Current Affairs 02 August 2020

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Current Affairs 02 August 2020

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1. Home Minister Amit Shah tests positive for Coronavirus, admitted to Hospital
  • As per the latest update, Home Minister Amit Shah has tested positive for Coronavirus infection and has been admitted to hospital on the advice of doctors. He sent out a tweet confirming the news about him testing positive and also urged people who might have come in contact with him during last few days to get tested for COVID-19. 
  • In the tweet sent out from his official account, Mr Shah said that he had exhibited early symptoms of COVID-19, after which he decided to get tested which has come positive. He also added that he is in good health but has been admitted to hospital due in line with the advice of the doctors.
Foot Notes:
About Home Ministry:
Ministry executive: Ajay Kumar Bhalla, IAS, Home Secretary
Headquarters: New Delhi
Founded: 15 August 1947
Minister: Amit Shah

2. Uttarakhand to set up India’s first snow leopard conservation centre
  • Uttarakhand will soon have a snow leopard conservation centre. The conservation centre will be set up in Uttarkashi forest division area. The snow leopard conservation centre will be set up to promote winter tourism in the state.
  • Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat held a meeting regarding the same with Forest Minister Dr Harak Singh Rawat and officials of the Forest Department.
  • The Chief Minister stated that the areas where snow leopards have been seen in the last few years should be identified by the forest department with the cooperation of local people and military forces. The areas will be calculated by making grids. 
Foot Notes:
About Uttrakhand:
Capital: Gairsain (Summer), Dehradun (Winter)
Governor: Baby Rani Maurya
Chief Minister: Trivendra Singh Rawat 
 
3. UAE starts up Arab world's first nuclear power plant “Barakah”
  • Oil-rich Gulf state UAE finally starts its first-ever nuclear reactor “Barakah” at Abu Dhabi on the Gulf coast. Barakah was expected to start its operation in 2017. However, due to various safety issue, it kept on getting delayed.
  • Developed in a joint venture with the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) Barakah means “blessing” in Arabic. In association with KEPCO, the nuclear reactor power plant has begun the process of nuclear fission in one of its four reactors.
  • The energy in the reactor plant will be generated by 1,400-megawatt pressurised water reactors, designed in South Korea, called APR-1400. For now, only one of four reactors are working, however, the aim of the country is to have its all four reactors set to the operational mode by 2023. This will produce around 5.6 gigawatts of the energy which will be enough to serve a quarter of the country’s need for electricity in a safe, reliable and emission-free way.
Foot Notes:
About UAE:
Capital: Abu Dhabi
Currency: United Arab Emirates dirham
President: Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan

4. Four more states/UTs linked with 'One Nation One Ration Card' scheme
  • The Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan extended the One Nation One card scheme to four more states and UT’s Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttarakhand. With this new move, the scheme has now been enabled in 24 states and UT’s across the country.
  • Under the scheme “One Nation One Ration Card” a beneficiary of a ration card regardless of their location in the country can avail ration under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) through one of their ration cards. Apart from the above mentioned four states, 20 states have already been integrated with the scheme in the past. 
  • Formerly integrated 20 States and UTs are: – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh.
5. Piyush Goyal Inaugurates CII National Digital Conference on “Easing Doing Business for Atma nirbhar Bharat"
  • Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, inaugurated the National Digital Conference on “Easing Doing Business for Atmanirbhar Bharat” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to improve the business environment of India.
  • T V Narendran, President-Designate of CII, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of CII, and Piruz Khambatta, Chairman of CII Task Force on Ease of Doing Business participated in the conference.
Foot Notes:
About Confederation of Indian Industry(CII):
President: Uday Kotak
President Designate: T V Narendran
Director General: Chandrajit Banerjee
Headquarters: New Delhi
 
6. Khadi and Village Industries Commission signs MoU to supply mustard oil to ITBP
  • The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) to supply mustard oil on 31st July 2020. The move is in line with “Aatmanirbhar.” The MoU was signed by Shri V K Nagar, Director, KVIC and Shri Rama Kant Sharma, DIG, ITBP in presence of KVIC Chairman, Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena.
  • The KVIC and ITBP have signed the MoU for a period of one year and it will be renewed further. The next products in the pipeline are cotton mats (dari), blankets, bedsheets, pillow covers, pickles, honey, papad, and cosmetics, etc. The total value of oil and dari will be approximately Rs.18 crore.
  • GoI also made it mandatory to sell only “Swadeshi” products through the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) canteens across India.
Foot Notes:
About KVIC:
Headquarters: Mumbai
Chairperson: Vinai Kumar Saxena
 
About ITBP:
Headquarters: New Delhi
Motto: Shaurya – Dridhata – Karm Nishtha
Director-General: Shri Surjeet Singh Deswal

7. Films Division of India to pay documentary tribute to Munshi Premchand and Mohammad Rafi
  • Films Division to pay documentary tribute to Munshi Premchand and Mohammad Rafi.Films Division Mumbai will be screening two special documentaries to mark the 140th birth anniversary of most accomplished writer and storyteller, Munshi Premchand and the 40th death anniversary of legendary playback singer, Mohammed Rafi.
  • The documentaries, ‘Premchand’ and ‘Rafi - We Remember You’ will be streamed on Films Division Website and YouTube channel for free.The documentary, ‘Premchand’ is directed by P C Sharma. It is a short biography on Munshi Premchand who is popularly known as ‘Upanyas Samrat’ or the King among novelists.
  • Memories of immortal singers come alive in ‘Rafi - We Remember You’ is directed by Kuldeep Sinha. The hour-long documentary shares special moments from Rafi’s life, his everlasting songs and tributes by contemporaries.
Foot Notes:
About Films Division of India:
Headquarters: Mumbai
Founded: 1948, Mumbai
Director: Viplove Rai Bhatia

8. Madhya Pradesh to begin ‘Ek Mask-Anek Zindagi’ public awareness campaign
  • A public awareness campaign called ‘Ek Mask-Anek Zindagi’ means one mask-many lives will be conducted in many districts of Madhya Pradesh. During this campaign, people will be informed about measures to prevent COVID-19 infection.
  • The Municipal Corporation will also run a public awareness chariot in the city on the same theme. Masks are the simplest and most effective means to prevent Corona infection.
  • The Mask Bank will also be established under the Ek Mask-Anek Zindgi Campaign. In this mask bank, masks will be collected from donors and distributed free of cost to the poor people.
Foot Notes:
About Madhya Pradesh:
Capital: Bhopal
Chief Minister: Shivraj Singh Chouhan
Governor: Anandiben Patel
 
9. Core sector output shrinks 15% in June, only fertilizers industry saw actual growth
  • Contracting for the fourth consecutive month, the output of eight core infrastructure industries shrank by 15 per cent in June this year due to fall in the production of coal, crude oil, natural gas, steel, cement and electricity.
  • According to the data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry, the output of coal sector fell 15.5 per cent, crude oil declined by 6 per cent , natural gas by 12 per cent, refinery products fell by 8.9 per cent, steel sector plunged by 33.8 per cent, cement  by 6.9 per cent and electricity declined by 11 per cent.
  • the fertiliser industry was the only one which saw actual growth in June, with output rising 4.2% in comparison to June 2019.
  • In May this year, the sectors' output contracted by 22 per cent.
  • The eight core sectors had expanded by 1.2 per cent in June last year. 
  • These eight industries account for 40.27 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
Foot Notes:
Commerce and Industry Minister: Piyush Goyal
 
10. Former President of Tiawan "Lee Teng-hui", who helped birth Taiwan’s democracy, Died at 97
  • Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui has died. He was 97.He brought direct elections and other democratic changes to the self-governed island despite missile launches and other fierce saber-rattling by China.
  • He was also considered as the “father of Taiwan’s democracy”. He served as president of Taiwan from 1988 to 2000.
Foot Notes:
About Taiwan:
President: Tsai Ing-wen 
Capital: Taipei
Currency: New Taiwan dollar
 
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