Current Affairs - August 8, 2019 Current Affairs

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) laid the foundation stone for the Space Situational Awareness Control Centre in Bengaluru.

Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting has launched e-Rozgar Samachar. Rozgar Samachar is the corresponding version of Employment News (English). It has been launched with a view to make aspirants aware of job opportunities in government sector including public sector enterprises. It will also provide information and guidance about admission and career opportunities in various streams through career-oriented articles by experts. It is expected to meet the emerging challenge of young readers switching to electronic modes of communication.

The Reserve Bank of India will make available the National Electronic Funds Transfer system on a 24x7 basis from December 2019 as per the Payment System Vision 2021 document. Presently, the transfer of funds via NEFT can only be done during banks' working hours. The facility of electronic transfer of funds is available from 8 am to 7 pm on all working days, except the second and the fourth Saturday of the month. The move will revolutionize the retail payments system of the country. It will also reduce the number of cheques while making payments and will also increase efficiency in businesses.

In order to save the natural resources, the Union environment ministry unveiled a draft 'Nation Resource Efficiency Policy' which suggests the institutional mechanism and a three-year action plan through the principle of 6R and 'green public procurement'. In India, the consumption of fossil fuels, biomass, metal ores and non-metal ores was increased by over 6 times in 45 years, from 1.18 billion tonnes (BT) in 1970 to 7.4 BT in 2015. It is projected to be doubled by 2030 from 2015 level. The 6R stands for Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Redesign, Re-manufacture and Refurbish. It is to procure products with lower environmental footprints such as secondary raw materials and locally sourced materials. The draft suggests to set up 'National Resource Efficiency Authority' (NREA) to develop an action plan with 3 years time-frame, create and maintain database, measure progress and build capacities.

Naaz Joshi, a transsexual woman from India won the beauty pageant title of Miss World Diversity 2019 held in Port Louis, Mauritius. This was her third successive victory in this beauty pageant competition as she won the title previously in 2017 and 2018. Naaz Joshi had also won Miss Republic International Beauty Ambassador 2017 and Miss United Nationals Ambassador.

Emirates is the largest airlin in the world in the terms of market cap.

National Refreshment Day is observed annually on fourth Thursday in July which falls on 25 July in 2019 (July 23rd, 2020). This day is basically to celebrate about the fun and refreshment during the hottest time of the year that is in summers.

The Uttar Pradesh government has extended bilateral agreements with Netherlands till 2024. The previously inked MoUs sought cooperation and exchange of the knowledge and techniques in the fields of solid waste management, spatial planning, water management including restoration of water bodies and mobility planning.

Former Indian opener and Bengal captain, Arun Lal has been conferred with Karthik Bose Lifetime Achievement award of the Cricket Association of Bengal's (CAB's) in Kolkata. He played 16 Test matches and 13 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) for India between 1982 and 1989. He played six seasons for Delhi before becoming a regular feature for Bengal and was a major figure in Bengal's Ranji Trophy triumph in 1989. He was credited with instilling a positive attitude in the team's approach.

US tennis superstar Serena Williams topped Forbes magazine's list of the highest-paid women in sports for the fourth straight year.

The NASA scientists have characterized the first potentially habitable world outside our own solar system that may be suitable for life. The super-earth planet - named GJ 357 d - was spotted by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. It is estimated that planet is about six times the size of our planet and located a mere 31 light-years away. The planet orbits a dwarf star in the Hydra constellation and may have the right conditions to support liquid water as it lies within its star's habitable zone. It may be noted that a super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth's, but substantially below those of the Solar System's ice giants, Uranus and Neptune.

The Centre revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and proposed that the state be bifurcated into two union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladak.

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras partnered with National Institute of Ocean Technology to harness electricity from ocean waves. Both institutions will together develop turbines that can harness the power of ocean waves to generate electricity. The research is being headed at IIT Madras. The partnership is aimed at meeting renewable energy and climate change objectives of the government of India.

Iran unveiled three precision-guided missiles "Yasin", "Balaban" and a new series of "Ghaem" in Tehran. The air-to-air missiles were developed jointly by the Ministry of Defence of Iran and Sa Iran. Yasin is a smart, guided-missile with folding wings that can be fired from a range of 50 kilometres (30 miles) of its target from manned or unmanned aircraft. Balaban is guided by GPS (Global Positioning System) and sensors. It is equipped with folding wings and can be mounted under the aircraft. Ghaem is a heat-seeking missile which can hit within 50 centimeters of a target.

Now, whenthe GOI has scrapped Article 370 and 35 A, Satya Pal Malik is the governor in J&K.

The two new UT (Union Territories) will be J&K and Laddakh,

Sushma Swaraj, former external affairs minister and Delhi's first female chief minister, passed away on August 6, 2019. She was 67. Sushma Swaraj was taken to the AIIMS soon after she suffered from a heart attack.

Indian multinational oil and gas company, ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) has appointed Rajesh Kumar Srivastava as its new director (exploration). He replaces Mr. A K Dwivedi, who superannuated on 31 July 2019. Srivastava earned his Master's Degree in Engineering Geology from IIT(Indian Institute of Technology), Kanpur, joined ONGC as Geologist in 1984 at Krishna Godavari Basin, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. He had over 35 years of experience in ONGC& an expert in up-stream hydrocarbon exploration from well site operations (on-land & offshore), development geology, seismic data interpretation to monitoring and planning of exploration.

The 2nd All India Annual Conference of Indian Information Service (IIS) Officers was organized at Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra 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 (MoI&B) was also conducted during the day-long meeting. The Conference was attended by Senior IIS Officers from all across the country, along with officials of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Prasar Bharati and Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan has launched a Maharashtra government's initiative "Mission Shakti" at the function in Ballarpur to train athletes from Chandrapur and Gadchiroli for international events like the Olympics. The aim of Mission Shakti is to groom tribal student for an Olympic medal by 2024. The mission is directed towards six sporting disciplines - archery, shooting, volleyball, swimming, weightlifting and gymnastics. The actor also felicitated a team of tribal mountaineers who had recently scaled Mount Everest as part of 'Mission Shaurya'.

J&K will be converted from a state to the UT. Therefore now there will be 28 states when compared to 29 states previously.

Flipkart set to take on Amazon with free video streaming service.

American multinational financial services corporation, Mastercard has launched a next-generation, mobile-first authentication solution, called "Identity Check Express" that will help customers to do uninterrupted secured transactions while shopping online. The new card payment feature was showcased in New Delhi at the Global Mastercard Cybersecurity Summit 2019, held for the 1st time in India. As per the Mastercard's analysis, up to 20% of mobile e-commerce transactions are interrupted mid-way. The present rules to verify identity online are time-consuming which led to the shoppers away from a merchant's website due to the issues such as consumers being redirected to a third website to complete the payment process or mobile network fluctuations. The Identity Check Express combines the new age technology, including device intelligence and behavioural biometrics, with the latest EMV 3-D Secure and FIDO authentication standards will eliminate unnecessary friction and enhance the security of online transactions.

The Rajya Sabha cleared the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill 2019 on 6 August. The bill has a provision of 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) among the general category (the upper caste).

The Andhra Pradesh government will launch the Navodayam scheme. The scheme is a complete outreach programme for thousands of ailing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the state. Navodayam will provide a lifeline to stressed MSMEs by ensuring that all eligible units are permitted for the one-time restructuring of accounts up to March 31, 2020. About 86,000 MSMEs in the state have been identified for restructuring under Navodayam with an outlay of Rs 3,900 crore.

One of the main aims of the mission is to explore and extract polymetallic nodules. These are small potato-like rounded accretions composed of minerals such as manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper and iron hydroxide.

As per the data released by Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2017-18, 6.1% of India's labour force, and 17.8% of young people (15-29 years) in the labour force are unemployed.

The National Institute of Solar Energy and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization have signed an agreement to initiate a skill development programme for different levels of beneficiaries in the solar thermal energy sector. NISE and UNIDO will engage national and international experts to bring the best practices by developing specialized training material.