Current Affairs - August 18, 2019 Current Affairs

5 MoUs are signed between India and China.

The system of appointing grama (village) volunteers to ensure better delivery of various benefits to the public under welfare schemes will begin from Independence Day in Andhra Pradesh. The Chief Minister Y.S Jaganmohan Reddy formally inaugurated it here at the I-day

Durand Line is the line demarcating the boundaries of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

External Affairs Minister (EAM) of India Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited (3-day from August 11 to 13,2019) Beijing, China during which he had bilateral meetings with his counterpart Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi, Vice President Wang Qishan, 4th meeting of the India-China Media Forum on cultural and people-to-people exchanges & signed 5 MoUs (memorandum of understanding) during the visit.

Harshad Pandurang Thakur has been appointed as the Director of National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, an official order said on Wednesday. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appointed him for a period of five years.

Ride-hailing leader Ola has acqui-hired Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence startup Pikup.ai, as it looks to focus on utilising advanced analytics and deep technology to build futuristic mobility solutions

The Indian Navy is to host the multilateral naval exercise named 'MILAN' at Visakhapatnam for the year 2020 in the month of March. The announcement for this exercise was made by Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) at the INS(Indian Navy Ship) Circars Parade Ground in the ENC on the occasion of 73rd Independence day. MILAN is a biennial exercise which was first started in 1995. Until last year the exercise was held at Andaman and Nicobar Command(ANC). For the first time, this exercise is to be conducted in the mainland of ENC, Vishakapatnam.

A World Resources Institute (WRI) report informed that India comes under the Extremely Stressed baseline while being ranked at number 13th globally. The Middle East and North African countries are the most water-stressed areas. WRI's Aqueduct tools reveal that 17 countries face extremely high levels of baseline water stress. 44 countries face high levels of stress.

West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee has opened the World's 1st museum dedicated to the life of a 16th-century saint and social reformer, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, designed by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) in Kolkata, West Bengal. The museum is a 3-storeyed structure with an approximately 1,350 sq m of covered area, of which 1,000 sq m has been used to for the galleries, public utility and as a library. The floors of the museum dedicated to different phases of the saint's life from his birth, marriage with Vishupria, journey in every part of the country to the period after he attained "Sanyasa" (sainthood). It was also equipped with Life-size models, 3D(3-Dimensional) films, audio tracks, and animatronics.

The government appointed VG Somani as Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). DCGI heads the Indian drug regulatory body the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). His functions include ensuring the quality of drugs and cosmetics sold in the country, approval of new drugs and regulating clinical trials. Somani is currently Joint Drugs Controller of India.

Liverpool defeated Chelsea in the finals to win UEFA Super Cup held in Istanbul.

The world humanitarian day 2019 was observed on August 19, 2019. The day is observed annually to pay tribute to the humanitarian aid workers who endanger their lives for humanitarian service as well as to rally support for the people affected by the crisis. The world humanitarian day 2019 theme is 'Women Humanitarians'.

Shopee announced a collaboration with Cristiano Ronaldo, who has become its newest brand ambassador. Ronaldo and Shopee are to present various initiatives, starting with an annual shopping campaign, the 9.9 Super Shopping Day, from Aug. 16 to Sept. 9, 2019. The 9.9 Super Shopping Day features offers and entertainment, such as free shipping, cashback vouchers, discounts, etc.

Ravi Shashtri has been appointed as the Head coach of the Indian team.

Shri R.N. Ravi, born in 1952, did Masters in Physics in 1974 and after a brief stint in journalism joined the Indian Police Service in 1976.

The Chhattisgarh government announced an increase in reservation for Scheduled caste (SC) from 12% to 13% and for Other Backward Classes (OBC) from 14% to 27%. This announcement was made by Chief Minister (CM) Shri Bhupesh Baghel on August 15,2019 independence day celebration at the Police parade ground in Raipur, Chattisgarh. With the increase in quota, the state's reservation becomes a total of 72 percent, which is the highest in the country and far above the reservation limit of 50 percent mandated by the Supreme court.

CORAS (Commandos For Railway Security), a special railway unit for the Indian railways and a new establishment manual for the Railway Protection Force(RPF) was launched by union Railway Minister Shri Piyush Goyal at a function in New Delhi railway station.

The 14th Edition of KONKAN series of annual bilateral exercises between Indian Navy and Royal Navy of Britain is currently underway off the South Coast of UK. INS Tarkash is exercising with the Royal Navy's Daring Class Destroyer, HMS Defender with integral helicopter Wildcat. KONKAN-19 will involve Gunnery Shoots, Manoeuvres, Cross Deck Flying, ASW Screening and Air Defence exercise.

Legendary Indian sprinter PT Usha has been made a member of the Athletes Commission of the Asian Athletics Association in recognition of her stellar achievements at the continental stage.

A short-film 'Madhubani - The Station of Colours', bagged the 'Rajat-Kamal' award at the 66th National Film Awards for 2018. It narrates the beautification of a remote railway station belonging to the East Central Railway (ECR). The Madhubani railway station located in a remote part of Madhubani district of Bihar was earlier ranked as the country's second most dirty railway station.

The Indian Army team participated for the 1st time and has emerged as the winner among 8 teams in five stages of the 5th edition of 'International Army Scout Masters Competition 2019' held in Jaisalmer Military Station, Rajasthan from August 6-14, 2019. Indian Army's 'Konark Corps' was organized this event. Besides India, the teams from Armenia, Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan participated in this prestigious event.

Government to invest Rs 100 lakh cr in infrastructure building. One nation, one constitution spirit has become a reality after scrapping of provisions of Article 370. There is a 'huge' scope for improvement in the tourism sector and everyone should visit at least 15 tourist destinations within India by 2022. India can become a 5 trillion dollar economy in the next 5 years.

PM Modi launches RuPay card in Bhutan, signs 10 MoUs during his 2nd visit. The launch of RuPay card will be done in two phases- in the first phase, India's banks will issue RuPay cards that can be used by Indian travellers in Bhutan; in second phase-banks of Bhutan will be empowered to issue RuPay cards to Bhutanese citizens to use in India.