Current Affairs - August 1, 2019 Current Affairs

Wing Commander Tarun Chaudhri has become the first Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot to perform a wingsuit skydive jump. He achieved the feat on July 21 during the Kargil Diwas celebrations at Air Force Station in Jodhpur. The jump was accomplished from a Mi-17 helicopter from an altitude of 8,500 feet. This is the first IAF Wing Suit Skydive Jump by a pilot who has flown and captained the same type of helicopter. The Kargil Diwas celebrations were held at Air Force Station in Jodhpur on July 21 and 22.

Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel has launched Atal Community Innovation Centre (ACIC) in New Delhi, to encourage the spirit of innovation at the community level. This initiative aim is to provide solution-driven design thinking to serve society. Atal Innovation Mission has a key role to perform in order to achieve the target of five trillion dollar economy by 2025.

India's first and only Sports Gaming self-regulatory industry body, Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) has appointed former Supreme Court(SC) judge, Justice A. K. Sikri, as its ombudsman and Ethics officer. He will have the responsibility of investigating queries & complaints raised by the users of the online fantasy sports gaming platforms and provide strategic council, resolve disputes brought forward regarding binding rules or financial discrepancies as well as steer hearings and make announcements for smooth operation and ease of functioning. With Sikri as Ombudsman of IFSG, it will be able to frame strong industry benchmarks with great governance protecting its 8crore users and 32 operators interests and create standardized best practices.

For the first time in the Olympic Games' history, Table Tennis Mixed Doubles event added in a new Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games. Manika Batra to pair with Sharath Kamal for mixed doubles spot in Tokyo Olympics. Table tennis had appeared at the Summer Olympics in eight previous occasions beginning with the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.The 2008 Games in Beijing, China saw men's &women's singles and team events.

London has named the world's best city for students for the 2nd consecutive year, beating Tokyo and Melbourne that came 2nd and 3rd, respectively, on a new worldwide ranking. According to the rankings, India's best student city is Bengaluru (81st), followed by Mumbai (85th), Delhi at 113th and Chennai at 115th, out of a total of 120th cities in the list.

Rajiv Kumar, a 1984 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Jharkhand cadre, has been appointed the new Finance Secretary. He succeeded Subhash Chandra Garg, who is currently the power secretary. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the designation of Kumar as the new Finance Secretary. The finance secretary is the administrative head of the Ministry of Finance and is the principal adviser to the Finance Minister on all matters of policy and administration within the Finance Ministry. He is the senior-most bureaucrat among the five Secretaries of the five Departments of the Ministry of Finance, viz. Economic Affairs, Revenue, Expenditure, Financial services and Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).

According to the latest "Women Entrepreneur Cities Index 2019", sponsored by Dell and conducted by London-based global information provider, IHS Markit, The Singapore tops in Asian city ranked at 21st position. Indian cities Bangalore(Karnataka) and Delhi ranked 43rd (7th in Asia) and 50th (10th in Asia).The ranking measures a city's ability to attract and support high potential women entrepreneurs. And it is constructed using five "pillars" They include market, talent, capital (all 3 under operating Environment), culture and technology(under Enabling Environment).San Francisco Bay Area topped the list.They secured 63.7 points It is followed by New York(62.9 points) and London(3rd ).

Sri Lanka announced on Wednesday that it will give a one-month free visa on arrival to visitors from nearly 50 countries. The move is a part of its latest efforts to revive its tourism industry, which received a major hit after the Easter Sunday terror attacks that killed 263 people.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lalji Tandon was sworn in as the 28th Governor of Madhya Pradesh. He was administered oath by the Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha at a function in Raj Bhawan, Bhopal in the presence of Chief Minister Kamal Nath, state ministers and bureaucrats. He succeeds Anandiben Patel who is appointed as governor of Uttar Pradesh. Mr Tandon, aged 84, was the Governor of Bihar, prior to his appointment as the governor of Madhya Pradesh.

East Bengal club will officially start the centenary celebrations on its foundation day with a glittering ceremony at the Netaji Indoor Stadium. East Bengal club will be awarded India's first cricket World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev with its highest honour, Bharat Gaurav. Kapil is no stranger to football as he had donned the club's colours in an exhibition match against Mohun Bagan in 1992.

DD News (Doordarshan), a 24*7 terrestrial cum satellite News Channel of India has awarded "Champions of Empathy Award" for spreading awareness about hepatitis. Mayank Agrawal, Director General of DD News has received the Award from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Agrawal stated that it is the responsibility of DD News to aware people about various diseases and preventives by showing health-related programs, reports, and policies that help to spread awareness towards health in society.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the results of the 4th cycle of All India Tiger Estimation 2018, at Lok Kalyan Marg in New Delhi in the presence of Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javdekar; the Union Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Shri Babul Supriyo; and the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Shri C.K. Mishra.

A seven-time Member of Parliament (MP) from Chhattisgarh's Raipur and former Union minister, Ramesh Bais, aged 71, was sworn in as the 18th Governor of Tripura in the presence of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and senior officials of the administration. He was administered oath by the Chief Justice of Tripura High Court Justice Sanjay Karol at a function in Old Raj Bhawan, Agartala. He succeeds Kaptan Singh Solanki.

Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri has been elected as the new Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Former Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar had resigned from his post soon after BS Yediyurappa government won floor test in the house.

The World Day against Trafficking in Persons is observed across the world on July 30 with an aim to highlight that the human trafficking is a crime that exploits women, children and men across the world.

Odisha Chief Minister(CM) Naveen Patnaik stated that the state Government's Secretariat or 'Sachivalaya' in Bhubaneswar has been renamed as Lok Seva Bhawan. He also stated that his government has enunciated 5T mantra (Technology, Teamwork, Transparency and Time leading to Transformation) to take the delivery of services and governance to the next level. The state government is committed to maintaining transparency in administration and for that, the office of the Lokayukta has started functioning since March 20, 2019. The state government will give utmost importance to the Protection of women, children and weaker sections of the society. Financial assistance will be provided to the poor and needy from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund. Odisha Secretariat was inaugurated on November 12, 1959, by the then Home Minister Govind Ballabh Pant.

Nitin Bagmane was appointed as the interim chief operating officer (COO) of Coffee Day Enterprises by CCD's board of directors.

Israel's Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Benjamin Netanyahu informed that Israel and the United States (US) successfully conducted tests of the advanced anti-ballistic missile system "Arrow-3". The test was carried out with U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) at Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska (PSCA) in Kodiak, Alaska, US. Arrow-3 is jointly manufactured by the Boeing Company and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and is intended to serve as Israel's highest-altitude missile interception system. It is designed by IAI. It passed its first full interception test over the Mediterranean sea in 2015 and was deployed in Israel in 2017.

The wildlife officials used mobile application Monitoring System For Tigers-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status (M-STrIPES) to estimate the tiger population in the country. This was announced by Y V Jhala, Scientist of Tiger Cell at Wildlife Institute of India (WII). The application records the track a forest official walks and geotags the sightings of tigers and even other animals or signs which helps in the estimation. The data was received from 491 forest divisions of India and it was processed using M-STrIPES software.

Tamil Nadu teenager J Jerlin Anika(15) has bagged 4 medals(1 gold,2 silver,1 bronze) in the 2nd World Deaf Youth Badminton Championships 2019 held in Taipei, Taiwan. She got the victory over the top seed, Finja Rosendahl of Germany with (21-12, 21-1C) points in the girls' singles final event. The World Deaf Badminton Championships are organized by International Committee of Sports for the Deaf since 2003. They are held every four years. She won the two silver medals in the doubles and mixed doubles events in the Under-18 category. Anika is a 10th standard student in the Ouvaiyar government in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. She was a national champion among the women hearing impaired badminton players.