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INDIAN AFFAIRS
Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation Organizing One Month Campaign for “Freedom from Open Defecation”
i. A month-long Swachh Bharat special campaign with the theme of “Freedom from Open Defecation” is being organized by The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (Cabinet Minister – Narendra Singh Tomar) throughout this August.
ii. In the month of August, totally 8 days have been dedicated to the swachh bharat campaign in order to demote the open defecation prevalence in India
Rajasthan becomes first state to approve sewage & waste water policy business standard
i. Vasundhara Raje led BJP government in the Rajasthan becomes the first state in the country to give nod to sewage and waste water policy. This is the first of its kind policy.
ii. Upon this policy treated waste water will be used in irrigation and agricultural purpose. It also covers requirement of next 30 years under the policy.
iii. This policy encompasses all district headquarters, heritage cities, and cities in the state which have more than one lakh population.
iv.It also making compulsory that every household to connect with sewage system in those cities which have 100% sewage system.
Rajasthan
♦ Capital: Jaipur
♦ Chief Minister: Vasundhara Raje
♦ Governor: Kalyan Singh
Arunachal Pradesh CM inducts 10 Cabinet ministers
i. Arunachal Pradesh’s ninth Chief Minister Pema Khandu expanded his Cabinet by including 10 ministers. Upon the move the state governor Tathagata Roy administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed ministers.
ii. The inducted ministers are Tanga Byaling, Rajesh Tacho, Nabam Rebia, Honchun Ngandam, Wangki Lowang, Kamlung Mossang, Tapang Taloh, Kumar Waii, Takam Pario and Jomde Kena.
iii. The state has 60 members of which the Congress now claims the support of 47 MLAs, including two Independents. The effective strength of the state is 58.
Arunachal Pradesh
♦ Capitals: Guwahati (Judiciary), Itanagar
♦ Chief Minister: Pema Khandu
♦ Governor: Tathagata Roy
Andhra Pradesh signs MoU with Japan to develop food value chain
i. Andhra Pradesh government has inked a MoU with Japan’s Agriculture Ministry and Foresty and Fisheries Dept to develop food chain value.
ii. The Food chain to be developed in AP with japan’s investments in the state in the fields of agriculture and food-related industry.
iii. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of japan also pledged to make a food industrial parks and develop cold chains.
iv. The state is a front runner in agri-business with a major involvement in agriculture, horticulture, dairy, poultry, fisheries and marine production.
Andhra Pradesh
♦ Capitals: Amaravati, Hyderabad
♦ Chief Minister: Chandrababu Naidu
♦ Governor: E. S. L. Narasimhan.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Maoist leader Prachanda set to become Nepal PM after signing pact with Madhesis
Nepal Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka “Prachanda”is all set to become the Prime Minister of Nepal for the second time as he filed his nomination. His appointment is hoping to be the best after receiving important backing from the opposing Madhesis by signing a three-point pact.
i. Pushpa Kamal Daha lalso known as Prachanda, is the prime ministerial candidate of Nepal and holds the post of chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre).
ii. Dahal is also widely known by his nom de guerre “Prachanda”, a name he went by during his guerrilla days. In Nepali and some other Indo-Aryan languages languages, the word Prachanda is an adjective that translates to “fierce”
Japan gets a boost with new stimulus package of $275 billion
i. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled a new economic stimulus package worth more than $275 billion in order to get the conking economy back to form.
ii. This economic stimulus package has been approved the Diet, the Japnese parliament on August 2.
iii. The package includes 7.5tn yen in new spending for the national and local governments in the next two years and more than half of the money has been reserved for the current financial year.
iv. This stimulus package comes just days after the Bank of Japan eased monetary policy slightly and announced a plan to review its monetary stimulus programme in September.
v. This new idea has created much expectations among the counterparts and these raised expectations for so-called “helicopter money“, printing money to pay for government debt and this helicopter money is a concept still lured upon thus far, such coordination does make the first step in confusing the line as central banks run out of stimulus measures.
About Japan (Land of Rising Sun):
♦ Capital – Tokyo
♦ Currency – Yen
♦ PM – Shinzō Abe.
BUSINESS
AAE -1 nods for its India’s cable lining in a tie up with Reliance Jio at a cost of $6 million
Reliance Jio Infocom, the telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani Group’s Reliance Industries (RIL), has cleared the table for building the Indian part of the 20,000 km submarine cable, which is set to Africa to South Asia from the Asia Africa Europe One (AAE-1) cable system.
i. The CRZ clearance was given to the company subject to the compliance of the specific and general conditions and the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) under the ministry has granted the CRZ approval to the Reliance Jio Infocom’s project that envisages landing of the AAE-I submarine cable system at Versova beach in Mumbai.
ii. The cable will terminate in Mumbai at a Beach Man Hole (BMH) proposed to be located at a beach road connecting JP road to Versova Beach.
iii. The proposed AAE-1 cable system is to be completed this year. It aims at enhancing telecom connectivity, providing additional capacity and speed for international traffic.
Freecharge inks partnership with PayUbiz to tap online merchants
i. Snapdeal Owned e-commerce website Freecharge entered into partnership with Gurgaon based payment gateway solution provider PayUbiz to tab online business.
ii. The move will strengthen the Freecharge to merchant base and comfort consumers to move from cash to digital payments.
iii. Currently wallet used by freecharge customers being accepted by 10,000 merchants in the country additionally the move will strengthen the merchant scale.
iv. Through this initiative freecharge will also be able to gain new customers as it has broad scale of payment Options in its platform.
AXA Insurance products to reach all household through Alibaba & Ant Financial Services tie up for Insurance selling though E – Commerce Platform
i. Alibaba and Ant Financial Services made an agreement with AXA Insurance to engage in a global strategic partnership to explore opportunities to distribute AXA Insurance products and services through Alibaba’s global e-commerce platform.
ii. AXA is a French multinational insurance firm headquartered in Paris, that engages in global insurance, investment management, and other financial services.
iii. The AXA Group operates primarily in Western Europe, North America, the Asia Pacific region, and the Middle East, with presence also in Africa. AXA is a conglomerate of independently run businesses, operated according to the laws and regulations of many different countries.
iv. This three party agreement made with a clear statement that, these multi-national giants pledged to sell their value-added products and services to customers around the world and also to mutually support each other in developing and exploring new markets and segments.
v. This innovative initiative is a key part of Alibaba’s globalization strategy and its vision to enable small businesses and consumers alike to enjoy the convenience and benefits of e-commerce platform.
vi. Alibaba Group Holding Limitedis a Chinesee-commerce company that provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services via web portals. It also provides electronic payment services, a shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services.
vii. Ant Financial Services Group formerly known as Alipay, is an affiliate company of the Alibaba Group. It operates the Alipay payment platform. It also runs the Sesame Credit credit rating system.
BHEL commissions 500MW Marwa Thermal Power Station in Chhattisgarh
i. State run Power major Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited has successfully commissioned 500 MW thermal power unit in Marwa Power Station in Chhattisgarh. This is the second unit in the plant.
ii. Earlier the same power major has commissioned the Unit 1.The Plant has been set up by Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company (CSPGCL).
iii. In fact BHEL has 94% installed capacity of the state power arm including 3 hydro units in the state.
iv. The Scope of work in the commissioning includes design, Manufacture, supply and erection. It also includes commissioning of steam turbines, generators as well as boilers.
APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNS
Angela Ruggiero – New Chair person for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) athlete’s commission
IOC president Thomas Bach officially appointed Angela Ruggiero, an American ice hockey Olympic champion as the new chair person of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) athlete’s commission.
About Angela Ruggiero :
i. Angela Marie Ruggiero is an Americanice hockey defense man. Ruggiero was born in Panorama City, but grew up in Sylmar and Simi Valley, California.
ii. Angela Ruggiero is the current Vice-Chair of the Commission.
iii. She is a member of the International Olympic Committee and was a member of the United States women’s national ice hockey team, medaling in four successive Winter Olympic Games, including one Gold medal, two Silver, and one Bronze.
Deepak Iyer appointed Mondelez India managing director
i. American multinational confectionery, food, and beverage company Mondelez India has named Deepak iyer as its Managing Director for India operations.
ii. He replaces Chandramouli Venkatesan. Prior to his new appiontement he worked as CEO and MD of Bharti Axa General Insurance Company.
iii. Deepak will report to the Maurizio Brusadelli, EVP & President, Asia Pacific, He will also become the part of the team.
iv. Deepak had successful stints in Beverage major Pepsi for 17 years in different positions and in Wrigley India for some time.
BCCI appoints Markandey Katju to interact with Lodha Panel
i. Indian Cricket Administrating body BCCI has appointed former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju as the Panel head which comprises four members including him.
ii. The panel named with the intention of managing the complexity in the RM Lodha committee’s recommendations to reform the cricket board.
iii. Katju will be the head of the panel, he will be assisted by counsel of BCCI Abhinav Mukerjee, while the other two members would be picked in the post discussion at the SGM.
iv. The Panel will advise also interact with the Lodha committee on behalf of the BCCI. The decision has arrived in the working committee meeting of BCCI in Mumbai.
v. The BCCI also gave nod to play T20 matches against the West Indies in the United States of America, scheduled to play end of this month.
BCCI:
♦ Founded: December 1928
♦ President: Anurag Thakur
♦ Headquarters: Mumbai
East Central Railway gets its new General Manager Mr. D.K. Gayen
i. D.K. Gayen has been appointed as the new General Manager of East Central Railway of India.
ii. Gayen priorly worked in South Easter Railway at Kolkata as Chief Mechanical Engineer
iii. He is a 1979 batch officer of Indian Railway Service for Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) and he has been appointed as GM for ECR following the relieving of the additional charge of Rajeev Mishra, who was the one handling it before.
iv. The East Central Railway is one of the 16 railway zones in India and is headquartered at Hajipur and it comprises of Sonpur,Samastipur, Danapur, Mughalsarai, and Dhanbad divisions.
v. This zone came into existence on 8 September 1996 and fully operational since 1 October 2002.The administrative head of zone is called General Manager.This zone is spread over states of Bihar,Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
End of sunrises – Kerala Cabinet appoints V.S. Achuthanandan as the chairman of fourth Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission
i. Senior CPI(M) leader V.S. Achuthanandan has been appointed as the chairman of the fourth Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission with a Cabinet rank by the Pinarayi Vijayan led Kerala Cabinet.
ii. Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan born in 20 October 1923 is an Indian politician who was Chief Minister of Kerala from 2006 to 2011. He has been Leader of the Opposition in Kerala since 2011.
iii. He was also a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) beginning in 1985, and until July 2009, when he was reverted to the Central Committee of the party owing to his ideological dispositions.
iv. Achuthanandan was one of the founding leaders of the CPI (M)in India, and has played a major role in building the party cadre in the state of Kerala.
v. The Kerala cabinet also appointed former Chief Secretaries C.P. Nair and Neela Gangadharan as members of the Commission.
vi. It is noted that Kerala has three Administrative Reforms Commissions since its formation in 1956.
♦ The first Commission, under the chairmanship -.M.S. Namboodiripad, in 1957
♦ The second Commission under Shri. – K. Vellodi, ICS in 1965.
♦ The third one was submitted in 2000-2001.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Himachal TCP dept launches citizen governance mobile App – HIM TCP
i. In order to regularize the deviations based on the suggestions given by the people and public representatives, Himachal government is going to amend the Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning Act during the upcoming Vidhan Sabha session of its state assembly.
ii. On promoting citizen-centric governance efforts of the department, now it would be able to take action on different issues like monitoring new and pending applications, No-Objection Certificates, handling payments, issuing notifications and scheduled inspections.
iii. The state government also launched a citizen governance mobile App-HIM TCP of the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department to take vital services like online registration and building plan permission approvals.
iv. It is noted that in order to streamline its services as per the aspirations of the people, a similar app would also be developed soon for urban local bodies to make available the birth and death certificates, NOCs and payment of electricity, water bills and taxes.
Himachal Pradesh
♦ Capital – Shimla
♦ CM – Virbhadra Singh.
FAA permits license for Virgin Galactic for its innovative initiative of introducing and testing Space
i. On its attempt to introduce space tourism, Virgin Galactic has received its operator license from the US Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA-AST).
ii. The FAA inspected the vehicle’s system design, safety features and flight trajectory analysis and obtaining this operator license is an important milestone for Virgin Galactic, the first Space Tourism provider.
iii. Virgin Galactic is a spaceflight company within the Virgin Group. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists, suborbital launches for space science missions, and orbital launches of small satellites.
iv. Virgin Galactic is going to employ Space Ship Two, a reusable spacecraft capable of carrying eight passengers and two pilots. To get off the ground, it’s first lifted to an altitude of 15,000 meters (50,000 feet) by a specially designed jet aircraft called White Knight Two.
v. The FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Licenses also advised Virgin to report on their current engine software, hardware, and performances during tests before they are allowed any people on board during a spaceflight.
China tests heavy motor for space rockets
i. China has successfully tested its largest solid-fuel motor that can be used in heavy space rockets for future deep space missions in the northwest city of Xian.
ii. The solid fuel rocket motor comes with three meter dia that can ran for 100 seconds after ignition. It will be used in heavy lift and large rockets used in deep space explorations and manned moon landing operations.
iii. This type of engines will have fuel that burns very quickly but does not explode they are faster in nature. The motor is test comes months before the largest carrier rocket, the Long March 5 launch.
N Korea fires missile into Japan waters for first time
i. North Korea blasted off a ballistic Missile for the first time that landed in Japanese-controlled waters posing a grave threat to the Japan.
ii. The tested ballistic missile was launched off the North’s east coast that landed in Japan Sea after travelling about 1,000km. Japan defence side said that there were two missiles landed.
iii. The missile is set be the one of the North Korea’s longest launches till date, the country had been suspended by UN recently for developing nuclear and ballistic missile technology.
iv. The Act has been condemned by Japan, Japan sources said that the other missile landed inside its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) – the 200 nautical miles of its right zone.
SPORTS
Rio Olympic craze starts – Govt. unveils Wall Of Wishes and Digital Campaign to cheer the Indian Olympic Contingent
i. In order to cheer up the Olympic mood in India, Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports Shri Vijay Goel along with the Renowned sports star Mary Kom unveiled the ‘Wall of Wishes’ at India Gate Lawns.
ii. This wish board is set up in order to sway the students and youth, to visit India Gate in large numbers and sign their wishes at the ‘Wall of Wishes’ to cheer the Indian athletes at Rio Olympics.
iii. In an another step in promoting Rio Olympics, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports is holding an exhibition on August 5 at the Central Park in Connaught Place, New Delhi where the students, children and youth can know about the Olympics history and participating players.
iv. Mr. Vijay Goel also launched Digital Campaign for general public to wish Indian Olympic team for their best in the Rio Games.
v. The Minister also asked in the Indian supporters to join digital campaign launched by changing their Twitter profile picture,tweet #KheloIndia to @indiasportstocheer and demonstrate their solidarity with the Indian players in true Olympic Spirit.
vi. It is noted that Youngsters can also send their wishes for the Indian Olympic Team on the Narendra Modi Mobile App (NM APP)
OBITUARY
Father of Femto Chemistry – Ahemd Zewail passed away
i. Egyptian-American Ahmed Zewail, a renowned Nobel Prize recipient for chemistry and the first US science envoy to the Middle East passed away at the age of 70 on August 2.
ii. Ahmed Hassan Zewail born on February 26, 1946 in Daman hour, Egypt and was raised in Desouk. He was an Egyptian-American scientist, known as the “father of femtochemistry“.
iii. He won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry and became the first Arab to win a Nobel Prize in a scientific field.
iv. Femto chemistry is the study of chemical reactions across femtoseconds (approximately 10−15 seconds). Using a rapid ultrafast laser technique, the technique allows the description of reactions on very short time scales – short enough to analyse transition states in selected chemical reactions.
v. Zewail received the Albert Einstein World Award of Science for his pioneering development of the new field femtoscience and for his seminal contributions to the revolutionary discipline of physical biology.
vi. It is noted that he also has won the King Faisal award in 1989 and Zewail city of science and technology is named in his honour. Zewail also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University.
