August 2020 Monthly Current Affairs Online Test

The India–Indonesia Defence Ministers’ Dialogue was held in New Delhi. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh led the Indian delegation while Indonesia’s Defence Minister General Prabowo Subianto led their delegation. Both the countries affirmed to further expand defence and military ties between the countries in areas including technology sharing. The countries had signed a new defence cooperation agreement in 2018 for a comprehensive strategic partnership.

During the Saint Petersburg declaration on tiger conservation that was signed by Tiger range countries in 2010, it was decided to celebrate 29th July as Global Tiger Day across the world. The countries had pledged to double the tiger population by the year 2022. Global Tiger Day aims to create awareness on tiger conservation. Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has released the All India Tiger Estimation Report–2018 and said that India has nearly 70 per cent of the global tiger population.

One of the oldest flying clubs in India, the Bombay Flying Club has become the first drone training school approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). DGCA has approved the application of the club for conducting remote pilot training for remotely piloted aircraft systems. All drones should be registered with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and should receive Drone acknowledgement numbers (DANs).

The Chairman of Tata Sons N Chandra Sekaran announced that Thierry Bollore would be appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tata’s British luxury arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Thierry Bollore, who was previously working with the Renault, will assume office with effective from September 10. He is to succeed Professor Sir Ralf Speth, who would take up the position of Non–Executive Vice Chairman of Jaguar Land Rover.

 Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) elected Jin Liqun for a second term as President, during the annual meeting. His second five-year term will begin from January 2021. The board of governors of AIIB also approved the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to host the 2021 AIIB Annual Meeting, from October 27-28, 2021, in Dubai.

 Sembcorp Energy India Limited (SEIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries, announced the completion of its latest 800MW wind power projects. It has become the first independent power producer to commission the projects awarded in the wind auctions conducted by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). Union Power Minister R K Singh has dedicated Sembcorp’s SECI 1, 2 and 3 wind projects to the nation.

 The Union Ministry of Home Affairs presents the ‘Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar’ award. The award recognises individuals as well as institutions for their contributions in the field of disaster management. The Government of India has recently invited the nominations for the award, which is presented on the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, on January 23.

‘World Day against Trafficking in Persons’ is observed every year on July 30 across the world, to raise awareness of the situation of victims of human trafficking and for protection of their rights. In the year 2013, the United Nations General Assembly held a high–level meeting to review the Global Plan of Action and designated July 30 as the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) assists member countries in their efforts.

Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) organised the “National Digital conference on Ease of Doing Business for Atmanirbhar Bharat”. Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal inaugurated the conference and said that the country is heading towards a complete digital eco–system. He also said that the govt is aiming to cover the entire nation through optic fibres in the next two years.

The Directorate of Cashew Research (DCR) located in the state of Karnataka has developed the ‘Cashew India’ application for farmers of cashew in India. The app gives information on cashew grafts, cultivation, post–harvest processing, and market information to stakeholders such as farmers, researchers and processors. The app is available in 11 languages and funded by the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture.

 Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the upstream lane of Mahatma Gandhi bridge, through video conference. The 5.5 km four lane bridge is built over river Ganga connecting Patna and Hajipur of Bihar. The reconstruction work of this bridge started in the year 2017 and the cost outlay is Rs 1742 crore. The downstream lane of the bridge is to be completed by 2021. The concrete structure of the old bridge will be replaced by new steel deck.

Apple surpassed multinational petroleum company Saudi Aramco to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company. The market capitalisation of the technology company surged to USD 1.82 trillion, as per the regulatory filing of the company. Whereas, the market capitalisation of Aramco stood at USD 1.760 trillion.

The United Arab Emirates has successfully commenced operation of the Arab world’s first commercial nuclear power plant. The Barakah reactor is located in the oil–rich city of the UAE, Abu Dhabi. With the commission, the UAE joins the group of 30 countries that can generate nuclear energy. It is built and run by a joint venture with Korea Electric Power Corporation.

The All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) is an apex Ayurveda medicine and research institution located in New Delhi. It was seen in news as the institute has started providing free testing and treatment to patients in its COVID 19 Health Centre (CHC). AYUSH Minister Shri Naik inaugurated the ventilator-equipped Intensive Care Unit of the centre as well as a COVID Call Centre at AIIA.

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan launched a national– level programme named ‘Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan’ 2020–21. This initiative aims to promote scientific temper among school students of Class 6 to 11. It is jointly organised by Vijnana Bharati, in collaboration with Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous organisation under Science and Technology Ministry and NCERT of Education Ministry. It identifies and trains bright students with interest in Science.

Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has recently approved a programme for artisans who make Agarbatti. The programme aims to develop village industry under ‘Gramodyog Vikas Yojana’. Under the programme, four pilot projects will be started that includes one in the North Eastern part of the country. Each cluster of artisans will be provided with automatic Agarbatti making machines.

As per the National Hurricane Center of the United States, North Carolina has recently witnessed a Hurricane Isaias. The hurricane has made a landfall near Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina. More than a dozen tornadoes have been reported in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. At least 2 people is said to have been killed in the hurricane.

Ciro Immobile is an Italian professional footballer who plays for the football club Lazio and the national team of Italy. Ciro Immobile was seen in news, as he has won the domestic Golden Boot and the European Golden Shoe award. In a recent match, he matched Gonzalo Higuain’s record of 36 goals in a single season. The striker had a record 14 penalties out of the total goals.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has recently launched the official YouTube channel of the National Cooperative Development Corporation. It is called the ‘Sahakar Cooptube NCDC Channel and is a new initiative by NCDC, a statutory Corporation under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The Union Minister also launched instruction videos produced by NCDC on ‘Formation and Registration of a Cooperative’.

Union Ministry of Defence, IIT Kanpur and the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding. The MoU is for developing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques to analyse public grievances. The grievances received on the web–based Centralised Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System of the Ministry would be subjected to predictive analysis.

 Mohamed Irfaan Ali has been sworn in as the new President of the South American country Guyana, five months after the General Elections. The 40–year–old former housing minister and lawmaker will succeed the previous President David Granger.

 As per the Health Minister of Lebanon, at least 137 people were killed and more than 5000 people were wounded in a massive blast by seized explosives stored at its port. An estimated 2,750 metric tons of the explosive ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse in its port allegedly exploded. The government declared the capital of Lebanon, Beirut a ‘disaster city’ and imposed a two–week state of emergency.

• On August 5 2019, the special status of Article 370 and 35–A of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated and it was bifurcated into two Union Territories. The first anniversary of the event was observed on the same day this year. During the past year, several initiatives carried out in the UTs include National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS), Extension of all allowances of Central Government employees, J&K Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission.

• The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has recently revised the guidelines to be eligible for obtaining the liberalised licence to sell petrol and diesel to retail and bulk consumers. As per the new guidelines, a net worth of at least Rs 500 crore at the time of application is eligible for selling both bulk and retail.
• The net worth of Rs 250 crore can get a license for either retail or bulk selling. The simplified guidelines aim to increase private sector participation in the marketing of petrol and diesel.

• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has recently developed a mobile application named ‘COVID19BWM’. Municipal corporations and state pollution boards are directed to upload data regarding collection and disposal of Covid–19 biomedical waste from residences and quarantine centres, in the app. This was also mandated by the Supreme Court.

• Indian Government has recently extended a Line of Credit worth 18 million US dollars to the Government of Maldives. LoC has been extended for expanding fishing facilities at Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO). This is a part of the Line of credit worth USD 800 million Line of credit offered by India to the country.

• The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) took over the security at the strategic Leh airport from local Police. The Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport is one among the country’s highest–altitude commercial aerodromes. It is also the 64th civil airport to be brought under the security cover of the CISF. Around 185 CISF personnel will provide round–the–clock armed security in the airport.

• The Reserve Bank of India has constituted an expert group on Debt resolution under the chairmanship of KV Kamath. The committee would recommend to the RBI on the financial parameters and their sector–specific benchmark ranges, for deploying in Debt resolution plans. RBI will provide a window under the ‘Prudential Framework on Resolution of Stressed Assets’.

• The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) is the apex institution to implement the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. It is headquartered at New Delhi.
• IBBI has recently amended regulations related to liquidation process and provided clarifications on fee payable to liquidators. At present, the Committee of Creditors (CoC) fixes the fee payable to the liquidator. The liquidator is entitled to the fee corresponding to the amount realised or distributed by him.

• The San Giorgio Bridge, that has been found in news, was inaugurated in Genoa, one of the largest cities in Italy. Designed by the world–famous architect Renzo Piano, the bridge is the replacement for the Morandi Bridge that collapsed in a storm two years ago in Italy. The 1,100–metre–long motorway bridge was inaugurated by the Italian prime minister.

• The Union HRD Ministry organised ‘Conclave on Transformational Reforms in Higher Education under National Education Policy’ along with the University Grants Commission (UGC).
• The Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the inaugural address at the Conclave through video conferencing. He also highlighted various aspects of the National Education Policy. Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal also participated in the event.

• The Delhi government has launched the UT’s own Electric Vehicle Policy that aims to boost the economy and reduce the pollution level.
• The Government will also introduce financial incentives for people to buy e–vehicles in the range of Rs 30000 for two–wheelers and auto–rickshaws and Rs 150,000 for cars. The policy also offers subsidies and waive road tax and registration fee for electric vehicles.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has offered a credit facility of Rs 10000 crore to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the National Housing Bank (NHB).
• The fund of Rs 5,000 crore each is provided at policy lending rate to the banks, its will be deployed to boost rural lending and affordable housing across the country. Under this facility, small NBFCs and micro–lenders will extend small loans to the poor. Earlier, NABARD got a refinance support of Rs 35,000 crore and NHB got Rs 10,000 crore.

• The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) releases the Business Confidence Index (BCI) and Business Expectation Survey (BES). As per the recent survey conducted by NCAER, the Business Confidence Index fell to 62% from the last year’s level. The index recorded in the first quarter of this fiscal is the lowest index since 1991. During the period, the BCI for North India increased by 25.1% and decreased by 89.3% and 68.1% for East and West India.

• Export–Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has extended a USD 250–million worth Line of credit (LOC) to Mozambique to improve power supply quality in the country. With the signing of this LoC Agreement, India has so far extended 14 LoCs to Mozambique worth USD 772.44 million. A total of 264 LoCs have been extended to as many as 62 countries across the world around USD 25.98 billion.

• Mauritius has recently declared an ‘Environmental emergency’ after the Japanese–owned ship MV Wakashio was found spilling tons of fuel. Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth announced the decision as the areas that were declared as ‘very sensitive’ were found as a dark layer in satellite images. The ship was carrying nearly 4,000 tons of fuel and it had suffered cracks.

• India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India releases the ‘Consumer confidence Survey’. RBI has recently released the results of the July 2020 edition of the survey. Due to the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic, the survey was conducted online through telephone interviews from over 5000 households in 13 major cities including Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai among others.

• Pune based Serum Institute of India has partnered with international vaccine alliance, GAVI and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fast track the production of 100 million doses of COVID–19 vaccines. The vaccines would be developed for India and other low and middle–income countries. Serum Institute of India (SII) is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. It had bagged the contract with AstraZeneca to supply Oxford University’s potential COVID–19 vaccine.

• Indian Journalist Nitin Sethi has won the prestigious investigative journalism award, given by the Asian College of Journalism. He has been awarded for his coverage and investigative articles on Electoral Bonds, published on Huffington Post India. K. P. Narayana Kumar Memorial Award for Social Impact Journalism was awarded to the Hindu’s Shiv Sahay Singh.

• India’s food safety regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Sunday has been awarded the ‘Food System Vision Prize’ for its ‘Eat Right India’ movement’s vision. The award is presented by the Rockefeller Foundation, SecondMuse and OpenIDEO, for recognising the efforts of organisations across the globe for developing a nourishing and sustainable food system. Hyderabad–based NGO Naandi Foundation also won the Food Vision Prize.

• India’s leading trade association, the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has partnered with GeM to organise the ‘National Public Procurement Conclave’. The fourth edition of the conclave has been inaugurated by the Union Commerce& Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
• He also asked more buyers and sellers to join the Government–e–Marketplace (GeM). He also warned sellers from selling poor quality goods or charging hefty prices.

• According to the Bombay Natural History Society, as many as 77 new species of butterflies have been found in the ecologically sensitive forest of Matheran hill station. It is located about 80 km from Mumbai and is spread over an area of 214.73 sq km. With this, the total number of butterfly species in the Matheran forest has increased to 140. BNHS conducted the study over last eight years from 2011 to 2019.

• The Public Enterprises Selection Board has selected Soma Mondal as the next Chairperson of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). She will become the first woman chairperson of the public sector steel giant, if the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approves her appointment. She will also become the first woman to lead a steel company, in the world. The present Chairman Anil Chaudhary is to superannuate this year.

• Isher Judge Ahluwalia has recently stepped down as the Chairperson of think tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). She had held this position for 15 years and will be succeeded by the new Chairman Pramod Bhasin, who is currently the Vice Chair of the Board of governors at ICRIER. To honour her contributions, she will be retained as chairperson emeritus.

• IC–IMPACTS is an Annual Research Conference between India and Canada. ‘IMPACTS’ stands for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnership to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability. The conference for the current year was held on 6^th August, in a virtual mode.
• The conference discussed ways of boosting the cooperation between the two countries higher levels by strengthening existing international links, sharing best practices of two countries, and initiating new collaborations.

• A book titled ‘Connecting, Communicating, Changing’ will be released by the Defence Minister at Delhi. It narrates the third year in Office of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu. The e–version of the book would be released by Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar.
• The book highlights the Vice President’s travel in India & abroad, his interaction with foreign nationals, world leaders and various sections of the Indian society including farmers, scientists, administrators, industry leaders and artists, among others.

• The Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani has recently launched a state–funded scheme named Mukhya Mantri Kisan Sahay Yojana. It has been launched to replace the central crop–insurance scheme Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Gujarat has exited from the scheme as it considers that the insurance scheme charges hefty premium cost to the State. The new alternate scheme will cover all farmers for the current kharif season.

The Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel has announced the launch of a new scheme called ‘Indira Van Mitan Yojana’. The scheme was announced on the occasion of World Tribal Day. It aims to make the forest dwellers in the state self–reliant. Under this scheme, groups of youth will be formed in 10,000 villages of the state and all forest–based economic activities will be conducted via these groups.

The Supreme Court of India ruled that the daughters cannot be deprived of their right of equality and they will have equal coparcenary rights in joint Hindu family property even if the father died before the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005. The daughters will have the right to inherit their ancestral property with retrospective effect with similar rights and liabilities as sons hold. Coparcener refers to a person who assumes a legal right in parental property by birth.

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries has gone 10 places ahead in the Fortune Global 500 list and entered into the world’s top 100 companies. As per the recent 2020 ranking released by Fortune, Reliance has been ranked at 96th place globally. This is the highest rank ever of any Indian company on the Fortune Global 500 list. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) slipped to 151st rank, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is ranked 190th while State Bank of India (SBI) is at 221st rank.

The Union Ministry of Tourism organised a themed webinar titled “Cellular Jail: Letters, Memoirs & Memories”, as a part of the “Dekho Apna Desh” webinar series. The webinar has been organised ahead of the 74th Independence Day celebrations. The Cellular Jail is in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where Indian Nationalist who were part of freedom struggle were exiled and imprisoned. The Webinar showcased the journey of India’s independence struggle through the galleries and cells of the Cellular jail.

The “Union Home Minister’s Medal for Excellence in Investigation”, constituted by the Home Ministry, for the year 2020 has been awarded to 121 Police personnel.
This medal was constituted in the year 2018 by the Union Government with the aim to promote professional standards of investigation of crime. It also stands as a Reward of Excellence in Investigation by investigating officers.

• Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation and a private engineering firm Afcons jointly completed India’s deepest underground ventilation shaft. The ventilation shaft is 43.5m deep and is part of the East West Metro Line of Kolkata. These special purpose shafts are used for ventilation of the tunnels and for evacuation during critical times or emergencies.

• World Animal Protection, an international animal welfare organisation has released a new report titled “Elephants. Not commodities”. The third edition of the report reveals that India has the second–highest number of elephants used in tourism in Asia. It also reveals that as many as 225 of the elephants, which is more than 45%, were kept in severely inadequate conditions.

• The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has permitted registration of Electric Vehicles without pre–fitted batteries. The ministry has stated that Electric Vehicles without batteries can be sold and registered only with the type approval certificate issued by the Test Agency. Also, the Ministry has clarified that there is no need to mention any other details of the Battery for the purpose of Registration.

• The National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID–19 chaired by Dr V K Paul, Member NITI Aayog, met for the first time on 12th August. The meeting was co–chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The expert group has been constituted under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It discussed on the parameters required in selecting the COVID–19 vaccine candidates for India and procurement mechanisms for COVID–19 vaccine.

• With an aim to improve the efficiency and transparency in asset classification process, the Reserve Bank of India issued a direction to implement “system–based asset classification” in Urban Co–operative Banks (UCBs). Those UCBs having total assets of Rs.2000 crore or above as on 31st March 2020, should implement system–based asset classification from 30th June 2021. Those UCBs having total assets equal to or more than Rs.1000 crore but less than Rs.2000 crore shall implement it from 30th September 2021.

• China has initiated a new campaign to reduce food waste, called the “Clean Plate Campaign 2.0”. The campaign has been implemented after the Chinese President Xi Jinping highlighted that Covid–19 had created an alarming situation on food waste. The first version of Clean Plate Campaign was launched in 2013 which aimed at restricting excessive official feasts and receptions.

• Among all the Indian Prime Ministers, Narendra Modi has the longest tenure as head of elected government. Including his term of more than 12 years as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, his total term as the head stands over 18 years and 300 days.

• As per the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Odisha continued to be the top performer in implementation of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation Scheme (AMRUT). Odisha has secured first position by scoring 85.67 percent and provided piped water supply to households of nine cities of the state. Out of the 191 projects started under the AMRUT scheme, the state has completed 148 of them. Odisha is followed by Chandigarh and Telangana. Tamil Nadu has completed the highest number of works.

• An application called the ‘Interactive Neural Machine Translation (INMT) tool’, has been developed by the Microsoft Research Lab. Microsoft Lab has collaborated with CGNet Swara, an Indian voice–based online portal and IIIT Naya Raipur for developing this tool. It translates sentences from Hindi to South–Central Dravidian language Gondi and vice–versa. The application aims to motivate youth from the Gond tribal community to learn the language.

• “Atulya” – a new device that can disinfect any premise in 30 seconds was unveiled by the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Nitin Gadkari. The design of the device is certified by DRDO and is developed completely in India. It is portable and weighs about 3 kilograms. It can be used to disinfect any premise up to an area of 5 meters at a time. It can also be used to disinfect surfaces of home, office, boxes, furniture etc.

• At the 74^th Independence Day celebration on 15^th August 2020, the Films Division would screen two documentary films – ‘India wins Freedom’ and ‘India Independent’. Apart from the above 2 films, 14 selected films on Independence movement were showcased in the “Online Patriotic Film Festival” being organised by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting from 7^th Aug 2020 to 21^st Aug 2020 in http://www.cinemasofindia.com.

• India has recently announced a financial assistance of USD 500 million assistance for its largest civilian infrastructure project.
• Out of the fund, USD 400 million line of credit and USD 100 million grant will be provided for the project that aims to connect the capital city Male with three neighbouring islands Villingili, Gulhifahu and Thilafushi. The 6.7 km Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP) will also improve economic activity and employment opportunities.

• Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi announced that its arm MI India will distribute over 2,500 smartphones worth Rs 2 crore to Indian children, to support online education. MI India will partner with Indian non–profit organisation ‘Teach for India’, to carry out the distribution process. The hand sets would be used in shifts to utilise the service effectively, to enable children access quality education.

• The United States’ NASA launched Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has completed its primary mission. During its 2–year long primary mission, the survey satellite has found 66 new exoplanets outside our solar system. TESS also found over 2000 objects which would be confirmed by astronomers soon. The extended mission of TESS is to be completed in 2022.

• According to a new report by Purely Diamonds, Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city of Vietnam is the cheapest city to rent in the world. The report also revealed that New York is the most expensive city to rent, in the world. The Indian Capital, Delhi is the second cheapest city in the world. Delhi is followed by the capital of Tamil Nadu, Chennai. New York is followed by Los Angeles as the second most expensive city.

• The Union Steel Ministry, in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), has proposed to organise a webinar titled ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat: Fostering Steel Usage in Housing & Building Construction and Aviation Sectors’. The webinar would be conducted with the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Ministry of Civil Aviation. It would focus on promoting designs and construction in Building, Housing, and Airport Projects.

• The Online Performance dashboard of Ministry of Tribal Affairs called the “Empowering Tribals, Transforming India” has been launched. The dashboard was launched by Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog and Ramesh Chand, Member of NITI Aayog.

• Maldives is the first neighbouring country with which India is operating transport services under the air bubble agreement. Recently, the Director–General of Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced that Indians holding any kind of valid visa can travel through air to US, UK, Canada under air bubble agreement.

• The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently delivered his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2020. In the speech, he mentioned about the launch of two new projects: Project Lion and Project Dolphin. The Project Lion aims to conserve Asiatic Lions and its landscape in a holistic manner. It will also help to tackle the Human–wildlife conflict and provide livelihood opportunities. Project Dolphin aims to conserve and protect Dolphins in the rivers and in oceans.

• Indian cricket icon and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has announced retirement from international cricket. The 39–year–old star is the only captain in the world who led his team to win all three ICC trophies so far. Under his captaincy, India won the ICC World Twenty20 in 2007, Asia Cups in 2010 and 2016, the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. Another Cricketer Suresh Raina also announced his retirement.

National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has built an infrastructure at Rihand project in Uttar Pradesh. The project has been designed to transport fly ash in bulk at affordable rates to cement plants. NTPC has committed to utilise the fly ash completely from power plants. The power plants will upgrade their infrastructure for utilising the fly ash using the loading facilities of the Indian Railways.

Research team from Indian Institute of Science, IISc and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have developed a process for making “Brick like structure” on lunar surface. The researchers suggest that these bricks could be used for assembling structures in lunar surface. The raw material used is urea and lunar soil. It is developed by using bacteria and guar beans to consolidate the land into load bearing brick like structures.

The strategic tunnel under the Rohtang Pass was named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in December last year. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has recently announced that the ‘Atal Tunnel’ in Rohtang would be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi by September 2020. The 8.8–km long tunnel will be the longest tunnel among those in the world above an altitude of 3000 metres.

The International Solar Alliance, ISA is set to organise its first World Solar Technology Summit virtually on September 8, 2020. ISA is an alliance of 121 countries, initiated by India headquartered at Gurugram. The inaugural address of the summit will be delivered by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ISA President and Minister of New and Renewable Energy R. K. Singh. The event will focus on using technology to effectively utilise the solar energy.

The World’s tallest Pier bridge is being constructed by Indian Railways in Manipur across the river “Ijai”. The height of its tallest pier is 141m. The bridge is a part of Jiribam–Tupul–Imphal railway line project. The existing record for the tallest pier bridge is 139m at Montenegro in Europe.

The bridge is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs.280 crore and the construction work is expected to be completed by March 2020. The total length of the bridge is estimated to be 703 mtrs.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released the framework for setting up of a new umbrella entity for retail payments. It will operate as a ‘for–profit’ company that will have minimum paid–up capital of Rs 500 crore. It will set up and operate the payment systems such as ATMs, white–label PoS and Aadhaar–based payments. The company will also manage clearing and settlement systems of banks/ non–banks.

People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has acquired a small equity stake in the leading Indian private sector bank, ICICI Bank. It is one among the 357 institutional investors which had subscribed to the issue of the Qualified institutional investors (QIP) placement, of Rs 15,000 crore. PBOC has invested Rs 15 crore in the issue. It had earlier bought a stake in leading institution, HDFC.

The Union Cabinet has recently approved to set up a new entity named ‘National Recruitment Agency (NRA)’ to carry out a national Common Entrance Test (CET). This exam would be a common screening test for non–gazetted vacancies in both departments of Central government and public sector organisations. It is to conduct first level tests currently conducted by agencies like SSC, RRB and IBPS among others. Related Questions

The Union Government has announced the results of annual survey of cleanliness, the ‘Swachh Survekshan 2020’. Indore of Madhya Pradesh bagged the top spot in the list, for four years consecutively. Gujarat’s Surat was ranked at the second place while Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai on third place. This is the fifth edition of the survey, that ranks states based on their performance in Swachh Bharat Mission.

In Tamil Nadu, Trichy Corporation (in the category of corporations with a population range of 1–10 lakhs) has topped the list for the 5^th consecutive year (102^nd nationally). Madurai is ranked 42^nd, Covai – 40^th and Chennai – 45^th in the category of municipalities with a population of over 1M.

Iran has displayed a surface–to–surface ballistic missile, that has a range of 1,400 kilometres, named martyr Qassem Soleimani. The country also displayed a new cruise missile called martyr Abu Mahdi, with a range of over 1,000 km, amidst the demand from the United States to stop its missile programme. The head of Iran’s Quds Force, Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al–Muhandis were killed in a U.S. strike.

Veteran Indian author Sudha Murty’s latest collection of short stories, ‘Grandparents’ Bag of Stories’ is to be released in the month of November. The Penguin Random House India announced the collection which is a sequel of her recent release ‘Grandma’s Bag of Stories’ and will have 20 stories. Sudha Murty has authored several books in English and Kannada especially for children.

In order to reduce the dependency of China, three countries namely India, Japan and Australia have begun discussions to launch a trilateral “Supply Chain Resilience Initiative” (SCRI).

The initiative was originally proposed by Japan, which had approached India to take forward the initiative. The first meeting of the commerce and trade ministers of the three countries will be held next week.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has attended the inaugural ceremony of the 5^th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament (5WCSP). It is a two–day virtual Conference organized jointly by Inter–Parliamentary Union (IPU), Geneva and Parliament of Austria. The programme is supported by United Nations (UN). The theme of the Conference is “Parliamentary leadership for more effective multilateralism that delivers peace and sustainable development for the people and planet.”

Leading multi–national company IBM India, has collaborated with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to offer a free digital education platform. The training focuses on recent technologies like cybersecurity, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning and professional development skills. The online courses developed by IBM will be offered through NSDC’s eSkill India portal to the learners between 18 to 22 years.

A massive fire outbreak has recently occurred in the Srisailam hydroelectric power plant located in the state of Telangana. Nine people including five engineers of Telangana State Power Generation Corporation were killed in the massive fire. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed to launch an investigation into the incident. He also announced compensation to the families of the deceased and the injured.

A first–of–its–kind interactive game on COVID–19 named the “Corona Fighters” has been launched by the Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan.

The name of the “Religare Health Insurance Company Ltd” which is a subsidiary of Religare Enterprises has been changed to “Care Health Insurance Ltd”. The change of name is effective from 19^th August 2020. Religare Health Insurance was establishedby Religare enterprise limited, Union Bank of India and Corporation Bank in the year 2012. The company is headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana.

Five sportspersons were named as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardees and 27 sportspersons as Arjuna awardees.

Rohit Sharma (Cricket), Rani Rampal (Hockey), para athlete Mariyappan Thangavelu, Vinesh Phogat (Wrestling) and Manika Batra (Table Tennis) were selected for the prestigious Khel ratna award. They will be virtually conferred with the award on August 29 on the National Sports Day.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for Zojila tunnel project in 2018, as the Asia’s longest bi–directional tunnel. The project with estimated cost of Rs 4,509 crore, aims to provide all–year connectivity between Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh region. Recently, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure is set to construct the Zojila pass tunnel. The project is expected to completed in six years.

Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Ministry of Rural Development has recently signed a Joint Communication to promote sustainable livelihood opportunities Among Tribal Women SHGs in rural areas. Rural Development Ministry will identify and map tribal women SHG members while Ministry of Tribal Affairs will promote livelihood opportunities among women identified by State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM) through several arenas.

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is set to have the largest ecosystem of incubation ecosystem in the country, in a year by setting up 21 centres of excellence. The proposed 21 centres of excellence (CoEs) will incubate new technologies in various sectors. Out of the 21 CoEs, 12 of them are already operational. Three centres are related to Agriculture and one more is proposed to be launched.

The Union Government has recently constituted the National Council for Transgender Persons’ under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. This is the first–of–its–kind council and will be headed by the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment. The council includes representatives from 10 central departments, five states and members of the trans–gender community. It advises the Government on the related policies.

Karnataka has announced that it would be the first state to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka participated in the ‘Highlights of the National Education policy and its implementation’ workshop. He announced that the state has started to launch administrative reforms and amendments to implement the policy.

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is to finance the USD 500 million Mumbai Urban Transport Project–III. The Government of India, state Government of Maharashtra and Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation signed a loan agreement with AIIB for this project. It will improve the network capacity and safety of the suburban railway system in Mumbai.

The water technology company “Va Tech Wabag” has been conferred with the Global Water Award. This award has been given to the company for setting up a tertiary treatment reverse osmosis plant (TTRO) with a capacity of 45 million litres a day, at Chennai. The award has been given under ‘wastewater project of the year’ category. With this project, Chennai is the first Indian city to reuse more than 20 % of its treated wastewater.

As per the recent notification from the Personnel Ministry, over 700 districts have participated in the Prime minister’s awards for excellence in public administration. The awards will be conferred on October 31, the Ekta Diwas (Unity Day), at the Statue of Unity in Gujarat by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The award is to recognise the performance of District Collectors towards economic development of their regions.