Current Affairs 08th August 2020| Current Affairs News

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CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS

Quit India Movement Day

• All India Congress Committee session in Bombay on 8 August, 1942, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi launched the ‘Quit India Movement’.
• It is also known as August Movement or August Kranti.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL

Ministry of Jal Shakti launches new version of India Water Resources Information System

• The Ministry of Jal Shakti has launched a new version of the India Water Resources Information System (India-WRIS) with new functionalities and features.
• The web portal indiawris.gov.in, this portal contains information related to Water Resources through dashboards for rainfall, water levels & discharge of rivers, water bodies, ground water levels, reservoir storages, evapotranspiration and soil moisture, as well as modules on water resources projects, water bodies, hydro-met data availability and tools for GIS layer editing.
• Through this portal, any stakeholder can visualize the information in a user friendly manner, as well download the information in the form of excel reports and graphs.
• The key features of the system are Water information easily made available to users and general public, for decision makers, water managers, farmers & experts, Direct access to hydro-met information from Central and State agencies, Real-time data available with one click, Variety of modules for different needs, Latest technologies, continuous development and improvement.

About Ministry of Jal Shakti

• Minister of Jal Shakti: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
• Constituency: Jodhpur, Rajasthan

CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL

UNESCO recognises two Odisha villages as Tsunami Ready

• In a first two coastal villages of Odisha have been recognised as being “Tsunami Ready” by UNESCO for their overall preparedness to face the calamity.
• Odisha became the first state in the country to have such villages and the country the first in the Indian Ocean region to achieve the honour from the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO.
• The two coastal are Venkatraipur (Boxipalli) village of Rangeilunda block in Ganjam district and Noliasahi village of Ersama block in Jagatsinghpur district.
• The certificate of recognition will be handed over to the communities of Venkatraipur and Noliasahi in a virtual event.
• Jena, who is also the managing director of Odisha State Disaster management Authority, will receive the certificate from UNESCO.
• It will make Odisha a role model for tsunami preparedness. With this award, the state is motivated to make the 326 villages and urban local bodies tsunami ready in one year’s time.

About IOC-UNESCO

• The Indian Ocean Tsunami Ready Programme of IOC-UNESCO is a community performance-based programme that facilitates tsunami preparedness as an active collaboration of the community, community leaders, and national and local emergency management agencies

About Odisha

• Capital: Bhubaneswar
• Governor: Ganeshi Lal
• Chief minister: Naveen Patnaik

CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATES

BHEL begins civil works at 660-MW Sagardighi power plant in West Bengal

• State-owned engineering firm BHEL has commenced civil works at 660-MW Sagardighi supercritical thermal power project in West Bengal.
• The Sagardighi thermal power station is already equipped with two sets of 500 MW installed by BHEL in 2016. BHEL has so far contributed over 80 per cent of the total coal-based generating capacity of WBPDCL.

About West Bengal

• Governor: Jagdeep Dhankhar
• Capital: Kolkata
• CM: Mamta Banerjee

Delhi government launches electric vehicle policy, announces incentives of up to ₹1.5 lakh

• The Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi launched the Electric Vehicle Policy for the national capital under which the AAP government will waive registration fee, road tax, and provide an incentive of up to₹5 lakh for new cars.
• The government also aims to generate employment to give a boost to Delhi’s economy and reduce pollution levels in the national capital.
• This policy also aims to constitute 25% electric vehicles by 2024.
• Under the policy, they will give incentive of up to₹30,000 for two-wheelers, autos, e-rickshaws and freight vehicles while for cars incentive of up to ₹5 lakh.

About New Delhi

• CM: Arvind Kejriwal
• Governor: Shri Anil Baijal

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE

EXIM Bank extends USD 250 mn line of credit to Mozambique

• Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) has extended a USD 250-million (about Rs 1,870 crore) line of credit (LOC) to Mozambique for improving power supply quality in the country.
• EXIM Bank till date has extended 14 LOCs to Mozambique, taking their total value to USD 772.44 million.
• EXIM Bank has now in place 264 LOCs, covering 62 countries across regions including Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with credit commitments of around USD 25.98 billion, available for financing exports from India.

About EXIM Bank

• CEO: David Rasquinha
• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Founded: 1 January 1982

About Mozambique

• Capital: Maputo
• Currency: Mozambican metical
• President: Filipe Nyusi

Equitas SFB appointed as official retail banking partner for Chennai Super Kings

• Equitas Small Finance Bank announced that it has been appointed as the official retail banking partner for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) IPL team with effect from August 1, 2020.
• The Chennai-based bank was the principal sponsor of CSK in 2018. Equitas then announced that it will be the banking partner of Team CSK for three years.
• “The Bank becomes the official retail banking partner for the Chennai Super Kings Indian Premier League (IPL) team and offers various product offerings for its customers. The offering includes Video KYC, Higher interest rates on Fixed Deposits than before and Savings Account to name a few.”

About Equitas Small Finance Bank

• MD and CEO: Vasudevan P N
• Headquarters: Chennai

CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPS AND PORTALS

SAI launches Khelo India Mobile App online training program for principals, PE Teachers

• The Sports Authority of India, in association with Education Boards CISCE and CBSE, will host an online program for training of Physical Education (PE) Teachers from CISCE Schools on “Khelo India Fitness Assessment of School Going Children”.
• Various School Principals or Head of Institutes will be encouraged and motivated and made aware about the need to empower their PE Teachers with knowledge, attitude and skills for undertaking the Khelo India Fitness Assessment through the Khelo India Mobile App (KIMA) besides giving them goals for 2020-21. This session is titled “Whole School Approach to Fitness”.
• From August 11 to 14, Training and technical knowhow of the Assessor mobile app will be provided to the school PE teachers. They will be given sessions on the introduction to Khelo India Fitness for School Going Children and Fit India, how to undertake Khelo India battery of tests, the Khelo India Assessments protocols, Talent Identification roadmap, goals for 2020-21 and more.
• The training will be provided by selected Master Trainers who had conducted various National and Regional level TOTs, both offline and online, in 2019 and conducted Assessment of their schools

Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani launches app for weavers on National Handloom Day

• On the occasion of the 6th National Handloom Day, the Minister of Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani, announced the launch of a handloom portal.
• ‘My Handloom Portal’ is the one-stop platform for information on everything related to handloom.
• This portal will allow weavers’ and other stakeholders to track applications in real-time, thereby enhancing transparency & increasing efficiency. #Vocal4Handmade.”

About MoT

• Minister of Textiles and Minister of Women and Child Development: Smriti Zubin Irani
• Constituency: Amethi, UP

DC Rajouri launches ‘Awaz-e Rajouri’ mobile app

• Deputy Commissioner Rajouri, Mohammmad Nazir Sheikh launched a mobile app Awaz-e Rajouri in presence of the district Officers and media persons.
• The app has been developed by a team of National Informatics Centre Rajouri.
• This is to improve the public Grievances redressal mechanism in the district and to make the district administration citizen centric, responsive, transparent and accountable.
• When a citizen lodges a grievance, the nodal officer will receive a message and after scrutiny, the complaint will be forwarded to the concerned department for the resolution.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

Mahinda Rajapaksa-led SLPP registers victory in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary polls

• In Sri Lanka, the party led by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and its allies have secured two-thirds seats at the general elections.
• SLPP’s Mr. Rajapaksa got around 59 percent of the popular vote while  SJB’s Ranil Wickremsinghe  was able to get around 23 percent.
• Wickremsinghe, who served as the country’s premier thrice, has lost the elections for the first time in his over four decade long parliamentary career.

About Sri Lanka

• Prime minister: Mahinda Rajapaksa
• Capitals: Colombo, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte
• Currency: Sri Lankan rupee

CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONORS

Pune Institute Wins Smart India Hackathon 2020

• Pune-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) has won the first prize in the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2020, a national-level digital product building competition.
• DIAT’s team of six members provided a solution titled “DRISHTI” to recognise face, expression and gesture using artificial intelligence (AI).
• The team, led by Dr Sunita Dhavale, won the first prize of Rs 1 lakh “for solving problem statement MS331 in the category of software posed by the Madhya Pradesh government”
• It was organised between August 1 and 3 at Noida Institute of Engineering and Technology in Greater Noida.

Chingari wins AtmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge’s social category

• Indian Short video platform Chingari, news app Logically-Check Fake News and Verify Facts and 22 more apps emerged as winners of the government’s Aatma Nirbhar App Innovation challenge.
• Koo, MaymyIndiamove, Asksarkar, myitreturn are some of the other apps that won the challenge, across eight categories—news, social, games, entertainment, e-learning, among others.
• The government has allocated₹20 lakh, ₹15 lakh and ₹10 lakh for the first, second and third placed apps in each category. The government will also adopt suitable apps and ‘guide them to maturity’, listing them on government marketplace (GeM). Ease of use, robustness, security and scalability were some of the key evaluation criteria.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: OBITUARY

Mukund Lath, prominent cultural historian and exponent of Mewati gharana, passes away at 82

• Mukund Lath, prominent cultural historian, scholar, and an exponent of the Mewatigharana passed away at the age of 82.
• Lath was awarded India’s fourth highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri, in 2010 for his trailblazing contributions to the field of arts and cultural history.

Veteran CPM leader Shyamal Chakraborty dies of Covid-19

• West Bengal CPM leader and former transport minister Shyamal Chakraborty passed away. He was 76.
• Chakraborty, the three-time transport minister of West Bengal from 1982 to 1996 in the Jyoti Basu government, was a member of the CPI(M)’s central committee.
• Chakraborty was one of the longest-serving presidents of the CITU’s West Bengal unit, from 2003 to 2017.

DAILY CA 7^th AUG

• National Handloom Day-7^th august
• Indian Railways to run first Kisan Rail special service between Maharashtra-Bihar
• Govt to launch National Clinical Registry for COVID-19
• South India Bank gets RBI nod for setting up non-financial subsidiary
• RBI permits banks to invest in debt instruments through mutual funds
• NPCI launches loyalty platform ‘nth Rewards’
• SBM Bank collaborates with InstaReM to enhance outbound remittance
• IBBI amends Insolvency & Bankruptcy Board of India, Liquidation Process, Third Amendment, Regulations, 2020
• Foundation stone laid for Indian Institute of Management in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh
• Chhattisgarh govt launches scheme for tendu leaves collectors
• Haryana CM Khattar launches welfare schemes for women, kids
• Maharashtra govt announces partnership with Google for introducing digital education tools in schools across state
• Oman India Joint Investment Fund II buys 1.63% in DCB Bank
• LIC acquires close to 5% stake in Yes Bank
• Indian Railways launches an OHE Inspection app
• Telangana launches GRID Policy for IT industry development
• WTF Sports appoints Suresh Raina, Harmanpreet Kaur as global brand ambassadors
• Former J&K Lt Guv Girish Chandra Murmu to be new CAG of India
• PNB Housing Finance appoints Hardayal Prasad as MD and CEO
• Capital India Finance Limited Appoints Former Chairman, NABARD, Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala As Executive Chairman
• Pradeep Kumar Joshi appointed as UPSC chairman
• Ex-BMC chief Praveen Pardeshi to head UN crisis response team
• IICT Scientist to be awarded CRSI Bronze Medal
• Indian Express’ Dipankar Ghose, website PARI chosen for 2020 Prem Bhatia journalism awards
• Yatish Yadav’s new book ‘RAW: A History of India’s Covert Operations’
• BCCI suspends title sponsorship deal with Vivo for upcoming IPL
• Philanthropist Doris Buffet passes away at 92
• Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Shirley Ann Grau passes away at 91
• Author and activist Sadia Dehlvi passes away at 63

DAILY CA 8^th AUG

• Quit India Movement Day observed on August 08
• Ministry of Jal Shakti launches new version of India Water Resources Information System
• UNESCO recognises two Odisha villages as Tsunami Ready
• BHEL begins civil works at 660-MW Sagardighi power plant in West Bengal
• Delhi government launches electric vehicle policy, announces incentives of up to ₹5 lakh
• EXIM Bank extends USD 250 mn line of credit to Mozambique
• Equitas SFB appointed as official retail banking partner for Chennai Super Kings
• SAI launches Khelo India Mobile App online training program for principals, PE Teachers
• Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani launches app for weavers on National Handloom Day
• DC Rajouri launches ‘Awaz-e Rajouri’ mobile app
• Mahinda Rajapaksa-led SLPP registers victory in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary polls
• Pune Institute Wins Smart India Hackathon 2020
• Chingari wins AtmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge’s social category
• Mukund Lath, prominent cultural historian and exponent of Mewati gharana, passes away at 82
• Veteran CPM leader Shyamal Chakraborty dies of Covid-19