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Current Affairs 25 August 2021
Daily Current Affairs 25 August 2021: This post contains the latest current affairs for 25 August 2021 that are important for all competitive exams like Bank, SSC, IBPS, SBI exams. You can also attempt our Current Affairs Quiz after reading our daily current affairs.
National
India’s Evacuation Mission From Afghanistan named as ‘Operation Devi Shakti’
- The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has given a name to India’s complex mission of evacuating its citizens from war-torn Afghanistan, as ‘Operation Devi Shakti’.
- The new moniker of this difficult and complicated mission was announced by MEA Minister S Jaishankar via Tweet on August 24, 2021, while referring to the arrival of a fresh batch of 78 evacuees from Kabul to Delhi.
- So far, India has evacuated over 800 people under the mission, amid the Taliban takeover occurred on August 16, 2021..
Ministry of Education launches the booklet on One-year New Education Policy (NEP) – 2020 Achievement and some other initiatives
- Union Education and Skill Development Minister, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Virendra Kumar jointly launched the booklet on completion of One year of New Education Policy (NEP) – 2020 Achievement along with some major initiatives of the New Education Policy- 2020.
- Some other initiatives launched at the events are:
- “Priya -The Accessibility Warrior”– It is an E-Comic cum Activity Book. The book will sensitize the students on accessibility-related issues for Divyangs.
- Virtual School of NIOS– The school is the first-of-its-kind initiative in the country that will provide advanced digital learning platforms through Virtual Live Classrooms and Virtual Labs. The Virtual Open Schooling platform has been designed for NIOS by Ed4All and Microsoft.
- NIPUN Bharat Mission– The aim of NIPUN Bharat Mission is to ensure every child achieves the desired learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy by the end of Grade 3, by 2026-27.
- Vidya Pravesh– a three months School Preparation Module for Grade I children.
- Blueprint of National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR)
NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute India Jointly Launch ‘Forum for Decarbonizing Transport’ in India
- NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute(WRI), India, jointly launched the ‘Forum for Decarbonizing Transport’ in India. NITI Aayog is the implementing partner for India.
- Purpose: The aim of the project is to bring down the peak level of GHG emissions (transport sector) in Asia (in line with a well below 2-degree pathway), resulting in problems like congestion and air pollution.
- The Forum has been launched under the NDC-Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA) project. The NDC Transport Initiative for Asia (TIA 2020-2023) is a joint programme of seven organizations that will engage China, India, and Vietnam in promoting a comprehensive approach to decarbonizing transport in their respective countries.
International
Swedish company ‘HYBRIT’ develops world’s first fossil-free steel
- A Swedish steel conglomerate, HYBRIT, has created the world’s first ever “fossil-free” steel, in an effort to reduce the global carbon footprint of the steel industry, which currently accounts for 8% of global emissions.
- HYBRIT is a joint venture of SSAB (Swedish steelmaker), LKAB (Europe’s largest iron ore producer) and Vattenfall (one of Europe’s largest energy companies)
- Using revolutionary HYBRIT technology, SSAB aims to replace coking coal, needed for ore-based steelmaking, with 100% fossil-free electricity and hydrogen.
- The company has made its first customer delivery of fossil-free steel to truck-maker Volvo AB, as a trial run before going for full commercial production in 2026.
- The initiative is part of SSAB’s plan to become world’s first steel company to bring fossil-free steel to the market by 2026, and be practically fossil free by 2045.
Agreement
India Partners with BRICS Group to Setup Network of Genomic Surveillance and Study the Overlap of SARS-CoV-2 with tuberculosis
- The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India has collaborated with BRICS countries to implement SARS-CoV-2 NGS-BRICS consortium and multi centric programme for studying the impact of severe COVID-19 conditions on TB patients.
- SARS-CoV-2 NGS-BRICS consortium: is an interdisciplinary collaboration to advance COVID-19 health-relevant knowledge and to contribute to improvements in health outcomes.
- Multi centric programme: is an interdisciplinary team of researchers from India, Brazil and South Africa, to investigate the impact of severe COVID-19 on transient peripheral immunosuppression and lung hyperinflammation conditions in TB patients for epidemiology and comorbidity.
- The collaborative study would provide valuable co-morbidity data pertaining to pulmonary TB patients with or without COVID-19 co-infection, for better disease management.
Ranking
New Delhi ranks 48th while Copenhagen tops EIU’s Safe Cities Index 2021
- Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, has been named as the world’s safest city from among 60 global cities, in Safe Cities Index 2021, released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
- Copenhagen scored 82.4 points out of 100, to top the fourth edition of the EIU’s biennial index, which measures the level of urban safety.
- From India, New Delhi and Mumbai have found place in the index.
- New Delhi is placed at 48th position with a score of 56.1, while Mumbai is at 50th place with score of 54.4.
- Yangon is at the bottom of the index, as least safe city, with a score of 39.5.
- Safe Cities Index 2021
- The EIU’s Safe Cities Index is a global, policy benchmarking tool developed to measure global urban safety. The Index was first released in 2015.
- In 2021, cities are ranked based on 76 indicators of security across five broad pillars, which are digital, health, infrastructure, personal and environmental.
- Environmental security is the new addition in security parameters list for the year 2021.
Appointment
Abhay Kumar Singh appointed as joint secretary in Ministry of Cooperation
- Abhay Kumar Singh has been appointed as joint secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation. This ministry was recently formed with an aim to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country.
- The appointment of Abhay Kumar Singh has been cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by PM Modi.
Books & Author
‘Mission Domination: An Unfinished Quest’ by Boria Majumdar and Kushan Sarkar
- A new book titled “Mission Domination: An Unfinished Quest”, authored by Boria Majumdar and Kushan Sarkar, released on August 20, 2021.
- It has been published by Simon & Schuster Publisher India Private Limited.
- The book describes the moments after India could not make to the finals of the World cup 2019, despite Rohit scoring five centuries in the tournament, which is the highest in the history of the World cups. It revealed that Rohit wasn’t happy after Worldcup 2019 despite his individual brilliance.
Ritu Menon authors new book titled “Address Book: A Publishing Memoir In the time of COVID“
- Indian feminist writer and publisher Ritu Menon has come out with her new book titled “Address Book: A Publishing Memoir In the time of COVID”.
- The book has been published under the imprint ‘Women Unlimited’, a non-profit trust, and an associate of ‘Kali for Women’, first Indian publishing house dedicated to publishing on and for women.
- Ritu Menon is also the co-founder of this Kali for Women in 1984, along with Urvashi Butalia.
Defence Exercise
2nd edition of India-Qatar bilateral maritime exercise ‘Zair-Al-Bahr’ culminates in Persian Gulf
- The Indian Navy and Qatar Naval Force successfully conducted the second edition of the bilateral maritime exercise “Zair-Al-Bahr”, from August 9-14, 2021 in the Persian Gulf.
- The naval exercise comprised of a three-day harbour phase and a two-day sea phase edition.
- The exercise aimed to further strengthen the maritime exchanges between the two countries and enhance maritime security in the region.
