• Vice Admiral SN Ghormade (AVSM, NM) assumed charge as the Vice Chief of Naval Staff on July 31, 2021, at a formal ceremony in New Delhi.
• He succeeds Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar who retired on July 31, 2021, after more than 39 years of illustrious service.
• The Flag officer SN Ghormade was commissioned in the Indian Navy on January 01, 1984.
• He was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) on January 26, 2017 and Nausena Medal (NM) in 2007 by the President of India, and a Commendation by the Chief of the Naval Staff in 2000.

• In India, “Muslim Women’s Rights Day” is celebrated across the nation on August 01 to celebrate the enactment of the law against Triple Talaq.
• The first Muslim Women’s Rights Day was observed in 2020.
• The Government of India enacted the law against Triple Talaq on August 01, 2019 to make the social malpractice of Triple Talaq a criminal offense.
• The law is formally called the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019.
• It prohibits the practice of instant divorce by Muslim men and any violation of the law is punishable by a jail term of up to three years.

• The first goods train to carry stone chips to Bangladesh through the revived Haldibari -Chilahati rail link left from Damdim station of Alipurduar Division in North Frontier Railway.
• This route will provide a shorter route for the transit of goods into Bangladesh from Assam, West Bengal, Nepal and Bhutan.
• At present, five rail routes connect Bangladesh and India namely Petrapole-Benapole, Gede-Darshana, Singhabad-Rohanpur, Radhikapur-Birol and Haldibari-Chilahati.

• Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri has launched the Discovered Small Field (DSF) Bid Round-III.
• Under the bid round, 75 discoveries across 32 Contract areas in 11 basins/locations are being offered.
• Estimated Hydrocarbon in place of approximately 232 MMTOE of oil and oil equivalent gas are on offer.
• In the earlier two rounds, 54 contracts were awarded to 27 companies including 12 new entrants.

• Celebrating a year of the new National Education Policy (NEP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Thursday unveil at least 10 schemes including an academic bank of credit (ABC) in tertiary education, a competency-based assessment system for the school sector, and a framework for internationalisation of Indian education.
• Initiatives to be launched also include Vidya Pravesh, a three-month play-based school preparation module for class 1 students; Indian sign language as a subject at the secondary level; and unveiling of NISHTHA 2.0, an integrated programme of teacher training designed by the national council for education research and training (NCERT).
• The prime minister will also announce a new initiative called Structured Assessment For Analysing Learning Levels (SAFAL), a competency-based assessment framework for Grades 3, 5 and 8 students studying in schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

• 18 banks in India have come together to set up a new fintech firm named ‘IBBIC Pvt Ltd (IBBIC)’, to make use of  blockchain technology for the financial services sector.
• IBBIC was incorporated in May 2021 as a financial technology company with an objective of providing a platform for exploring, building and implementing Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) solutions including the development of DLT platforms, applications, ventures for the Indian financial services sector.
• IBBIC will use Infosys Finacle Connect platform to digitise and automate inter-organisation trade finance processes, including processing inland letters of credit (LCs)..
• The banks includes RBL Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, South Indian Bank, Federal Bank, IDFC First Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BoB), Indian Bank, Canara Bank, IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India and Standard Chartered.
• Almost every bank have picked up equal stake of 5.55% in IBBIC, by making an investment of Rs 5 lakh each.

• Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, Chairman of the Pune-based vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII), has been selected for the prestigious Lokmanya Tilak National Award for 2021.
• Mr Poonawalla has been named for his work during the COVID-19 pandemic, by manufacturing the Covishield vaccine.
• He will receive the award on August 13. The award comprises a cash prize of Rs one lakh and a memento.
• The Lokmanya Tilak national award is given annually since 1983 on August 1, the death anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak, by the  Lokmanya Tilak Trust. However this year the date has been changed due to the coronavirus situation.

• Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), has signed a ten-year partnership with the company IBM to set up the ‘Airport in a Box’ platform.
• The partnership is designed to help Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) improve its productivity, automate its information technology services, increase operational flexibility to handle future growth in passenger traffic and reduce costs.
• The airport operator chose IBM Global Business Services, IBM hybrid cloud capabilities and Kyndryl, the new, independent company that will be created following the separation of IBM’s Managed Infrastructure Services business, to design and implement a next-generation architecture with a dynamic delivery model.

• PV Sindhu has lost her semi-final clash against China's Taipei Tai Tzu-Ying at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.
• Tai defeated Sindhu 21-18 and 21-12 to enter the final.
• Now, Sindhu will face China's He Bingjiao in the Bronze medal match.

• The Kerala Police launched a new initiative called the Pink Protection project for the protection of women in public, private and digital spaces.
• The Pink Protection project aims to prevent dowry-related issues, cyber-bullying & humiliation in public places. It has 10 components, one of which is activating the existing Pink Police Patrol system, named Pink Janamaithri Beat.
• They will collect information from panchayat members, neighbours and other locals and hand it over to the Station House Officers for further action.
• The Pink Beat system, in which specially trained women police officers have been deployed, will be present at Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and private buses and in front of schools, colleges and other public places including bus stops.
• Pink control rooms have been set up in all 14 districts to coordinate the activities.
• The Pink Shadow Patrol team will also be deployed to detect the presence of anti-socials in crowded areas and to take action.
• A bullet patrol team of woman police officers called “Pink Romeo” was also launched as part of the project.

Download Daily GK PDF of 01 August 2021