Current Affairs - August 19, 2017 Current Affairs

Rear Admiral Travis Sinniah appointed as the chief of Sri Lanka's naval forces to head the Navy since the brutal civil war erupted in the country 45 years ago. He succeeds Vice Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne got retired. He got appointed as the Navy Chief by President Maithripala Sirisena.

China launched its first cyber court specializing in handling Internet-related cases in the e-commerce hub of Hangzhou. The Hangzhou Internet Court in Hangzhou will handle cases such as online trade disputes and copyright lawsuits. Hangzhou is home to many Internet companies, including e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed career diplomat Nikolay Kudashev as Russia's new ambassador to India. The appointment of Kudashev comes nearly seven months after the death of Russia's previous ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin. Mr Kudashev, a specialist in South East Asia, is currently the Deputy Director General Secretariat of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Russia.

State Bank of India launched a CSR initiative, SBI Gram Seva, which will work in the areas of health, education, environment and rural infrastructure. Initially, 10 gram panchayats comprising of 50 villages in six states have been adopted. The SBI Foundation will identify and partner with NGOs to carry out CSR initiatives under which it adopt five villages each from 10 village panchayats with each village getting around Rs 2.40 crore over the next three years.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will shortly issue new banknotes of Rs 50 denomination in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series. The banknote will bear the signature of RBI Governor Dr. Urjit R. Patel on the front side along with the guarantee and promise clause and the RBI emblem. It will have Mahatma Gandhi's portrait at the Centre and a see through register with denominational numeral 50.

Five Indian-origin persons, including Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, have featured in Fortune's annual list of 40 young and influential people in the field of business inspiring others with their work. The Indian-origin persons on the list are 26-year-old Divya Nag, who oversees Apple's ambitious ResearchKit and CareKit programmes that encourage developers to build health- related apps, Rishi Shah, 31, and Shradha Agarwal, 32, who helm more than 10-year-old health-tech firm Outcome Health and CEO and founder of non-profit Samasource 31-year-old Leila Janah.

Navika Sagar Parikrama is a project wherein a team of women officers of the Indian Navy would circumnavigate the globe on an Indian-built sail boat INSV Tarini. This is the first ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew. The voyage of Navika Sagar Parikrama will begin from Goa in the first week of September 2017 and culminate on their return in March 2018.

August 19 is observed as World Photography Day, which aims to inspire photographers across the planet to share a single photo with a simple purpose: to share their world with the world. On August 19, 2010 World Photo Day hosted its first global online gallery. Almost 270 photographers shared their pictures and people from over 100 countries visited the website.

The United States of America and Japan agreed to advance their multilateral security and defense cooperation with countries like India, South Korea, and Australia, amidst China's growing assertiveness in the Asia Pacific region. During the meeting, the ministers underscored the importance of cooperating to promote a rules-based international order, taking note of the United States continued the commitment to maintain a strong presence in the region and Japan initiatives demonstrated by its "Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy".

The Indian contingent for the World Dwarf Games made the entire nation proud of their achievements as they bagged as many as 37 medals from the games, which were held in Toronto, Canada. Incredibly, they managed to secure a top-10 finish in the tournament, having clinched 15 gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze medals at the event.

General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 19 August as World Humanitarian Day. On 19 August 2003, a terrorist attack hit the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 people. Every year since then, the humanitarian community has organized global campaigns to commemorate WHD, advocating for the safety and security of humanitarian aid workers, and for the survival, well-being and dignity of people affected by crises.

Union Bank of India entered into a corporate agency agreement with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and Cholamandalam MS General Insurance for distribution of their insurance products. The public sector bank already with the corporate agency agreement with The New India Assurance.

Union Minister for Textile and Information & Broadcasting, Smriti Irani to inaugurate Orient Craft Textile facility at Irba near Ranchi in Jharkhand. The event will pave way for new investment as two projects will be inaugurated while foundation stone will be laid for 70 projects during the function.