Current Affairs - August 7, 2017 Current Affairs

S. Aparna, an IAS officer from Gujarat cadre has been appointed as Executive Director, World Bank to represent the constituency of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka for three years. She is currently Principal Secretary to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

An all-women team of researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi developed a new drug delivery platform using nanoparticles. The nanotechnology-based drug delivery system has the ability to boost the efficacy of antibiotics at the cellular level and improve chances of recovery.

The Centre in association with the National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) launched 'Tele-Law' scheme in Bihar with an aim to provide an opportunity for the common man to access legal aid easily. Under the scheme, villagers can have access to legal consultation with the help of para legal volunteers at Common Service Centre (CSC) which will be equipped with computers and Internet facility.

NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu was on Saturday elected as the next vice-president of India by securing over two-thirds of votes, leaving opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi far behind. Naidu got 516 votes out of total 771 votes cast while Gandhi could only manage 244 votes. Of the 771 votes polled, 11 were invalid. Although 785 MPs are there in both Houses of Parliament, 14 MPs could not vote.

The centre approved a proposal to rename the Mughalsarai railway station in Uttar Pradesh after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. The proposal was given by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh in a bid to revive the legacy of Upadhyaya, who died in 1968 at the junction itself.

The 15th meeting of the Foreign Ministers of BIMSTEC countries will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal from August 10-11, 2017. From India, the Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will represent India in the meeting and will hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of the members countries. During the BIMSTEC meeting, progress on several programmes will be discussed.

The Assam government is all set to distribute 13 lakh Soil Health Cards among farmers. Under the scheme, the government plans to issue soil cards to farmers which will carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilisers required for the individual farms to help farmers to improve productivity through judicious use of inputs. And Rs.7.54 crore has been released as subsidy to farmers under crop insurance.

Economist Dr. Rajiv Kumar will be the new Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog, which is a think-tank that replaced the Planning Commission. He will succeed Arvind Panagariya, who will leave the government think tank on August 31, 2017 and return to Columbia University. Currently, Rajiv Kumar is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, a non-governmental think tank on public policy based out of New Delhi.

The National Handloom Day is being observed on 7 August every year to honor the handloom weavers in the country. Handloom sector contributes to nearly 15% of the cloth production in the country and also contributes to the country's export earnings to 95%.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced the appointment of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar as the brand ambassador of the Swachh Bharat Mission in the state.

Russian Ekaterina Makarova turned on the marathon magic again to defeat Julia Goerges and win the Citi Open in Washington DC. She came from a set behind for the third successive time to claim her first WTA title in more than three years.

Indian Institute of Science (IISc) researchers from Bengaluru have developed a highly sensitive, low-cost nanometre-scale carbon monoxide (CO) sensor. The nanometer-sized sensor was made using zinc-oxide (ZnO) nanostructure on a silicon wafer substrate.

Alexander Zverev of Germany won Citi Open fourth title of the year recently. He defeated South Africa's, Kevin Anderson. The past champions whose names line the grandstands at the Citi Open include Andre Agassi (five times), Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendl.

A global information technology (IT) delivery centre is coming up in jaipur to provide the ease of doing business to the engineering, architectural and professional companies in their international operations.It has been specially designed to cater to the changing dynamics of the business world. It is set up with an investment of Rs.100 crore, is expected to give employment to about 1,100 engineers, architects and IT and other professionals.

Taking a big step towards positioning itself as a top consumer finance brand in the digital space, mobile wallet major MobiKwik has entered into a strategic partnership with Bajaj Finance Ltd to transform itself into financial services App from a payment App. Under this strategic partnership, Bajaj Finance has picked up 10.83 per cent equity stake in MobiKwik for about Rs. 225 crore and offer its lending (purchase finance, credit card, mortgage loans and personal loans) and insurance products to be sold through MobiKwik App.