Chinese scientists will perform the world’s first genetic editing trial on humans this month, in an attempt to find a cure for lung cancer.   A group of oncologist at the West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, will inject patients with cells that have been modified using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique, state-run Xinhua.  CRISPR is a collection of DNA sequences that direct Cas9 where to cut and paste.

American journalist Stephanie Pearson's feature on Kerala "The Great Heaven" has won India's National Tourism Award for travel writing.  Pearson's travel feature is a snapshot on Kerala's rollicking palm-fringed beaches, gorgeous topography, serene spirituality and hospitality.  Pearson, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, won the award for Best Foreign Journalist for India. Her travel feature had appeared in the Outside Magazine.

The BCCI bigwigs insist that the appointment of Justice (Retd) Markandey Katju as the head of the four-member panel to interact with the Lodha Committee is nothing confrontational. “Even the Supreme Court spoke about the complexities of the whole affair in its order regarding the implementation of the Lodha Committee recommendations.

Vivek Teja became the World Karate Champion (All Styles) at the Martial Arts World Championships in Sydney, Australia today. Vivek, an international martial artist first got the better of James Chatfield, a karate specialist from New Zealand. In the next round, he went on to defeat Anthony Raiyas, a kickboxer from England and eventually beat taekwondo star from Australia, Matthew Rose in the final.

Australia’s oldest Olympian dies, aged 95.  Carlile was a Helsinki 1952 competitor and coach of Shane Gould.  Carlile first coached the Australian swimming team at the London Olympics in 1948, before competing in the modern pentathlon himself in Helsinki in 1952.

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has given clean chit to Indian wrestler Narsingh Yadav in the doping case.   NADA disciplinary panel exonerated him from charges of violating anti-doping rules of NADA

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has won the Rogers Cup in Montreal.   She defeated Madison Keys (7-6, 6-3)  in the final of Rogers Cup.   She improved her career record against Keys to 3-1, having beaten the American over three sets in their most recent meeting at Wimbledon last month.

World No.1 men’s singles tennis player Novak Djokovic has won fourth Rogers Cup championship.   He defeated Kei Nishikori (6-3, 7-5 ) in the final for his 66th career title.  The events alternate from year to year between the cities of Montreal and Toronto.

Senior IAS officer of West Bengal cadre Bhaskar Khulbe (1983-batch) has been appointed as secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.   The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved his appointment.   Earlier, He was Additional Secretary in Prime Minister’s Office.   He will look after work related to Cabinet Secretariat and thrust areas of the government.

ICICI Bank has announced 0.05% reduction in its marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR).  The overnight Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) will be 8.90% under the revised rate structure which is effective from today.    The one-year MCLR has moved down to 9.10%.

Indian-American Professor Emeritus of Linguistics Braj B Kachru (84- year) has passed away in Urbana.  He was a Jubilee Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Odisha government has decided to recruit transgender persons as jail warders as per the directive of the Supreme Court.  A letter to this effect has been sent to the Odisha Subordinate Staff Selection Commission to take necessary steps in this regard.  First time the state government will mention the third gender as a separate category in any of the recruitment process.

India will host a global summit scheduled from November 7th to 12th at the Indian Exposition Mart in Noida  to eliminate the illicit trade of tobacco products in which around 180 countries delegates will participate. This will be the 7th session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control .

The 7th meeting of SAARC Immigration Authorities meeting has begun in Islamabad (Pakistan).  Pakistan’s Director General (DG) Immigration and Passports Usman A. Bajwa has been unanimously elected as Chairman.  The meeting will formulate recommendations to be presented in the meetings of Home Secretaries and Interior Ministers during the conference.

Luke Aikins, a skydiver with 18000 jumps, on 30 July 2016 jumped from 25000 feet (7620 meters) without a parachute or a wingsuit.  With this he became the first man in the world history to dive from mid-tropospheric altitude and land safely without a parachute or a wing suit or anything else that might helped him stop or slow his descent.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to rename the Madras High Court as the Tamil Nadu High Court.  The resolution on the matter was moved by Chief Minister J Jayalalitha as most of the High Courts established after the formation of new states based on linguistic lines have been named after the states only. This resolution was presented in light of the High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016, which was introduced in Lok Sabha on 19 July 2016.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Mobile payments company MobiKwik will power e-cash payments on IRCTC’s e-catering app, Food on Track.  This app will allow passengers to book and get food from their preferred restaurants and delivered right at their train coaches.

Senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Rani Singh Nair  took over as the new chairperson of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). Central Board of Direct Taxes  is the policy-making body of the I-T department under the Union Finance Ministry.

Australian cricket team Coach Darren Lehmann (46-year) will continue as head coach of Australia until October 2019.   He has received a two-year contract extension.  He is a former Australian cricketer, he made his ODI debut in 1996 and Test debut in 1998.

The Patna Pirates have won the fourth edition of STAR Sports-Pro Kabaddi League by defeating Jaipur Pink Panthers in the final match played at Hyderabad.  Patna Pirates (champions of season-3) has became the only team to lift the trophy twice in the tournament’s history of four editions.  The Puneri Paltan was placed at the third place in this edition after they defeated Telugu Titans.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is considering changing the way it classifies transgender identity.  It came following calls from researchers and advocates to remove it from the WHO's list of mental disorders.  The study was led by the National Institute of Psychiatry in Mexico.

The government's collections under the Sovereign Gold Bond scheme realised through the fourth tranche reached around Rs. 919 crore, the highest achieved yet.   With issue price fixed at Rs. 3,119 per gram, the amount was mobilised through over 1.95 lakh applications representing around 2.95 tonnes of gold.    The SGB scheme was launched as an alternative to keeping physical gold.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has signed an agreement with private sector lender Axis Bank as its bancassurance partner where in the bank will distribute LIC’s products to its customers.  In the first phase, bank will distribute LIC’s life insurance products across its branches in West Bengal, Bangalore and Haryana.

Pulitzer Prize winner author James Alan McPherson (72-year) has passed away.  He was an American short story writer and essayist.  James’s anthology Elbow Room won the Pulitzer for fiction in the year 1978.

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu laid foundation stone for construction of a new Railway Station at Imphal . 
According to Mr. Prabhu ,the project will require about 90 thousand crore rupees.

The Haryana state Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister OP Dhankar has launched ‘Pashudhan Bima Yojana’ in the State at a function in Jhajjar.  Dhankar has also presented documents of the Pashudhan Bima Yojana to cattle breeders and urged them to take maximum benefit of this scheme.

The Mohun Bagan FC has conferred Mohun Bagan Ratna to the legendary Indian Footballer Syed Nayeemuddin.   He became 16th recipient of this prestigious award.  Nayeemuddin had captained the Indian national football team which had won the bronze medal at the 1970 Asian Games.

Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale was sworn in as the new chief justice of Allahabad High Court.  The oath of office was administered by Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik.  Prior to his appointment Chief Justice Bhosale was serving as acting chief justice of high court of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Skydiver Luke Aikins, 42, became the first to jump from a height of 25,000 feet without a parachute, landing in a net in southern California.  He has completed the jump in Simi Valley, west of Los Angeles.

Business software maker Oracle has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire NetSuite, the very first cloud company. The transaction is valued at $9.3 billion .  The deal would help Oracle gain market share in the fast-growing cloud computing business.

The book based on the script of the play 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' launched today globally. This is JK Rowling’s eighth Harry Potter story written along with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. Thorne scripted the two-part play based on the original story, which begins 19 years after 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows', which was published in 2007.

Kerala Tourism has bagged six National Tourism awards for 2014-15 in the marketing category for states. It received two more awards, including the one for its Responsible Tourism (RT) initiative in Wayanad.   Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan presented the awards to Principal Secretary Venu V and Director U V Jose in the presence of Union Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma at a function at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.

Yahoo researchers have developed a new online abuse detecting algorithm. Most current abuse filters use a combination of blacklisted terms or expressions to catch hate speech online, but the new method applies machine learning as well.

Centre has decided to organise a Make in India conference in Bhubaneswar in December this year. 

The conference would be organised by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to attract investment in the state as well as the country.

The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) announced the recipient of this year’s AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award on 29 July 2016  as Srinivasan K Swamy popularly known as Sundar Swamy.  This Award is the highest honour to be given to an individual in India for his/her outstanding contribution to the Advertising Industry. This award was instituted in 1988 by AAAI and so far 23 persons have been bestowed with it earlier.

Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has initiated the first phase of its new enterprise portal to facilitate accurate and timely circulation of information to internal and external stakeholders.  The portal, developed by IT firm Tech Mahindra, provides an e-platform to registered and prospective intermediaries to interact in a secure, transparent, and paperless manner with SEBI.

Haryana Government on 29 July 2016 launched Pashudhan Bima Yojana in Jhajjar. The Yojna was launched by the state’s Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister, O P Dhankar.   The Yojna was started in accordance to the recommendations made in Swaminathan Report.

Government hospitals and other facilities will provide free medical care to needy pregnant women in the country.

On 9th day of every month pregnant woman will be checked and given free medical aid.   He also emphasised the need to embrace new technology, saying that the "future is going to be technology driven". Further, Modi invited public suggestions for his August 15 Independence day speech.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has flagged off the Run for Rio event in New Delhi to celebrate the Olympic mood in the country.   The mass run was announced by the Sports Minister Vijay Goel at a press conference.  Around 20,000 school children participated in the event, which commenced from Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in Delhi.