30 August 2019 - Daily Current Affairs

30 August 2019 - Daily Current Affairs

1. Pramod Agarwal appointed Chairman of Coal India

• Senior IAS officer (1991 batch: Madhya Pradesh cadre) Pramod Agarwal (53-year) has been selected as the next Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Coal India Limited.
• He will succeed incumbent Chairman Anil Kumar Jha (retire in January 2020).
• Currently, Mr Agrawal is working as principal secretary for urban development and housing department in Madhya Pradesh.

Note

• The Coal India Limited (CIL) is an Indian state-controlled coal mining company headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
• It is the largest coal-producing company in the world.

2. Govt. extends CBDT Chairman Mody's tenure by 1 year

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended the tenure of Pramod Chandra Mody (Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre)- 1982-batch) as the Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) for one year.
• He was to retire on 31^st August 2019.
• The Chairperson, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is ex-officio special secretary and is under the direct charge of the revenue secretary of India.
• It frames a policy for the Income-Tax Department.

3. Lakshmi Vilas Bank MD & CEO Parthasarathi Mukherjee resigns

• Managing Director (MD) and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Lakshmi Vilas Bank Parthasarathi Mukherjee has announced his resignation citing personal reasons.
• Earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is considering a proposal of merger of Indiabulls Housing Finance with Lakshmi Vilas Bank.
• On 5 April 2019, the board of Lakshmi Vilas Bank approved a merger of the bank with the country's second-largest housing finance company, Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd.

Note:

• Lakshmi Vilas Bank Limited was founded in 1926 by a group of seven businessmen of Karur under the leadership of Shri V.S.N. Ramalinga Chettiar.
• Lakshmi Vilas Bank is headquartered at Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

4. Pavan Kapoor appointed as India's Ambassador to UAE

• Senior diplomat Pavan Kapoor (1990 cadre IFS officer) has been appointed as India's Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• Mr. Kapoor will replace Navdeep Suri, heading the Indian mission in UAE since October 2016.
• Earlier, Mr. Kapoor has served in different capacities in the Indian Missions in Moscow, Kyiv, London and Geneva.

Note:

• An ambassador is especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state.
• Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, an ambassador has the highest diplomatic rank.

Honour & Awards

5. Shri Prabhakar Singh chosen for ‘Eminent Engineer Award- 2019’

• Shri Prabhakar Singh (Director General, Central Public Works Department) has been chosen for the ‘Eminent Engineer Award for the Year 2019’ by the Institution of Engineers (India) for his distinguished and exemplary service in the field of Engineering and Technology.
• This Prestigious Award shall be conferred to him on the ‘Engineers Day’ (15^th September) New Delhi.
• Shri Prabhakar Singh is an IIT graduate and MBA from one of Premier Business Institute of India.
• His enormous contributions and dedicated service to the Nation as an Eminent Technocrat has been instrumental in transforming the Premier Engineering Organisation of the Central Government CPWD (Central Public Works Department).
• Institution of Engineers (India) is the national organization of engineers in India.

Source: PIB

6. Govt. announces major reforms in the banking sector

• According to Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, The Union government unveiled major reforms in the banking sector to strengthen the foundation of the banks.
• The government announced the merger of Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank and United Bank of India.
• Once these three banks are merged it will create a bank with a business of Rs 17.95 lakh crore and have 11,437 branches.
• After the Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank are merged into the Punjab National Bank, it will become India's second-largest bank (SBI remains India's largest bank).
• Once the Syndicate bank is merged into the Canara Bank, the resultant bank will become India's fourth-largest public sector bank with Rs 15.20 lakh crore business.
• Union Bank, Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank to merge to become India's fifth largest public sector bank with Rs 14.59 lakh crore business.
• The 12 public sector banks: State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, Indian Bank, UCO Bank and Bank of Maharashtra.

International Affairs

7. Mobile App ‘IndTokyo’ launched to help Paralympians in Tokyo 2020

• A mobile app ‘IndTokyo’ has been launched to help para-athletes to look up accessible places in Tokyo during their visit to the city for the 2020 Paralympics Games.
• The application ‘IndTokyo’ was launched by Arhan Bagati, Awareness and Impact Ambassador of Paralympic Committee of India, at the ‘Countdown to Tokyo 2020’.
• It has features like information on para-athletes and accessible places in Tokyo among others.

Source: Business- standard

8. Tokyo ranked top in the Safe Cities Index 2019

• As per Economics Intelligence Unit’s Safe Cities Index (SCI)-2019, Tokyo, Singapore, Osaka and Amsterdam occupied top spots in the Safe Cities Index 2019.
• Mumbai (45^th rank) and New Delhi (52nd) are the only two Indian cities that made an appearance on the list.
• The report is based on the third iteration of the index, which ranks 60 cities across 57 indicators covering digital security, health security, infrastructure security and personal security.

Note:

• The Safe Cities Index 2019 is a report from The Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by NEC Corporation.

Source: India Today

National Affairs

9. PM Narendra Modi launched ten AYUSH Centres in Haryana

• Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has presented Yoga Awards to the winners for Outstanding Contribution for Promotion and Development of Yoga in New Delhi.
• During the event, Prime Minister Modi has also launched ten AYUSH Health and Wellness Centres located in Haryana.
• Mr Modi also releases 12 commemorative postal stamps to honour eminent scholars, practitioners and Great Master Healers of AYUSH Systems.
• These commemorative postal stamps highlight the great work and acknowledge the achievements of the Great Master Healers of AYUSH Systems.
• The winners of the yoga award were announced during the International Day of Yoga, 2019 at Ranchi along with the two winners of the previous year.
• Japan Yoga Niketan and Bihar School of Yoga has been awarded in the institutional category while Antonietta Rozzi from Italy and Swami Rajarshi Muni of Life mission in Gujarat in the individual category.
• Each of them felicitated with a Cash Award of 25 lakh rupees, Trophy and a Certificate.

Source: AIR News

10. India’s 1st garbage cafe to be opened in Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh

• The Ambikapur municipal corporation of Chhattisgarh will open India’s first 'Garbage Cafe' within a few days.
• Under this, the Municipal Corporation will provide food to the poor and homeless in lieu of plastic waste.
• In this unique Cafe' poor people and rag pickers will get free food in exchange for one kilogram of plastic, while breakfast will be provided if half a kilogram of plastic is brought to the cafe.
• According to the Mayor of Ambikapur Ajay Tirkey, the collected garbage will be sold at Solid-Liquid Resources Management Centre.

11. Centre releases over Rs 47,000 cr to increase green cover in states

• The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar has handed over forty-seven thousand crore rupees from Compensatory Afforestation Fund to various states.
• The funds will be utilized as per the provisions of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act and rules.
• According to Mr Javadekar, the fund will be utilized for the compensatory afforestation, catchment area treatment, wildlife management, natural regeneration, forest fire-prevention, soil and moisture conservation, improvement of wildlife habitat.
• Monitoring of the implementation of the efforts pertaining to afforestation will be done with the help of technology like geotagging and video shooting.

Source: AIR News

12. 12th India Security Summit held in New Delhi

• The 12th India Security Summit was held in New Delhi.
• The theme of the summit was “Towards New National Cyber Security Strategy”.
• During the summit, many issues were discussed such as protection of critical national infrastructure, emerging cyber threats: incidents, challenges and response.
• Union Home Ministry has launched a scheme ‘Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)’ to combat cyber-crime in the country, in a coordinated and effective manner.

Note:

• ‘Security Summit’ was organized by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and is officially supported by Union Ministry of Communications & Information Technology.

Source: PIB

Sports

13. Ajantha Mendis announces retirement from Cricket

• Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis (34-years) has announced his retirement from all formats of the Cricket after not having played for his country in almost 4 years.
• He was known as the ‘mystery spinner’ due to the unusual bowling action.
• Mendis played 19 Tests (70 - wickets), 87 One-Day Internationals (152 ODI wickets) and 39 T20Is (66 T20I wickets) for Sri Lanka.
• He also played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
• Mendis was renowned in the cricketing world for his ‘carrom ball’ and various other variations.

14. India bags gold in 10-meter air pistol event in Shooting World Cup

• Indian shooters Abhishek Verma has won the gold medal and Saurabh Chaudhary the bronze in the men's 10m air pistol event of the World Cup at Rio de Janeiro.
• Abhishek Verma shot 244.2 in the eight-man finals, while Saurabh Chaudhary's 221.9 was good enough to get him the bronze.
• The young Elavenil Valarivan opened India's account with a gold in the women's 10m air rifle event.
• Sanjeev Rajput claimed a silver in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions final to secure India's Olympic quota.
• India was placed at the top of the medals tally with two gold, one silver and a bronze.

Source: AIR News

15. Rahul Dravid replaced as India A, U-19 head coaches

• Former Saurashtra captain Sitanshu Kotak (46-years) and ex-India seamer Paras Mhambrey (47-years) have replaced Rahul Dravid as head coaches of India A and U-19 sides respectively.
• Recently, Rahul Dravid has been appointed as the National Cricket Academy (NCA)’s head of cricket operations.
• He will be preparing the roadmap for India A and U-19 teams along with up-gradation pan for the existing coaching module.
• Kotak played as many as 130 first-class games, worked as a batting coach of the India A team that recently toured West Indies.
• The former pacer Paras Mhambrey played two Tests and three ODIs, was a bowling coach for the past three years in the A and U-19 set-up.
• The fielding coach of the A team will be T Dilip, who was also shortlisted for the senior team’s fielding coach’s job.
• Hrishikesh Kanitkar will be the batting coach of the U-19 side having worked with this set-up during the U-19 tri-series win in England.

Source: Business Line