🌍 1. ASI’s Global Meet: Deciphering the Indus Script

📅 Aug 20–22, 2025 • Greater Noida – Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya Institute of Archaeology

✨ Why it matters

• The Indus script, dating to 2500–1900 BCE, remains undeciphered despite over 1,000 attempts—making it one of history’s deepest puzzles.
• ASI, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, is soliciting global papers until June 30, 2025, and offering hybrid attendance options.

🔍 New Tech & Research

• A recent thesis (Mar 2025) found that Indus signs visually align more closely with Tibetan‑Yi scripts (~62% similarity) than with Proto-Cuneiform.
• Deep learning tools are now being used to convert seal images into grapheme corpora—yielding ~92% accuracy on common signs.

📱 2. Bihar’s Trailblazing Mobile E-Voting Pilot

📅 Launch: June 28, 2025 • Pilot for urban local polls

🧠 How it works

• Two Android apps:
• e‑Voting SECBHR by C‑DAC
• A custom Bihar State Election Commission app.
• Target users: ~50,000 voters, including migrant workers, seniors, PWDs, and women .
• Security: blockchain ledger, liveness checks, live face match, full audit trails .

🔍 Global Comparisons

• Voatz (USA) uses similar blockchain + biometrics, augmented with paper trails .
• Indian pilot: precedes earlier AI‑facial rollouts in Bihar elections.

🛡️ 3. Rajnath Singh at SCO Defence Ministers’ Meet

📅 June 25–27, 2025 • Qingdao, China

🔍 Diplomatic Landscape

• This visit marks a thaw—first high-level India–China defence engagement since the Rafale deal and LAC standoff .
• Topics: defence cooperation, cross-border peace, and SCO’s Regional Anti-Terror Structure (RATS)—which targets terrorism, cybercrime, and extremism.

🚀 4. Jahnavi Dangeti: India's Emerging Astronaut

ASCAN – Titans Space Astronaut Class of 2025

Mission Goal: 2029 orbital flight led by veteran NASA astronaut William McArthur Jr.

✨ Who she is

• From Andhra Pradesh, part of a global cohort of 20 selected for space training.
• Active in ISSRA, NASA, and ISRO workshops; analog astronaut training; served as campus ambassador.

🛠️ Training Ahead

• Timeline (2026–2029): zero‑g flights, spacecraft systems, biomedical prep, emergency simulations led by retired astronaut McArthur .

⛳ 5. Avani Prashanth in Belgium – Golf Sensation

Ladies European Tour – Hulencourt Women’s Open (Genappe, Belgium)

⛳ Tournament Breakdown

• R1: 68 (‑4), R2: 69 (‑3) → 7‑under → tied 2nd.
• R3: 69 (‑3), claimed sole lead at ‑10.
• R4: 75, slipped but finished T‑5, her best professional finish at 7‑under.
• Highlights: hot putting, seven birdies, minor slip-ups.