Who raise 173 cr from Belgium's Advent Management?

India and Sweden have recently launched the India-Sweden Collaborative Industrial Research and Development Programme on the occasion of the Sweden-India Innovation Partnership AI for All Summit in New Delhi. The programme will address a range of global challenges through technology and innovation. The Joint programme is co-funded by Indian Department of Science & Technology (DST) and Sweden's Innovation Agency - Vinnova. The new programme brings together the world class excellence of Sweden and India to address challenges in the area of Smart Cities and Clean Technologies and Digitalization / Internet of Things (IoT). Vinnova will provide funding to Swedish side participants upto 2,500,000 Swedish Krona as grant. On the Indian side, conditional grant of upto 50% with a limit of INR 1.5 crores per project to Indian project partners to be provided. This Programme is technically and administratively managed by the Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) on behalf of DST in India and Vinnova in Sweden.

The Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) of the US Chambers of Commerce has recently released its International IP Index for Year 2019. In it, India has moved up 8 places to rank 36th among 50 economies in the 2019 Index.The improvement reflects important reforms implemented by Indian policymakers towards building and sustaining an innovation ecosystem for domestic entrepreneurs and foreign investors alike. The report also focuses on thorny issues. According to the report, the key problems in India include barriers to licensing and technology transfer, strict registration requirements, limited framework for the protection of bio-pharmaceutical IP rights, patentability requirements outside international standards, lengthy pre-grant opposition proceedings and previously used compulsory licensing for commercial and non-emergency situations. The index ranks countries based on 45 indicators covering patent, trademark, copyright and trade secrets protection.

Australian cities Sydney and Brisbane have been announced as the first two host locations for the newest team event in men's tennis for the multi-million dollar ATP Cup from 2020. The third Australian city for the tournament is yet to be determined.

External Affairs Minister SushmaSwaraj inaugurates the 8th HoM conference in New Delhi and Releases a booklet 'India surging ahead' on successful economic diplomacy. The four-day annual conclave is also expected to discuss major developments globally and how India should mould its policy to deal with them.

US regulator Federation of Aviation Administration (FAA) retained the highest aviation safety ranking for India. According to FAA, India's International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) rating remains 'Category 1'. This ranking was based on an audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in July 2018.

Google announced 'Pie' as the name for the latest version of the Android operating system, succeeding Android Oreo. The Android P or 'Pie' version has begun rolling out to Pixel phones and will be available to other devices later this year.

India's latest communication satellite GSAT-31 was successfully launched by European launch services provider- Arianespace's rocket from Kourou Launch Base in French Guiana on February 6, 2019. The Ariane-5 vehicle (Flight VA247) also carried Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1/Hellas Sat 4 along with GSAT-31.

Indian film "Halkaa" has won the 'Grand Prix de Montreal' award at the 21st Festival International du Film Pour Enfants de Montreal Film (FIFEM). "Halkaa" was directed by Nila Madhab Panda. Child actor Tathastu has acted as Pichku, the lead role. "Halkaa" was selected among seven international children's films in the official competition of the festival held from 8th to 11th March 2018.

Marathi movie 'Dhappa' bagged the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Film on National Integration, while 'Ladhakh' was declared the Best Regional Film at the 65th National Film Awards. Apart from this, Malayalam Movie 'Aaalorukkam', directed by V.C.Abhilash, was awarded the Best Film on Social Issues. Jayaraj was awarded the Best Direction in the Feature Film category for the movie 'Bhayanakam' and Nagraj Manjule won the award for the Best Direction in the Non Feature Film Category.