarang Shakti’ exercise in Jodhpur, where she was crucial in instructing the vice chiefs of the Indian Army and Navy during a historic flight.

During this noteworthy exercise, Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan and Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani piloted the trainer versions, while Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh flew the LCA Tejas alone. The Indian defence forces’ strong endorsement of the ‘Make in India’ concept was demonstrated by this joint exercise.

Along with Bhawna Kanth and Avni Chaturvedi, Mohana Singh was a member of the first group of women fighter pilots when she joined the IAF in 2016. Singh piloted MiG-21s until she was recently assigned to the LCA squadron at the Naliya air base in Gujarat. Her father is a warrant officer in the Indian Air Force, and her grandpa was a flight gunner.

Egypt intends to develop Ras Banas, a secluded peninsula on the southern Red Sea coast, to attract large-scale investment. Ras Banas spans 30 kilometres and is one of Egypt’s last few undeveloped coastline areas. The government seeks to draw in investments to help alleviate its protracted economic crisis, which has been marked by record inflation, growing debt, and currency depreciation over the last two years.

Earlier this year, Egypt sold rights to develop the Ras El Hekma Peninsula on its Mediterranean coast to a UAE sovereign fund for $24 billion, stoking interest in future Gulf investment deals. Sherif El-Sherbiny, the Housing Minister, has revealed that Ras Banas’ strategic plan is nearing completion and will soon be submitted to investors.

A source in the finance ministry highlighted Saudi Arabia’s probable interest in transforming its Egyptian Central Bank savings into direct investments in Ras Banas. The country has been in talks for months.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund also offered $5 billion in investments during a meeting with Egypt’s Prime Minister and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This statement caused a spike in Egypt’s government bond prices.

On Monday, PM Narendra Modi, accompanied by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, launched Phase II of the Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project. PM Modi uploaded photographs of himself taking the metro and talking with students. Phase II spans 21 km, connecting the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Motera to Gandhinagar Sector 1 via eight stations, including Gujarat National Law University, Pandit Deendayal Energy University, and GIFT City. The project, which cost Rs. 5,384 crore, is anticipated to improve regional connectivity.

With the completion of Phase II, the Ahmedabad Metro presently has a 68-kilometer network across two lines, with 54 stations, four of which are underground. The first phase, which opened in 2022, runs 33.5 kilometres along the north-south line, requiring 65 minutes to complete a full journey for Rs 35.

Meanwhile, PM Modi will also inaugurate India’s first Vande Bharat Metro, renamed Namo Bharat Rapid Rail, which would connect Bhuj and Ahmedabad and traverse 359 kilometres in 5.45 hours. Public service for this metro begins on September 17, with a charge of Rs 455 for the entire journey.

PM’s return to Gujarat is his first since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, briefly eclipsed Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to become the world’s second richest person, with a net worth of $203.9 billion, according to Forbes. Despite dropping back to third place behind Bezos, whose worth is valued at $206.4 billion, Ellison’s fortune has skyrocketed.

Ellison entered 2023 as the eighth richest person, but his fortune has more than doubled in the last two years, rising from $80 billion in October 2022 to $181 billion as of Monday. Due to the performance of Oracle’s stock on Tuesday, its net worth increased by $22.9 billion.

80-year-old Ellison holds nearly 40% of Oracle, the software company that he established in 1977. The firm has lately capitalized on the benefits of artificial intelligence and cloud services. Its shares have surged by more than 22.5% over this month. Oracle’s recent earnings beat expectations, and the company boosted its yearly estimate.

He also holds 15 million shares in Tesla, which he bought even before joining the board in 2018. He didn’t sell even after his resignation in 2022.

However, Elon Musk, with a net worth of $255 billion, still stands above Ellison.

India will host the second Global Food Regulators Summit in New Delhi from September 19 to 21. Delegates from over 70 nations will gather to discuss critical regulatory challenges in the food industry.

The event is organized by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India under the Union Health Ministry, to build global food safety collaboration. It was the inaugural edition, which took place last July as part of India’s G20 events.

The theme of the conference this year will be about core issues: food safety, risk assessment, analytical competency, and capacity building. The summit encapsulates India’s initiative towards global leadership in food safety and security. More than 5,000 are expected to attend personally, with an additional 1.5 lakh participating online.

The FSSAI intends to establish a ‘Food Import Rejection Alert’ portal during the summit, to improve food safety through expedited import processes. The new Food Import Clearance System 2.0 will also be implemented to streamline import procedures.

In addition, the 2024 State Food Safety Index will be presented, which will assess the performance of states and union territories in terms of food safety.

India’s renewable energy ministry has obtained $386 billion in investment commitments from banks and financial institutions to help decarbonise the country. These investments aim to more than double India’s clean electricity generation by 2030, Renewables Minister Pralhad Joshi stated at the RE-Invest conference in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

India, the third-largest carbon emitter after China and the United States, aims to reach 500 gigawatts of non-fossil capacity by 2030. To accomplish this ambitious objective, the government must install 44 gigawatts every year, double the average growth rate over the last five years, according to Bloomberg’s power ministry data.

RE-Invest brings project developers, investors, manufacturers, and the government together on one platform to address the barriers to speedier renewable installations. While India’s rising electricity demand has been attractive for investors, challenges facing setup-transmission bottlenecks, land acquisition delays, and mismanaging the power distribution network have stood in the way of their goals.

States, which run most of the power retail network, should be encouraged to offer changes accordingly for an increased share of green energy. Affordable renewable energy would promote and help bring down carbon emissions and ensure the long-term energy security of the country.

Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya revealed intentions to merge the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) with the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY). This will enable ESIC beneficiaries to receive medical care from over 30,000 institutions accredited by AB-PMJAY, removing the distinction between government, public sector, and private hospitals.

Mandaviya provided this briefing during the third regional conference of western states in Rajkot. Participants included prominent officials from Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, and Lakshadweep.

This meeting was one of six regional conversations centred on critical labour and employment concerns.

The minister also emphasised efforts to update the National Career Service portal with innovative technologies such as AI and integrate it with e-Shram to improve job matching across sectors.

He emphasised the importance of reliable employment data collection and the creation of a centralised dashboard for policy formation. States and Union Territories were encouraged to improve feedback channels from assistance recipients.

Mandaviya emphasised the government’s commitment to providing social protection to all workers in both organised and unorganised sectors, and he advocated for increased coordination among the Centre, states, and UTs to improve service delivery through IT and AI breakthroughs.

Following a five-day mission in space, billionaire Jared Isaacman and his crew successfully completed the first private spacewalk and safely returned to Earth. On Sunday morning, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft made a splash landing in the Gulf of Mexico, close to Florida. In an orbit 460 miles above Earth, the crew—consisting of two engineers from SpaceX and a former Air Force pilot—surpassed both the International Space Station and the Hubble Telescope.

There have been 264 spacewalks, with Sarah Gillis of SpaceX becoming the 265th and Isaacman the 264th. The spacewalk, which lasted less than two hours, was a test run for both of their new spacesuits. The entire capsule had to be depressurized for the exercise, which was meant to test spacesuit technologies for future missions. For the most part, Isaacman and Gillis could only emerge from the capsule in a half-formed state.

As part of his Polaris initiative, Isaacman’s second space mission with SpaceX aimed to push the boundaries of space exploration. He co-founded the mission with SpaceX, but no one knows how much it cost. More than $250 million was raised for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Isaacman’s first mission in 2021.

A new milestone in space exploration has been attained, with 19 people presently orbiting Earth, setting a record. The previous high was 17, set last year. On September 11, a Russian Soyuz capsule launched three astronauts, NASA’s Don Pettit and Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, to the International Space Station (ISS), raising the total number of humans in orbit.

The Soyuz crew is slated to arrive at the ISS about 3:30 p.m. EDT. When they arrive, they will join nine other astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the station, including NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Barry Wilmore, and Suni Williams, as well as cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko.

Wilmore and Williams took part in Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (CFT), the first crewed voyage with the Starliner capsule. Originally scheduled for a 10-day trip, the crew was delayed owing to thruster troubles aboard the Starliner. NASA elected to return the capsule uncrewed, with Wilmore and Williams planned to return in February 2024 aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

This event marks another milestone in human spaceflight, with an unprecedented number of astronauts operating in orbit at the same time.