The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has appointed Sanjay Ubale as policy director in its India office.

Sanjay Ubale, who has spent over a decade at Tata Group, was previously the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tata Realty & Infrastructure.

In his new Job, Ubale will oversee the Seattle-based charity's healthcare, poverty alleviation, and educational activities in the country.

The Gates Foundation, the world's biggest private charity, has an endowment of $50.7 billion, according to its website.

An-18-year-old girl from Nepal, Bandana set a Guinness World Records on 'Longest Dancing Marathon by an Individual'.

She sets a world record by dancing for 126 hours. That's 5.25 days!

Bandana is a resident of Dhankuta district in eastern Nepal.

She beat the record set by India's Kalamandalam Hemlatha, who danced continuously for 123 hours and 15 minutes in 2011.

About Nepal

Capital - Kathmandu

Currency - Nepalese rupee

Prime Minister - KP Sharma Oli

India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) Sherpas meeting was held in Cochin, Kerala. Before, IBSA Sherpas meeting, the 9th IBSA trilateral Ministerial Meeting was also concluded at the same venue.

Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr. T.S. Tirumurti led the Indian delegation.

Norberto Moretti, Sherpa of Brazil and Prof. Anil Sooklal, Sherpa of South Africa led their respective delegation at the meeting.

Sherpas reviewed the progress made under IBSA, since their last meeting. The Sherpas also appreciated the work done by the IBSA fund on Poverty and Hunger Alleviation which funded 31 projects spread over in 20 countries.

IBSA Academic Forum met in Cochin and presented their recommendation to the Sherpas. They also appreciated the ongoing IBSA Fellowship Programme at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) which was launched at India's initiative in 2017.

About Brazil

Capital - Brasilia

Currency - Brazilian Real

About South Africa

Capital - Cape Town, Pretoria, Bloemfontein

Currency - South Africa Rand

The Volleyball Federation of India appointed Serbian Dragan Mihailovic as head coach of the men's national team in a move linked to the long term goal of Olympic Games qualification.

Mihailovic has more than 25 years of experience as a coach and has won several medals as an assistant coach with Serbia at the World Championships, European Championships as well as Olympics.

The VFI also announced the appointment of Pryemyslaw Gaszyoski and Vladimir Radosevic as the team's physio trainer and physiotherapist respectively.  All the three have been appointed for five months and will work with the team for the Asian Championships scheduled to be held in Iran during September 2019.

About Volleyball Federation of India

President - S Vasudevan

Founded - 1951

Headquarters - Bengaluru

Indian-origin journalist G D 'Robert' Govender has been conferred with V K Krishna Menon Award 2019 in the UK for his outstanding contribution as a pioneer of decolonised journalism.

The South Africa-born journalist was awarded posthumously during an event to mark the 123rd birth anniversary of an Indian diplomat and politician V K Krishna Menon. Govender was born in South Africa in August 1930, passed away in the UK in 2016.

Govender had written many books in the field of journalism but his one of the outstanding work was'The Martyrdom of Patrice Lumumba' which exposed the role of Western intelligence agencies in the murder of Congolese independence leader.

US Air Force General Tod D. Wolters has been sworn in as the top military officer of the 29-nation NATO military alliance.

Wolters, who replaces U.S. Army General Curtis M. Scaparrotti for a term likely to run two to three years, will also be commander of U.S. forces in Europe.

INS Vela, Indian Navy's 4th Scorpene-class submarine was launched at Mazagon Dockyard in Mumbai.

The Scorpene-class submarine Vela, the fourth of six underwater being built in India with French collaboration, was launched in Mumbai with an aim to boost Indian capability to defend and secure the strategic sea lanes.

The submarine has been named 'Vela' after an earlier submarine, which was the lead submarine, of the erstwhile Vela class, the second batch of the Foxtrot class submarines acquired from erstwhile USSR.

About Maharastra

Capital - Mumbai

Chief Minister - Devendra Fadnavis

Governor - C. Vidyasagar Rao

National Park

• Sanjay Gandhi National Park

• Chandoli National Park

• Navegaon National Park

• Tadoba National Park

• Gugamal National Park