• Senior Akali leader Shri Gurcharan Singh Tohra will be the new president of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee.
• Another bus service, connecting Agartala with Dhaka is all set to be launched in the first week of August on the lines of Dhaka-Kolkata and Delhi-Lahore bus services.
• Government announced a Rs.2, 500 crore relief to farmers drastically reducing interest rates to 9 per cent on crop loans of up to Rs.50,000.

• Eminent Gujarati poet Shri Rajendra Keshavlal Shah has been chosen for the prestigious Jnanpith award for 2001.
• Centre announced a one time financial package of Rs.600 crore to sugarcane farmers. The relief is to be distributed through sugarcane development fund.
• The appointments committee of the Union Cabinet has cleared the name of Y. Venugopal Reddy as the next Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
• President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam called on teachers to inculcate spirit of inquiry and encourage entrepreneurial and moral leadership among children to create a new India.

• A Portuguese court has turned down India’s request to extradite Monica Bedi, the companion of underworld don Abu Salem.

• A World Bank review says that India continue to make impressive progress in increasing incomes and improving living standards in the past decade.
• In an attempt to preempt any untoward incident in Nagaland, the Centre and the NSCN (I-M) decided to strictly observe the ceasefire ground rules which have been in force over the past few years.

• Seven devotees were killed and 38 injured in two grenade explosions at Ban Ganga near Katra in Jammu en route Vaishno Devi shrine.

• In Jammu and Kashmir, Fidayeen terrorists killed eight Army personnel, including a Brigadier in an attack on Army camp at Tanda near Akhnoor.

• Supreme Court has suggested that Parliament frame a common civil code for the country to help national integration.

• Supreme Court ruled that medical and dental colleges across the country would have to admit students under the 15 per cent central quota.
• As a gesture of friendship, India announced that it would bear the cost of travel, stay and medical treatment of 20 Pakistani children.
• Two years after the Agra summit, India and Pakistan renewed normal contact at the level of Minister when the new Pakistani High Commissioner, Mr. Aziz Ahmad Khan called on the External Affairs Minister Shri Yashwant Sinha.

• The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre on a petition questioning its controversial decision to disinvest equity shares in the HPCL and the BPCL.

• The Mukut Mithi’s Congress Government in Arunachal Pradesh was reduced to a minority. 31 of the 58 MLAs, including 17 ministers quit the party to align with former chief minister Ggong Apang and formed the United Democratic Front.
• Prime Minister Shri Atal Beahari Vajpayee has announced that the rate of interest on agricultural loans up to Rs.2 lakh will now be below the prime landing rates of the banks.

• Noted comedian of yesteryears Johny Walker passed away in Mumbai after a prolonged illness. He was 79.
• India ruled out importing natural gas from Iran through on-land pipeline passing through Pakistan.
• India’s efforts to secure a share in Iraqi crude oil have hit following Indian Oil Corp. failing to get entry visas in time for sending its officials to Baghdad.

• The Chief Election Commissioner, Mr. J. M. Lyngdoh, and the social worker Ms. Shanta Sinha are among seven persons to be honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay Award this year.
• The Supreme Court upheld the two-child norm envisaged in the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act for candidates to become a Sarpanch or a Up-sarpanch of a Gram Panchayat.

• Mahant Ramchandradas Paramhans, president of the Ramjanmbhoomi Nyas died in Ayodhya. He was 90.
• National Human Rights Commission has expressed deep concern at the acquittal of the accused in the Best Bakery case relating to Gujarat riots of last year. The Commission moved the Supreme Court seeking fresh investigation of the case by an independent agency and re-trial by a competent court outside Gujarat.
• The Union Cabinet approved the NABARD (Amendment) Bill, 2003 that will make available crop loans to farmers at 9 per cent interest rate as against the prevailing rates of 14 to 16 per cent.

• Pakistan agreed to hold talks with India on the resumption of air links.

• Author Vikram Seth has received an estimated 1.3 million pounds advance, the largest ever paid for a literary, non-fiction title, for a memoir he is now writing about his uncle.

• The British Government’s defence advisor David Kelly, suspected to be a source behind BBC’s report that the Blair Government has "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq’s weapon capabilities, was found dead, four days after he was grilled by the foreign affairs committee on the issue.
• Pakistan Government has revoked the passport of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Amanullah Khan and banned him from leaving the country.
• India-born American editor Fareed Zakaria has been named to a new US advisory group on public diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim world.

• An anti-terrorist court in Islamabad has declared the former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif a proclaimed offender.

• Steve Waugh became the Test cricket’s most successful skipper. He won his 37^th match in 50 tests as a captain a day after making his 31at Test century to guide Australia to victory over Bangladesh in the first test.

• Jaffrey Archer, writer of pulp fiction and former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party was released from jail in London after serving two year sentence for prejury and perverting the course of justice.
• The US President Mr. George W Bush accused Syria and Iran of supporting terrorists that undermined West Asia peace process.

• The US military had confirmed that the two sons of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Qusay and Uday, had been killed in a gun-battle in northern Iraq.

• Pakistan has agreed in principle to restore rail and air links with India.
• Wipro chief Mr. Azim Premji is amongst Fortune magazine’s list of 25 most powerful business leaders outside the US.

• East Bengal advanced to the final of the ASEAN club football championship piping Indonesian league champions Petrokimia Putra 8-7 via sudden death in Jakarta.

• David kelly, scientific advisor to the British Defence Ministry whose recent suicide had jolted the Blair Government severely, has been nominated for the Noble Peace Prize for his work in Iraq.

• East Bengal became the first Indian club to win an international tournament on foreign soil. They beat Thailand’s BEC Tero Sasana 3-1 to lift the ASEAN Club championship in Jakarta.
• Journalist-turned diplomat Maleeha Lodhi has been appointed Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

• Pakistan Foreign Minister Mr. Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri has said his country can’t assure that it will stop cross-border terrorism into India. He said Pakistan could influence the extremists once bilateral talks begin.
• Australian cricketer Steve Waugh moved to second place on the all-time list of Test centurions, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar. Sunil Gavaskar is still at the top with 34 tons.

• Austrian Parachuter Felix Baumgartner became the first human to fly across the English Channel without the help of an aircraft.

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