Category: Life & Style

The United Arab Emirates recently launched the “Golden Card” Permanent Residency Scheme for expatriates. The scheme, launched by the UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, is meant to pursue and attract wealthy individuals and exceptional talents such as doctors, engineers, scientists, students and artists from all over the world.

Dubai’s ruler took to social media and stated, “We want them to be permanent partners in our journey. Residents are an indispensable part of our country. The first batch of 6,800 investors with Dh100 billion worth of investments will be granted the “Golden Card.”

According to General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director General of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA), the department has started issuing permanent residency to the first batch of qualified individuals from over 70 countries.

The scheme of “Golden Card” comes after the last year’s announcement that the country would grant five or ten year residency visas to investors, entrepreneurs, doctors, scientists, and outstanding students to facilitate business and investment environment. The scheme offers a permanent residency with a slew of unprecedented benefits.

The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the initiative of the Government of Malawi at the launch of the world’s first and only malaria vaccine through a part of a landmark pilot program. After the combined efforts of over 30 years Malawi has made the vaccine available to children in Africa. In the coming weeks, Ghana and Kenya will also introduce the vaccine. WHO coordinated the pilot program with a collective effort from health ministries of Malawi, Ghana, and Kenya and other partners including non-profit organizations, and GlaxoSmithKline, the vaccine developer.

The vaccine, known as RTS,S, is the only of its kind that has demonstrated positive results in significantly reducing malaria in children. Malaria, is one of the world’s leading killers, and has resulted in the death of 250000+ children in Africa. Children under the age of 5 are most affected due to its life threatening complications.

The Nobel Foundation has announced the names of winners of 2019 Nobel Prizes.

The Nobel Prizes for 2019 in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economic sciences, peace, and literature have been announced. The awards are recognition of work that advances each of the respective fields. A medal, certificate and a cash award of about $ 900,000 are given to the winners.

Some of the winners include the following:

2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology is bestowed upon William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza. The trio won the prize for identifying molecular machinery that regulates the activity of genes in response to varying levels of oxygen.

2019 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. James Peebles receive half of the award for his work on theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology. The remaining half is shared between Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their discovery of an exo-planet orbiting a solar-type star.

2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is shared between John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino. They won the prize for developing and advancing lithium-ion batteries.

2019 Nobel Prize in Literature is shared by Austrian novelist and playwright Peter Handke for his influential work that, with linguistic ingenuity, has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience, and by Olga Tokarczuk for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.

2019 Nobel Peace Prize is bestowed upon Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for his work to bring an end to a long running border dispute between his country and neighboring Eritrea.

In September 2019, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for the first time, started offering tourist visas. It is for the first time that the ultra-conservative country has opened its gates for holidaymakers. This diplomatic move is a part of a push to diversify its economy away from oil.

The initiative of starting tourism is one of the focal points of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform program to prepare the biggest Arab economy post-oil-era. The announcement came at a critical time when the country witnessed a devastating attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure.

Ahmed al-Khateeb, the tourism chief of the country stated that ‘Opening Saudi Arabia to international tourists is a historic moment for our country’.

Initially, the country will accept online tourist visa applications from 49 countries and will also ease its extremist and strict dress code for foreign women.

With this move, the government hopes to draw 100 million annual visits by domestic and foreign tourists that in turn will contribute to 10% of gross domestic product.

The Kingdom has splurged billions in its attempt to create tourism industry from scratch and will generate up to one million tourism jobs.

The UAE has announced the name of its research based AI University as Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) after Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of UAE Armed Forces. The Crown Prince has long emphasized for the UAE’s development of human capital through knowledge and scientific thinking to take the nation into the future. The establishment of MBZUAI is based on the UAE’s vision of sustainable development, progress and overall well-being of humanity.

Graduate students, businesses and governments will benefit and work for the advancement in the artificial intelligence vertical. A new model of academia and research in the field of AI will be introduced by the university offering students and faculty members access to some of the world’s most AI systems that will, in turn, help in releasing its potential for socio-economic development.

As per the latest Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and Association of Tennis Professionals rankings, Naomi Osaka of Japan and Novak Djokovic of Serbia continue to be World’s Number 1 tennis players. The recent ATP and WTA rankings were announced before 2019 Wimbledon Championships.

In an unchanged top 20 WTA rankings, Naomi Osaka has retained the World’s Number 1 spot by being 252 points ahead of World’s Number 2 Ashleigh Barty of Australia. Similarly, for the men’s championship, Novak Djokovic leads the men’s ATP raking ahead of Rafael Nadal (French Open winner 2019) and former World’s Number 1 Roger Federer. Men’s top ranking remains unchanged even after Rafael Nadal claimed the Roland Garros title in the final with a victory over Dominic Thiem. The results for 2019 Wimbledon Championships have also been declared. It is a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom.

The defending Gentlemen’s singles champion Novak Djokovic retained his title, while the defending Ladies’ singles champion Angelique Kerber lost in the second round to Lauren Davis. Simona Halep won the Ladies’ Singles title.

Colombia’s Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah beat French pair Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin to win the Wimbledon men’s doubles final. Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strýcová won the women’s doubles title, defeating Dabrowski and Xu in the final.

The 61st Annual Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles with all its glam and glitz on 10th Feb 2019. The largest and star-studded music awards show celebrates and honors the best in the music industry. Proclaimed as the most distinguished musical night, international singers, enthusiasts, and fans gathered to witness what is considered to be the Nobel Prize of Music.

The award ceremony is hosted by R&B singer Alicia keys, which is the first female host in the last 14 years, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Due to the fierce competition, the Recording Academy had expanded its General Field to accommodate eight nominees each. The General Field includes Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist.

Main winners of the Grammy Awards 2019 are as follows:

Album of the Year: Kacey Musgraves, “Golden Hour”

Record of the Year: Childish Gambino – “This Is America”

Song of the Year: Childish Gambino, “This Is America”

Best New Artist: Dua Lipa

Best Pop Solo Performance: Lady Gaga, “Joanne” (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?)

Best Country Album: Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves

Best Rock Performance: Chris Cornell, “When Bad Does Good”

Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award for 2019 was conferred upon Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the 13th President of India from 2012 until 2017, Shri Bhupen Hazarika, and Shri Nanaji Deshmukh, Social Activist, and a member of RSS.

Padma Awards 2019, one of the highest civilian awards were also distributed on 25th Jan 2019, on the eve of Republic day by the President of India at ceremonial functions which were held at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

These Padma awards are conferred in 3 categories: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri For the year 2019, the President of India Ram Nath Kovind approved 112 Padma Awards. It comprises 4 Padma Vibhushan, 14 Padma Bhushan and 94 Padma Shri Awards. Of the list, 21 awardees are women, 11 persons form the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/ OCI, 3 Posthumous awardees and 1 transgender person.

The recipients of Padma Vibhushan awards are Ms. Teejan Bai, Shri Anil kumar Manibhai Naik, Shri Balwant Moreshwar Purandare, and Shri Ismail Omar Guelleh. The recipients of Padma Bhushan are Shri Darshan Lal Jain, Shri Parvin Gordhan, Shri Mohanlal Viswanathan Nair, Shri Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Shri Ashok Laxmanrao Kukade, Shri Kariya Munda, etc.

The Padma Shri recipients are Rajeshwar Acharya, Illias Ali, Manoj Bajpayee, Uddhab Kumar Bharali, Jyoti Bhatt, Pritam Bhartwan, Dilip Chakravarty, Swapan Chaudhuri, Sunil Chhetri, Babulal Dahiya, etc.

Mrs. Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush, daughter of legendary actor and noteworthy film-maker Rajinikanth was recently appointed United Nations Women’s Advocate for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in India. This proud announcement was made by Ms. Lakshmi Puri, U.N. Assistant Secretary General and U.N. Women Deputy Executive Director. Ms. Lakshmi Puri believes that since Mrs. Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush is a remarkable dancer, she inspires confidence in young women and across South India and beyond.

During the ceremony, Mrs. Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush said in her acceptance speech that it will be an honour for her to serve as United Nations Women’s Advocate for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in India. Dr. Rebecca Reichmann Tavares, Representative of United Nations Women India, warmly welcomed Mrs. Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush to the United Nations Women family with the words, “We are delighted to have Aishwaryaa as UN Women’s Advocate for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in India. As a filmmaker, dancer – and now writer – she is perfectly placed to reach out to a range of audiences, particularly young people, and to encourage them to speak out and act to prevent violence against women, create a level playing field for women and girls, and most importantly, help change mindsets and attitudes that allow inequalities to persist.”

Apart from being a classical dancer, Mrs. Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush is a leading film director and writer as well. On her honorable accomplishment, Mr. Rajinikanth shared his emotions by saying that he feels “proud and delighted” to see his daughter being associated with the United Nations. Also, it is expected that a startup entrepreneur, Mrs. Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush will make the required contribution in raising awareness of United Nations Women’s core beliefs regarding gender equality and women’s empowerment across India, augmenting the organization’s efforts to close the gender gap and achieve a more equal world—Planet 50-50—by the year 2030.

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.