(1) Biden announces $3 billion military aid for Ukraine
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced nearly $3 billion in military aid to Kyiv — the biggest U.S. package so far — to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day, six months after Russia invaded the country. The U.S. has already pledged various aid packages worth 44.531 billion EUR to Ukraine, making it the biggest supporter of the war-torn nation. Following weeks of military build-up along the border of Ukraine, Russia launched an attack on its neighbour on February 24, 2022. Thousands of soldiers on both sides and civilians have died in the largest-scale battle seen in Europe since World War II. Despite Russian expectations of a quick victory, Ukrainian armed forces, with the help of military and financial aid from various countries and organisations, have pushed the invaders back to a swath of territory in the country’s east and south. The chart below showcases the support Ukraine received from countries across the world.
(2) India’s scheduled languages
When the Constitution came into being, a list of languages was appended in the form of the Eighth Schedule, and Hindi was enshrined as the official language — a decision that causes upheaval to date. Schedule Eight, at its inception, included 14 languages. At present, it consists of 22 languages — Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.
Explore India’s scheduled languages and where they are most spoken below:
(3) Adani’s bid to take over NDTV
Shares in NDTV Ltd jumped the maximum permitted 5% to a 14-year high on Wednesday after billionaire Gautam Adani’s Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited moved to take a nearly 30% stake in the media group by acquiring RRPR Holdings, which belongs to NDTV promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy. With 29.18% of the news broadcaster in the bag, VCPL has also launched an offer to acquire an additional 26% stake in NDTV, in compliance with requirements under the SEBI Regulations, 2011. VCPL, a wholly owned subsidiary of AMG Media Network Ltd (AMNL), which is owned by Adani Enterprises Ltd, owns convertible warrants in RRPR Holdings as part of a loan agreement with RRPRH. This agreement allows the company to acquire 99.9% of RRPRH’s public shares. Certain provisions in this agreement came under the SEBI scanner for threatening NDTV’s autonomy. VCPL recently finished this conversion and bought the RRPRH shares.
The treemap below shows the NDTV shareholding pattern as of June 30, 2022.
(4) Mahagathbandhan government wins floor test in Bihar
The Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar–led Mahagathbandhan government on Wednesday won the floor test in the State Assembly to prove majority while Opposition BJP legislators walked out of the session. In the voting, Nitish Kumar got 160 votes. With the new alliance having the support of 164 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar assembly, the test of majority was mostly a formality. The floor test comes days after Nitish Kumar breaking away from the BJP over concerns that it was plotting a repeat of the Maharashtra model - where the Uddhav Thackeray government was dismantled by the rebellion of senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, who is now the Chief Minister.
(5) UK economy records worst fall in over 300 years
Britain recorded its biggest fall in output in more than 300 years in 2020 when it faced the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, updated official figures showed on Monday. Gross domestic product fell by 11% in 2020, the Office for National Statistics said. This was a bigger drop than any of the ONS’s previous estimates and the largest fall since the ‘Great Frost’ of 1709, according to historical data from the Bank of England.
