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Current Affairs 28 August 2019

Cabinet approves 100% FDI in contract manufacturing, coal mining

Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the following decision related to FDI:
- 100% FDI under automatic route in coal mining and associated infrastructure has been approved
- 100% FDI in contract manufacturing under automatic route has been approved
- 26% FDI in digital media has been approved
- Cabinet has expanded the definition of mandatory 30% domestic sourcing norm for single-brand retailing.
- Removal of condition of setting up a mandatory brick-and-mortar store for single-brand retailers and hence now they can start online sales without the need of any brick-and-mortar store.

12th India Security Summit held in New Delhi

The 12th India Security Summit was held in New Delhi on August 28, 2019. It was organised by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). It is officially supported by the Ministry of Communications & IT.
Theme of the event: “Towards New National Cyber Security Strategy”

Human Resource Ministry launched “Shagun” Portal to improve school education system

Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has launched an Integrated Online Junction for education system named School Education ‘Shagun’.
The portal aims to improve the school education system by integrating all online portals and websites relating to various activities of the Department of School Education and Literacy in the Government of India and all States and Union Territories.
Websites of 1200 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 600 Navodaya Vidyalayas, 18000 other CBSE affiliated schools, 30 SCERTs, 19000 organizations affiliated with NTCE among others are integrated with Shagun. Report cards of 15 lakh schools all over the country will be available on the newly created junction.

D.V. Sadananda Gowda Launches Mobile App ‘Janaushadhi Sugam’ to Locate Outlets of Generic Medicines

The Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda launched the mobile application named “Janaushadhi Sugam” that will enable people to search Janaushadhi generic medicines and the stores at the tip of their fingers.
“Janaushadhi Sugam” app will have user-friendly options such as locating nearby Janaushadhi kendra, direction guidance through Google Map, search Janaushadhi generic medicines, analyse product comparison of Generic vs Branded medicine in form of MRP & overall Savings, etc.

Noida Girls Develop App ‘Maitri’ to Connect Old-age Homes and Orphanages, Win Tech Prize in US

A team of five girls students from Class 12 of Amity International School in Noida have developed a mobile app named Maitri that aims to connect children at orphanages with senior citizens in old-age homes.
Maitri app allows old-age homes and orphanages to sign up and organise meetings, thus facilitating children and senior citizens to spend time together.
The developers include Ananya Grover, Vanshika Yadav, Vasudha Sudhinder, Anushka Sharma and Arefa.
Initially the app is focussing on Delhi-NCR area only and also facilitates users to volunteer and donate to old-age homes and orphanages through it.
The team of girls nicknamed “Tech Witches”, participated in the Technovation Challenge, the world’s largest technology and entrepreneurship programme for girls, held San Francisco, US, and they clinched the bronze medal for their innovative app.

Prahlad Singh Patel Launches NOAPS to Seek Online Approval for Construction Around Monuments in Six States

The Minister of State for Culture & Tourism (Independent Charge), Shri Prahlad Singh Patel launched an software application named NOC online Application Processing System (NOAPS) for 517 local bodies of six states in New Delhi on August 27.
The application has been designed, developed and implemented by the National Monuments Authority (NMA) to help in online processing of applications requesting grant of NO Objection Certificate (NOC) for construction related work in the prohibited and regulated area of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected monuments.
The application can be accessed at http://nmanoc.nic.in/
The States and Urban Local Bodies which are part of NOAPS are:
1. Madhya Pradesh (378)
2. Andhra Pradesh (110)
3. Haryana (15)
4. Punjab (10)
5. Jharkhand (3)
6. Telangana (1)
Earlier this system was available only for five urban local bodies of Delhi and one urban local body of Mumbai.

Tamil Nadu Government Launches Exclusive Education TV Channel ‘Kalvi Tholaikkatchi’

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami launched an exclusive education TV channel named as ‘Kalvi Tholaikkatchi’ (Education TV), with the objective to benefit students of classes I to XII in the state.
The Channel is an initiative of the School Education Department. The TV content will include programmes based on board exam preparation for students, employment news and opportunities for the youth and career-guidance information.
Kalvi Tholaikkatchi will telecast programmes from 6 am to 9.30 pm every day.

India Becomes World’s First Country to Launch Biometric Seafarer Identity Document (BSID)

The Minister of State (I/C) Shipping and Chemical & Fertilizers, Mansukh Mandaviya launched the Biometric Seafarer Identity Document (BSID) in New Delhi on August 28, 2019, that captures the facial bio-metric data of seafarers.
With this, India has become the first country to issue BSID.
The new BSID cards were also handed over to five Indian seafarers.
The new facial biometric technology is much more secure over the two finger or iris based bio-metric data, making the identification of the SID holder more reliable and efficient.
The BSID project is being implemented in collaboration with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Mumbai. Nine data collection centers have been setup to isse BSID.

Indian Institute of Petroleum sets up plant to turn plastic waste into diesel

Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan has inaugurated a plant at the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun which can turn plastic waste into diesel.
The plant has the capacity to produce 800 liters of diesel from one tonne of plastic waste. The plastic waste would be collected with the help of NGOs.
This would help in reducing the plastic waste and also reduce our dependence for petroleum on other countries.

ONGC CMD Shashi Shanker Receives Distinguished Fellowship Award 2019 by IOD India

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Shashi Shanker has been honoured with the Distinguished Fellowship of the Institute of Directors (IOD), India or the year 2019 in appreciation of his distinguished contribution to business and society.
The honour was bestowed to Shanker by Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Civil Aviation and Trade and Commerce during the 29th Institute of Directors (IOD) Annual Day Ceremony on August 26 in New Delhi
The theme of 2019 IOD, India ‘Annual Directors’ Conclave’ was ‘Future Boards: Leading Strategy to Embrace Sustainability’.
IOD trains Directors on corporate Boards and gives Golden Peacock Awards to corporates for 15 different corporate functions.
Also, the Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs Durga Shankar Mishra and Secretary, Ministry of Coal M Sumanta Chaudhuri were the other two recipients of fellowship award.

Wing Commander Shalija Dhami Becomes First Female Flight Commander

Wing Commander Shalija Dhami of Indian Air Force has become the first female officer in India to be appointed as the Flight Commander of a flying unit.
The Ludhiyana native has been appointed as the Flight Commander of a Chetak helicopter unit at Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Flight Commander is the second highest in command of the unit only after Commanding Officer.

Pakistan-China Begins 8th Annual Joint Air Exercise Shaheen VIII

The eighth edition of the bilateral aerial exercise between China and Pakistan named Shaheen VIII, is being held in the Chinese city of Holton, located close to the Indian border near Ladakh.
The annual air exercise between the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is being held since March 2011.

India Fails to Comply with IMF’s Prescribe Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) for 2018

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released the “Annual Observance Report of the Special Data Dissemination Standard for 2018”.
As per the report, India failed to comply with prescribed Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) in 2018.
SDDS is mandatory to be maintained by all IMF members to guide them in providing their economic and financial data to the public.
India had subscribed to the SDDS on December 27, 1996 and met all SDDS requirements on December 14, 2001.
In 2018, India deviated from requirements prescribed in the SDDS in at least one instance in all the data categories.
There are over 20 data categories which IMF considers for this report to capture a nation’s economic health.

India Ratings predicts India’s GDP forecast at 6.7% for FY’20

India Ratings has decreased India’s GDP growth forecast at 6.7% for 2019-20 (FY20) from an earlier estimate of 7.3%.
This is the lowest prediction as per India Ratings for India in six years.

Canara Bank launches OTP facility for ATM cash withdrawals over Rs 10,000

Canara Bank has launched the facility of OTP based cash withdrawal from ATMs for transactions over Rs 10,000. This is India’s first OTP facility for ATM withdrawals.
This has been done to make the ATM environment safer. This additional factor of authentication protects from unauthorized ATM cash withdrawals for our cardholders.

Ashish Kasodekar becomes first Indian to complete ‘La Ultra The High’ marathon

Ashish Kasodekar from Pune has become the first Indian to complete the 555 kms long ‘La Ultra The High’ marathon held in Ladakh.
What is ‘La Ultra The High’ marathon: This marathon is held every year in Ladakh and is also known as the cruellest marathon of the world. For the latest edition, the distance of the marathon was extended to 555 kms from 333 kms.
The participants of the marathon had to pass five mountains with almost 1700 feet height.

India Finishes 13th with 4 Medals at WorldSkills International Competition 2019 in Russia

The Indian Team finished 13th among 63 countries in the overall standings at the WorldSkills International Competition 2019 in Kazan, Russia by winning 19 medals.
The 48-member Indian team won one Gold, one Silver and two Bronze medals besides 15 Medallions of Excellence at the competition.
WorldSkills Kazan 2019 was held from 22-27 August 2019, where more than 1,350 competitors participated from 63 countries across 56 skills and trades
Winners List
- Gold – Aswatha Narayana Sanagavarapu (Odisha) – Water Technology
- Silver – Pranav Udayark Nutalapati (Karnataka) – Web Technologies
- Bronze – Shweta Ratanpura (Maharashtra) – Graphic Design Technology
- Bronze – Sanjoy Pramanik (West Bengal) – Jewellery

Daily Current Affairs – 28 August 2019