India and the UK on july 21 signed an agreement to recognise each other's higher education qualifications, in a move that is in sync with a 10-year-roadmap to significantly expand overall bilateral ties.

The announcement about the pact, which is set to benefit thousands of young people in both countries, was made by the British government.

It said the two sides also signed MoUs implementing ETP commitments to create a task force to provide opportunities for Indian nurses and nursing associates seeking to train and work in the UK's National Health Service.

The UK's Department for International Trade said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on higher education will allow Indian students who graduate from British universities to apply for postgraduate qualifications or embark on government careers that require university qualifications when they return home.

The UK and India are already important destinations for each other's students.

In 2020-21, the UK received 84,555 Indian students, according to official data.

Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man and chairman of Adani Group, has now become the fourth richest person in the world, overtaking the wealth of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with an estimated wealth of $116.3 billion on july 21, as per the Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List.

Gates, who for years have held the title of being the world’s wealthiest person, slipped to fifth position in the billionaire list with an estimated wealth of $104.7 billion.

The number 1 title in the list is held by Tesla’s Elon Musk ($248.7 billion, followed by LVMH’s Bernard Arnault ($156.5 billion) and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($148.8 billion). RIL’s Mukesh Ambani was in the 10th position in the list with a fortune of $90 billion.

Adani’s rise to being one of the world’s wealthiest has been eye-catching. In just two years, his personal fortune rose from about $9 billion in 2020 to $90 billion in 2022, as per Forbes’ data. In the calendar year 2022 so far, he has possibly added more billions to his wealth than any other billionaire in the world.

The government is committed to reducing emissions from the shipping sector and all the major ports will be made fully self-sustainable on electricity by 2030, Parliament was informed on july 22.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said that to develop global standard ports in India, Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030 has identified initiatives, such as developing world-class Mega Ports, transhipment hubs and infrastructure modernisation of ports.

According to the minister, as a part of the Sagarmala Programme, more than 800 projects at an estimated cost of around Rs 5.5 lakh crore have been identified for implementation from 2015 to 2035 across all coastal states.

Further, he said under the holistic development of coastal districts, a total of 567 projects with an estimated cost of around Rs 58,000 crore have been identified.

MIV 2030 estimates the investments to the tune of Rs 1,00,000-1,25,000 crore for capacity augmentation and development of world-class infrastructure at Indian Ports, he added.

Around 1.05 crore domestic passengers travelled by air in June, approximately 12.5 per cent lower than the 1.2 crore who travelled in May, aviation regulator DGCA said on july 22.

Overall, 5.72 crore people travelled on domestic flights in the January-June period of 2022, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated in its monthly statement.

IndiGo -- India's largest carrier -- carried 59.83 lakh passengers in June, a 56.8 per cent share of the domestic market.

SpiceJet flew 10.02 lakh passengers and Go First flew 9.99 lakh passengers in June this year

Vistara, Air India, AirAsia India and Alliance Air carried 9.92 lakh, 7.83 lakh, 5.9 lakh, 1.2 lakh passengers, respectively, in June.

The occupancy rate or load factor for SpiceJet was 84.1 per cent in June

The occupancy rates for IndiGo, Vistara, Go First, Air India and AirAsia India were 78.6 per cent, 83.8 per cent, 78.7 per cent, 75.4 per cent and 75.8 per cent, respectively, in June 2022

During the last two years, the aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the Covid pandemic.

The DGCA data mentioned that in June this year, AirAsia India had the best on-time performance of 89.8 per cent at four metro airports - Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) plans to raise USD 3.8 billion through foreign currency fund mop-up in the current fiscal year under its global medium-term note (GMTN) programme.

Being a policy bank, fully owned by the union government, the bank also has a budgeted allocation of Rs 1,500 crore for the current fiscal year.

Harsha Bangari is the  Managing Director of  Exim Bank.

She said during the current fiscal year 2022-23, Exim Bank will request the government to provide from the budgeted capital depending on the requirement.

This will be under the bank's USD 10 billion GMTN programme. A medium-term note (MTN) is a bond that typically carries a maturity period of five to 10 years. This kind of bond issuance can be continuously offered by a company to investors to meet its constant cash flow requirements.

The coupon rates on MTNs are higher than those on short-term notes. In addition to that, the bank also borrows money from the market. It can either be in the form of syndicated loan arrangement or by way of bilateral arrangement, she added.

Besides, Exim Bank also has very strong relationships with the multilateral funding agencies, Bangari said

In May this year, Exim Bank inked a USD 100 million loan agreement with JBIC along with three Japanese financial institutions.

Established in 1982, Exim Bank promotes India's international trade and investment by offering Indian companies a comprehensive range of products and services with a view to enhancing their international competitiveness.

Exim Bank supports Indian exporting companies, especially medium-sized enterprises, in their globalisation efforts through a variety of lending programmes.

In 2020-21, the bank approved loans aggregating Rs 36,521 crore under various lending programmes, as against Rs 40,255 crore during 2019-20.

Besides, it sanctioned non-funded facilities aggregating Rs 6,422 crore, as against Rs 7,139 crore in FY 2019-20, comprising project guarantees, financial guarantees and letters of credit.

Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra qualified for his maiden World Championships final with a stunning first attempt throw of 88.39m in Eugene . Eugene is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon

The 24-year-old Indian, a hot favourite for a medal, opened the men's javelin throw Group A qualification round and sent his spear to 88.39m for his third career-best throw.The medal round will be held on july 24 .

Those who clear 83.50m or 12 best performers across two qualification round groups qualify for the final.

American decathlon champion Garrett Scantling is not at the world championships this week in the wake of a ban for missed doping tests.

Scantling, who finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics last year, was left off the 151-person American team when it was announced earlier this month; the fourth-place finisher at this year's nationals, Steven Bastien, was on the team. No reason was given at the time.

The U.S.Anti-Doping Agency released news that Scantling was serving a provisional suspension that began 0n july 21  "opening day for the decathlon" for a potential tampering violation that stems from Scantling's conduct during an investigation into his third potential whereabouts failure.

Athletes are required to provide their schedules to anti-doping authorities so they can send doping-control officers to administer no-notice, out-of-competition tests. The third time an athlete cannot be located over a certain period can result in a penalty.

Annu Rani, India’s top woman javelin thrower, managed to secure a place in the final of the World Athletics Championships on july 22 . The national record holder managed 59.60m in her last attempt, after a modest opener.

For a thrower whose personal and season best are a high of 63.82m,  she managed 55.35m in her second throw. His first attempt was foul. She finished fifth in the Group B qualification round and eighth overall. The automatic qualification was set at 62.50m and only three managed to clear that mark.

According to the norm, the top 12 qualify for the final. Defending champion Kelsey-Lee Barber of Australia marched into the final with a throw of 61.27m, securing the fifth spot. For Annu, this would be the second time she would have qualified for the final.