Current Affairs - August 6, 2019 Current Affairs

Lok Sabha passed the Jallianwala Bagh national memorial (Amendment) Bill 2019. It was introduced by minister of culture, Prahlad Patel, by a voice vote. This bill seeks to remove the Congress chief from being a permanent member of Jallianwala bagh memorial trust established in 1951 in Amritsar, Punjab. The bill amends Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act, 1951 which provides for erection of a National Memorial in memory of the people killed in Jallianwala Bagh on 13 April 1919 in Amritsar, Punjab. It also creates a Trust to manage the National Memorial. This bill was opposed by the Congress party as the party considered this bill as a conspiracy to remove the name of Congress from history that protested against the massacre of 1919 Jallianwala bagh, went to jail,ran movement, built museum etc. The bill also confers power to the central government to terminate a nominated trustee before the expiry of the term without the need of assigning reason.

The Lok Sabha on August 5, 2019, passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019 that seeks to uplift transgenders socially, economically and culturally in the society.

The Institute of Eminence scheme aimed at developing 20 world-class institutions which would put India on the global education map. Those selected will be given greater autonomy and freedom to decide fees, course durations and governance structures.

The statistical study of elections and trends in voting is called Psephology.

The 3rd edition of India's largest education brainstorming event, the ScooNews Global Educators Fest (SGEF) will held in the city of lakes, Udaipur. It will bring together over 500 educators to discuss the way towards establishing India as the next global education powerhouse. The theme for fest is 'Education for Sustainability: Moving on from Conformity to Creativity'.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) constituted an 8-member committee to recommend operational level modifications for restructuring the National Statistical Office (NSO). NSO will be chaired by Pravin Srivastava, the chief statistician, and MoSPI secretary. : In May 2019, MoSPI had approved the merger of the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) into NSO to streamline and strengthen the present nodal functions and to bring in more synergy by integrating its administrative functions within the ministry. It will give recommendations on the reorganization of technical and administrative divisions, rationalization of coordination activities, delegation of financial powers, reduction in the number of levels in the channel of submission and enhancement of the ministry's efficiency.

The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 that empowers the Union Home Ministry to designate individuals as terrorists was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Friday with Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supporting the legislation.

A put provision gives the bondholder the right to sell the bond back to the issuer prior to the maturity date. Bonds that contain a put provision are called putable bonds.

Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been named as Professional Cricketers Association's Player of the month of July 2019. He has been named for his consistent performances in the county championships as he hit 197 runs and picked up 23 wickets from just 3 matches for Nottinghamshire.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel NSE 6.07 % on Friday said that it expects to shut down its entire 3G network across the country by March 2020, the process for which has already started with Kolkata service area.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has barred the both deposit-taking and non- deposit taking NBFCs(Non-Banking Finance Companies) from charging pre-payment /foreclosure charges on any floating rate term loans sanctioned for purposes other than business to individual loan borrowers. Impact: The move will affect income line of NBFCs which are now troubling with the stock of issues including liquidity crisis.For Banks: RBI barred commercial banks from charging such penalties from individual borrowers with mortgage loans in May 2014. But it allows banks to charge on unsecured loans like credit cards, personal loans.Foreclosure: The foreclosure of personal loan is the full repayment of the remaining loan amount in one single payment instead of paying monthly installments.

In the 15th India-US Defence Policy Group meeting, 2019 on defence issues held in Washington, United States, officials of both countries agreed to follow a policy environment conducive to cooperation between the Defence industry and start-ups in both countries. The Indian side was led by Sanjay Mitra, defence secretary and the US was led by John Rood, undersecretary of defence for policy. The top-level meet reviews and guides the progress made in various fields such as defence trade, technology, procurement, industry, R&D(Research & Development) and mil-to-mil engagement in past years. The two sides recognised the benefit of enabling defence agreements & appreciated India's designation as a Major Defence Partner of the US.

The United States has officially labeled China a "currency manipulator". The US has accused China of using yuan to gain "unfair competitive advantage" in trade. The US took the action as Beijing has allowed its yuan to fall below the politically sensitive level of "seven" to the U.S. dollar for the first time in 11 years.

Ministry of External Affairs Ms. Madhumita Hazarika Bhagat was appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Cyprus. She is a 1999 batch Indian Foreign Service(IFS) Officer presently working as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. She succeeds RK Raghavan.

Article 370 was scrapped by the Parliament on August 5, 2019, after Union Home Minister tabled the historic amendment in the Parliament. All the clauses of Article 370 were revoked, except Clause 1 which states that J&K is a part of India.

India is planning to launch its first Human Genome Mapping Project. The project involves scanning of 20,000 Indian genomes (in the next five years) to develop diagnostic tests and effective therapies for treating diseases such as cancer.

The Constitution of Brazil, along with several constitutional amendments, establishes the requirements, powers, and responsibilities of the president, their term of office and the method of election. Jair Bolsonaro is the 38th and current President.

India test-fired a sophisticated all-weather and all-terrain two Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) from a mobile truck-based launch unit at complex 3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha, which was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the India Army. QRSAM, the state-of-the-art missile, uses solid-fuel propellant and has a range of 25-30 km. It is equipped with electronic countermeasures against jamming by aircraft radars. It can be mounted on a truck and stored in a canister.

Penalty of Rs.1.5 crore was fined on Bank of India over "non-compliance with RBI's (Reserve Bank of India) direction on frauds" in Rotomac group companies. The penalty amount was ordered to be paid within 14 days of receipt of RBI's order. Further 7 more banks were imposed penalty for violating norms. They are Allahabad bank (Rs.2 crore), Bank of Maharashtra (Rs.2 crore), Indian Overseas Bank ( RS.1.5 crore), Oriental Bank of Commerce( Rs.1crore), Union Bank of India(Rs.1.4 crore), Bank of Baroda ( Rs.1.5 crore). Corporation bank was fine Rs.1crore for non-compliance with RBI directions on cybersecurity.

A two-day 8th Interregional Ministerial Meeting of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) 2019 was held in Beijing, China on August 2-3, 2019 before the 7th RCEP ministerial meet which will be convened in Bangkok, Thailand on September 2019. In this meeting, all partner countries agreed to finalize trading deal negotiations. The Commerce Secretary Dr. Anup Wadhawan represented India to the meeting.

The Rajasthan Assembly passed Bills against mob lynching and honour killing, which make the cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable offences with life imprisonment and a fine up to Rs 5 lakh. The bill to curb honour killing also has a provision of the death penalty for the convict. Now Rajasthan has become the 2nd state after Manipur which passed a law to curb lynching cases.

An 'A' Class Scheduled Commercial Bank, Karnataka Bank has tied up with fintech company Finwizard Technology Pvt Ltd (widely known as "fisdom") to offer wealth management products and services, beginning with mutual funds (MFs), through its 'KBL Mobile Plus' application. The app enables customers to invest in any mutual fund & also help them navigate and select the best-suited funds besides having additional services like redemption assistance and live tracking. With this, the bank will deepen the penetration of its product offers and enable more customers experience through a digital proposition. Since 2006, The Karnataka bank offering mutual funds to its customers.

The major products of Maggi are Maggi Masala-ae-Magic Noodles, Maggi 2-Minute Noodles, Maggi Rice Mania, Maggi Sauces and Maggi Magic Cubes. Maggi is a product of Nestle India, a subsidiary of Nestle of Switzerland.

As per the information released by University Grants Commission (UGC), all universities in India will get a final subscription to access the Swedish anti-plagiarism software 'Urkund' from September 1, 2019. As a part of this process, in the coming years, the software will be available free of cost to all 900 universities, including teachers, students and researchers.

The head of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research left his position on Friday amid criticism by President Jair Bolsonaro about the agency's reports on deforestation in the Amazon.

The health minister of Madhya Pradesh,Tulsi Ram Silawat released Madhya Pradesh Action Plan for Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance( MP-SAPCAR) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. This action plan is preceded by Kerala which was the first state to develop an action plan to manage AMR(antimicrobial resistance). AMR is considered to be a public health threat according to the World Health Organisation(WHO). The AMR turns out to be a threat ,when antibiotics are misused in animals humans and aquaculture. The AMR is expected to cause 10million deaths of people by 2050 causing global economic losses if not controlled in a timely bound manner.

The 2nd All India Annual Conference of Indian Information Service Officers was held in New Delhi. The Conference was organized with a view to attain greater integration of all Media Units under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in order to further amplify government communication. A Performance Review of Media Units under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting was also conducted during the Conference.