Australia clinch sixth Women’s T20 World Cup title

• The Australian women’s team won their sixth T20 World Cup trophy with a comfortable 19-run win over South Africa in the summit clash in Cape Town.

• Australia won the toss and elected to bat. Beth Mooney struck a match-winning unbeaten 74 as Australia first posted a competitive 156 for 6.

• The home side struggled to keep up with the rate from the start and were restricted to 137 for six in reply. Laura Wolvaardt made a superb 61 for South Africa but there was too little support around her.

• Australia’s previous victories came in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018 and 2020.

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Hari Balakrishnan wins 2023 Marconi Prize

• The 2023 Marconi Prize has been awarded to Hari Balakrishnan, the Fujitsu Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also the founder of Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT).

• The Marconi Prize is the flagship award of the Marconi Society, given annually to innovators who have made significant contributions to increasing digital inclusivity through the advancement of information and communications technology. Marconi Prize recipients are recommended by an independent selection committee and approved by the Marconi Society Board.

• Previous winners of the Marconi Prize include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke.

• By focusing his research on the application of technology to solve large societal problems, Balakrishnan’s work has made millions of people safer and has made the Internet and wireless communications more efficient and robust, the Marconi Society said.

• With a mission to make the world’s roads and drivers safer, CMT helps millions of people around the world drive more carefully and reduces road crashes.

• Balakrishnan received his B.Tech degree from IIT Madras and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. His graduate work at Berkeley won the 1998 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award.

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Karnataka to get India’s first marina to promote coastal tourism

• To promote coastal tourism in Karnataka, the country’s first marina will be constructed at Byndoor in Udupi district, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said. 

• After seeking permission from the Union government for the relaxation of Coastal Regulation Zone rules, it is proposed to take up beach tourism in coastal areas and pilgrim tourism.

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Kerala, UN Women sign pact to boost women-friendly activities in tourism

• The Kerala government entered into an agreement with the United Nations (UN) Women to boost women-friendly activities in the state’s tourism sector.

• A memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Kerala Tourism and UN Women India agreed to work towards promoting gender-inclusive tourism sites in the State. Both parties will promote women-friendly tourism in Kerala.

• This will be done by creating modules and capacity-building of relevant stakeholders, besides providing advisory support for baseline research, implementing women-friendly tourist destinations and supporting interventions to change prevalent discriminatory social norms.

What is the role of UN Women?

• In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the UN entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women. 

• The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. 

It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment:

i) Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)

ii) International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)

iii) Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI)

iv) United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

The main roles of UN Women are:

• To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms.

• To help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with civil society.

• To hold the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.

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