Current Affairs - August 3, 2019 Current Affairs

The appointments committee of the cabinet (ACC) gave its approval to the designation of the 1984 Jharkhand cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer as the finance secretary.

Bhasha Mukherjee, a 23-year-old Indian origin doctor was crowned Miss England 2019. Bhasha holds two different medical degrees, has an IQ of 146 and is fluent in 5 different languages. As a winner of Miss England, she will be entered into the Miss World contest 2019.

President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated exhibitions on Mahatma Gandhi and Khadi at the "Ebunjan Theatre" in the Gambia to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi.

The Battle of Haldighati was a battle fought on 18 June 1576 between cavalry and archers supporting the Rana of Mewar, Maharana Pratap, and the Mughal emperor Akbar's forces, led by Man Singh I of Amber.

The team of researchers from China and the United States developed a new computer model that can help accurately predict air pollution levels in the region a season in advance. The data from El Nino and Antarctic Oscillation events can be used to predict air pollution levels in northern India. It will allow the government to forecast aerosol pollution conditions in winter and formulate plans for pollution control. The research was published in the journal Science Advances. Meng Gao from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University in the US said that the statistical prediction model uses 2 autumn temperature variation patterns as predictors. According to the State of Global Air 2019 Report, over 1.2 million people died in India due to air pollution in 2017.

Nigeria becomes the fourth African nation to join global coalition to protect pollinators. Ethiopia is the first African nation to be part of this global coalition in 2017. Burundi is the second African country to join this global group. The non-African nations such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Dominican Republic, Ireland, and Mexico had joined the global group last year. Nigeria will also focus on research to conserve pollinators and share its experiences on the same. The annual market value of the five to eight percent of production that is directly linked with pollination services is estimated at $235 billion-$577 billion worldwide. Pollinator-Dependent crops have higher prices than non- pollinator-dependent crops.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed "Bank of China" to offer regular banking services in the country. Banks falling under this schedule have to adhere to the norms of the RBI. 'Bank of China Limited' has been included in the 2nd Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

The Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Shri Prahlad Singh Patel informed that 2 languages- Nepali and Santhali from the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution will be included in the Sub-Field of Field "Literature" in the scheme component 'Award of Senior/Junior Fellowships to Outstanding Artistes in the Fields of Culture'. The Ministry of Culture regulates a scheme component namely Award of Senior/Junior Fellowships to Outstanding Artistes in the Fields of Culture. The Nodal institute for handling the Scheme of Sr. /Jr. Fellowship till selection process is the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), Dwarka, Gujarat. The 22 languages are Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, English and Khasi.

On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi embarked a historic Salt March from Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat's Ahmedabad to the village of Dandi in the state's coastal area to protest against the steep tax the British levied on salt.

Microsoft acquired BlueTalon, a data privacy and governance service, for an undisclosed sum. BlueTalon works with leading Fortune 100 companies. It helps enterprises to set policies for how their employees can access their data. BlueTalon will become part of the Azure Data Governance group. It had raised $25.87 million and was backed by firms like Biosys Capital, Signia Venture Partners, Maverick Capital, and Divergent Ventures.

The Union Minister for Human Resource Development (MHRD) Mr Ramesh Pokhriyal, inaugurated the Indian Airforce Facilitation-cum-Publicity Pavilion in National Bal Bhawan, New Delhi to motivate students to join Indian Air Force. The setup comprises of a flying simulator, a self-interactive career information kiosk( a counter, newsstand etc), a selfie point in G suite( cloud computing, collaboration and productivity tool) and mannequins. The pavilion has running videos related to IAF exercise/ operations, aircraft models of Indian Air Force, digital flexes etc.

CCD is India's largest coffee chain and is owned by Coffee Day Global which is a subsidiary of Coffee Day Enterprises. Today, CCD has around 1,700 cafes, around 48,000 vending machines, 532 kiosks and 403 ground coffee selling outlets.

The Indian campaign of Alexander the Great began in 326 BCE.

Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel The God of Small Things (1997), which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the biggest-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author.

Sumo wrestling is considered Japan's national sport.

Zimbabwe is a South African Country whose capital is Harare.

Infosys launched its state-of-the-art Cyber Defence Center in Bucharest, Romania. This Defence Center is an expansion of services delivered via Infosys Digital Innovation Center which opened in Bucharest in early 2019.

By average annual rainfall, the wettest place is Mawsynram, Meghalaya, India, with 11,873 mm (467 in) of rain per annum.

Gujarat Chief Minister has launched the 'Vhali Dikri Yojna' from his home town Rajkot, Gujarat. The scheme for the welfare of the girl child. According to the scheme, the State Government will pay Rs. 4,000 to every girl child at the time of admission to Standard 4th, Rs. 6,000 at the time of taking admission to Standard IX, Rs. 1-lakh at the time of taking admission for higher education at the age of 18 and another Rs. 1-lakh at the time of marriage. It is a statewide cash incentive scheme for every girl child born in Gujarat.

Maharashtra Chief Minister(CM) Devendra Fadnavis has launched a special digitized policing system called "Automated Multi-modal Biometric Identification System (AMBIS)" to aid police investigations & it will soon be expanded across the country. AMBIS adopted by the Maharashtra Police, is an advanced crime detection database, detects crime based on the available fingerprint, palmprint and iris scan data of criminals on record as well as accidental finger/ palm-prints collected from crime scenes. It can be useful in identifying bodies, especially in cases where the body is mutilated. Facial recognition of suspects in cases of mob violence and mob lynching with the help of photographs and CCTV footage. It has a backup facility option, so there will be no data loss by using this system. Data can be accessed anywhere, anytime as it can be interfaced with any other operating system(OS).

A two-year UK-India joint initiative, the "Innovation for Clean Air" (IfCA) was launched by the British Deputy High Commissioner DominicMcAllister in Bengaluru to test interventions related to equality and supportIndia's transition to EV (electric vehicles) integration. The air quality is measured by integrating satellite and sensor data. The program is led by Innovate UK, which is a part of UK research and innovation (UKRI). The UKRI is funded by Newton Fund and by various other partners.

It nurtures the largest rainforest on earth and provides life for a mind-boggling array of flora and fauna - the Amazon River is one of South America's most fascinating destinations to discover

The parliament approved the Companies (Amendment) Bill which seeks to tighten Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) norms and ensure stricter action for non-compliance of the company law regulations.

VK Johri, a 1984-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of has been appointed as the new Director General (DG) of Border Security Force (BSF).

The Transmitting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) of NASA has discovered 3 new planets which are the smallest and nearest known to date. The planets include a small, rocky super-Earth and 2 Sub-neptunes orbiting a dwarf star just 73 light-years away from our earth. A paper describing the system was published in the journal Nature Astronomy. The members present in the planetary system are a dwarf star which is 40% smaller than the size of the sun and the three exoplanets which are named as TOI 270b, TOI 270c, TOI 270d orbiting the star every 3.4 days 5.7 days and 11.4 days respectively. The TOI 270c and TOI 270d are Neptune like planets which are half the size of our icy giants( Uranus and Neptune). The innermost planet is the TOI 270b and is expected to be 25% bigger than earth.

President Ram Nath Kovind has been awarded the National Order of Merit by the President of Guinea for his exceptional contribution to the advancement of overall relations and development of mutual cooperation between India and Guinea and for promoting friendship and partnership between the people of both the countries.

The Indian Army launched 10 e-cars in its pilot batch for its officials in New Delhi on August 1. The main aim behind the move is ensure minimal emission and to boost efficiency, in an attempt to combat worsening air quality in New Delhi.

Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance partnered with payments platform Mobikwik to sell 'miniature' insurance plans.Sumit Rai, MD & CEO, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance covers of Rs 1 lakh, 3 lakh and 5 lakh with a premium of Rs 148, 443 and 738 per annum. The life insurer offers pre-approved sum assured basis customer information already with MobiKwik. The insurer will offer miniaturized products and Rai said they will look to expand this to products catering across long-term savings products.The MobiKwik app ecosystem KYC and other capabilities, we can issue and service the policy directly within the app ecosystem, instead of the customer engaging with two separate entities.The idea is to democratise insurance by offering a compelling product proposition digitally to a newer and digitally savvy customer segment. This partnership will allow Edelweiss Tokio Life to cater to customers across all income groups and offer relevant solutions. The life insurer is already taken steps to go digital. The last financial year company e completed a digital overhaul within Edelweiss Tokio Life called Project Transcend, to help in scalability and create a flexible platform to cater to increasing volumes smoothly.

Ravish Kumar has been named for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award 2019. Ravish Kumar is among the five recipients of the 2019 Magsaysay award, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

The State Bank of India's (SBI) Shanghai branch is now connected to China's National Advance Payment System (CNAPS). SBI is the only Indian bank to have obtained the license to do business in local currency and also inducted to the CNAPS by the People's Bank of China (PBOC). SBI Shanghai can also offer the real-time transfer of local funds within China by routing them through the PBOC. The CNAPS, launched in 2008 by People's Bank of China (PBOC) provides real-time settlement services for all payments.

The 52th ASEAN Foreign Minister's meeting is being organized in Bangkok between July 29 and August 3. The ASEAN Group is trying to establish itself as a global entity. This is an inter-governmental organization of 10 Southeast Asian countries. It was established on August 6, 1967. Its headquarters is in Jakarta, Indonesia.

According to the Water Stress Index 2019, formulated by London-based risk analytics firm Verisk Maplecroft, India is the 46th highest risk country in the world. It measured the water consumption rates of households, industries and farm sectors and the available resources in rivers, lakes and streams and plotted the index with projected population growth trends to rank the cities facing the biggest threat to their water resources. Chennai is the "tip of the iceberg" for India's water-stressed cities. 11 out of India's 20 largest cities face an 'extreme risk' of water stress and 7 are in the 'high risk' category. Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Nashik, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Indore are among the cities facing 'extreme risk'. Bengaluru and Surat are experiencing the greatest surge in demand for water and are most at risk of facing scarcity. Chennai and Delhi are also extremely vulnerable. India is rated 'high risk' in the Climate Change Vulnerability Index. The effects of climate change like an 'extended dry season' would deteriorate water stress situation in Indian cities and many Indian cities are projected to experience a higher number of consecutive drought days when precipitation is less than 1 mm.

Consumer Protection Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, recently to establish the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to protect and enforce consumer rights.

The Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS; also Rajasthan Atomic Power Project - RAPP) is located at Rawatbhata in the state of Rajasthan, India.

According to Article 233 of the Indian Constitution, appointment of district judges in any State is made by the Governor of the State in consultation with the High Court exercising jurisdiction in relation to such State.

KABIL, Khanij Bidesh India Ltd, a joint venture company will be set up soon to ensure a consistent supply of critical and strategic minerals to the Indian domestic market. The company will be set up in joint partnership between three Central Public Sector Enterprises including National Aluminium Company Ltd.(NALCO), Hindustan Copper Ltd.(HCL) and Mineral Exploration Company Ltd (MECL).