NATIONAL
UPDATES:
1. Dera Chief Ram Rahim convicted
of Rape by CBI court: A CBI special trial court in Panchkula convicted
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a rape case registered in 2002. Notably, till now five people were killed in riots
after he was convicted of rape by a CBI court.
2. Newly Appointed DG -RPF – Dharmendra Kumar: The Railway Protection
Force (RPF) is a security force of India entrusted with protecting railway
passengers, passenger area and railway property of the Indian Railways. The force is under the authority of Ministry of
Railways (India). Shri Dharmendra Kumar
(1984 batch IPS officer) has been appointed as the Director General (DG)
Railway Protection Force. Presently he is
working in CISF as Additional DG.
The
appointment of Shri Dharmendra Kumar will be effective from the date of
assumption of charge of the post or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
3. Launch of web portal for competitive exams by Maharashtra Government: The Maharashtra educational board has launched a
web portal with online question banks to help students prepare for competitive
exams on their own. The portal which can
be accessed for free, will function as a substitute for expensive coaching
classes.
4. Karnataka Agriculture
Department signed Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with Microsoft India to
develop a “farm price forecasting model” using latets IT toolsin a bid to help farmers: The proposed initiative is the first of its kind
in the country as it is a multivariate one that takes into consideration
various factors beyond the conventional supply demand equation while
forecasting the prices of crops.
5. Privacy tests – Ajay Bhushan Pandey: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Ajay
Bhushan Pandey said that, tax payers will have to link their PAN with Aadhaar
by the stipulated deadline, which is this month-end, as the Supreme Court
verdict on privacy has no bearing on the requirement. He exuded confidence that Aadhaar Act, with its data
protection safeguards, will pass the test of privacy being a fundamental right.
6. Newly appointed interim Chairman and
MD of Air India - Rajiv Bansal : Rajiv Bansal, Additional
Secretary & Financial advisor at Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, has
been appointed as the interim Chairman and MD of state air carrier Air India. This comes after former Chairman and MD of Air
India Ashani Lohani took over as the Railway Board Chairman.
7. Government tweaks norms to
boost UDAN scheme: The Civil Aviation
Ministry on Thursday announced increasing viability gap funding for helicopter
operators, diluting exclusivity clause and relaxed other norms to facilitate
more participation in its regional connectivity scheme, UDAN. The Ministry also abolished the 150-km minimum
distance required between two airports to be qualified for operations under the
scheme.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:
1. South Korean electronics giant Samsung’s acting
chairman Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to a five-year jail term after being found guilty in corruption case: He was accused of
making large donations to foundations run by impeached President Park
Geun-hye’s close friend, in return of political favours.
2. Gender Neutral Passports in Canada: According to the Canadian govt. Canadian citizens
who do not identify as male or female will soon be able to mark ‘X’ on their
passports and other identity documents. Citizens will be able to add an ‘observation’ to their
passports stating their sex should be “identified as ‘X’, indicating it is
unspecified from 31st August this year.
3. Russia’s Nuclear capable
Tupolev-95MS strategic bombers fly near S Korea, Japan: Russia’s Nuclear capable
Tupolev-95MS strategic bombers flew over the neutral waters of the Pacific
Ocean, the sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea and the East China sea. The bombers were escorted by S Korean and Japanese
military jets along the route. This comes amid tensions in the Korean Peninsula
over N Korea’s missile program.
4. Joint Infrastructure Project between India and
Nepal: Prime Minister Narendra Modi held comprehensive talks with his Nepalese
counterpart ‘Sher Bahadur Deuba’ in New Delhi and decided to expedite various
joint infrastructure projects such as laying of rail links and building of
roads. PM appreciated the
efforts being made by the Nepal govt. to take all sections of the society on
board in the constitution implementation process and in establishing Nepal as a
federal, democratic republic. Both sides recognized
the need for early completion of Jayanagar- Bijalpur-Bardibas and
Jogbani-Biratnagar cross-border rail-link projects. They also noted with satisfaction that the railway line
from Jayanagar to Janakpur and from Jogbani to Biratnagar Custom Yard will be
completed by 2018. Both were agreed that
the Joint Working Group on Cross-Border Transport Facilitation will meet early
to address operational issues for existing and additional routes.
5. Japan imposed fresh sanctions on North Korea by freezing
the assets of Chinese and Namibian firms doing business with the nuclear-armed state: The move against a half dozen organizations and a
couple of individuals comes days after Washington expanded its own punitive
measures against Chinese and Russian firms, as well as people linked to
Pyongyang.
OTHER UPDATES:
SPORTS:
1.India defeated Sri Lanka by 3
wickets(D/L method) to take a 2-0 lead in the give-match ODI series: Sri Lankan spinner Akila Danjaya took six wickets, with
India losing seven wickets for 22 runs.
2. Real Madrid’s Cristiano
Ronaldo has been named as UEFA’s Best Player of the Year for the 3rd time: The 32-year old was
the top scorer in last season’s UEFA champions league, which was won by Real
Madrid.
BANKING/FINANCE:
1. Co-founder of Indian
software giant Infosys Nandan Nilekani has been appointed as non-executive
chairman of Infosys Board:
This
comes after board’s chairman R Seshasayee and co-chairman Ravi Venkatesan
submitted their resignations.
2. RBI Launches new Rs.200 notes: The Reserve Bank (RBI) has issued new Rs. 200 and
Rs. 50 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, bearing
signature of RBI Governor Urjit Patel. Initially, the new Rs 200 notes will be circulated by select RBI offices,
and some banks. The new denomination
Rs. 200 has the motif of Sanchi Stupa on the reverse and its base colour is
bright yellow. The base colour of the
note is bright yellow.
SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY:
1.AI – Project “Brainwave”: Microsoft has
announced a deep learning acceleration platform 'Project Brainwave' for
real-time artificial intelligence (AI). With ultra-low latency, the system processes requests as
fast as it receives them. Real-time AI is
becoming increasingly important as cloud infrastructures process live data
streams, whether they be search queries, videos, sensor streams, or
interactions with users. The 'Project
Brainwave' uses the massive field-programmable gate array (FPGA) infrastructure
that Microsoft has been deploying over the past few years.
BOOKS/AWARDS:
1. A book by Raghuram Rajan - ‘I Do What I Do’ - to be publish on 4th September, 2017: “ I Do What I Do”: On Reforms, Rhetoric &
Resolve’ a book by Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan will launch on 4th
September, exactly a year after Rajan quit as RBI Governor. The book conveys what it was like to be at the
helm of RBI in those turbulent but exciting times.
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