17 August 2019 - Daily Current Affairs
1. President Awards Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman and the Certificate of Honour for 2019
The President Ramnath Kovind awarded the Certificate of Honour to the following scholars of Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Pali, Prakrit, Classical Kannada, Classical Telugu, Classical Malayalam and Classical Odiya for the year 2019.List of winner of Certificate of Honour
- Sanskrit: (1) ShriSripadaSatyanarayanamurthy; (2) Shri Rajendra Nath Sarma; (3) Prof. Ramji Thakur; (4) Prof. Chand Kiran Saluja; (5) Dr. Shri Krishan Sharma; (6) Dr. V. Ramakrishna Bhatt; (7) Vidwan Janardana Hegde; ( 8) Dr. Kala Acharya; (9) Prof. (Dr.) Harekrishna Satapathy (10) Pandit Satya Dev Sharma; (11) Shri Banwari Lal Gaur; (12) Dr. V.S. Karunakaran; (13) Prof. Yugal Kishor Mishra; (14) Pandit Manudev Bhattacharya; (15) Shri Subuddhi Charan Goswami
- Pali: Dr. Uma Shankar Vyas
- Prakrit: Prof. Kamal Chand Sogani
- Arabic: Prof. Faizanullah Farooqi; (2) Mohammad Iqbal Husain; (3) Dr. Mohd. Samiullah Khan
- Persian: (1) Prof. Dr. Iraq Raza Zaidi; (2) Prof. Chander Shekhar; (3) Mohammad Sidiq Niazmand
- Classical Kannada: Shri Hampa Nagarajaiah
- Classical Telugu: Prof. RavvaSrihari
- Classical Malayalam: Dr.C.P. Achuthan Unny
- Classical Odia: Pandit Dr. Antaryami Mishra
- Certificate of Honour: It is awarded to scholars aged 60 years and above. It carries a cash prize of Rs. 5,00,000.
Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman
In addition, the President also awarded the Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman to the following scholars of Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Pali, Prakrit, Classical Kannada, Classical Telugu, Classical Malayalam and Classical Odiya for the year 2019:-List of Winer
- Sanskrit: (1) Dr. Ashok Thapliyal; (2) Prof. SujataTripathi; (3) Dr.Sanju Mishra; (4) Dr. Abhijit Hanmant Joshi; (5) Dr. Shara chchandra Dwivedi
- Pali: Ms. AnomaShriramSakhare
- Prakrit: Shri Ashish Kumar Jain
- Arabic: Dr. Fauzan Ahmad
- Persian: ER.M. ShahbazAlam
- Classical Kannada: (1) Shri G.B. Harisha; (2) Shri S. Karthik; (3) Dr. M. Byrappa
- Classical Telugu: (1) Dr. Addanki Srinivas (2) Dr. V. Triveni; (3) Dr. D.K. Prabhakar
- Classical Malayalam: (1) Dr. Rajeev R.R.; (2) Shri Santhosh Thottingal
Classical Odia: Dr. Subrat Kumar Prusty
Economy and Banking
2. RBI clarifies on free ATM transactions
- The Reserve Bank of India has told banks not to treat failed transactions at ATMs or non-cash transactions such as balance enquiries or chequebook requests as part of five free transactions available to customers every month.
- These transactions are to be considered as failed transactions and no charges are to be levied for them.
- Furthermore, non-cash withdrawal transactions such as balance enquiry, cheque book request, payment of taxes, funds transfer shall also not be part of the of free ATM transactions given to customers.
3. India's foreign exchange reserves at new life-time high of $430.57 bn
- As per the latest data of Reserve Bank of India, country’s foreign exchange reserves surged by $1.620 billion to reach all time high at $430.572 billion.
- Expressed in dollar terms, foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the reserves.
- The country's gold reserves surged by $1.591 billion to $26.754 billion.
- Special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund were up by $6.7 million to $1.441 billion.
- The country's reserve position with the fund rose by $7 million to $3.636 billion.
Appointment
4. Ravi Shastri Appointment as India cricket coach for another two year
- Former India cricketer and allrounder Ravi Shastri has been appointed as the coach of the Indian cricket team for second successive term.
- Three-member Cricket Advisory Committee- Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy- made the announcement.
- Shastri's new tenure has been extended till T20 World Cup, to be held in 2021 in India.
- There were a total six candidates in the competition for the post and those were Robin Singh, Lalchand Rajput, Mike Hesson, Tom Moody, Phil Simmons, and Ravi Shastri.
5. Harshad Pandurang Thakur appointed NIHFW Director
- Harshad Pandurang Thakur has been appointed as the Director of National Institute of Health and Family Welfare.
- The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headebvbnd by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appointed him for a period of five years.
- Harshad Pandurang Thakur is a Professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.
- The NIHFW, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, acts as an apex technical institute as well as a think tank for the promotion of health and family welfare programmes in the country.
6. National Tribal Festival “Aadi Mahotsav” begins in Leh- Ladakh
- National Tribal Festival ‘Aadi Mahotsav’ begins in Leh-Ladakh.
- Tribal Affairs Ministry and Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) are jointly organizing a 9 - Day Aadi Mahotsav.
- The theme of this celebration is “A celebration of the spirit of Tribal Craft, Culture and Commerce”.
- 9 day Adi mahotsav will showcase traditional art and handicrafts and cultural heritage of the country.
State News
7. Andhra Pradesh Launched ‘Village Volunteer System’
- Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S Jaganmohan Reddy has launched the state’s flagship program “Village Volunteers System”.
- The aim of this program is to provide government services at doorsteps of people.
- This was announced by the chief minister on the eve of independence day celebration in Vijayawada.
- Each volunteer will be paid Rs 5,000 per month and the person has to ensure that benefits reach the people in the 50 households in the village.
Obituaries
8. Former cricketer VB Chandrasekhar passes away
- Former India and Tamil Nadu opener V.B. Chandrasekhar (57) passed away. Chandrasekhar, popularly called VB, is survived by wife and two daughters.
- A hard-hitting opener, he represented India in seven ODIs, with an innings of 53 being his highest score. In 81 First Class matches, Chandrasekhar notched up 4999 runs at 43.09 with 10 centuries.
- He was the cricket manager of Chennai Super Kings in the franchise’s first three years and was instrumental in getting the iconic M.S. Dhoni to CSK.
- He was a National selector from 2004 to 2006. He was also an exceptional talent spotter.
9. Veteran actor Vidya Sinha passes away at 71
- Veteran Bollywood actress Vidya Sinha (71) passed away after a brief lung-cum-heart ailment.
- She was known for her role in Basu Chatterjee's film 'Rajnigandha' (1974). This film catapulted Sinha to instant fame.
- Among her other notable films were: 'Hawas' (1974), 'Chhoti Si Baat' (1975), 'Mera Jeevana' (1976), the crime-thriller 'Inkaar', 'Kitaab' (both 1977), 'Pati, Patni aur Woh' and Basu Chatterjee's 'Safed Jhooth' (both 1978), a horror flick 'Saboot' (1980), 'Love Story' and as a gangster in 'Josh' (both 1981) and Salman Khan's mega-hit 'Bodyguard' (2011).
10. Renowned Bangladeshi novelist Rizia Rahman passes away
- Renowned Bangladeshi novelist and the Ekushey Padak winning author Rizia Rahman (79) passed away in Dhaka.
- She wrote in all genres of creative work including short stories, poems, essays and children's fiction but she was renowned for her novels.
- Bong Theke Bangla, Rokter Okshor and Ghar-Bhanga-Ghar are among some of her more well-known novels.
- She was born in Kolkata in 1939 and migrated to East Bengal after the partition.
- She received the Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1978 and was awarded Ekushey Padak this year.
Sports
11. Deepak Punia becomes 1st Indian junior world champion in 18 years
- Deepak Punia on Wednesday won gold at the Junior World Wrestling Championships in Talinn, Estonia.
- Deepak beat Russia's Alik Shebzukov to win the 86kg junior freestyle title which follows the silver he won in the category in 2018.
- Vicky Chahar, on the other hand, won bronze in the 92 kg category by beating Mongolia's Batmagnai Enkhtuvshin.
- Both Deepak and Chahar had won gold and bronze respectively in the 2016 Cadet World Championships that was held in Tbilisi, Georgia.
12. Liverpool won UEFA Super Cup 2019 by Defeating Chelsea
- Champions League winners Liverpool won the UEFA Super Cup by defeating Chelsea by 5-4 in Istanbul, Turkey.
- The Match ended in draw at 2-2 following extra-time. In Penalty shootout Liverpool won by 5-4 beating Chelsea.
- This was Liverpool’s fourth victory in this competition.
- The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the reigning champions of the two main European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.
13. Indian cyclists win historic gold at World Junior Track
- Indian men's team comprising of Esow Alben, Ronaldo Singh and Rojit Singh created history by wining the Team Sprint gold medal at the World Junior Track Cycling Championships in Frankfurt, Germany.
- This is India’s first-ever gold in a global cycling competition.
- The Indian team defeated Australia in the final, clocking 44.681 seconds to claim the top honours.
- Great Britain took home the bronze.
- The Indian men’s junior team is currently ranked No. 2, behind Malaysia.
