Current Affairs
1. Nita Ambani was today elected as an individual member of International Olympic Committee.
She becomes the first Indian woman to join the prestigious body which governs Olympic sports in the world.
2. Vijay Rupani chosen as the new CM of Gujarat. Nitin Patel to be Deputy CM of Gujarat.
Mr. Rupani represents Rajkot West in the Gujarat Assembly.
Mr. Rupani began his political innings as a student activist attached to ABVP, the student wing of RSS. He naturally moved to RSS and then to the BJP. Mr. Rupani was jailed during the Emergency.
He has been the Mayor of Rajkot and served as minister in the cabinet of Narendra Modi.
3. Assam has become the first Indian state to ratify the GST Constitution Amendment Bill, which is recently passed by the Parliament of India. The 122nd Constitution amendment bill needs to be ratified by 50% of the Indian states before it can be sent for Presidential assent.The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is India’s most important indirect tax reform since Independence. Under it, a single rate of GST will replace various taxes to ensure seamless transfer of goods and services.
4. A 12-day long Krishna Pushkar festival has started in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The festival comes once in every 12 years. A daily ‘harati’ programme will be organised at Ibrahimpatnam near Vijayawada, where the Godavari flows into Krishna.
5. India’s first Nuclear Suppliers’ insurance policy for ‘Right to Recourse’ was unveiled by India Nuclear Insurance Pool (INIP).
-The policy was unveiled by Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman Sekhar Basu in Mumbai, Maharashtra. INIP is the 27th global nuclear insurance pool which was launched by state run General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re), in association with non-life insurance companies.
-New India Assurance Co (NIAC) and INIP will issue the policy and administer the claims on behalf of the pool.
6. "Gaofen-3"
-China has successfully launched “Gaofen-3” an earth observation satellite into orbit by the Long March 4C rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi Province.
-The Gaofen-3 is China’s first low-orbit remote sensing satellite and is capable of capturing high-resolution images accurate down to about 1m.
-It will be used for disaster warning, weather forecasting, water resource assessments and the protection of maritime rights.
7. Mihir Shah committee, which was formed to restructure the water agencies, is recently in news because of its recommendations to set up new National Water Commission (NWC).
- As per the recommendations, NWC will be an autonomous body and will have a countrywide base and mandate and greater human-power.
-The committee has also warned against the perils of interlinking of rivers and dependence on large dam projects.
-Beside this, the committee has also suggested that there is no need to restructure water agencies viz. Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB).
-The committee was set up by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, which has submitted its report in July 2016.
8. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept policy rates unchanged in the recently released 3rd bi-monthly monetary policy review for FY 2016-17.
-The repo rate at which RBI lends to the system has been retained at 6.5 %, while the reverse repo rate which is paid to banks has been maintained at 6 %.
-The RBI has also kept the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Ratio ( SLR) unchanged at 4.0 % and 21.25 %.
-The Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate have been kept at 7%.
9. To mark the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence from the British rule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released a theme song “70 Saal Azadi Yaad Karo Kurbani” for Tiranga Yatra, which will be organised from August 16 to 23, 2016 across the country.
-The theme song has been composed by Dr. Kesiraju Srinivas, who is popularly known as Ghazal Srinivas.
-The yatra will be the symbol of social harmony and unity in India and will also highlight the contributions of freedom fighters and martyrs among the school children during the celebration.
10. The first National Conference of Investigation Agencies will be held on August 12-13, 2016 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
-The conference will be organized by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) in coordination with National Investigation Agency ( NIA).
-The purpose of the conference is to provide an annual national platform to all the officers of law enforcement agencies engaged in investigation tasks to discuss the latest laws and judgments and their implications for investigation and prosecution and to deliberate on new legislation/ criminal law amendments and systematic changes for meeting new challenges in investigation.
11.National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC), an Indian public sector company, has recently listed the world’s first Indian green Masala bond on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
-With this, NTPC has become the first-ever Indian quasi-sovereign to issue a Masala bond on LSE.
-The bond is Climate Bonds Initiative certified and will be listed on London Stock Exchange’s green bonds segment.
-NTPC will invest the proceeds of the green Masala bond in the renewable energy market as it seeks to add more wind and solar power projects to its portfolio to support the Indian government’s ambition to generate 175GW of renewable energy by 2022.
12. M. S. Subbulakshmi, legendary Indian carnatic vocalist, will be honoured at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on India’s 70th Independence Day (August 15, 2016).
-To pay homage to Subbulakshmi’s birth centenary, Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman will perform at UNGA in New York, United States. With this, Rahman will become only the 2nd Indian artist after Subbulakshmi to perform at the UN after she was invited for a performance 50 years ago.
-The concert will be organized by the Indian mission in co-ordination with Chennai-based Sankara Nethralaya, a not-for-profit eye institution, at the UNGA.
13.First-ever SAARC Young Parliamentarians Conference (YPC) on ‘Peace and Harmony for Development’ will be held from August 16 to 18, 2016 in Islamabad, Pakistan.
-The SAARC YPC 2016 intends to offer young parliamentarians’ narrative as a prelude to the 19th SAARC summit that Pakistan will be hosting in November 2016. From India, a 3-member Parliamentary delegation will attend the SAARC YPC 2016.
14. Takehiko Nakao has been re-elected for a 2nd term as the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which is beginning from November 2016.
-With this, he will remain head of the ADB till 2021.
-Nakao was first elected to the role in 2013 to serve the remaining three and a half years of the term of his predecessor, Haruhiko Kuroda.
15.Theme of the 2016 Rio Olympics is “World peace and Environment”.
-It is the 31st edition of Summer Olympic Games, which has recently started at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 5 and will be continue till August 21, 2016.
-The motto of the Rio 2016 is “A new world” and the official mascot is Vinicius. In it, 207 countries and the refugee teams are taking part.
1. Nita Ambani was today elected as an individual member of International Olympic Committee.
She becomes the first Indian woman to join the prestigious body which governs Olympic sports in the world.
2. Vijay Rupani chosen as the new CM of Gujarat. Nitin Patel to be Deputy CM of Gujarat.
Mr. Rupani represents Rajkot West in the Gujarat Assembly.
Mr. Rupani began his political innings as a student activist attached to ABVP, the student wing of RSS. He naturally moved to RSS and then to the BJP. Mr. Rupani was jailed during the Emergency.
He has been the Mayor of Rajkot and served as minister in the cabinet of Narendra Modi.
3. Assam has become the first Indian state to ratify the GST Constitution Amendment Bill, which is recently passed by the Parliament of India. The 122nd Constitution amendment bill needs to be ratified by 50% of the Indian states before it can be sent for Presidential assent.The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is India’s most important indirect tax reform since Independence. Under it, a single rate of GST will replace various taxes to ensure seamless transfer of goods and services.
4. A 12-day long Krishna Pushkar festival has started in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The festival comes once in every 12 years. A daily ‘harati’ programme will be organised at Ibrahimpatnam near Vijayawada, where the Godavari flows into Krishna.
5. India’s first Nuclear Suppliers’ insurance policy for ‘Right to Recourse’ was unveiled by India Nuclear Insurance Pool (INIP).
-The policy was unveiled by Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman Sekhar Basu in Mumbai, Maharashtra. INIP is the 27th global nuclear insurance pool which was launched by state run General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re), in association with non-life insurance companies.
-New India Assurance Co (NIAC) and INIP will issue the policy and administer the claims on behalf of the pool.
6. "Gaofen-3"
-China has successfully launched “Gaofen-3” an earth observation satellite into orbit by the Long March 4C rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi Province.
-The Gaofen-3 is China’s first low-orbit remote sensing satellite and is capable of capturing high-resolution images accurate down to about 1m.
-It will be used for disaster warning, weather forecasting, water resource assessments and the protection of maritime rights.
7. Mihir Shah committee, which was formed to restructure the water agencies, is recently in news because of its recommendations to set up new National Water Commission (NWC).
- As per the recommendations, NWC will be an autonomous body and will have a countrywide base and mandate and greater human-power.
-The committee has also warned against the perils of interlinking of rivers and dependence on large dam projects.
-Beside this, the committee has also suggested that there is no need to restructure water agencies viz. Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB).
-The committee was set up by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, which has submitted its report in July 2016.
8. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept policy rates unchanged in the recently released 3rd bi-monthly monetary policy review for FY 2016-17.
-The repo rate at which RBI lends to the system has been retained at 6.5 %, while the reverse repo rate which is paid to banks has been maintained at 6 %.
-The RBI has also kept the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Ratio ( SLR) unchanged at 4.0 % and 21.25 %.
-The Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate have been kept at 7%.
9. To mark the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence from the British rule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released a theme song “70 Saal Azadi Yaad Karo Kurbani” for Tiranga Yatra, which will be organised from August 16 to 23, 2016 across the country.
-The theme song has been composed by Dr. Kesiraju Srinivas, who is popularly known as Ghazal Srinivas.
-The yatra will be the symbol of social harmony and unity in India and will also highlight the contributions of freedom fighters and martyrs among the school children during the celebration.
10. The first National Conference of Investigation Agencies will be held on August 12-13, 2016 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
-The conference will be organized by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) in coordination with National Investigation Agency ( NIA).
-The purpose of the conference is to provide an annual national platform to all the officers of law enforcement agencies engaged in investigation tasks to discuss the latest laws and judgments and their implications for investigation and prosecution and to deliberate on new legislation/ criminal law amendments and systematic changes for meeting new challenges in investigation.
11.National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC), an Indian public sector company, has recently listed the world’s first Indian green Masala bond on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
-With this, NTPC has become the first-ever Indian quasi-sovereign to issue a Masala bond on LSE.
-The bond is Climate Bonds Initiative certified and will be listed on London Stock Exchange’s green bonds segment.
-NTPC will invest the proceeds of the green Masala bond in the renewable energy market as it seeks to add more wind and solar power projects to its portfolio to support the Indian government’s ambition to generate 175GW of renewable energy by 2022.
12. M. S. Subbulakshmi, legendary Indian carnatic vocalist, will be honoured at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on India’s 70th Independence Day (August 15, 2016).
-To pay homage to Subbulakshmi’s birth centenary, Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman will perform at UNGA in New York, United States. With this, Rahman will become only the 2nd Indian artist after Subbulakshmi to perform at the UN after she was invited for a performance 50 years ago.
-The concert will be organized by the Indian mission in co-ordination with Chennai-based Sankara Nethralaya, a not-for-profit eye institution, at the UNGA.
13.First-ever SAARC Young Parliamentarians Conference (YPC) on ‘Peace and Harmony for Development’ will be held from August 16 to 18, 2016 in Islamabad, Pakistan.
-The SAARC YPC 2016 intends to offer young parliamentarians’ narrative as a prelude to the 19th SAARC summit that Pakistan will be hosting in November 2016. From India, a 3-member Parliamentary delegation will attend the SAARC YPC 2016.
14. Takehiko Nakao has been re-elected for a 2nd term as the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which is beginning from November 2016.
-With this, he will remain head of the ADB till 2021.
-Nakao was first elected to the role in 2013 to serve the remaining three and a half years of the term of his predecessor, Haruhiko Kuroda.
15.Theme of the 2016 Rio Olympics is “World peace and Environment”.
-It is the 31st edition of Summer Olympic Games, which has recently started at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 5 and will be continue till August 21, 2016.
-The motto of the Rio 2016 is “A new world” and the official mascot is Vinicius. In it, 207 countries and the refugee teams are taking part.
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