SAUDI ARABIA TO COMPETE FOR FIRST TIME AT OSCARS

Saudi Arabia, where cinemas are banned, is to compete for an Oscar for the first time next year with feminist film "Wadjda" directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, a Saudi official announced on Sunday.

The movie tells of a young girl's quest to own a bicycle in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom where women are deprived of many rights, among them driving.

“Wadjda will represent Saudi Arabia at the Oscars, competing for the best foreign-language film, in a first for the kingdom," Sultan al-Bazie, who heads the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts, told media persons.

Directed by Saudi Arabia's first female filmmaker and shot entirely in the Gulf state, the film won best Arabic feature award at the Dubai Film Festival last year and picked up an award in Cannes in March.

But the film, first released in France, will only be seen in the kingdom on DVD or on television.

Mansour has said she was forced to direct what is her first feature film from a van with a walkie-talkie in some of the more conservative districts where she could not be seen in public together with male crew and cast members.

Haifaa Al Mansour is the first female filmmaker in Saudi Arabia and is regarded as one of the most significant cinematic figures in the Kingdom. She finished her bachelor's degree in Literature at the American University in Cairo and completed a Master's degree in Directing and Film Studies from the University of Sydney. The success of her three short films, as well as the international acclaim of her award-winning 2005 documentary Women Without Shadows, influenced a whole new wave of Saudi filmmakers and made the issue of opening cinemas in the Kingdom a front-page discussion. Within the Kingdom her work is both praised and vilified for encouraging discussion on topics generally considered too taboo, like tolerance, the dangers of orthodoxy, and the need for Saudis to take a critical look at their traditional and restrictive culture.

EXERCISE SHATRUJEET

• Indian and American troops are practising amphibious war manoeuvres in Goa as part of efforts of the two countries to build strong ties between their armed forces.

• Code named Exercise Shatrujeet, the four-day joint Indo-US war games are being held at Goa to enhance cooperation between the two armed forces. The US Marine Corps arrived at Goa on board USS Harpers Ferry on September 30.

• "The exercise is planned as part of Indo-US defence cooperation under the Defence Policy Group. The aim of the exercise is to undertake joint training in amphibious operations with a view to build and promote positive military relations between the two nations," an army official said.

• The exercise will provide an opportunity for both forces to interact and work together, he added.

• Apart from Shatrujeet series of war games, India and the US hold several joint military training exercises between their armed forces including the Malabar, Yudh Abhyas and the multilateral Red Flag exercise held in the US.

• India recently accepted an invitation to participate in the 2014 Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) in Hawaii, a multilateral exercise that is expected to involve nearly two dozen nations.

NAGALAND FIRST TO USE VVPAT DEVICE FOR VOTING

• Nagaland on 2 oct 2013 became the first state to use the high-tech voter recording system 'Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail' (VVPAT) with Electronic Voting Machines for the by-elections to Noksen Assembly constituency.
• VVPAT is a device attached with EVMs which leave a verifiable paper trail of votes cast in an election.
• It allows the voter to check whether his vote has been recorded with the candidate he had wished to vote for in the EVM.

SAINA NEHWAL - SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR 2013

Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal was declared Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year while her mentor and India coach Pulella Gopichand was given the Coach of the Year award for nurturing new crop of talented young shuttlers.

The event was organised by the sports magazine to honour good performances of the year 2012.

Saina had also bagged this award in the inaugural edition in 2009.

The 14 categories in which the awards were presented include Young Player of the Year award, won by U-19 world cup winning captain Unmukt Chand, while Athlete of the Year was presented to young India cricketer Virat Kohli.

Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, the Indian batting stalwarts who retired from international cricket last year, were given the Lifetime Achievement Award for their contribution to the sport.

Wrestler Sushil Kumar, who won became the first Indian to win back-to-back individual Olympic medals, was adjudged the ‘ Gamechanger of the Year’ for bagging a silver medal at London Games.

Team of the Year award was given to India U-19 Cricket Team for winning country’s third ICC Under-19 World Cup in Australia.

Paralympic high jumper H N Girisha’s silver medal winning effort at Paralympic last year was awarded ‘Sporting moment of the Year’

The list also included Asian champion Sawarn Singh Virk (Rowing) and race walker KT Irfan as ‘Surprise Package of the Year’

The other awardees include footballer Uttam Rai (Sportskid of the Year), Service Sports Control Board (Administrator of the Year) and Services (Domestic Performance of the Year).

This is the fourth year of the India awards, which are inspired by the world’s most prestigious sports awards, the Sportsman of the Year, established by Sports Illustrated in 1954.

INDIA RANKS 78TH ON HUMAN CAPITAL INDEX 2013

India has been placed at a low 78th slot on a global Human Capital Index, which ranks countries on the basis of economic potential of their labour force, while Switzerland has topped the ranking.

According to the list of total 122 countries released here on Oct 1^st by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), India has been ranked lower than three of its BRICS peers -- China (43rd), Russia (51st) and Brazil (57th), while South Africa is placed at 86th place.

While India has scored well on parameters like workforce and employment, it has fared poorly for health and wellness of its labour force, WEF said.

According to the report, low scores on sanitation and hygiene, as also second-to-bottom rank on the health gender gap indicator are some of the variables driving down the overall ranking for the country.

Among the top-ten, Switzerland is followed by Finland, Singapore, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Norway, UK, Denmark and Canada, while the US is ranked 16th.

Yemen has been placed last at 122nd position, while Pakistan is ranked 112th.

WEF said that its Human Capital Index is a new tool designed to measure how countries manage human capital endowments and the countries have been ranked on the basis of the long-term economic potential of their respective labour forces.

The list measures countries on their ability to develop and deploy healthy, educated and able workers through four distinct pillars -- education, health and wellness, workforce and employment, and enabling environment.

According to the report, a nation's human capital endowment - productive skills and capacities - can be a more important determinant of long-term economic success than virtually any other resource.

"The key for the future of any country and any institution lies in the skills and talent of its people," WEF Founder and Executive Chairman, Klaus Schwab, said.

"In the future, human capital will be the most important kind of capital. Investing in people is not just a nice to have and it is imperative for growth, prosperity and progress," he added.

In the sub-rankings, India is placed at 49th place for workforce and employment, 63rd position for education, 67th on enabling environment, but at 112th for health and wellness.

EXPLOSIVE DETECTION KIT

In a first of its kind of reverse technology sharing between India and the US, an innovative Explosive Detection Kit developed by Indian scientists would be manufactured in America and sold globally for quick detection and identification of combinations of explosives.

The India-developed US-manufactured Explosive Detection Kit (EDK) was launched at the US Chamber of Commerce building in Washington - a block away from the White House on Aug 2^nd 2013.

Reny M Roy, the Indian scientist who developed this technology, said that the EDK kits have been successfully used in preventing several terrorists' attacks and even immediately detecting the type of explosive used in the event of a bomb blast.

Developed by a constituent DRDO laboratory, High Energy Material Research Laboratory in Pune, the EDK is developed for quick detection and identification of explosives based on any combination of nitro-esters, nitramines, trinitrotoluene, dynamite or black powder. It was in use from 2002 in India. The Kit is portable, cost effective and can be used in both pre-blast and post-blast scenarios even in contaminated conditions. It is being used by bomb detection and disposal squads of the Army, paramilitary forces and police in India.

ROCK WRENS - THE NEAR EXTINCT SONGBIRD SPECIES

Rock Wrens, one of the oldest as well as the most distinct songbird species made a comeback from extinction because of the New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) project. The information was revealed on 23 September 2013. The relocation project of DOC relocated 41 tiny alpine Rock Wrens from around Fiordland in the far southwest of New Zealand's South Island to Secretary Island from 2008 to 2011.

DOC announced that the number of Rock Wrens increased to 66 in April 2013. DOC ranger Megan Willans explained that the increased safety of the island, a place where predators pose a lesser threat, provides insurance against the birds' steady demise on the mainland. Out of the 66 birds on the island, where the population of predatory stoats was tightly controlled, 63 had hatched and fledged there, indicating that the birds have settled for the purpose of breeding.

• The Rock Wren is the only true alpine bird in New Zealand and one of the most ancient bird species in the world.
• They originated from a species present more than 80 million years ago and have no close structural resemblance to any other group of birds in the world.
• Of the seven wren species that lived in New Zealand when humans arrived, the Rock Wren and the Rifleman are the only two species surviving today.
• Rock Wrens are vulnerable to predation by stoats and mice. Both stoats and mice prey on Rock Wren chicks and eggs on the nest.