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National
One Month Campaign for “Freedom from Open Defecation”
- month-long Swachh Bharat special campaign with the theme of “Freedom from Open Defecation” is being organized by The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation
- totally 8 days have been dedicated to the swachh bharat campaign in order to demote the open defecation prevalence in India
Rajasthan becomes first state to approve sewage & waste water policy business standard
- first statein the country to give nod to sewage and waste water policy. This is the first of its kind policy.
- treated waste water will be used in irrigation and agricultural purpose. It also covers requirement of next 30 yearsunder the policy.
- policy encompasses all district headquarters, heritage cities, and cities in the state which have more than one lakh population
- also making compulsory that every household to connect with sewage system in those cities which have 100% sewage system.
Arunachal Pradesh CM inducts 10 Cabinet ministers
- inducted ministers are Tanga Byaling, Rajesh Tacho, Nabam Rebia, Honchun Ngandam, Wangki Lowang, Kamlung Mossang, Tapang Taloh, Kumar Waii, Takam Pario and Jomde Kena.
- state has 60 membersof which the Congress now claims the support of 47 MLAs, including two Independents. The effective strength of the state is 58.
Andhra Pradesh signs MoU with Japan to develop food value chain
- MoU with Japan’s Agriculture Ministry and Forestry and FisheriesDept to develop food chain value.
- Food chainto be developed in AP with japan’s investments in the state in the fields of agriculture and food-related industry.
- Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of japan also pledged to make a food industrial parks and develop cold chains.
- state is a front runner in agri-business with a major involvement in agriculture, horticulture, dairy, poultry, fisheries and marine production.
International
Maoist leader Prachanda set to become Nepal PM after signing pact with Madhesis
- Nepal Maoist leaderPushpa Kamal Dahal aka “Prachanda”is all set to become the Prime Minister of Nepal for the second time
- His appointment is hoping to be the best after receiving important backing from the opposing Madhesis by signing a three-pointpact.
- holds the post of chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre)
- Dahal is also widely known by his nom de guerre “Prachanda”, a name he went by during his guerrilla days. In Nepali and some other Indo-Aryan languages languages, the word Prachanda is an adjective that translates to “fierce”
Japan gets a boost with new stimulus package of $275 billion
- a new economic stimulus package worth more than$275 billion in order to get the conking economy back to form.
- economic stimulus package has been approved the Diet, the Japanese parliamenton August 2.
- package includes5tn yen in new spending for the national and local governments in the next two years and more than half of the money has been reserved for the current financial year.
- stimulus package comes just days after the Bank of Japan eased monetary policy slightly and announced a plan to review its monetary stimulus program in September.
- new idea has created much expectations among the counterparts and these raised expectations for so-called “helicopter money“, printing money to pay for government debt
Business and Economy
AAE -1 nods for its India’s cable lining in a tie up with Reliance Jio at a cost of $6 million
- Group’s Reliance Industries (RIL), has cleared the table for building the Indian part of the 20,000 km submarine cable, which is set to Africa to South Asia from the Asia Africa Europe One(AAE-1) cable system.
- CRZ clearance was given to the company subject to the compliance of the specific and general conditions and the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) under the ministry has granted the CRZ approvalto the Reliance Jio Infocom’s project
- CRZ clearance was given to the company subject to the compliance of the specific and general conditions and the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) under the ministry has granted the CRZ approvalto the Reliance Jio Infocom’s project
- proposed AAE-1 cable system is to be completed this year. It aims at enhancing telecom connectivity, providing additional capacity and speed for international traffic.
Freecharge inks partnership with PayUbiz to tap online merchants
- Snapdeal Owned e-commerce website Freechargeentered into partnership with Gurgaon based payment gateway solution provider PayUbiz to tap online business.
- move will strengthen the Freecharge to merchant baseand comfort consumers to move from cash to digital payments.
- Currently wallet used by freecharge customers being accepted by 10,000 merchantsin the country
- freecharge will also be able to gain new customers as it has broad scale of payment Options in its platform.
AXA Insurance products to reach all household through Alibaba & Ant Financial Services tie up
- to engage in a global strategic partnership to explore opportunities to distribute AXA Insurance products and services through Alibaba’s global e-commerce platform.
- AXA is a French multinational insurance firm headquartered in Paris, that engages inglobal insurance, investment management, and other financial services.
- AXA Group operates primarily in Western Europe, North America, the Asia Pacific region, and the Middle East
- AXA is a conglomerate of independently run businesses, operated according to the laws and regulations of many different countries
- three party agreement made with a clear statement that, these multi-national giants pledged to sell their value-added products and services to customers around the world and also to mutually supporteach other
- innovative initiative is a key part of Alibaba’s globalization strategyand its vision to enable small businesses and consumers alike to enjoy the convenience and benefits of e-commerce platform.’
- Ant Financial Services Group formerly known as Alipay, is an affiliate company of the Alibaba Group.
BHEL commissions 500MW Marwa Thermal Power Station in Chhattisgarh
- This is the second unit in the plant.
- The Plant has been set up by Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company (CSPGCL).
- BHEL has 94% installed capacityof the state power arm including 3 hydro units in the state.
- Scope of work in the commissioning includes design, Manufacture, supply and erection. It also includes commissioning of steam turbines, generators as well as boilers.
People in News
Angela Ruggiero – New Chairperson for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) athlete’s commission
- IOC president Thomas Bachofficially appointed Angela Ruggiero, an American ice hockey Olympic champion as the new chairperson of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) athlete’s commission.
- Angela Marie Ruggierois an American ice hockey defense player.
- Angela Ruggiero is the current Vice-Chair of the Commission
- She is a member of the International Olympic Committee and was a member of the United States women’s national ice hockey team, medaling in four successive Winter Olympic Games, including one Gold medal, two Silver, and one Bronze.
Deepak Iyer appointed Mondelez India managing director
- American multinational confectionery, food, and beverage companyMondelez India has named Deepak Iyer as its Managing Director for India operations.
- He replaces Chandramouli Venkatesan.
- he worked as CEO and MD ofBharti Axa General Insurance Company.
- Deepak will report to the Maurizio Brusadelli, EVP & President, Asia Pacific,
- Deepak had successful stints in Beverage major Pepsi for 17 years in different positions and in Wrigley India for some time.
BCCI appoints Markandey Katju to interact with Lodha Panel
- BCCI has appointed former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katjuas the Panel head which comprises four members including him.
- Katju will be the head of the panel, he will be assisted by counsel of BCCI Abhinav Mukerjee, while the other two members would be picked in the post discussion at the SGM.
- Panel will advise also interact with the Lodha committeeon behalf of the BCCI.
- BCCI also gave nod to play T20 matches against the West Indies in the United States of America, scheduled to play end of this month.
East Central Railway gets its new General Manager Mr. D.K. Gayen
- Gayen priorly worked in South Easter Railway at Kolkata as Chief Mechanical Engineer
- He is a 1979 batch officer ofIndian Railway Service for Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) and he has been appointed as GM for ECR
- The East Central Railway is one of the 16 railway zones in Indiaand is headquartered at Hajipur and it comprises of Sonpur,Samastipur, Danapur, Mughalsarai, and Dhanbad divisions.
- zone came into existence on 8 September 1996 and fully operational since 1 October 2002.
- zone is spread over states ofBihar,Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Kerala Cabinet appoints V.S. Achuthanandan as the chairman of fourth Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission
- He is an Indian politician who was Chief Minister of Kerala from 2006 to 2011. He has been Leader of the Opposition in Kerala since 2011.
- a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)beginning in 1985, and until July 2009, when he was reverted to the Central Committee of the party owing to his ideological dispositions.
- one of the founding leaders of the CPI (M)in India, and has played a major role in building the party cadre in the state of Kerala.
- Kerala cabinet also appointed former Chief Secretaries C.P. Nair and Neela Gangadharan as membersof the Commission.
- Kerala has had three Administrative Reforms Commissions since its formation in 1956.
Father of Femto Chemistry – Ahemd Zewail passed away
- Egyptian-American Ahmed Zewail, a renowned Nobel Prize recipientfor chemistry and the first US science envoy to the Middle East passed away
- Ahmed Hassan Zewail born on February 26, 1946 in Daman hour, Egyptand was raised in Desouk.
- He won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femto chemistry and became the first Arabto win a Nobel Prize in a scientific field.
- Femto chemistry is the study of chemical reactions across femtoseconds (approximately 10−15seconds).
- technique allows the description of reactions on very short time scales – short enough to analyse transition states in selected chemical reactions.
- Zewail received the Albert Einstein World Award of Science for his pioneering development of the new field femtoscience and for his seminal contributions to the revolutionary discipline of physical biology
- he also has won the King Faisal award in 1989 and Zewail city of science and technology is named in his honour.
- also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University.
Science and Technology
Himachal TCP dept launches citizen governance mobile App – HIM TCP
- to regularize the deviationsbased on the suggestions given by the people and public representatives
- On promoting citizen-centric governance efforts of the department, now it would be able to take action on different issues like monitoring new and pending applications, No-Objection Certificates, handling payments, issuing notifications and scheduled inspections.
- also launched a citizen governance mobile App-HIM TCPof the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department to take vital services like online registration and building plan permission approvals.
- In order to streamline its services as per the aspirations of the people, a similar app would also be developed soon for urban local bodies to make available the birth and death certificates, NOCs and payment of electricity, water bills and taxes.
FAA permits license for Virgin Galactic for its innovative initiative of introducing and testing Space
- Virgin Galactic has received its operator license from the US Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA-AST).
- FAA inspected the vehicle’s system design, safety features and flight trajectory analysis
- obtaining this operator license is an important milestone for Virgin Galactic, the first Space Tourism provider.
- It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists, suborbital launches for space science missions, and orbital launches of small satellites.
- Virgin Galactic is going to employ Space Ship Two, a reusable spacecraft capable of carrying eight passengers and two pilots.
- FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Licenses also advised Virgin to report on theircurrent engine software, hardware, and performances during tests before they are allowed any people on board during a spaceflight.
China tests heavy motor for space rockets
- China has successfullytested its largest solid-fuel motor that can be used in heavy space rockets for future deep space missions
- solid fuel rocket motor comes with three meter dia that can ran for 100 seconds after ignition.
- will be used in heavy lift and large rockets used in deep space explorationsand manned moon landing operations.
- This type of engines will have fuel that burns very quickly but does not explode they are faster in nature.
- motor is test comes months before the largest carrier rocket, the Long March 5 launch.
N Korea fires missile into Japan waters for first time
- North Koreablasted off a ballistic Missile for the first time that landed in Japanese-controlled waters posing a grave threat to the Japan.
- ballistic missile was launched off the North’s east coast that landed in Japan Sea after travelling about 1,000km. Japan defence side said that there were two missiles landed
- missile is set be the one of the North Korea’s longest launches till date
- the country had been suspended by UN recentlyfor developing nuclear and ballistic missile technology
- Act has been condemned by Japan, Japan sources said that the other missile landed inside its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) – the 200 nautical miles of its right zone.
Sports
Govt. unveils Wall Of Wishes and Digital Campaign to cheer the Indian Olympic Contingent
- wish board is set up in order to sway the students and youth, to visit India Gate in large numbers and sign their wishes at the‘Wall of Wishes’ to cheer the Indian athletes at Rio Olympics.
- Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports is holding an exhibition on August 5at the Central Park in Connaught Place, New Delhi where the students, children and youth can know about the Olympics history and participating players.
- Digital Campaign for general publicto wish Indian Olympic team for their best in the Rio Games.
- Indian supporters to join digital campaign launched by changing their Twitter profile picture,tweet #KheloIndia to @indiasportstocheer and demonstrate their solidarity with the Indian players in true Olympic Spirit.
- Youngsters can also send their wishes for the Indian Olympic Team on the Narendra Modi Mobile App (NM APP)