Current Affairs - August 26, 2019 Current Affairs

US President Donald Trump expressed desire to buy Greenland. The Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen, who found the notion to be absurd, declined the offer. Trump, in fact, cancelled his scheduled visit to Denmark in September after the refusal.

Louis Fischer was an American journalist. Among his works were a contribution to the ex-Communist treatise The God that Failed, a Life of Mahatma Gandhi, basis for the Academy Award-winning film Gandhi, as well as a Life of Lenin, which won the 1965 National Book Award in History and Biography.

Lieutenant General Anil Puri completed France's oldest cycling event, 1,200km Paris-Brest-Paris circuit. He became the first serving Lieutenant General-rank officer of the Indian Army. Lt Gen Puri, the 56-year-old officer completed the event by cycling non-stop for 90 hours. 367 participants represented India. Around 80 successfully completed the trek. Six army personnel secured berths at the event for having completed at least one 1,000-km non-stop cycling event during their respective careers.

Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Harsh Vardhan has inaugurated the FSSAI's (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) first National Food Laboratory(NFL) - Delhi, NCR(National Capital Region) in Ghaziabad on the 13th anniversary of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The lab has been built with the P-P-P model(Public-Private-Partnership) & equipped with state-of-the-art collaborative training centers, namely the Food Safety Solution Centre (FSSC) and the Centre for Microbiological Analysis Training (C-MAT). The government has increased the number of food testing laboratories to 261 from 138 in 2014. Harsh Vardhan has launched 2 'Food Safety on Wheels' (FSW) vans to Uttar Pradesh which would cater to the food testing needs of Ghaziabad and Western Uttar Pradesh. There are 44 FSWs at present, which will be increased to 500 in future to support the states in ensuring food safety.

NITI Aayog has recently released report on the Composite Water Management Index 2.0 (CWMI 2.0) for reference year 2017-18 . Gujarat has been ranked first in the CWMI 2.0, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In North Eastern and Himalayan States, Himachal Pradesh has been adjudged No. 1 in 2017-18 followed by Uttarakhand, Tripura and Assam. The Union Territories have first time submitted their data and Puducherry has been declared as the top ranker. In terms of incremental change in index (over 2016-17 level), Haryana holds No. 1 position in general States and Uttarakhand ranks at first position amongst North Eastern and Himalayan States. On an average, 80% of the states assessed on the Index over the last 3 years have improved their water management scores, with an average improvement of +5.2 points.

Institution of Engineers (India) (IEI) has chosen Shri Prabhakar Singh, Director General of Central Public Works Department (CPWD) for the prestigious Eminent Engineer Award for the Year 2019. The award recognizes his distinguished and exemplary service in the field of Engineering and Technology. He will be awarded on the Engineers Day on September 15, 2019, in New Delhi.

The first-ever World Youth Conference for Kindness has been inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. It organized by the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP). 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. Its purpose is to provide youth with creative, effective methods of engaging and in realizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It sought inspiration from Gandhi's championing of non-violence. The conference hosted 60 international delegates from over 27 countries, each of whom work in the field of positive social change.

Iceland unveiled a plaque to its Okjokull ice sheet, the first of the country's hundreds of glaciers to melt away due to climate change. Scientists see the shrinking of glaciers as one of many warning signs that the earth's climate is lurching toward dangerous tipping points.

Actor Shah Rukh Khan launched heritage postal stamp of Bandra station on the completion of 150 years of the railway station. Ashish Shelar, minister of School Education, Sports and Youth Welfare of Maharashtra present at the Bandra station. King Khan shared his fetish of writing letters. Indian actor, film producer, Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) introduced heritage postal stamp of Bandra station in Mumbai, Maharashtra on the completion of 150 years of the railway station.

Vikram Rathour Vikram Rathour has been appointed as the new batting coach of India's men's cricket team by the BCCI.

Rajiv Gauba is a 1982 batch Indian Administrative Service officer belonging to Jharkhand cadre. He is the current Home Secretary of India and will be the next Cabinet Secretary of India from the end of August 2019

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change has announced that it is to relax the mandatory charging of lease rent of Rs. 30,000/- per Mega Watt (MW) for wind power projects. The announcement was made by the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar at a review held in New Delhi. The step by the Ministry aims to boost investment in wind power projects. It will also help in providing wind power at a cheaper rate. The government aims to meet maximum energy requirement by tapping renewal energy resources. It also plans to achieve the target of clean energy in a time-bound manner, various policies and regulations are being constantly updated. The move will help in providing wind power at a cheaper rate & also strengthen India's commitments towards International Agreements such as National Commitment pledged in Paris in December 2015, which was to have 40% of the power from renewable resources by 2030.x

Kalyan Krishnamurthy is continuing to act as CEO after its acquistion by Walmart.

The Minister of Finance Sinisa Mali of Serbia, announced membership with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank(AIIB). By this membership, Serbia officially becomes the 73rd non-regional member of the AIIB after completing all procedures and met all the conditions for membership after passing a bill on approval of the AIIB Articles of Agreement and depositing the Instrument of Accession and the first capital installment with the bank.

English-language monthly magazine 'Euromoney' has named DBS bank as the 'World's Best Bank'. DBS as of now is the only bank in the world to concurrently hold three global best bank awards. Previously it won Global Finance's "Best Bank in the World" in August 2018 and The Banker's "Bank of the Year - Global" in November 2018. it also marks the first time an Asian-headquartered bank has been named "World's Best Bank" by Euromoney since 1993.

India's Komalika Bari became recurve cadet world champion at the World Archery Youth Championships in Madrid, Spain. She defeated higher-ranked Sonoda Waka of Japan 7-3 in the final. India also won a gold in the compound junior mixed pair event and a bronze in the compound junior men's team.

Private sector lender Bandhan Bank has entered into the partnership with multinational banking and financial services company, Standard Chartered Bank to provide co-branded credit cards to its 40 lakh savings bank account holders across the 1,000 branches of Bandhan. The co-branded cards are available in three variants. It includes,(i) One- for the mass market,(ii) Plus- for the affluent segment and(iii) Xclusive- for the premium segment. The credit period offered will be of 52 days. As part of this partnership, Standard Chartered Bank will take the risk of credit failure & Bandhan Bank will be responsible for identifying and issuing cards to its customers.

Indian badminton and World number five PV Sindhu won gold at the BWF World Championships 2019. She became the first-ever Indian badminton player to win a gold medal at the event. PV Sindhu defeated world number four Nozomi Okuhara of Japan and secured 21-7, 21-7. This is her fifth medal at the world championships. With this, she has become only the fourth singles player ever to have a full set of world championship medals.

The Government of India (GoI) has recently notified the Sabka Vishwas - Legacy Dispute Resolution Scheme 2019 to reduce legacy service tax and central excise cases in the pre-GST era. The scheme will be operationalized from 1st September 2019 & would continue till 31st December 2019. The two main components of the Scheme are dispute resolution and amnesty. The most attractive aspect of the scheme is that it provides substantial relief in tax dues for all categories of cases as well as full waiver of interest, fine and penalty. For all the cases pending in adjudication or appeal - in any forum - this Scheme offers a relief of 70% from the duty demand if it is Rs.50 lakhs or less and 50% if it is more than Rs. 50 lakhs. It's main purpose is to settle pending indirect tax disputes. The scheme is especially tailored to free the large number of small taxpayers of their pending disputes with the tax administration.

Bank of India is the first Indian bank to open branch outside India at London in 1946. Bank of India (BoI) is a commercial bank with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

The first Danish East India Company was chartered in 1616 under King Christian IV and focused on trade with 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.

Harvard researchers have developed metalens, an electronic flat lens that works like the human eye. The technology used in the new artificial eye will revolutionize the lenses used in cameras, VR/AR headsets and eyewear. The special features of the lens include simultaneous focus, control of aberrations caused by astigmatisms and image shifts. The Lens demonstrates the feasibility of embedded optical zoom and autofocus for a wide range of applications, including cell phone cameras. It uses tiny nanostructures to focus light and hence the entire visible light spectrum at a single point.

Kempegowda International Airport(Bengaluru) has emerged as the second fastest growing airport in the world, according to a Survey from Routesonline, a Global Airlines Event's Organiser

The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Shri Piyush Goyal addressed the International dialogue on South-South and Triangular Cooperation that was held in New Delhi. Reforms to be taken on World Trade Organisation(WTO) by all the member countries was the key topic addressed. The South-South and Triangular Cooperation organised by Research and Information System (RIS) and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation(UNOSSC). The member countries of WTO were asked to engage in rule-based, transparent, and non-discriminatory governance required for free trade in a non-discriminatory manner, keeping in mind the interests of member countries with disparate (essentially different in kind) GDP. The world economy is more likely to fall into a recession if not taken measures on the protectionism policies followed by the member countries which affects the trade engagement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with the Maldives' highest honour "Rule of Nishan Izzuddeen" on 8 June 2019 during his two-day state visit to the country. The prestigious award was presented to Modi by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih during a ceremony.

Dr. Ajay Sahai is the CEO of FIEO(Federation of Indian Export Organisation).

Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar has inaugurated the National Centre for Avian Ecotoxicology at Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural Sciences (SACON) in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The centre would study the movement of environmental contaminants such as pesticides, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls and drugs through the food chain, and their harmful effects on birds.