Current Affairs. 30th August and 31st August 2015.

Current Affairs. 30th August and 31st August 2015.

- Government orders inclusion of 13 central laws within purview of Land Acquisition Act 2013.
Exempted 13 central acts are
_Railways Act, 1989.
_Electricity Act, 2003.
_Atomic Energy Act 1962.
_Indian Tramways Act 1886.
_Land Acquisition (Mines) Act1885.
_National Highways Act 1956.
_Damodar Valley Corporation Act 1948.
_Petroleum and Minerals
_Pipelines Act 1962.
_Metro Railways (Construction of Works) 1978.
_Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition an
_Development Act 1957.
_Requisitioning and Acquisition of_Immovable Property Act, 1948.
_Ancient Monuments_Archaeologic Sites and Remains Act 1958.

- Pakistan  banned the Islamic State militant group that has overrun vast stretches of Iraq and Syria after repeatedly denying the dreaded outfit's presence within its territor
_The Islamic State or Daesh has been banned in Pakistan.

- PM to release AIR All India Radio copy of 'Ramcharitmanas.

- Launch of SAHAJ - Online LPG Connections, For more Convenience to new LPG consumers on 30 Aug 2015.

- New Economic Affairs Secy.  Shaktikanta Das.

-  Andhra Shut down over special status.

- Five-time Grand Slam champion Russian Maria Sharapova withdrew from the U.S. Open on Sunday due to a leg injury.
_ Sharapova, the No. 2 seed, will be replaced in the draw by Daria Kasatkina of Russia, the United States Tennis Association (USTA)

- Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. would buy back the 19.9% stake it sold to Volkswagen AG after an international arbitration court ordered the German auto maker to sell its holding.

-  Union Home Secretary LC Goyal quits, Mehrishi is new incumbent.
_The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has appointed Rajiv Mehrishi, a Rajasthan cadre IAS officer from the 1978 batch, as a replacement for Goyal to occupy the important post at North Block.

- NASA selects next flyby target.
for New Horizons pros.
After its historic July 14 flyby of the Pluto system that revealed interesting findings,NASA selected the next potential next destination for its New Horizons mission - a small Kuiper Belt object (KBO) known as 2014 MU69 that orbits nearly a billion miles beyond Pluto.

-Double black hole has been found by NASA's Hubble telescope. Located at around 600 million light years away, the binary black hole is named Markarian (Mrk) 231 and NASA believes the discovery shows that quasars may commonly host a double black hole.

-Economic growth slows to 7% in April-June quarter
_GDP growth slowed to 7 per cent in the April-June quarter, from 7.5 per cent in the previous quarter, amid deceleration in farm, services and manufacturing sectors.
_ The Gross Value Added (GVA), a new concept introduced by CSO to measure the economic activity, also slipped during the first quarter to 7.1 per cent, from 7.4 per cent a year ago.

- Law Commission recommended “swift” abolition of death penalty except in terror-related cases, noting it does not serve the penological goal of deterrence any more than life imprisonment.

- HUPA. Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) for beginning of construction of houses for the urban poor under the scheme.
_ Union Government identified 305 cities and towns across 9 states for implementation of its flagship ‘Housing for All’ scheme.
_Union Government had launched the scheme named as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in June 2015 under the aegis of Housing for All by 2022 Mission.

-*United States (US)  extended the anti-dumping duty on Indian preserved mushrooms for another five years

- Indian Bank launched IndPay mobile app service to enables its
customers to operate bank accounts anytime from anywhere.

- India will host the 3rd India Africa Forum Summit in Delhi in October this year to further strengthen its political, economic and diplomatic links with the African continent. The five-day event will take place between October 26 to October 30.

- The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Cricket South Africa (CSA) have announced that they will title all future bilateral series between the two countries - “The Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela Series”. Going forward, the Test series between the respective countries will be played for the “Freedom Trophy” which is dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela

- Ethiopia's Mare Dibaba wins Women's marathon at World Athletics Championships.

- Kudos. Indian wrestler Anil clinched gold medal in Cadet
Wrestling World Championships in the 50 kg freestyle competitions .