NATIONAL UPDATES:
1.
India’s highest herbal park inaugurated in Uttarakhand: India’s highest
altitude herbal park has been inaugurated at Mana village in the Chamoli
district of Uttarakhand. The herbal park is situated at a height of 11,000 feet
was and is close to the Indo-China border. Mana is the last Indian village in
Chamoli bordering China and is adjacent to Badrinath temple. The herbal park
has around 40 species found in high altitude alpine areas in the Himalayan
region.
About the park:
(1) The main aim of this high altitude
herbal park is to conserve various medicinally and culturally important alpine
species and to do research on their propagation and habitat ecology.
(2) The park has been developed on an area
of three acres given by Mana Van Panchayat by the Research Wing of Uttarakhand
Forest Department.
(3) It has been developed in three years
under the central government’s Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and
Planning Authority (CAMPA) scheme.
(4) Many of these species are endangered
and threatened as per International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red
list as well as by the State Biodiversity Board. It includes many important
medicinal herbs also.
Note: Uttarakhand Governor: Baby Rani
Maurya; Uttarakhand Chief minister: Pushkar Singh Dhami; Uttarakhand Capitals:
Dehradun (Winter), Gairsain (Summer).
2.
Hisar Airport renamed as Maharaja Agrasen International Airport: Haryana Chief
Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced to rename the Hisar Airport as
Maharaja Agrasen International Airport. The Hisar Airport is a domestic airport
and the first DGCA licensed Public Aerodrome of the State. This airport is
presently under up-gradation to be transformed as an international airport by
30 March 2024.
Note: Haryana Governor: Bandaru Dattatreya;
Haryana Capital: Chandigarh; Haryana Chief Minister: Manohar Lal Khattar.
3.
Nakul Chopra appointed as Chief Executive Officer of BARC India: Television
monitoring agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) has announced the
appointment of Nakul Chopra as its chief executive officer (CEO) effective 25
August 2021. Former CEO Sunil Lulla has resigned to pursue his ambition as an
entrepreneur. This announcement comes as Sunil Lulla has decided to resign from
the position of CEO to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions. Chopra had joined
the BARC India Board in 2016 and had been elected as the Chairman during
2018-19. In January 2020, he was appointed as a member of BARC’s Oversight
Committee. The media and advertising industry veteran had earlier served as the
CEO, India and South Asia of Publicis Worldwide for over a decade.
Note: Broadcast Audience Research Council
Founded: 2010; Broadcast Audience Research Council Headquarters: Mumbai;
Chairman of Broadcast Audience Research Council: Punit Goenka.
4.
CVC re-appoints T M Bhasin as Chairman of Advisory Board: The Central
Vigilance Commission (CVC) has announced the re-appointment of T M Bhasin as
chairman of the Advisory Board for Banking and Financial Frauds (ABBFF). The
panel was constituted to examine bank frauds of over Rs 50 crore and recommend
action. The former vigilance commissioner, CVC, Mr Bhasin will now continue to
head the board for a further period of two years, with effect from August 21,
2021.
Other members of reconstituted ABBFF are:
(1) Former secretary of Ministry of Urban
Development: Madhusudan Prasad;
(2) Former director-general of BSF: D K
Pathak;
(3) Former managing director of EXIM Bank:
David Rasquinha.
Note: Central Vigilance Commission formed:
February 1964; Central Vigilance Commission Headquarters: New Delhi.
5. A
book titled ‘Battlefield’ authored by Vishram Bedekar: A book titled
‘Battlefield’ has been authored by Vishram Bedekar, translated from the Marathi
original Ranaangan by Jerry Pinto. The book is the story of a shipboard romance
between an Indian man and a German-Jewish woman, both fleeing Europe before the
Second World War.
INTERNATIONALUPDATES:
1.
World Bank Opens New Cybersecurity Multi-Donor Trust Fund: The World Bank has
launched a new ‘Cybersecurity Multi-Donor Trust Fund’, to better roll out cybersecurity
development agenda in a systematic manner. The new fund has been developed as
an associated trust fund under the broader Digital Development Partnership
(DDP) umbrella program. World Bank has partnered with four countries, namely
Estonia, Japan, Germany, and the Netherlands, to launch the fund. The main aim
of this new fund is to enhance cyber and digital security capability and
capacity in World Bank member countries, with the development of global
knowledge, country assessments, technical assistance, capacity building and
training, along with necessary investments in infrastructure and technology.
Note: World Bank Headquarters: Washington,
D.C., United States; World Bank Formation: July 1944; World Bank President:
David Malpass.
OTHER UPDATES:
BANKING AND FINANCE
1.
Paytm & HDFC Bank tie up to provide solutions across payment gateway: HDFC Bank and Paytm
have partnered to build comprehensive solutions across payment gateway, point
of sale machines and credit products. This includes Paytm Postpaid which is a
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) solution, Eazy EMI and Flexi Pay. The partnership will
also deliver enhanced SmartHub solutions to the market. HDFC Bank SmartHub
solutions is an integrated platform offering merchants a one-stop solution shop
for all their business needs payments.
The partnership will focus on two broad PoS
offerings:
(1) HDFC Bank will drive merchant
partnerships across India, to whom Paytm will offer its existing range of
Android POS devices. Here, HDFC Bank will be the payment partner, while Paytm
will be the distribution and software partner.
(2) HDFC Bank and Paytm will jointly launch
a co-branded PoS product in the retail segment, which Paytm will have the
option to offer it to its own customer base.
Note: Headquarters of HDFC Bank: Mumbai,
Maharashtra; MD and CEO of HDFC Bank: Sashidhar Jagdishan; The tagline of HDFC
Bank: We understand your world.
Paytm HQ: Noida, Uttar Pradesh; Paytm
Founder & CEO: Vijay Shekhar Sharma; Paytm Founded: 2009.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
1.
BPCL launches AI-enabled chatbot ‘URJA’: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd
(BPCL) launched (after pilot test) an AI-enabled chatbot, named Urja to provide
its customers with a platform for seamless self-service experience and faster
resolution of queries/issues. URJA is the first such chatbot in the oil and gas
industry in India. URJA has been launched under the Project Anubhav of BPCL and
it currently supports 13 languages. With the objective of making BPCL’s
customer interface comprehensive and integrated digitally, Urja, the chatbot is
now available on the company website for any queries for both B2B & B2C.
Under Project Anubhav, Urja represents an integrated communication platform
that connects all BPCL communication to any channel, unifying all customer
touchpoints with a single and cohesive voice.
Note: CMD Of Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Ltd: Arun Kumar Singh; Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd Headquarters: Mumbai;
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd Founded: 1952.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
1.
Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards 2021 announced: The Family Man 2
actors Manoj Bajpayee and Samantha Akkineni were among the winners of the
latest edition of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards. The IFFM 2021
were held virtually on Friday with several stars from various film industries
in attendance. Eminent Indian artists like Shoojit Sircar, Anurag Kashyap,
Thiagarajan Kumararaja, Sriram Raghavan were amongst the presenters, along with
Richa Chadha, Guneet Monga, Onir and others as jury members.
Here is the full list of winners of the
Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2021:
Best Feature Film: Soorarai Pottru
Best Performance Male (Feature): Suriya
Sivakumar (Soorarai Pottru)
Best Performance Female (Feature): Vidya
Balan (Sherni) & Honourable mention to Nimisha Sajayan (The Great Indian
Kitchen)
Best Director: Anurag Basu (Ludo) &
Honorary Mention Prithvi Konanur (Pinki Elli?)
Best Series: Mirzapur Season 2
Best Actress in a Series: Samantha Akkineni
(The Family Man 2)
Best Actor in a Series: Manoj Bajpayee (The
Family Man 2)
Equality in Cinema (Short Film): Sheer
Qorma
Equality in Cinema Award (Feature Film):
The Great Indian Kitchen
Best Indie Film: Fire in the Mountains
Diversity in Cinema Award: Pankaj Tripathi
Disruptor Award: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Best Documentary Film: Shut Up Sona
OBITUARIES
1. Former UP CM Kalyan Singh passes away: Former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh passed away. He had served as the CM of Uttar Pradesh twice — June 1991 to December 1992 and September 1997 to November 1999 and was the CM of UP during the demolition of the Babri Masjid. He’s a two-time Member of Parliament and a former governor of Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
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