Golden Birdwing named India’s largest butterfly

A Himalayan butterfly — Golden Birdwing (Troides aeacus) — has surpassed Southern Birdwing (Troides minos) after 88 years to become the largest butterfly in India. 

The new measurements were published in the BIONOTES journal.

The female species of the Golden Birdwing has a wingspan of 194mm that is 4 mm larger than the Southern Birdwing (190mm) that Brigadier William Harry Evans, a British military officer and lepidopterist, had recorded in 1932. While the largest wingspan in the male species of the Golden Birdwing is 106mm. The largest female Golden Birdwing’s forewing length is 90mm.

The female Golden Birdwing was recorded from Didihat in Uttarakhand, the largest male was from the Wankhar Butterfly Museum in Meghalaya capital Shillong.

The largest Indian butterfly was earlier recorded by Brigadier Evans in 1932. It was an individual of the Southern Birdwing (Troides minos), which was then treated as a subspecies of the Common Birdwing.

Indian Navy completes Operation Samudra Setu 

The Indian Navy concluded Operation Samudra Setu, which began on May 5, by bringing nearly 4,000 Indians back home from three countries amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa (Landing Platform Dock), and Airavat, Shardul and Magar (Landing Ship Tanks) participated in this operation which lasted over 55 days and involved traversing more than 23,000 km by sea,” the Navy said in a statement. 

While five repatriation trips were done by ships to Male in Maldives, two were done to Bandar Abbas in Iran and one was done to Colombo in Sri Lanka under this operation.

This operation was undertaken by the Indian Navy in close coordination with the ministries of external affairs, home affairs, health and various other agencies of the Centre and state governments.

The greatest challenge for the Indian Navy was to avoid any incident of outbreak of the infection on board the ships during the evacuation operation. Rigorous measures were planned and medical and safety protocols unique to the operating environment of ships were implemented, it said.

India, US to conduct trials of Ayurvedic formulations against COVID-19

Ayurvedic practitioners and researchers in India and the US are planning to initiate joint clinical trials for Ayurveda formulations against the novel coronavirus.

Indian ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu said the vast network of institutional engagements have brought scientific communities between the two countries together in the fight against COVID-19.

Noting that there has been long standing collaboration between India and the US in the health sector, he said scientists have been working together in several programmes to understand important diseases at basic and clinical level.

According to the ambassador, there are at least three ongoing collaborations between Indian vaccine companies with US-based institutions.

“These collaborations would be beneficial not just to India and the US, but also for the billions who would need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 across the world,” he noted.

The Indo-US Science Technology Forum (IUSSTF) has been instrumental in promoting excellence in science, technology, and innovation through collaborative activities.

Odisha CM launches tech solutions for public service

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched technology driven solutions under 5T initiatives for Home and General Administration and Pension and Grievances departments.

Immediately after assuming charge for the fifth time in a row in 2019, Patnaik launched the 5T Initiative (Technology, Transparency, Teamwork and Time Leading to Transformation) model of governance.

The 5T initiative requires each department of the state government to draw up an annual work-plan for faster, better public service delivery systems leading to achieve transformational goals.

CM had launched ‘Mo Sarkar’ programme last year to make governance more people-centric.

The state government said the 5T initiative has made Odisha a model state in governance in the entire country and 105 types of services are being provided online.

The technology solutions for public service which was launched on July 8  include Bhubaneswar Land Use Intelligence System (BLUIS). 

It is a web and mobile-based solution to monitor changes in all government lands in the state capital by leveraging high resolution satellite imagery. 

CM claimed that Odisha is the first state to use space technology to safeguard government land in Bhubaneswar.

Newsmaker

Veteran actor Jagdeep passed away in Mumbai at the age of 81. Jagdeep, who acted in over 400 films, is best known for his role of Soorma Bhopali in Ramesh Sippy’s blockbuster ‘Sholay’. He was born on March 29, 1939 in Amritsar and his real name was Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jafri. He started his journey in cinema with the 1951 film ‘Afsana’.

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