We are here for you to provide the important current affairs of August 6 2017 which have unique updates of all daily events from all newspapers such as The Hindu, The Economic Times, PIB, Times of India, India Today, Indian Express, Business Standard, all Government official websites. Our complete current affairs helps you to get more marks in Banking, insurance, UPSC, SSC, CLAT, Railway and all other competitive Exams.
- Daily Current Affairs
- Try our Current Affairs Quiz 2017
- Read Our 2017 Current Affairs
- Current Affairs 2017 August
INDIAN AFFAIRS
Delhi police ties up with Uber to enhance women safety
The Delhi Police has tied up with Uber for enhancing the women safety. Commuters can now access the Delhi Polices women safety mobile application Himmat via cab aggregator Ubers application while travelling in taxis.
Key Points:
i. Through this technology it enables a robust surveillance network and Himmat app provides quick assistance to women in distress.
ii. Since its launch in January 2015, according to the current data around 90,000 people have downloaded the “Himmat” application and it currently has over 31,000 registered users.
iii. Through this partnership with Ubermore women riders in Delhi will be sensitised about the availability of this assistance at hand.
iv. In addition to the emergency button in the Uber app, riders will now have one more touch point to access the police helpline in case of an emergency.
v. In the first phase of the partnership, Uber will develop a permanent in-app access for Himmat app, including a link to download it from the app store.
vi. The second phase will allow users to directly access the Himmat app from within the Uber app.
vii. It will also strengthen the safety net available to lakhs of women riders.
About Himmat App
♦ Himmat is women safety mobile application of Delhi Police.
♦ It was launched by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on 1st January 2015.
♦ The app is freely available for Android mobile phones and can be downloaded from Delhi Police website.
Assam Government all set to distribute 13 lakh Soil Health cards among farmers
The state government of Assam has decided to distribute 13 lakh Soil Health Cards among farmers.
Key Notes:
i. About 1 lakh 41 thousand cards have already been distributed between April 2016 and June 2017.
ii. Agriculture minister Atul Bora has mentioned that 214 soil test kits are operational for this purpose and that the government would soon be announcing a State Agriculture policy.
iii. The emphasis has been given to successfully implement PradhanMantriKrishiSichaiYojna in the state.
iv. Under crop insurance the state government has also released a sum of Rs 7.54 Cr as subsidy to farmers.
v. The govt. has sanctioned 600 crore rupees for Prime Minister AwasYojna Urban scheme in Assam.
About Assam
♦ Capital: Dispur
♦ Governor: Banwarilal Purohit
♦ CM: Sarbananda Sonowal
Mughalsarai Railway station in Uttar Pradesh renamed after Deen Dayal Upadhyay
The Yogi Adityanath cabinet in Uttar Pradesh has approved a proposal to rename the Mughalsarai railway station near Varanasi after the Jan Sangh leader who died in 1968.
Key Notes:
i. The centre has approved a proposal to rename the Mughalsarai railway station in Uttar Pradesh after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.
ii. The decision is a part of Adityanath government’s celebrations to mark the centenary of Upadhyay competitions at district and state level.Here is a list of some of the railway stations that have been renamed recently by the government:
a) Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus: The name of the famous Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai was recently changed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus this year by Central Railways.
b) Elphinstone Road: The Western Railways this year has changed the name of Elphinstone Road Station in Mumbai to Prabhadevi.
c) Bangalore city railway station: The Central government has approved the notice to rename Bangalore City Railway station to “Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna” in honour of Karnataka’s 19th century revolutionary freedom fighter in 2015.
d) Mhow railway station: The Central government in July 2016 gave its approval to rename Mhow Railway station in Indore district of Madhya Pradesh after Dalit leader B R Ambedkar.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Chabbar Port will start operations by 2018: Nitin Gadkari
The Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is keen on developing Chabahar Port in Iran and is hopeful of starting operations by 2018.
Key Points:
i. The Indian Government has allocated Rs 6 billion for the development of the port.
ii. Out of this, tenders worth Rs 380 Crore for equipment have already been finalized.
iii. Shri Gadkari also informed that civil construction work has already started at the Chabahar Port.
iv. Chabahar Port will boost trade and business between the two countries and in the region.
v. Iran’s Chabahar port located in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province on the south-eastern coast is a port of great strategic utility for India.
vi. It lies outside the Persian Gulf and is accessed from India’s western coast.
vii. India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 
million on a 10-year lease.
viii. The MoU was signed between India and Iran in May 2016.
About Iran
♦ Capital: Tehran
♦ President: Hassan Rouhani
♦ Vice President: EshaqJahangiri
Indian Navy band joins historic Edinburgh Military Tattoo
A 66-member Indian Navy band has joined the historic Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in the UK announced on 5th of August 2017.
Key Points:
i. Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will join for this year’s musical event where they will mark the 70thyear of India’s Independence.
ii. The Indian Band will appear with an arrangement of colourful dancers, comprises one officer and 65 musician-sailors.
iii. The Indian band invited to mark the 70th year of Indian independence and the India-UK Year of Culture.
iv. They will be performing under the baton of Commander Vijay Charles DCruz, Director of Music (Navy) and the principal conductor at the event.
v. The theme for this year’s week-long event, which runs until August 26, is titled Splash of Tartan, celebrating Scotland’s Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology.
vi. There will be a total of 25 shows on the Esplanade of the Edinburgh Castle, with each show attracting a cast of over 1,200 musicians and other players.
vii. Each show will have an audience of around 8,800 delivering an approximate total audience of 220,000 through the month of August.
viii. In addition, the global television audience is estimated to reach between 100 and 300 million people.
ix. It will also include the participants from Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Malta, Monaco and the US, and 20 bands from Britain.
About Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
♦ The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is an annual series of military tattoos performance of music by British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and international military bands and artistic performance teams of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.
♦ It was first staged in 1950 and since then British and international musicians and acts from over 50 countries have entertained audiences.
BANKING & FINANCE
MobiKwik partners Bajaj Finance for Larger financial service pie
In a bid to emerge as a top consumer finance brand in the digital space, mobile wallet major MobiKwik has entered into a strategic partnership with Bajaj Finance to transform itself into a financial services app from a payments app at present.
Details about Mobikwik-Bajaj Finance Partnership:
i. Under this partnership, Bajaj Finance has picked up 10.83 per cent equity stake in MobiKwik for about Rs. 225 crore and will offer its lending (purchase finance, credit card, mortgage loans and personal loans) and insurance products to be sold through the MobiKwik app.
ii. MobiKwik, which currently has a user base of 55 million, will, through this partnership, 
get immediate access to about 100 million customers of Bajaj Finance.
iii. From a combined customer base of 155 million today, MobiKwik will aim to offer financial services to 300 million users in the next couple of years.
iv. For MobiKwik, the capital from Bajaj Finance will be its fourth round of funding. This will be the first time that capital is being raised from a listed domestic investor/corporate house. All the earlier rounds came from foreign investors.
BUSINESS
Government revises the base year of All-India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) from 2004-05 to 2011-12
On August 4, 2017, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs stated that Government has revised the base year of All-India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) from 2004-05 to 2011-12.
i. In the revised series, WPI will continue to constitute three Major Groups namely Primary Articles, Fuel & Power and Manufactured Products.
ii. The new series has 697 items as compared to 676 items in old series and is more representative with increase in number of quotations from 5482 to 8331.
APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNS
Venkaiah Naidu elected as 13th Vice-President of India
BJP-led National Democratic Alliance nominee and former Union Minister, M Venkaiah Naidu has been elected as the 13th Vice President of India. He will take oath as new Vice-President of India on August 11, 2017 and will thereby become the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
i. Over 98% poll percentage was recorded in the Vice-Presidential election 2017.771 out of 785 MPs voted in the election, however 11 votes were found to be invalid.
ii. Mukul Pandey was the assistant returning officer for Vice-Presidential 2017.
Economist Rajiv Kumar to be the new Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog
Rajiv Kumar has been appointed the new Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog on 5th of August 2017. He is an economist who has served in a wide variety of roles in government, think-tanks, international organizations, industry associations and academia.
Key Points:
i. Vinod Paul has been appointed as a member of the NITI Aayog. He is a doctor by profession. Paul is a paediatrician at AIIMS, and is known to have done substantial work in public health.
ii. Kumar is a senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and also a chancellor of the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics in Pune.
iii. He is the founding director of Pahle India Foundation, an organisation that specialises in policy-oriented research and analysis.
iv. He has also served as Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), and chief economist of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).
v. He has also written articles and books about the politics and governance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
vi. He was a member of the Indian government’s National Security Advisory Board between 2006 and 2008.
vii. He presently sits on the boards of several international and national institutions, including the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and Asia in Jakarta, the State Bank of India, and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
viii. He has also served as an economic adviser in the Finance Ministry and as an independent director in the Reserve Bank of India.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
NASA’s Curiosity rover marks 5 years of mars exploration
NASA’s Curiosity rover which found evidence that ancient Mars had the fair conditions to support microbial life has marked five years of exploring the red planet.
Key Notes:
i. The rover that landed at the Gale Crater- an ancient lake is now examining clues on Mount Sharp.
ii. The Mountain found in the middle of the crater about long ago lakes on Mars.
iii. On August 5th2012, the mission team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, 
California, elevated at radio confirmation and first images from Curiosity after the rover’s touchdown using a new “sky crane” landing method.
iv. The transmissions at the speed of light took nearly 14 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth, which that day were about 248 million kilometres apart.
v. The mission accomplished its main goal in less than a year, before reaching the mountain.
vi. An ancient lake environment on this part of Mars offered the conditions needed for life which include fresh water, other key chemical ingredients and an energy source.
vii. Curiosity’s international science team concluded that habitable conditions lasted for at least millions of years.
About NASA
♦ NASA was formed on 29th July 1958
♦ HQ: Washington D.C. USA
♦ NASA is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.
IIT Delhi team develops a new antibacterial drug-delivery system
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi have tested a new antibiotic drug-delivery system that improves the efficacy of drugs thereby reducing the dosage used for treating bacterial infections.
i. A peptide called sushi-peptide, which has not been approved for clinical use, bound to gold nanoparticles was able to kill coli and Salmonella typhi more efficiently at lower dosages.
ii. The peptide in a free form may not be available as it gets degraded relatively fast.
iii. Besides normal cells infected with bacteria, the peptide bound to nanoparticles will be particularly useful in the case of cancer patients suffering from bacterial infections.
Sri Lankan Navy commissions India-built AOPV
Sri Lankan Navy has commissioned an India-built state-of-the-art Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV) announced on 5th of August 2017.
Key Points:
i. It is the first-ever purchase from a foreign ship builder, to boost its search and rescue capabilities.
ii. It is the largest vessel built by an Indian ship builder for a foreign navy.
iii. Sri Lankan President and Armed Forces commander-in-chief Maithripala Sirisena commissioned the new patrol vessel “SLNS Sayurala” at a ceremony at the Eastern Container Terminal of the Port of Colombo.
iv. SLNS Sayurala is the first-ever brand new platform purchased from a foreign ship builder and tailored for the specific requirements of the SriLanka Navy (SLN). It is built at the Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) in India.
v. It will conduct patrols, policing, surveillance, reconnaissance, search and rescue, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) and pollution control missions in Sri Lanka’s maritime zones.
vi. It is a105.7 metre-long and 13.6 meter-wide vessel and can also be used for external fire-fighting missions.
“SLNS Sayurala” has several features like:
♦ It has a range of modern facilities and advanced technological instrument.
♦ It is capable of achieving the maximum speed of 26 knots and cruising speed of 12-14 knots.
♦ It has a displacement of 2,350 tonnes.
vii. It will provide with a landing facility and hangar for an advanced light helicopter (ALH), the vessel can accommodate a total of 118 crew members.
viii .The second AOPV is currently under construction in India and is slated to join the SLN fleet by next year.
SPORTS
Vijender Singh won WBO Oriental Super Middleweight title
On August 5, 2015, Boxer Vijender Singh of India defeated China’s Zulpikar Maimaitiali to win the unified WBO Asia Pacific and Oriental Super Middleweight title in Mumbai.
i. This was Vijender Singh’s ninth successive win in his professional career.
ii. Vijender dominated the fight, most of the time by using his height and greater reach to good effect.
iii. This was the first defeat of Zulpikar’s professional career. Known for his ability to knockout opponents, Zulpikar from China was undefeated in his previous nine professional bouts. He had won eight of those — several of them by knockouts — while one bout was undecided.
iv. Earlier, on the same day, Indian boxers did well in the undercard bouts with 2006 Commonwealth Games champion Akhil Kumar, Jitender Kumar, Asad Asif, Kuldeep Dhanda, Dharmender Grewal, Pardeep Kharera winning their respective fights.
Usain Bolt finishes 3rd in World Athletics Championship
Usain Bolt has finished third in his final individual event at the World Athletics Championships on 6th of August 2017.
Key Notes:
i. The 16th World Athletics Championship 2017 is going on at London from 4th of August to 13th of August.
ii. Justin Gatlin from USA has received gold and Bolt had to settle for Bronze in 100 m Final.
iii. Justin Gatlin has won with a time of 9.92 as Bolt came third in 9.95.
iv. American Christian Coleman took silver with 9.94 having beaten Bolt in the semi-finals.
v. In 2017 Women’s 50 Km walk has been added.
About World Athletics Championship
♦ The IAAF World Championships commonly referred to as the World Championships in Athletics, is a biennial athletics event organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
♦It is originally held every four years, first in 1983, the current two-year cycle began in 1991
Manju Kumari and Veer Dev Gulia wins bronze in Junior World Wrestling Championships
India’s Manju Kumari clinched the bronze medal in women’s 59kg category of the Junior World Wrestling Championship in Tampere, Finland.
i. Manju registered a 2-0 victory over Ilona Prokopevniuk of Ukraine in her bronze medal play-off bout to finish on the podium.
ii. En route to her third-place finish, Manju had started off her campaign with a dominating 
5-1 victory over Bulgaria’s Aleksandrina Nikolaeva Kashinova in the 1/8 stage, before she was outclassed 0-10 by Japan’s Yuzuru Kumano in her quarterfinal round.
iii. In the men’s 74kg freestyle category at the Junior World Wrestling Championships, Veer Dev Gulia won bronze medal after defeating Yamasaki Yajuro of Japan by 8 -5 in the bronze medal play-off bout.
iv. Gulia had started well by beating Johann Christoph Steinforth of Germany by 6-2 in the 1/8 stage, but he lost in the quarterfinals 0-11 to the
Uzbek wrestler Isa Shapiev.
IMPORTANT DAYS
Hiroshima Day – August 6 2017
On 6 August 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb called “Little Boy” on Hiroshima in Japan. Three days later a second atomic bomb “Fat Man” was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. These are the only times nuclear weapons have been used in war.
Key Notes:
i. Japan has observed the 72nd anniversary of the atomic bomb attack in Hiroshima on 6th of August 2017.
ii. In the morning of 6th August 1945, the world witnessed the devastating impact of nuclear weapons for the very first time on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
iii. The firestorm in Hiroshima ultimately destroyed 13 square kilometres (5 square miles) of the city.
iv. The estimates of total deaths in Hiroshima have ranged between 100,000 and 180,000, out of a population of 350,000.
v. Almost 63% of the buildings in Hiroshima were completely destroyed after the bombing and nearly 92% of the structures in the city had been either destroyed or damaged by blast and fire.
vi. People pray for atomic bomb victims in front of the cenotaph for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing, at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.
vii. Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima in May last year, paying moving tribute to victims of the devastating bomb.
About Japan
♦ Capital: Tokyo
♦ PM: Shinzo Abe
♦ Currency: Yen
Thanks for choosing AffairsCloud. If you like our services, kindly suggest our site AffairsCloud.com to all your aspirant friends.
