LIC to lend ₹25,000 crore to NHAI to fund highways projects

• The highways authority plans to raise ₹75,000 crore from the markets 2019-20 financial year to fund key infrastructure projects such as Bharatmala
• NHAI will raise funds from the insurer by issuing bonds

Traffic violators can now pay fine online in Delhi through e-challan system

• The system, launched with 1,000 hand-held devices and Android-based operating system, with fully integrated software will help citizens login securely at their convenience
• Devices are of industrial grade and 4G-compliant with dual SIM facility and will have fingerprint biometric capturing capacity

CRPF unveils country's first body protector for women personnel in combat

• CRPF Director General R R Bhatnagar unveiled the new design
• The prototype has been developed after over two years of research

Floods continue to pile agony on people of Bihar, Assam

• In Bihar, 66.76 lakh people form 12 districts of the state have been hit by the calamity
• In Assam, 1.79 lakh hectare of agricultural land has been inundated

DGCA suspends AirAsia pilot for three months for wrongly sending 'hijack code '

• The pilot erroneously transmitted the 'hijack code' to the Air Traffic Services during a Delhi-Srinagar flight on 9 June
• DGCA issued a show cause notice to the AirAsia India pilot in the matter on 28 June

Women now more competent but less ambitious and decisive: Study

• Women's perceived competence has increased relative to men's, consistent with their growing participation in the labour force and education, says a new Northwestern University analysis
• However, women's gains in perceived competence have not propelled them to the top of hierarchies

China’s built a railroad to nowhere in Kenya

• Beijing is withholding the $4.9 billion needed to finish the project, once a flagship for Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative
• The reason for China’s attack of cold feet may lie in the project’s high profile

World Bank decides not to fund project to build Andhra's new capital Amaravati

• This, after the central government dropped support for the project
• The Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, that was due to finance $200 million of the project, said it was reviewing its involvement

GST watchdog detects invoice fraud to the tune of ₹7,600 crore

• DGGSTI said a resident of Sirsa in Haryana, has been arrested and produced before a local court
• This was flagged by a special investigation team on black money, led by former Supreme Court judge M.B. Shah, in 2015

Snag hits Delhi Metro's Violet Line for over an hour, passengers face hassles

• The Violet Line connects Kashmere Gate in Delhi to Raja Nahar Singh station in Faridabad
• Many passengers, after facing hardship, left the metro station premises at JLN Stadium and took other means of conveyance to continue their journey

Mother Dairy to sell tomatoes at ₹40/kg in Delhi to contain price rise

• Tomato prices in the retail markets of Delhi-NCR have shot up to ₹60-80 per kg owing to supply disruptions following rains in key producing states
• A committee that reviewed the price and availability of tomatoes in Delhi with stakeholders, observed that prices rose sharply since 10 July

Metro Phase-IV: SC asks DDA to clarify stand on funding for 3 priority corridors

• As per DMRC, its operational network is 343 km with current average daily ridership of nearly 28 lakh
• The 103.94 km long phase-IV of Delhi metro will consist of six corridors

UK delegation explores partnership in electric mobility

• The switch towards electric mobility has always been the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA’s) priority
• Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this month announced several incentives in the Union budget to push electric mobility

Supreme Court asks judge to deliver Babri verdict in nine months

• SC directed the UP govt to extend the tenure of the special judge conducting trial in the Babri Masjid demolition case
• In 2017, the Supreme Court had appointed special judge Surendra Kumar Yadav to conduct day-to-day trials in the case and conclude it within two years

Karnataka Congress seeks clarification on Supreme Court order

• According to the court order, 15 rebel lawmakers 'ought not to be compelled' to participate in the ongoing Assembly proceedings
• The legislators had moved the Supreme Court with pleas that alleged that the speaker was deliberately not accepting their resignations

Garib Rath train restored on 2 routes, no plans yet to replace them: Railways

• An official from the ministry said no plans are underway to replace the Garib Rath trains, 26 of which are operational across the country
• The initiation of Mail or Express trains in the said route also means that train fare would go up passengers

Incidence of oral diseases set to rise, says Lancet

• More and more people are exposed to the underlying causes, including sugar, tobacco, and alcohol, these days
• Oral diseases, including tooth decay, gum disease and oral cancers, affect almost half of the world’s population

Arvind Subramanian counters PMEAC criticism through new GDP paper

• Subramanian in his latest GDP paper argued that real growth in direct taxes actually fell from 14.3% pre-2011 period to 3.7% during post-2011 period
• PMEAC had argued that Subramanian had overlooked taxation data in his earlier analysis

Bengaluru ponzi scam prime accused arrested

• Khan, who is accused of perpetrating financial fraud worth crores in Bengaluru, was absconding for a month
• Khan was arrested from Delhi airport where arrived from Dubai

TikTok video has Telangana home minister's kin in soup

• The vehicle on which the TikTok video was shot was part of the Telangana home minister's convoy
• The incident has come close on the heels of some government employees in Khammam district making TikTok videos and uploading them