The Trade Marks Registry of Government of India has granted the registration of the trade mark for the famous blue-bordered sari of Mother Teresa. This is the first time ever that a uniform has been protected under the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). The blue-designed border on the sari worn by nuns of Missionaries of Charity was recognised as Intellectual Property for the organisation on 4 September 2016.

Okinoshima Island was declared as a UNESCO world heritage site on 9 July 2017. Okinoshima, which is a part of the city of Munakata, Fukuoka, Japan, is located in south-west Japan between the main island of Kyushu and the Korean Peninsula.

The Indian city of Ahmedabad on 8 July 2017 was declared India’s first World Heritage City, recognising heritage value of the walled city’s unique heritage. The announcement was made by the World Heritage Committee (WHC) of UNESCO following a meeting in Krakwo, Poland.

Six caves in south-western Germany’s Swabia Jura region, home to some of the world’s oldest art, In July 2017 were added to the World Heritage List by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Centre. The caves were occupied some 43000 to 33000 years ago. They are among the earliest known dwelling places of modern humans in Europe.

Rajasthan in July 2017 laid down the minimum educational qualifications for contesting elections to village cooperative societies and various other cooperative bodies. With this, Rajasthan became India’s first state to fix minimum education qualification for cooperative body poll.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education (MoE) in July 2017 finally approved a physical education program at girls’ schools starting in the coming academic year. Education Minister Ahmed Al-Issa issued a decree on 11 July 2017. The program will be compliant with Islamic rules and will be implemented in the 2017-2018 school year.

The Union Ministry of Culture will organize a World Theatre Olympics (WTO) 2018. For this, the Ministry has invited over 50 countries to showcase different theatre forms. The National School of Drama (NSD), on behalf of Ministry, will organize the WTO 2018. India also will showcase its own talent, assimilating divergent theatre forms – Swang, Rasleela, Nautanki, Bhand Pather and Jatra among others – under the ‘Ek Bharat, Sresshtha Bharat’ theme.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed on 11 July 2017 to award the 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time, effectively guaranteeing that Paris and Los Angeles will be the hosts. The IOC - which oversees the Olympic movement - wants the cities to reach an agreement on who hosts in 2028 by then. If there is no agreement, a vote to select just the 2024 host will be held.