Current Affairs 22 August 2020

Help us understand what's happening

What's wrong with the post
Submit
author
Nancy
MME Expert
Banking and Insurance, SSC and Railways, Teaching Exams..., MBA Exams, Other Exams, UP State Exams, Haryana State Exams, Punjab State Exams

Current Affairs 22 August 2020

photo

1. IAF congratulates Gajanand Yadava for being awarded 'Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2019'
  • Wing Commander Gajanand Yadava has won the ‘Tenzing Norgey National Adventure Award 2019' in air adventure category. The Indian Air Force congratulated Yadava for the special award through a post on Twitter.
  • Gajanand Yadava is a Parachute Jump Instructor. He is also a member of IAF's Skydiving Team `Akash Ganga`. He has undertaken more than 2900 jumps till date, stated the Indian Air Force in its post. 
  • The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards are regarded as India's highest national awards for adventure sports. The awards are considered at par with the Arjuna award. The awards are conferred in four categories- Air adventure, land adventure, water adventure and lifetime achievement.
Foot Notes:
Chief of the Air Staff: Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria

2. RBI releases 'National Strategy for Financial Education: 2020-2025'
  • On the lines of the review of progress made under the first National Strategy for Financial Education (NSFE: 2013-2018) the revised NSFE (2020-2025) has been prepared and the document for the same was released by Mahesh Kumar Jain, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on August 20, 2020.
  • This NSFE 2020-2025, has been prepared by the National Centre for Financial Education (NCFE) in consultation with all (four) the Financial Sector Regulators viz. RBI, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), along with Department of Financial Services (DFS) and other Ministries of Govt. of India under the aegis of the Technical Group on Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy (TGFIFL) chaired by Deputy Governor, RBI.
  • There are the Strategic Objectives laid down in NSFE 2020-2025 and in order to achieve them, the document recommends adoption of a ‘5 C’ approach viz. Content, Capacity, Community, Communication and Collaboration.
Foot Notes:
About RBI:
Headquarter: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Formation: 1 April 1935
Governor: Shaktikanta Das
Deputy Governors: 4 (Bibhu Prasad Kanungo, Mahesh Kumar Jain, Michael Debabrata Patra, one is yet to be appointed)
 
3. Rajiv Kumar to be appointed as new Election Commissioner following resignation of Ashok Lavasa
  • Former finance secretary Rajiv Kumar has been appointed new election commissioner.
  • He will replace Ashok Lavasa, who resigned earlier this week. Mr Kumar will take charge the day Mr Lavasa leaves his office on August 31.
  • Mr Kumar's appointment comes at a time when the election commission is preparing to hold Bihar assembly polls amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Foot Notes:
About Election commission of India:
Formed: 25 January 1950
Headquarters: New Delhi
First executive: Sukumar Sen
Preceding executive: Om Prakash Rawat
 
4. Ronnie O’Sullivan wins World Snooker Championship 2020
  • Ronnie O’Sullivan defeated Kyren Wilson with a score of 18-8 to win the World Snooker Championship 2020. He has claimed his sixth World Championship title at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre.
  • With his victory, Ronnie O’Sullivan has also become the oldest winner of the World Snooker Championship since Reardon, who was 45 in 1978.
  • He has also advanced to the second spot in the world rankings behind last year’s champion Judd Trump.
Foot Notes:
About World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association:
Headquarters: Bristol, United Kingdom
Chairperson: Jason Ferguson
Sports: Snooker (professional), English billiards
 
5. IIT Madras-incubated startup develops portable hospital to treat COVID-19 patients
  • IIT Madras-incubated Start-up, Modulus Housing has developed a portable hospital unit that can be installed anywhere within two hours by four people. 'MediCAB' is a decentralized approach to detect, screen, identify, isolate and treat COVID-19 patients in their local communities through these portable microstructures.
  • 'MediCAB' was launched recently in Wayanad District of Kerala where the units are being deployed to treat COVID-19 Patients. The startup is developing micro hospitals that can be deployed rapidly across the nation.
  • The hospital unit is foldable and is composed of four zones - a doctor's room, an isolation room, a medical room/ward and a twin-bed ICU, maintained at negative pressure.
Foot Notes:
IIT Madras:
Director: Bhaskar Ramamurthy
 
 
6. HSBC India comes up with green deposit programme for corporate clients
  • HSBC India becomes 1st Foreign Bank in India to launch a ‘Green Deposit Programme’ exclusively for corporate clients to finance green initiatives and eco-friendly projects like renewable energy, clean transportation, and pollution prevention among others, that promote transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient and sustainable economy. This will enable companies to support environmentally-beneficial projects.
  • It is available in Rupees(Rs) as ‘Term Deposit’, which generally attracts higher interests compared to savings deposits. The amount for Green Deposits will be subject to limits basis availability of eligible projects & businesses
Foot Notes:
About HSBC India:
CEO: Surendra Rosha
Headquarters: Mumbai
 
7. ICICI Lombard and Bharti AXA to merge general insurance businesses
  • ICICI Lombard general insurance company is going to merge with Bharti AXA’s non-life insurance business through a scheme of arrangement. According to ICICI Lombard, it will be the third-largest non-life insurer in India.
  • Non-life insurance companies are associated with providing insurance other than Life insurance. Such kinds of insurance include automobile insurance, health insurance, travel insurance, home insurance, theft insurance, etc. On the basis of the loss from a particular incident, it provides payments.
  • The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India is the national agency of the Government of India for the Indian insurance industry. It is the regulatory body established under the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999, and reports to the Ministry of finance. Its headquarter is located in Hyderabad, Telangana.
Foot Notes:
About ICICI Lombard:
CEO: Bhargav Dasgupta
Headquarters: Mumbai
 
About Bharti AXA:
CEO: Sanjeev Srinivasan
Founded: August 2008
Headquarters: Mumbai
 
8. NHAI launches ‘Harit Path’ a mobile app to monitor plantation along national highways
  • The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has developed a mobile App, ‘Harit Path' to facilitate creation of Green Highways across the country.
  • The App will also be used to monitor location, growth, species details, maintenance activities, targets and achievements of each of the PSU’s field units for every plant under the Highway plantation projects.
  • Harit Path was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Road and Transport, Nitin Gadkari.
  • NHAI had also recently undertaken a nation-wide plantation drive, Harit Bharat Sankalp, under which it planted over 25 lakh plants in 25 days along the stretches of the National Highways across the country.
  • Under a unique initiative, the payment to the contractors for the plantation work has been linked with the growth of the plants.
Foot Notes:
Minister of Road Transport and Highways: Nitin Gadkari
About NHAI(National Highways Authority of India):
Founded: 1988
Headquarters: New Delhi
Chairperson: Sanjeev Ranjan 
 
9. Former cricketer Gopalaswamy Kasturirangan dies at the age of 89
  • Veteran cricketer Gopalaswamy Kasturirangan died due to heart attack. Kasturirangan, 89, was a former cricketer-administrator and the BCCI curator.
  • He had mostly played his matches for Mysore in Ranji Trophy as the right-arm medium pace bowler from 1948 to 1963. Kasturirangan had represented the then "MYSORE" team in the Ranji Trophy match in the year 1948 -49 to 1962-63 for Karnataka.
10. A Book Titled ‘One Arranged Murder’ Authored by Chetan Bhagat to be Released on Sept 28
  • A Book Titled ‘One Arranged Murder’ authored by Chetan Bhagat will be released worldwide on September 28, 2020. The fiction book portrays a murder mystery in the backdrop of an arranged marriage. The book will be published by Westland Publications Ltd. It is the author’s 9th novel and 11th book overall.
  • The book not only has an intense suspense but also is filled with humour, love and relatable Indian characters.
  • He released the trailer of this book in which Actor Vikrant Massey appears(as the narrator) in the video as Keshav Rajpurohit. The author will reveal the cover of this book soon. The book is  available for pre-order on Amazon.
Foot Notes:
Chetan Bhagat’s last release was The Girl in Room 105.
16 likes | 1 comment
Like Comment Share
IBT's Classroom Study Materials

Buy Now
arrow