NATIONAL UPDATES:
1. GoI
Designates 5 New Ramsar Sites, taking total number to 54: Five new wetlands of International importance have been designated in
India. With this, the total number of Ramsar sites in the country have been
increased from 49 to 54 Ramsar sites.
The five
newly designated wetlands are:
a) Karikili Bird Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu
b) Pallikaranai Marsh Reserve Forest, Tamil Nadu
c) Pichavaram Mangrove, Tamil Nadu
d) Pala wetland, Mizoram
e) Sakhya Sagar, Madhya Pradesh.
Ramsar
Site: A Ramsar Site is a wetland site designated to be
of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. The name Ramsar comes
from the Ramsar City of Iran, where this treaty was signed. The Convention on
Wetlands is also known as the Ramsar Convention. It is an intergovernmental
environmental treaty established in 1971 by UNESCO and came into force in 1975.
Wetlands declared as Ramsar sites are protected under strict guidelines of the
convention.
2. IIT Kanpur launched NIRMAN
Accelerator Program: Startup
Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) at IIT Kanpur has launched “NIRMAN”
Accelerator Programme, supported by the department of science and technology,
the government of India. The programme will focus on the manufacturing startups
engaged in healthcare and agriculture domains to help them overcome the
challenges from their prototype-to-market journey.
A total of 15 startups will be selected
under the programme. They will be given the opportunity to accelerate their
product’s journey from lab to market. The best performing startups among the
cohort of 15 startups will receive a cash award of up to ₹10 Lakh.
About the programme: The 6-month-long
programme will be devised into four segments: principles of product growth,
engineering acceleration, navigating the compliance puzzle and leading to
next-stage growth. The programme will offer knowledge workshops, one-on-one
mentoring support, diving deep into customised support for clinical validation,
and business and investor connections. The programme has started accepting
applications and it will be on till August 5.
3. Prime
Minister to lay the cornerstone for the IFSCA’s Gujarat headquarters: Gujarat’s IFSCA (International Financial Services Centres Authority)
Headquarters Building will officially break ground thanks to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi. IFSCA is the centralised regulatory body in India’s international
financial services centres for the creation and supervision of financial
products, financial services, and financial institutions.
As a symbol of
the expanding importance and stature of Gujarat International Finance Tec, GIFT
as a preeminent international financial centre, the IFSCA headquarters building
was designed as an iconic landmark. The Prime Minister will open India’s first
international bullion exchange in GIFT-IFSC, the India International Bullion
Exchange.
Importance
of IFSCA:
a) To accelerate the financialization of gold in India, this will enable
effective price discovery with the certainty of ethical sourcing and quality.
b) This will enable India to reclaim its proper position in the world
bullion market and provide trustworthy and high-quality services to the global
value chain.
c) This will also reaffirm the federal government’s commitment to allowing
India, as a major consumer, to have a say in the direction of world bullion
prices.
4. Kerala
will start taking steps to ensure every citizen fully digitally literate: Kerala government has made the decision to start initiatives to promote
full digital literacy in the State. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan while
addressing a school programme in Thiruvananthapuram explained that the campaign
aims to educate people, particularly youngsters, about the dangers and traps
online. The post-Covid era, smartphones had become an integral part of
everyone’s everyday lives and an important instrument for online learning.
Children cannot be kept out of the digital world forever, but the Chief
Minister advised raising awareness to protect their safety and security.
Note: Kerala
Chief Minister: Pinarayi Vijayan; Kerala Capital: Thiruvananthapuram
5. Jammu Film Festival to begin from
September 3:
The second edition of the Jammu film festival will be held here from the 3rd of
September with films from 54 countries slated to be screened over two days of
the event. The first-ever international film festival here was held in
September 2019 in Jammu, the winter capital of the Union Territory. The event
was in the cold shelf for the last two years due to the COVID pandemic. Key
Points:
a)
54
projects from 15 countries including feature films, documentaries, and shorts
will be screened during the event.
b)
The
panel of judges includes prominent actor Lalit Parimoo, Geetiyan fame director
Raahul Sharma, Iranian filmmaker Alimohammad Eghbaldar, producer Kapil Mattoo,
and storyboard writer and critic Amit Singh. The panel is headed by Sangeet
Natak-awardee and well-known actor-director Mushtaq Kak.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:
1. India provides UNRWA with
donation of USD 2.5 million for Palestinian refugees: India gave the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
USD 2.5 million. In a signing ceremony at UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem,
Sunil Kumar, director of the West Asia and North Africa Division of the Indian Ministry
of External Affairs, handed Karim Amer, director of partnerships for the
Department of External Relations, a check for USD 2.5 million. Key Points:
a)
Karim
Amer expressed his appreciation for India’s ongoing efforts on behalf of the
Palestinian refugees.
b)
Harish
Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs’ Under-Secretary for West Asia and
North Africa, was also present at the ceremony.
c)
India
has been a committed supporter of UNRWA since 2018, contributing USD 20 million
to help fund the organization’s essential programmes for Palestinian refugees
throughout the Middle East.
d)
The
UNRWA, which was founded in 1949 as a humanitarian organisation, is entirely
supported by donations and grants from donor nations.
e)
About
5.6 million Palestinian refugees who were registered in the West Bank, Gaza
Strip, and refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan were to receive support
and safety from the agency.
f)
Education,
health care, assistance, infrastructure, camp rehabilitation, protection, and
microfinance are among the services provided by UNRWA to Palestinian refugees.
g)
The
UNRWA stated in January that it will require 1.6 billion US dollars from the
international community in 2022 to cover costs, deliver services, and carry out
projects for the humanitarian development of Palestinian refugees.
2. Wasifa Nazreen: First Bangladeshi
to climb K2, second-highest peak in the world: Mountaineer Wasifa
Nazreen became the first person from Bangladesh to ascend Pakistan’s
administered K2, the second-highest mountain peak. She scaled the K2 mountain
peak, which is 8611 metres (28,251 ft) high, and then descended to the base
camp. Key Points:
a)
The
39-year-old mountaineer Wasifa paid respect to all the known and unidentified
martyrs of Bangladesh, from the language campaign to the liberation war, after
completing this historic job.
b)
Wasifa
greeted Bangladesh on its 50th anniversary and thanked everyone who had
assisted her from the top of the world’s most treacherous mountain, stating,
“Happy 50th Bangladesh, here’s to the next great 50.”
c)
Wasifa
earlier wrote on her Facebook page as she was climbing to the top of K2 that
when the time comes for her to exit the world, please rejoice in knowing she
lived or aspired to live, her life is free from society and other people’s
judgement.
d)
In
2012, Wasifa Nazreen scaled Mount Everest. She was the second Bangladeshi woman
to accomplish so.
Note: Bangladesh’s Capital: Dhaka;
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister: Sheikh Hasina Wazed
OTHER UPDATES:
SPORTS
1. BCCI introduced a new A+ category
for umpires: The
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has introduced a new A+ category
for its umpires and Nitin Menon, along with ten other officials, have been
grouped in the category. Umpires in A+ and A categories are paid Rs 40,000 a
day for a first-class game while Rs 30,000 a day are paid in the B and C
category.
Key Points:
a)
The
others in the A+ category include four international umpires: Anil Chaudhary,
Madangopal Jayaraman, Virender Kumar Sharma and K N Ananthapadmabhanan.
b)
Rohan
Pandit, Nikhil Patwardhan, Sadashiv Iyer, Ulhas Gandhe and Navdeep Singh Sidhu
are also part of the A+ category.
c)
Twenty
umpires including C Shamshuddin form the A group, 60 are in Group B, 46 in
Group C and 11 in Group D which falls in the 60-65 age bracket.
Note: BCCI President: Sourav Ganguly; BCCI
secretary: Jay Shah; BCCI Headquarters: Mumbai; BCCI Founded: December 1928.
2. SAI starts “Create for India” campaign
to cheer for Team India in Birmingham: The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has
started a new initiative to cheer for Team India, under which SAI has launched
the campaign “Create for India” to cheer Indian contingents participating in
the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. A 215-member Indian athlete contingent
is set to participate across 16 disciplines in this sports event, which is
scheduled to take place from July 28, 2022, to August 08, 2022. The motto of
the CWG 2022 is “Games for Everyone.”
About the Sports Authority of India: The Sports
Authority of India is the apex national sports body of India, established in
1982 by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of India for
the development of sports in India.
BANKING AND FINANCE
1. RBI
approves Piramal Enterprises’ establishment of NBFC: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given the organisation permission
to begin conducting business as an NBFC to Piramal Enterprises. The licence is
required to start an NBFC that does not accept public deposits. RBI has granted
the company a certificate of registration allowing it to start operating as a
non-banking financial institution without taking deposits from the general
public.
The company
gained agreement from the shareholders to demerge its pharmaceuticals division
and streamline its corporate structure, the RBI granted its approval. The
company paid Rs 34,250 crore to buy Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL). The company
had previously stated that the acquisition will increase the retail loan book
by up to five times, hence diversifying Piramal Enterprises’ loan book towards
retail financing.
Note: RBI
Governor: Shaktikanta Das; Piramal Enterprises Founder: Ajay Piramal; Piramal
Enterprises CEO: Peter DeYoung
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
1. India’s Indermit Gill named as
World Bank’s Chief Economist: The international financial institution,
World Bank has appointed Indermit Gill, as its chief economist and senior
vice-president for development economics at the multilateral development bank.
His appointment will be effective September 1, 2022. Gill will be only the
second Indian to serve as chief economist at the World Bank. Kaushik Basu was
the first, having served in the job from 2012-2016.
2. Nakul Jain Joins As CEO Of Paytm
Payments Services:
Paytm’s parent One97 Communications has appointed Nakul Jain as the CEO of
Paytm Payments Services Ltd (PPSL). Praveen Sharma, who is now serving as the
acting CEO of PPSL, has been promoted to oversee the organisation’s commerce
vertical in addition to his other duties.
Note: MD and CEO of Paytm: Vijay Shekhar
Sharma; Paytm Founded: August 2010; Paytm Headquarters: Noida, Uttar Pradesh,
India.
DEFENCE
1. India-Japan conducted a Maritime
Partnership exercise (MPX) in the Andaman Sea: A Maritime
Partnership Exercise (MPX) was conducted between Japan Maritime Self Defense
Force and Indian Navy in the Andaman Sea. INS Sukanya, an offshore patrol
vessel and JS Samidare, a Murasame class destroyer, undertook various exercises
including seamanship activities, aircraft operations and tactical manoeuvres as
part of the operational interaction.
Aim of the exercises: The two countries
have been carrying out regular exercises in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) aimed
towards reinforcing maritime association. The exercises conducted were aimed at
enhancing interoperability and streamlining seamanship and communication
procedures. This exercise is part of the ongoing efforts between the two navies
toward ensuring safe and secure international shipping and trade in the IOR.
2. Rajnath Singh announces the
formation of combined tri-service theatre commands: Rajnath Singh,
Minister of defence, to improve coordination between the armed forces,
announced the creation of unified theatre commands of three services. India is
fast transitioning from being the world’s top importer of defence equipment to
an exporter. The defence minister was addressing at a ceremony held by the
Jammu & Kashmir People’s Forum in this city to honour the Indian Armed
Forces martyrs. The defence minister paid tribute to the Kargil martyrs and
stated that the nation could never forget the ultimate sacrifice they made in
order to preserve the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Note: Defence Minister of India: Rajnath
Singh; Chief of Army Staff: General Manoj Pande.
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