Current Affairs - August 23, 2019 Current Affairs

Rural NBFC (Non Banking Financial Company) Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd has signed a joint venture (JV) with Ideal Finance Ltd (IFL), a subsidiary of the leading Sri Lankan conglomerate, Ideal Group, for the acquisition of up to 58.2 % stake in the Ideal Finance for LKR-(Sri Lankan Rupees) 2 billion (nearly Rs 80 crore). Mahindra Finance will invest LKR 2 billion till March 2021 to acquire the stake. The joint venture with Ideal Finance will create a market-leading financial services business in Sri Lanka for Mahindra.

The first woman cricketer to score a double century in ODI was Australia's Belinda Clark who scored 229-runs in 155 balls on December 16th, 1997.

Iran has unveiled new missile defence system "Bavar-373". This is also Iran's first domestically produced long-range missile defence system which has been inducted into the country's missile defence network. The system was unveiled at an occasion of Iran's National Defense Industry Day.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in collaboration with IIT Kanpur has developed a kit to spread sexual-abuse awareness among children by using interactive means to teach them about personal safety. The kit is a set of cards, posters, short animation clips and games. It can be used by teachers or NGOs to conduct an interactive workshop for children about sexual-abuse awareness. The kit also features game cards as an intervention to assess the learning acquired by children. It can be used in classrooms for kids aged between 8-12 and in a group of 30-35 students in one session. It has manuals, reading and video material for the teacher or workshop facilitator to read and understand how to conduct the workshop. The workshop kit has been vetted by the psychologists at Central Institute of Psychiatry of Ranchi, and a revised version will be developed based on their feedback.

The World Senior Citizen Day was observed on August 21, 2019 across the world. The day is recognized to create awareness of the condition of elder people and support them through senescence. This day is observed to thank and acknowledge elders for all that they have done for their children. They sacrifice their entire life in nurturing their relationships. The day was first announced on 14th of December in the year 1990, by the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA) & it was celebrated for the first time on October 1, 1991. he day originates from the time of 1988. It was formally settled by the former president of the United States of America i.e. Ronald Reagan. He had marked the 5847 declarations on August 19, 1988, which showed August 21 as the National Senior Citizens Day.

Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani distributed the Poshan Abhiyaan Awards for 2018-19 in different categories in New Delhi. The awards were given to the States, Districts, Blocks and Anganwadi Workers for their contributions in scaling up the Abhiyaan and ensuring that it reaches every household in the country. The awards are aimed at motivating the primary stakeholders and encourage large scale citizen participation in creating awareness to combat malnutrition.

India and China are planning to hold a bilateral meeting in Beijing in order to improve military to military cooperation.

The Modi government appointed outgoing Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba as Cabinet Secretary for two years. A 1982 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, Mr. Gauba will replace P.K. Sinha, who was appointed Cabinet Secretary in 2015.

Russell Domingo was appointed as the head coach of Bangladesh Cricket Team (Men), replacing Steve Rhodes(English cricket coach and former cricketer) by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). Russel will remain as the head coach for the next two years. The BCB replaced steve with Russel without an extension, following the team's eighth-place finish at the recently concluded 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. It is expected that Domingo, who earlier served as the South Africa coach, will serve the team from August 21, beginning with the lone Test against Afghanistan from September 5, followed by an ODI tri-series involving Zimbabwe as well.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) announced a new mechanism to reward informants with up to Rs 1 crore cash through a specially created hotline SEBI's board approved a detailed set of rules for the new 'Informant Mechanism' under its Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) Regulations. The benefits available to individuals and corporates, and professionals like auditors will not be able to use this route as they are duty-bound to report any wrongdoing.

Ajay Kumar Bhalla was appointed as the new Home Secretary. Bhalla belongs to 1984 batch of Assam Meghalaya cadre of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and is currently serving as Officer on Special Duty in Home Ministry. He succeeds Rajiv Gauba who has been appointed as the new Cabinet Secretary.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has fixed the retirement age for all Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel at 60 years, an order issued on Monday said. All personnel in the Central Industrial Security Force and the Assam Rifles retire at 60.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will organize 2-day India Economic Summit 2019 scheduled to be held in New Delhi from October 3 - 4, 2019 with the aim of promoting strong collaboration between South Asia and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations ) nations. The theme of the event will be 'Innovating for India: Strengthening South Asia, Impacting the World'. Sheikh Hasina (Prime Minister of Bangladesh), Sania Mirza (Sportsperson and UN -United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia), Heng Swee Keat (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance of Singapore), Shobana Kamineni (Executive Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise), and Shailendra Singh (Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India) will be the co-chairs for the Summit. The meet will resolve strategic issues of regional significance through 4 thematic pillars, which include the new geopolitical reality and new social, ecological and technological systems.

Acko General Insurance, an insurtech company, has partnered with ZestMoney, a consumer lending fintech, to offer credit insurance. This insurance will help ZestMoney customers cover their monthly EMI payments during times of crisis. Acko will offer credit insurance to these consumers and cover them during eventualities like hospitalization or critical illness when they're unable to pay their instalments. ZestMoney offers instant financing to consumers across 1000+ online portals and provides them with the option of paying through EMIs even if the consumers don't own a credit card.

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Culture and Tourism, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel will launch the book "Diary of Manu Gandhi' (1943-44) The function at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. The book brought out by the National Archives of India on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in collaboration with Oxford University Press.

The Commander of the Army is the title of the professional head of the Sri Lanka Army. The current Commander of the Army is Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva.

The award is after the name of UAE's founding father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. It assumes special significance as it was awarded to Prime Minister Modi in the year of the birth centenary of Sheikh Zayed.

The Paytm Payments Bank is a separate entity in which founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma will hold 51% share, One97 Communications holds 39% and 10% will be held by a subsidiary of One97 and Sharma.

The theme of the 2-day India Economic Summit 2019 will be 'Innovating for India: Strengthening South Asia, Impacting the World'.

Nepal is planning to hold SAARC Foreign Ministers' informal meet on the sidelines of the 74th UN General Assembly (UNGA) session in September 2019. The 18th SAARC summit was held in Kathmandu in 2014 and Pakistan was to host the next summit in 2016. But, the summit was cancelled after India boycotted the meeting, in the wake of the terror attack at a military base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), which killed 19 soldiers. Other countries viz. Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan, also walked out following India's decision to exit the summit to step up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. India also declared that it will participate only if Pakistan took steps to tackle terrorism.

Former finance minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). P Chidambaram is accused of facilitating foreign investment into a television company, INX Media, in 2007, when he was the Finance Minister.

Iceland unveiled a plaque to its Okjokull ice sheet on Sunday, the first of the country's hundreds of glaciers to melt away due to climate change.

The Jammu and Kashmir(J&K) administration has constituted 3 committees for devising modalities for the functioning of proposed UT(Union Territory) of J&K and Ladakh, dealing with financial matters and staff-related issues.

Iceland has marked its first-ever loss of a glacier to climate change. The glacier lost was, Iceland's Okjokull glacier. People commemorated this loss with a plaque (An ornamental tablet, typically of metal, porcelain, or wood, fixed to a wall or other surface in commemoration of a person or event).

To strengthen enforcement of the ban on production and sale of electronic cigarettes, the State government has amended the Karnataka Poisons (Possession and Sale) Rules, 2015 to notify nicotine as a Class A poison.

Pakistan has been placed on the blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force's Asia Pacific Group. Pakistan has been blacklisted for non-compliance and non-enforcement of safeguards against terror financing and money laundering. Pakistan has failed in 32 of 40 'compliance' parameters for its legal and financial systems. Pakistan has also failed in 10 of 11 'effectiveness' parameters for enforcing safeguards against terror-financing and money-laundering by UN-sanctioned entities and other non-government outfits.

In a first, the Kerala government decided to appoint women drivers in government and other public sector offices. The decision was taken during a state cabinet meeting headed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.