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Current Affairs 20 August 2019

Government Orders Uniform Retirement Age of 60 for all CAPF Personnel

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has passed an order that all Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) personnel will now retire at a uniform age of 60 years, instead of 57 years for certain rank of officials.
This will include personnel of the forces from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
The personnel in CRPF, BSF, ITBP and SSB, from the ranks of constable to commandant retire at the age of 57, while those above them superannuate at the age of 60. Thus the government has taken such decision to overcome this discriminatory and unconstitutional practice.

SERB Launches New Scheme ‘SUPRA’ For High Quality Research Funding

The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, GOI, has come up with a new scheme named Scientific and Useful Profound Research Advancement (SUPRA), with the sole objective of funding exploration of new scientific and engineering ideas having global impact.
The scheme is launched as a part of the Modi government’s 100-day transformative ideas.
Supra scheme has been designed to attract high quality research proposals consisting of new hypotheses or challenge existing ones and provide ‘out-of-box’ solutions leading to new areas of study, new scientific concepts, new products and technologies.
HRHR Scheme : SERB has launched a very similar scheme to Supra two years ago called Scheme for funding High Risk-High Reward (HRHR) Research, meant for funding conceptually new and risky projects. However, the HRHR Scheme has now been withdrawn since classification of high risk projects was unclear.

WEF’s India Economic Summit to be held in New Delhi

The World Economic Forum has organized the India Economic Summit that will be held in New Delhi, India on October 3 and 4, 2019. The event has been organised in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The theme of the event is: Innovating for India: Strengthening South Asia, Impacting the World. The event aims at promoting deeper collaboration between South Asia and ASEAN nations.
The meeting will be co-chaired by: Sheikh Hasina (Prime Minister of Bangladesh), Heng Swee Keat (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance of Singapore), Shobana Kamineni (Executive Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise), Sania Mirza (Sports person and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia) and Shailendra Singh (Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India)

Wipro Partners with IISc to Form WIRIN

Wipro Limited has entered into strategic partnership with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru for advanced applied research in autonomous systems, robotics and 5G space.
For this purpose, the two organisations have jointly set up the Wipro IISc Research and Innovation Network (WIRIN) as an industry academia collaboration unit.
The WIRIN team would constitute experts from both the organisations for research and development of cutting-edge technologies in artificial intelligence, machine learning, visual computing, human computer interaction (HCI) and vehicle-to-everything communication (V2X).

Paytm Promotes its CFO Madhur Deora to the Post of President

One97 Communications owned digital wallet company Paytm has elevated its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and senior vice-president Madhur Deora as the President of the company.
Prior to joining Paytm in October 2016, Madhur served as Managing Director in Citigroup’s investment banking business.

Ravinder Takkar appointed CEO of Vodafone Idea

Ravinder Takkar has been appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Vodafone Idea.
This comes after Balesh Sharma stepped down as chief executive officer (CEO) of Vodafone Idea due to personal reasons.
Prior to this Ravinder Takkar was India’s representative of Vodafone Group.

Filmmaker Blessy’s Documentary ‘100 years of Chrysostom’ Enters Guinness Book of World Records

The biopic titled ‘100 years of Chrysostom’ by eminent filmmaker Blessy has entered the Guinness Book of World Records for being the longest documentary with a duration of 48 hours and 8 minutes.
The documentary ‘100 years of Chrysostom’ is about 102-year-old longest-serving bishop in India named Dr. Philipose Mar Chrysostom Mar Thoma Valiya Metropolitan.
Dr. Chrysostom is Emeritus Metropolitan of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church in Kerala.
2018 Padma Bhushan award winner Dr. Chrysostom was born on April 27, 1918 at Eraviperoor in Pathanamthitta, Kerala and was consecrated in May 1952.
This documentary has broken the earlier record held by documentary from Saudi Arabia named ‘World of Snakes,’ which was 21 hours long.

CCMB scientist K Thangaraj Bags JC Bose Fellowship for 2019

Dr K Thangaraj, Chief Scientist at CSIR- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) , in Hyderabad, Telangana has been awarded the JC Bose Fellowship for 2019 in recognition for his outstanding contributions in the field of population and medical genomics.
The JC Bose Fellowship is given by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, to scientists for their outstanding performances.

BCCI Ombudsman reduces S Sreesanth’s life ban to 7 years

Ombudsman at BCCI Justice DK Jain has reduced the life ban imposed on cricketer S Sreesanth to seven years. As a result, Sreesanth will be eligible to play all forms of cricket from 13th September 2020.
Sreesanth was handed lifetime ban by BCCI disciplinary committee for his alleged role in IPL Spot-fixing scandal.

Sadbhavana Diwas: August 20

Every year India observes Sadbhavana Diwas on August 20 to commemorate the birth anniversary of late erstwhile Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
August 20, 2019 marks the 75th birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi who was the youngest Prime Minister of India.
‘Sadbhavana’ means goodwill and bonafide and the day aims to stop violence and promote goodwill among the people.

World Mosquito Day: August 20

World Mosquito Day is observed on 20 August annually to raise awareness about the causes of malaria and how it can be prevented.
The day also commemorates the discovery made by British doctor Sir Ronald Ross in 1897 that female mosquitoes transmit malaria between humans.

Legendary Music Composer Khayyam Passes Away At 92

Noted Indian music director Mohammed Zahur Khayyam Hashmi, famous as Khayyam, passed away due to health related issues. He was 92.
The legendary music composer started his musical career at the age of 17 and was honoured with the National Award and Filmfare Award.
He was also felicitated with Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Padma Bhushan.
Khayyam was best known for his music in films such as Kabhi Kabhie and Umrao Jaan, Trishul, Noorie and Shola Aur Shabnam among others.

Daily Current Affairs – 20 August 2019