Current Affairs - August 24, 2019 Current Affairs

President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the first-ever World Youth Conference. Which was organised by the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) at Vigyan Bhavan, Delhi. The theme of the conference was 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: Gandhi for the Contemporary World: Celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The conference was in commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi and aimed at providing youth with creative, effective methods of engaging and realising the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

During National Conference of Tourism Ministers, three new Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) and five new Letters of Intent (LoIs) to the prospective 'Monument Mitras'(private sector companies, public sector companies and individuals that adopt tourist sites become monument mitras) were handed over. Hindi version of the new Incredible India portal was launched. It was further announced that the Arabic, Chinese and Spanish versions of the new Incredible India website would be launched next month.

The Amazon Rainforest in particular is known as 'the Lungs of the World' because it sucks up global emissions of carbon dioxide, and about 20% of earth's oxygen is produced by the Amazonia.

Indian Railway's 2nd double-decker Uday (Utkrisht Double-Decker Air Conditioned Yatri) Express will run between Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. The train would consist of 9 double-decker coaches and 2 power cars

The Paper Currency Act of 1861 gave the Government the monopoly of note issued throughout the vast expanse of British India.

Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Chief Minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot will inaugurate this "Hunar Haat" at Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur. "Hunar Haat" has proved to be an effective programme to provide employment and employment opportunities to master artisans. More than 2 lakh 40 thousand master artisans, craftsmen and culinary experts have been provided employment and employment opportunities.

Russia has sent a humanoid robot to the International Space Station (ISS) on a 10-day mission. The aim is to support the astronauts on board. The name of the humanoid robot is Fedor. The Skybot F-850 became the first humanoid robot to be sent to space by Russia after it was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 22 August.The robot is travelling in an unmanned Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft. Fedor is expected to dock at the ISS on 23 August. The spacecraft holds more than 650kg of cargo, including medical supplies and food rations for the crew waiting at the station.

The Indian team of Sukhbeer Singh, Sangampreet Singh Bisla and Tushar Phadtare clinched a bronze medal in the junior compound men's team event in the World Archery Youth Championships in Madrid, Spain. They defeat Colombia's Jagdeep Teji Singh Mejia, Gomez Zuluaga Felipe and Toro Vasquez Manuel 234-231.

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh launched his government's flagship universal health insurance scheme - Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana - benefiting nearly 46 lakh families, in Mohali.

Union Minister for Home Affairs, Shri Amit Shah chaired the 24th meeting of the Western Zonal Council at Panaji (Goa) The dignitaries attending the meeting includes Chief Minister Gujarat, Shri Vijay Rupani, CM Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis, CM Goa, Dr. Pramod Sawant and Administrator of the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Shri Praful Patel and senior officers from the Central and State Governments.

Union Finance Ministry launched the Sabka Vishwas-Legacy Dispute Resolution Scheme 2019 recently. The Scheme will be implemented from September 1, 2019 and would continue till December 31, 2019. The scheme is aimed at dispute resolution and amnesty.

Russia launched the world's first floating nuclear reactor. The vessel weighs 21,000 tons and has two reactors with a capacity of 35 megawatts each. This reactor loaded with nuclear fuel, the Akademik Lomonosov left the Arctic port of Murmansk to begin its 5,000 kilometres (3,000-mile) voyage to Pevek in northeastern Siberia.

The Indian Government has opened 137 mountain peaks for foreigners desirous of obtaining Mountaineering Visa for mountaineering and trekking. These peaks are located in the States of J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim. The Ministry of State for Culture and Tourism also plans to open up more peaks to foreigners in New Delhi. The Ministry advised the States to exercise utmost caution while registering adventure tourism operators.

Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways and MSME launched the new website of his Ministry. The new website has a dashboard that gives data about highways construction, land acquisition, FASTags. The state-wise, month-wise data on registration of vehicles in the country. MoS, Road Transport & Highways, General (Retd) V K Singh, Secretary Shri Sanjeev Ranjan, NHAI Chairman Shri N.N.

The 2+2 intersessional and the Maritime Security Dialogue between India and the U.S. officials are being held in the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California. Aim: The intersessional meeting aims to strengthen the strategic partnership. The meeting will discuss ways to advance the security priorities and the cooperation on critical diplomatic between the countries including the shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Union Government is planning to launch an e-commerce portal named "Bharatcraft" for MSME's. The portal is based on other e-commerce portals like 'Alibaba' and 'Amazon'. The portal will provide a platform for MSMEs to market and sell their products and in turn boost the sector. The MSME Union Minister, the Bharat Craft portal has a huge potential to generate revenue worth 10 lakh crore in the next 2-3 years.

The MMR with a load-bearing capacity of 70 metric tonne (MT), was handed over to Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Devraj Anbu.It has been designed and developed by the Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES), which is DRDO's premier research laboratory. MMR: The MMR is designed and developed for the Indian Army for reducing Strategic Mobility time of mobilising Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV). Portable modular design with easy assembling and disassembling are the features of MMR.

Former Union finance minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley passed away. He was a lawyer by profession. He held the portfolios of Finance Ministry (May 2014 - May 2019), Corporate Affairs Ministry (26 May 2014 - 30 May 2019), Defence Ministry (13 March 2017 - 3 September 2017), and Minister of Information and Broadcasting (9 November 2014 - 5 July 2016).

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea by a Muslim body challenging the new triple talaq law. The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind moved the apex court on August 23, 2019 questioning the validity of the new triple talaq law.

Allahabad Bank, established in 1865 - Allahabad Bank is the oldest Public Sector Bank in India having branches all over India and serving the customers for the last 145 years.

The ten-day long festival lasts from 21st to 30th of November. The cultural celebrations showcases the uniqueness of the North Eastern State.

My Country My Life is an autobiographical book by L. K. Advani, an Indian politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004, and was the Leader of the Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha.

Google on August 23, 2019 announced that the Android Q version will now be known as 'Android 10', breaking its 10-year old tradition of naming Android versions after desserts or sweets.

India's 'Statue of Unity' and Soho House in Mumbai have been featured in the Time's list of 100 greatest places in the world. The Time magazine in its annual list of 2019, compiled a list of 100 greatest places in the world that are new and noteworthy destinations to experience.

Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy RK Singh recently approved a proposal to declare Ocean Energy as Renewable Energy. Energy produced using tidal, wave and ocean thermal energy conversion will be considered as Renewable Energy.

Former opener Vikram Rathour replace Sanjay Bangar as India's new batting coach while Bharath Arun and R. Sridhar retained as bowling and fielding coaches. The senior national selection committee headed by MSK Prasad. The commended three names each for all the support staff positions and the top names in each category appointed as a Conflict of Interest declaration.

An online forex marketplace, BookMyForex has partnered with YES Bank and card payment company Visa to launch a co-branded multi-currency forex travel card that will provide a smooth payments solution to Indians traveling abroad. They can load up to 10 currencies on the card. The forex travel card will be available to Customers on the BookMyForex platform and get doorstep delivery at free of cost across major cities in India. In order to promote the sale over currency notes, the platform will offer zero margin or exact inter-bank rates 24*7 on purchases made through the forex travel card. BookMyForex will also offer modern contactless cards that allow a user to simply tap their card on a POS machine, a must-have feature in countries like UK(United Kingdom) where some merchants only allow contactless payments.

India's First-Ever Institute Of Chemical Engineering And Technology To Be Setup In Gujarat. In a major development for the state of Gujarat, the Union Government will be opening up the nation's first-ever Central Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology (CICET) in the state.