Prime Minister Narendra Modi on  july 24 held a marathon meeting with chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, and asked them to ensure saturation-level coverage of welfare schemes and boost the business environment in the country.

The meeting, which lasted for over four hours, was attended by chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of 18 states. BJP president J P Nadda was also present.

During the meeting, Modi emphasised on better implementation of some key schemes and initiatives of the government such as GatiShakti, Har Ghar Jal, Svamitva, DBT implementation and others.

Emphasising on the need to ensure ease of doing business, Modi spoke about several initiatives taken by his government.

Modi also asked the chief ministers to ensure that their states accord due importance to sports and ensure availability of the best facilities to encourage participation and engagement of youngsters in large numbers.

Union Minister Bhupender Yadav and Vinay Sahsrabuddhe, who heads the party's good governance cell, were also present in the meeting.

The chief ministers and the deputy chief ministers of 18 states where the BJP is in power on its own or in alliance with other parties held deliberations on achieving a 100 per cent target of all centrally sponsored welfare schemes and flagship programmes.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma are among those who attended the meeting.

Nagaland Chief Minister Nephio Rio, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha are also present.

Several deputy chief ministers including Maharashtra's Devendra Fadnavis and Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi from Bihar attended the meeting.

Madhya Pradesh, which is known as the 'tiger state' of India, has also earned the dubious distinction of accounting for the highest number of deaths of these majestic striped felines.

Till July 15 this year, of the total number of 74 tiger deaths registered in the country, MP alone accounted for 27 of them - highest for any state during this period, the data published by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on its website has revealed.

The centrally located state is followed on this front by Maharashtra, which registered 15 deaths during the period.

Karnataka comes next with 11 fatalities, Assam five, Kerala and Rajasthan four each, Uttar Pradesh three, Andhra Pradesh two, Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh one each, among other states, as per the NTCA figures.

According to officials, territorial fights, old age, ailments, poaching and electrocution are some of the prominent reasons for their deaths.

Madhya Pradesh had regained the coveted tag of being the 'tiger state' of the country in the 2018 census.

As per the All-India Tiger Estimation Report 2018, the state was home to 526 tigers, the highest for any state in the country.

There are six tiger reserves in the state, namely Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Satpura, Panna and Sanjay Dubri.

Of the 27 tiger deaths this year, nine were males and eight females.

In other cases, the gender of the animals was not mentioned in the data.

The deceased included adults, sub-adults and cubs.

North Korea accused the United States on  july 24 of manufacturing biological weapons in Ukraine, echoing a Russian claim dismissed by the United Nations in March.

Moscow ally Pyongyang in February said US policy was the "root cause of the Ukraine crisis", and this month formally recognised two self-proclaimed pro-Russian separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, prompting Kyiv to cut diplomatic ties with North Korea.

Washington "set up many biological labs in tens of countries and regions, including Ukraine, in disregard of the international treaties", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on july 24 , citing what it said had been "detected" by Russia.

Moscow in March accused Washington of funding research into the development of biological weapons in Ukraine, which has invaded by Russia nearly five months ago.

Washington and Kyiv denied the existence of laboratories intended to produce biological weapons in Ukraine, with the United States saying the allegations were a sign that Moscow may use such tactics itself.

Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN's Under-Secretary-General of Disarmament Affairs, also said in March that the UN "was not aware of any biological weapons program in Ukraine".

A fast-moving brush fire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size into one of California's largest wildfires of the year, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people and shutting off power to more than 2,000 homes and businesses.

The Oak Fire started on july 22 afternoon southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County and by  july  23 had grown to nearly 19 square miles (48 square kilometers), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. It erupted as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite park.

Evacuation orders were put in effect Saturday for over 6,000 people living across a several-mile span in the sparsely populated, rural area, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County due to the effects of the Oak Fire.

The chief of the World Health Organization said the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an "extraordinary" situation that now qualifies as a global emergency, a declaration  on july 23 that could spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among members of WHO's emergency committee. It was the first time the chief of the U.N. health agency has taken such an action.

WHO previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016 and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio.

The emergency declaration mostly serves as a plea to draw more global resources and attention to an outbreak

To provide respite to waterway transportation from high fuel prices, the Shipping Ministry has directed all major ports to exempt coastal shipping operations from port and vessel charges for the next six months with immediate effect.

Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) Sarbananda Sonowal has also asked the state governments to lower VAT on diesel used by the shipping sector.

The cost of marine fuel 'Low Sulphur High Flash High-Speed Diesel' (LSHFHSD) has increased from Rs 76,000 per kilolitre to Rs 1,21,000 per kilolitre.

Similarly, the cost of 'Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil' (VLSFO) has increased from Rs 40,608/KL to Rs 80,917/KL.

At the beginning of FY 2021-22 the cost of marine fuel- LSHFHSD used to be 10-15 per cent less than retail diesel-HSD (high-speed diesel). Hence, effectively the rise is more than 40 per cent.

MoPSW also requested MoPNG and MoF to reduce the rates and taxes on fuel to ferries " In this regard, he had also written letters to Union Finance and Corporate Affairs minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, highlighting this issue and requested them to extend their support for this sector by reducing taxes and price of the fuel respectively.

The marine fuel prices inclusive of taxes have cascading effect on the full value chain of the mass surface water transport system and ecosystem, the burden of which the ferry operators cannot pass on to the common public who has the option of using other government subsidized public transport system of rail or road.

These operational hurdles will ultimately act as a stumbling block in establishing this budding ecosystem of surface water transportation in the country. The MoPSW is promoting the Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax/Ferry waterway transportation which has lower emissions compared to other modes of transport for the same amount of cargo.

Also, there is a significant time and cost saving compared to the traditional transportation modes, adding that concurrently traffic congestion on road/railways, noise pollution and accidents on the roads may also get reduced.

Such a water-based transportation service is an effective measure to lower the logistics costs, reducing travel time and promoting coastal shipping on several feasible routes.

The Ro-Pax services implemented by Deendayal Port Authority between Ghogha and Hazira under Sagarmala Programme have reduced travel time from 12 hrs to 4 hrs. This Ro-Pax ferry service has carried over 78,000 vehicles and more than 2.6 lakh passengers since its inception.

India's second-largest IT services firm Infosys reported a lower-than-estimated 3.2 per cent rise in June quarter net profit as operating margin declined on rising expenses. Net profit is at Rs 5,360 crore, or Rs 12.78 a share, compared with Rs 5,195 crore, or Rs 12.24 per share, in the same period a year back. Sequentially, the profit declined 5.7 per cent from Rs 5,686 crore in the January-March quarter.

Revenue or turnover rose 23.6 per cent to Rs 34,470 crore in April-June - the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Infosys raised its full-year FY23 (April 2022 to March 2023) revenue guidance to 14-16 per cent against 13-15 per cent it had projected earlier, backed by Q1 growth, and a strong demand outlook.

Operating margin declined to 20.1 per cent in the first quarter of the current 2022-23 fiscal when compared with a 23.7 per cent margin in April-June 2021 and 21.5 per cent in January-March. Operating expenses rose 14.4 per cent, most as selling and marketing costs went up.

While revenue rose 6.8 per cent sequentially, EBIT at Rs 6,914 crore was lower than estimates. The street was expecting a 5.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent year-on-year growth in its consolidated net profit. Sequentially, analysts had expected a drop in earnings but by less than a per cent.

Celebrations broke out in Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra's village in Panipat on july 24 after he won a landmark silver medal in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, USA.

Son of a farmer from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana, the 24-year-old Chopra became only the second Indian and first male track and field athlete to win a medal at the showpiece.

The javelin thrower's father Satish Chopra referred to long jumper Anju Bobby George being the first Indian to win a medal -- bronze -- in the World Championships nearly two decades ago.