Current Affairs - August 12, 2020 Current Affairs

President of Peru(Republic of Peru) Martin Vizcarra appointed Walter Roger Martos Ruiz, the former defense minister and retired army general, as the country's new Prime Minister. He succeeds Pedro Alvaro Cateriano Bellido . The swearing-in ceremony took place at the Government Palace in Lima.

On 9th August 2020, In an event of International Day of World's Indigenous Peoples Chief Minister (CM) of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel announced the launch of "Indira Van Mitan Yojana", an initiative to support the forest dwellers of Chhattisgarh to achieve self-reliance. The scheme aims to add around 19 lakh families from the scheduled areas of Chhattisgarh and provide self-employment opportunities to the tribal forest dwellers.

Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) is set to name its new stadium in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh, Punjab after the late Maharaja Yadavindra Singh. PCA President Rajinder Gupta proposed the idea to name the stadium and it had been approved.

On 9th August 2020, Piyush Vedprakash Goyal, Union Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry and Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal & Mines dedicated the Railway Museum at Hubballi, Karnataka to the Nation in the event over a video conference presided by Suresh Angadi Channabasappa, Minister of State for Railways.

SBM Bank (India) Limited (SBM Bank India) has collaborated with InstaReM to enhance the existing outbound remittance service offerings from India, including introduction of new remittance corridors, increased frequency of transactions for outbound Transactions and improved delivery timings for transfers.

National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched 'nth Rewards', a business intelligence and analytics enabled omni-channel multi-branded loyalty platform. This platform enables users to earn 'nth' (denoting infinite possibilities) points through various bank transactions and redeem them instantly on various products, such as e-vouchers, donations, hotel and flight bookings.

On August 10, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated and dedicate to the Nation, submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands (A&NI) through video conferencing. This connectivity will enable delivery of faster mobile and landline telecom services to A&NI, at par with other parts of India. The Submarine OFC cable has been laid at a cost of about Rs 1224 Crore.

The International Financial Corporation(IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has committed to invest Rs 75 crore (about USD 10million) in Endiya Partners Fund II. In addition to this, IFC has also committed an additional USD 10 million for direct co-investments.

On August 9, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Central Sector Scheme (CSS) of financing facility under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs. 1 lakh crore via video conferencing. In this regard, the first sanction of over Rs. 1000 Crore was made to over 2,280 farmer societies. The duration of the scheme is 10 years i.e. from FY2020 to FY2029.

Indian Institutes of Technology(IIT) Kanpur in collaboration with Agnys Waste Management Private Limited (start-up at IIT Kanpur) developed indigenous seed balls named 'BEEG' (Biocompost Enriched Eco Friendly Globule). This will help to safeguard people and farmers in plantations during the COVID-19 times. The initiative is guided by Prof. J. Ramkumar.

The United Nations(UN's) International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is annually observed on 9th August by the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indegenous Issues with the UN and its member states to promote the rights of the indigenous population around the world. The International Day of the World's Indigenous People also known as World Tribal Day.

Former Indian Defender and former Mohun Bagan club captain Laishram Manitombi Singh was suffering from a prolonged illness and breathed his last on August 09, 2020 in his native village near Imphal, Manipur.

On 8th August 2020, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Central Government have extended its Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), credit guarantee scheme for the micro, small and medium enterprises(MSME), to cover the loans given to the large firms, self-employed professionals and people who have taken a loan for business purpose.

Red Bull's 22 years old driver Max Emilian Verstappen from Netherland had won F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, United Kingdom and became the first non-Mercedes driver to win a race in the 2020.

Financial Services Platform, Capital India Finance Limited (CIFL) has appointed Ex-NABARD Chief Harsh Kumar Bhanwala as its Executive Chairman. Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala took charge as Executive Chairman from August 06, 2020.

On August 8, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra (RSK) an interactive experience centre on the Swachh Bharat Mission, at the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti at Rajghat, New Delhi in the presence of Gajendra Singh Shekhavat, Union Minister of Jal Shakti and Rattan Lal Kataria, Minister of State (MoS) of Jal Shakti. He dedicated the RSK as a permanent tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

On 9th August 2020, Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister of Haryana launched the anti-bullying campaign of the FAridabad Police over their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter page with username @FBDpolice to report any form of bullying in the schools, colleges, neighbourhood, home and workplace and to implement the targeted programs to counter bullying.

On August 9, 2020, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), Ministry of Defence (MoD) decided to restrict import of 101 weapons and military platforms, the embargo on which is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 and 2024, in order to boost indigenous defence manufacturing on the lines of "Atmanirbhar Bharat". The announcement for the same was made by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has named Mohamed Ould Bilal as the 16th Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania on August 06, 2020. Mohamed Ould Bilal belongs to the political party of Union for the Republic (UPR). He has served as Political Advisor and headed several state agencies.

On August 5, 2020 Andhra Pradesh(AP) Government signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with US based, The Boston Group(TBG) to set up a facility at Visakhapatnam dedicated to Research and Development (R&D) in the Information Technology sector with focus on learning platforms and also leveraging advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and cybersecurity.