NATIONAL UPDATES:
1.
India elected to CA And POC of Universal Postal Union: India has won the
elections for membership of two key bodies of the Universal Postal Union (UPU),
during the 27th UPU Congress in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. India got elected to
the Council of Administration(CA) with 134 votes, out of 156 countries. The country
received the highest votes in CA elections from South Asia and the Oceania
region. Apart from this, India has also been elected to the Postal Operations
Council (POC) with 106 votes. India will now work with all to strengthen
cooperation in the Universal Postal Union.
Note: Universal Postal Union Headquarters:
Bern, Switzerland; Universal Postal Union Founded: 9 October 1874; Universal
Postal Union Director-General; Masahiko Meteko.
2.
Election Commission organizes SVEEP Consultation Workshop: The Election
Commission of India (ECI) organized the Systematic Voters’ Education and
Electoral Participation (SVEEP) Consultation Workshop. As a part of this
workshop, the Chief Election Commissioner, Sushil Chandra along with Election
Commissioner Rajiv Kumar unveiled a new initiative. The main objective of the
two-day workshop was to review State SVEEP Plans, conduct extensive
deliberations on the important aspects of SVEEP and formulate a comprehensive
strategy for future elections. SVEEP program
(1) The SVEEP program is the flagship
program of the Election Commission of India for voter education &
awareness.
(2) The new voters would send a
personalized letter from the Commission when sending out their Voter ID Cards.
(3) The package would include a Voter Guide
for new voters, a congratulatory letter and a pledge for ethical voting.
Note: Election Commission Formed: 25
January 1950; Election Commission Headquarters: New Delhi; First executive of
Election Commission: Sukumar Sen.
3.
Niti Aayog releases NER District SDG Index report: NITI Aayog and
Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region have launched the North Eastern
Region District SDG Index Report and Dashboard 2021–22, with technical support
from UNDP. The index is based on NITI Aayog’s SDG India Index. According to the
report, the East Sikkim district of Sikkim has topped the North Eastern Region
(NER) District SDG Index 2021-22 while the Kiphire district of Nagaland was
ranked last amongst 103 districts in the ranking. Gomati, North Tripura is
second, West Tripura is third in the ranking.
NER District SDG Index: The Index measures
the performance of the districts of the eight states of Arunachal Pradesh,
Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura on the
Sustainable Development Goals and ranks these districts on the basis of the
same.
4.
Mansukh Mandaviya appointed Chairperson of Stop TB Partnership Board: Union Minister for
Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya has taken over charge as the
Chairperson of Stop TB Partnership Board. He has replaced Union Minister of
Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan as the chairman. India aims to end
TB by 2025 while the UN aims to end TB by 2030. The Stop TB Partnership is a
United Nations-hosted partnership program that aims to fight against
tuberculosis collectively. The Stop TB Partnership also welcomed the incoming
Board Vice-Chair Austin Arinze Obiefuna. He will take over as the Board
Vice-Chair from 1 January 2022 for a period of three years.
5.
BPR&D collaborates with AICTE to launch India’s first hackathon “MANTHAN
2021”: The
Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) in collaboration with the
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have launched a unique
national Hackathon named ‘MANTHAN 2021’. The basic objective of this hackathon
is to identify innovative concepts and technology solutions for addressing the
security challenges of the 21st century faced by the intelligence agencies of
the country and empower these enforcement agencies.
About the Hackathon: The Hackathon is
scheduled to be held from November 28 to December 01, 2021, in an online mode.
The winning team will receive a number worth Rs. 40 Lakh. The Hackathon will be
held under 6 themes for 20 different challenge statements using new technologies
like Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Augmented reality, Machine
Learning among others.
6.
National Small Industry Day: 30th August: In India, the National Small
Industry Day is celebrated on 30 August every year, to support and promote
small Industries for their overall growth potential and opportunities received
for their development in the year. The industry day is a medium to provide
balanced growth to existing small, medium and large scale enterprises and
render assistance for setting up new industries to boost the state’s financial
health.
INTERNATIONALUPDATES:
1.
China, Pakistan, Thailand, Mongolia to hold military exercise “Shared
Destiny-2021”: The
armed force of the country China, Pakistan, Mongolia and Thailand will take
part in a multinational peacekeeping exercise named “Shared Destiny-2021”. The
exercise will be held in China in the month of September 2021. The four
countries will take part in the first multinational peacekeeping live exercise
“Shared Destiny-2021” at the combined-arms tactical training base of the PLA in
Henan’s Queshan county.
All the four countries will dispatch more
than 1,000 troops to participate in the drills, involving units of infantry,
fast response, security, helicopter, engineering, transportation and medical
services. The scenario of the exercise is joint operations of multinational
peacekeeping forces and the exercise will be held in a close-to-real
battlefield environment set in accordance with the international, professional
and realistic combat standards.
2.
G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment held in Italy: The First-ever G20
Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment was held at Santa Margherita
Ligure, Italy. It was held in mixed format i.e people participated in physical
form and via video conference also. The Union Minister of Women & Child
Development, Smt. Smriti Irani addressed the meet on behalf of India. The Union
Minister reaffirmed India’s commitment towards addressing gender and
women-centric issues through mutual cooperation.
About the G20 Conference: G20 Conference on
Women Empowerment acknowledged the common objectives and shared
responsibilities to advance the goals of equality and development of women and
girls in all spheres including STEM, Financial and Digital Literacy,
Environment and Sustainability.
3.
International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances: 30th August: United Nations
observes International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances globally
on the 30th of August every year. The day is being observed to express deep
concern about the rise in enforced or involuntary disappearances in different
regions of the world including the incidents of arrest, detention and
abduction. All of the above incidents result in an increasing number of reports
pertaining to harassment, ill-treatment and intimidation of witnesses of
disappearances or relatives of persons who have disappeared. UN General
Assembly declared the 30th of August as International Day of the Victims of
Enforced Disappearances and the day was observed for the first time in the year
2011.
OTHER UPDATES:
SPORTS
1.
Paralympics 2020: Bhavinaben Patel wins silver in table tennis: In table tennis,
Indian paddler Bhavinaben Patel has claimed the historic silver medal at the
2020 Paralympic Games at Tokyo, in the women’s singles summit clash. The
34-year-old Patel lost to Chinese paddler Ying Zhou, 0-3, in her maiden
Paralympic Games. This is the first medal for India at the ongoing Tokyo
Paralympic Games. Patel is the only second Indian woman to win a medal at the
Paralympics, after Deepa Malik, who claimed silver in shotput at the 2016 Rio
Olympics.
2.
Max Verstappen wins Belgian Grand Prix 2021: Max Verstappen (Red Bull –
Netherlands) has been declared the winner of the Belgian Grand Prix 2021. The
Belgian Grand Prix was stopped due to rain and only two laps were completed.
The winner was decided based on progress made in these two laps. George Russell
Williams came second and Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes came third.
BANKING AND FINANCE
1.
LIC launches ANANDA mobile app for Agents: The Life Insurance Corporation of
India (LIC) has launched the mobile application of its digital paperless
solution, “ANANDA” for LIC agents. ANANDA stands for Atma Nirbhar Agents New
Business Digital Application. The ANANDA mobile app was launched by LIC
Chairperson MR Kumar, through Video Conferencing.
About the ANANDA app:
(1) The ANANDA Digital application was
launched in November 2020 for LIC Agents / Intermediaries.
(2) With Mobile App in place, the usage
level of ANANDA among the Agents / Intermediaries will go up and help LIC to
take the New Business fortunes to bigger heights.
(3) The ANANDA tool enables LIC agents to
register new LIC policies from the comfort of their homes.
(4) Prospective customers can avail the
facility of taking a New Life Insurance Policy in the comfort of their
homes/offices without having to meet the agent in person.
(5) It is built on a paperless KYC process
using Aadhaar based e-authentication of the Life Proposed.
Note: LIC Headquarters: Mumbai; LIC
Founded: 1 September 1956; LIC Chairman: M R Kumar.
DEFENCE
1.
NSG commandos undertake counter-terrorist drills ‘Gandiv’: The third edition
of the week-long annual exercise called ‘Gandiv’ was launched at these
locations by the NSG from August 22 and it will continue till August 28.
Multiple cities in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and the National
Capital Region are hosting synchronised commando drills as part of a national
mock exercise being carried out by the counter-terrorism force National
Security Guard (NSG) to check its response time and reaction to hostage and
hijack-like situations. Gandiv was the name of Arjuna’s bow in Mahabharata.
The drills are aimed to “validate the
planning parameters” of the commando force in the event of a terrorist attack,
hijack of an aircraft or hostage situation. The NSG was raised as a federal
counter-terrorism force in 1984 to undertake surgical commando operations in
order to neutralise terrorist and hijack threats. It also has a special squad
that provides armed security cover to at least 13 high-risk VVIPs at present.
Note: National Security Guard Headquarters:
New Delhi; The motto of the National Security Guard: Sarvatra Sarvottam
Suraksha.
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