1. July 1, 2018 — Mr. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was elected President of Mexico on July 1, 2018, in a landslide victory that upended the nation's political establishment and handed him a sweeping mandate to reshape the country. Mr. Lopez Obrador,64 years old man, won the largest election in Mexican history, with some 3,400 federal, state and local races contested in all. He won by capturing more than half the votes, higher than any candidate since the nation began its transition to democracy nearly 20 years ago.
2. July 3, 2018 — Major General Jose Eladio Alcain of Uruguay was appointed as the Head of Mission and Chief Military Observer for the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), on July 3, 2018. The United Nations Secretary General Mr. Antonio Guterres announced his appointment .
3. July 9, 2018 — Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel has been appointed Chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on July 9, 2018 for a term of five years after retiring from the Supreme Court of India . The post of the NGT Chairperson had been lying vacant for more than six months after the retirement of Justice Swatanter Kumar on December 20, 2017. Following Justice Kumar's retirement, Justice Umesh Dattatreya Salvi was appointed as the acting Chairperson of the NGT. After Mr. Salvi's retirement, Justice Jawad Rahim was appointed as the acting Chairperson.
4. July 12, 2018 — The 12 boys of Thailand's 'The 12 Wild Boars' Football team and their coach were rescued from the flooded Tham Luang Nang Non Cave in northern Thailand on July 12, 2018, after being trapped for 18 days, bringing an end to the ordeal that prompted a huge international rescue effort. The rescue operation that began as a local search for the missing but turned into a complex mission, involving hundreds of experts who flew in from around the world to help. The 12 young footballers, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach got trapped on June 23, 2018 while exploring the Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province of northern Thailand after soccer practice and a rainy season downpour flooded the tunnel. The boys were found inside the cave by British rescue divers about 4 km from the cave mouth. Thirteen foreign cave diving experts and five Thai Navy rescuers conducted the rescue operation that lasted four days.
5. July 15, 2018 — Prominent Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam has been selected for this year's Sangita Kalanidhi Award 2018 on July 15, 2018. She is known for her collaborative exercise in music with artistes of other countries and genres. The award will be conferred on her on January 1, 2019.
6. July 15, 2018 — Dr. T. C .A. Raghavan was appointed as the Director-General (DG), ex officio member-Secretary of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) by President of ICWA, Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu on July 15, 2018. The post of DG is equivalent to the rank of Secretary to Government of India. Dr. T.C.A. Raghavan has served as India's High Commissioner to Islamabad and Singapore besides serving in India's missions at London, Thimphu, and Kuwait.
7. July 16, 2018 — US President Mr. Donald Trump held first-ever one-to-one talks with Russian President Mr. Vladimir Putin on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. The historic summit opened with Mr. Trump promising an 'extraordinary relationship' and Mr. Putin saying that it was high time to thrash out disputes around the world. Mr. Putin stated that the Cold War was a thing of the past and today both Russia and the US face a whole new set of challenges. Mr. Trump said that the US relationship with Russia had "never been worse" than it was "until four hours ago," just before the two spoke. Helsinki is known for hosting many international summits between Russia and the US since the Cold War days and has acted as a bridge between the Communists and the West.
8. July 17, 2018 — Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe was reappointed as the Chairman of the technical and professional education regulator All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on July 17, 2018. Prof. Sahasrabudhe was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at IIT- Guwahati, and joined All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) as Chairman on July 17, 2015. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the renewal of appointment of Prof. Sahasrabudhe till he attains the age of 65 years.
9. July 19, 2018 — Mr. Arman Ali was appointed as Executive Director of The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) on July 19, 2018. He would assume charge from October 1, 2018. Disability rights activist Mr. Javed Abidi, who was the Director of the NCPEDP, had passed away on March 4, 2018. Mr. Ali is the Executive Director of Shishu Sarothi, the Centre for Rehabilitation and Training for Multiple Disability since 2009.
10. July 21, 2018 — The GST Council in its 28th meeting held under the Chairmanship of Mr. Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Railways, Coal, Finance & Corporate Affairs, reduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates on various goods and rationalised the rates on various services, on July 21, 2018. Some items like Sanitary Napkins, Rakhi, Stone/Marble/ Wood Deities etc. have been totally exempted from GST. The GST Council also announced exemptions and changes in GST rates on various services in sectors like agriculture, education and social security. Now, only 35 items are left in the 28 percent GST slab.
11. July 21, 2018 — Five students from India bagged gold medals at the 49th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO 2018) in Lisbon, Portugal, between July 21 and 28, 2018. This is India's best ever performance in the IPhO in 21 years of participation. Lay Jain, Pawan Goyal, Bhaskar Gupta, Nishant Abhangi and Siddhartha Tiwari bagged gold for India. India and China topped the medals tally with five golds each among 86 countries that participated. According to a statement from Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE)—the national centre of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which is the nodal centre in the country for all science Olympiads, a total of 396 students from across the world took part in the Olympiad.
12. July 26, 2018 — The NITI Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission and MyGov.in platform jointly launched the 'InnovateIndia Platform' on July 26, 2018, a collaboration between both the platforms by Mr. R. Ramanan, Mission Director of Atal Innovation Mission and Mr. Arvind Gupta, CEO of MyGov.in . The InnovateIndia portal will serve as the common point for all the innovations happening across the nation. This platform is open to all Indian citizens. The users can view, comment, share and rate the innovations crowd sourced on the InnovateIndia platform.
13. July 26, 2018 — India celebrated the 19th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas on July 26, 2018 to mark the success of 'Operation Vijay' and to remember the supreme sacrifice of the Indian soldiers who lost their lives during the 1999 India-Pakistan Kargil War. Defence Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman paid homage to the martyrs on Kargil Vijay Diwas at Amar Jawan Jyoti in New Delhi. Armed Forces personnel and families of soldiers, who lost their lives in 1999 Kargil War, paid their tributes at the Dras War Memorial in Jammu and Kashmir to commemorate the historic win. The memorial was fully lit on the eve of the day. To mark the day, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi took to Twitter and praised the exemplary courage and sacrifices made by the Kargil War martyrs and acknowledged the leadership of the then PM Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the success of Operation Vijay.
14. July 26, 2018 — The National Green Tribunal (NGT) formed a monitoring committee on the cleaning of the Yamuna River on July 26, 2018. The tribunal headed by National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson Mr. Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the committee to develop an action plan and submit it by September 2018 and a detailed report on the issue by December 31, 2018. The green panel has appointed retired expert member Mr. B. S. Sajwan and former Delhi Chief Secretary Ms. Shailaja Chandra as members of the committee. The NGT has asked the State governments of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to assist the committee on Yamuna rejuvenation. The tribunal directed the authorities to take strict action against the encroachments on the Yamuna floodplains.
15. July 26, 2018 — Two Indians, namely, Dr. Bharat Vatwani and Mr. Sonam Wangchuk, won the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2018, the Asian version of the Nobel Prize, on July 26, 2018. Dr. Bharat Vatwani is a psychiatrist who works for the mentally-ill street persons, while Mr. Sonam Wangchuk works to harness science and culture creatively for economic progress that has improved the lives of the Ladakhi youth. Dr. Vatwani and Mr. Wangchuk are among the six individuals who were declared as the winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2018. The other winners are Mr. Youk Chhang from Cambodia, Ms. Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz from East Timor, Mr. Howard Dee from the Philippines and Ms. Vo Thi Hoang Yen from Vietnam.
16. August 1, 2018 — Indian-origin Mathematician Mr. Akshay Venkatesh of 36 years old, of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, won Fields Medal 2018 at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro on August 1, 2018. The other Fields medalists of 2018 are Mr. Caucher Birkar of 40 years old, of the University of Cambridge in England; Mr. Alessio Figalli of 34 years old, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich; and Mr. Peter Scholze of 30 years old ,a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Bonn. Mr. Peter Scholze is the youngest ever to receive the coveted award. The award is considered to be the Nobel Prize of Mathematics.
Anniversaries & Days :-
Teachers' Day (India) : September 5
World Literacy Day : September 8
World First Aid Day : Second Saturday of September
Hindi Day (India) : September 14
Engineers' Day (India) : September 15
Ozone Day : September 16
International Day of Peace : September 21
World Deaf Day : Last Sunday of September
World Tourism Day : September 27
World Maritime Day : September 27
World Rabies Day : September 28
World Heart Day : September 29
—The Book 'The Dhoni Touch' is authored by Mr. Bharat Sundaresan who is a sports journalist and an Associate Editor at Indian Express.