1. Nirmala Sitharaman Announces Consolidation of 27 Govt Banks Into 12, Assures No Job Cuts or Disruption in Economy

• Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a series of mergers involving 10 state-owned banks as the government moves to strengthen a sector struggling under a mountain of debt and ensure stronger balance sheets to boost lending and revive economic growth.
• The biggest merger is that of Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank. The three banks together will merge to form India’s second-largest bank after the State Bank of India (SBI), with business worth Rs 17.95 lakh crore and 11,437 branches nationwide.
• Sitharaman also announced the merger of Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank; Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank, and Corporation Bank; and Indian Bank and Allahabad Bank.

Foot Notes:
About Punjab National Bank
1. Headquarters: New Delhi
2. CEO: Sunil Mehta
3. Founded: 19 May 1894, Lahore, Pakistan
4. Owner: Government of India (75.4%)

About Oriental Bank of Commerce
1. Headquarters: Gurugram
2. CEO: Mukesh Kumar Jain
3. Founder: Rai Bahadur Sohan Lal

About United Bank of India
1. Headquarters: Kolkata
2. CEO: Ashok Kumar Pradhan
3. Founder: Narendra Chandra Dutta

2. International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances is observed on 30 August

• The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances is observed on 30 August every year. The Day was established by the international organization General Assembly resolution.
• The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances aims to lift awareness on enforced or involuntary disappearances that occur with arrest, detention, abduction or deprivation of the State with support by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate.
• Enforced disappearance became a global issue as it was not restricted to a particular region of the world. It is also concerned to stop the rising issues concerning the ill-treatment, harassment, and intimidation of witnesses of disappearances or relatives of persons who have disappeared.

Foot Notes: 
About United Nations
1. Secretary General of the United Nations: Antonio Guterres.
2. Headquarters: New York, USA
3. Founded: 24 October 1945.

• Union Human Resource Development Minister launched one of the world’s largest Integrated Online Junction for School Education ‘Shagun’ in New Delhi. Shagun is coined from two different words- ‘Shala’ meaning Schools and ‘Gunvatta’ meaning Quality.
• School Education Shagun is an over-arching initiative to improve the school education system by creating a junction for all online portals and websites relating to various activities of the Department of School Education and Literacy in the Government of India and all States and Union Territories.

• Liverpool Football player Virgil van Dijk has won UEFA's Player of the Year award. He was beating Barcelona captain Lionel Messi and Juventus superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, while England footballer Lucy Bronze taking the Women's Player of the Year award.
• UEFA also handed out positional awards for male players, with Van Dijk for Champions League Defender of the Season.

• Air India, India’s national airline, will ban the usage of single-use plastic aboard its flights from October 2, 2019.
• The ban will come into effect on all flights of Air India Express and Alliance Air flights. Air India will replace plastic teacups and tumblers with sturdy paper cups and tumblers.

6. HM Amit Shah flags off the first fleet of eco-friendly e- buses in Ahmedabad, Gujarat

• In a bid to make the city cleaner& greener, the Union Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah has flagged off the first fleet of eco-friendly e-buses(electric buses) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, which will be operated on major junctions in the city.
• He also inaugurated the India’s 1st automated battery charging & changing station for e-buses in the city. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will operate the electric buses on a regular basis. In the 1st phase, a total of 50 buses will be rolled out, of which 18 e-buses will have swappable battery technology facility, while other 32 e-buses having fast charging facility will become operational.
• Amit Shah also culminates the Mission Million Trees project, which was organized by the AMC at the Science City on World Environment Day (5 June 2019). Under this mission, AMC has enabled planting of one million saplings since the launch of the initiative.

Foot Notes:

About FAME scheme
1 .It is an incentive scheme for the promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles in India
The Scheme run in 2 phases.
Phase I: It started in 2015 and was completed on March 31st, 2019.
Phase II: It started from April 1st, 2019 and will be completed by March 31st, 2022.
Focus: It focuses on 4 areas i.e. Technology development, Demand Creation, Pilot Projects and Charging Infrastructure.

About Gujarat:
1. Capital: Gandhinagar
2. Chief minister: Vijay Rupani
3. Governor: Acharya Dev Vrat

7. Government gives nod to set up Gorewada International Zoo in Nagpur, Maharashtra

• The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar has announced the approval for the establishment of new International Standard Zoo and Biopark on 1914 hectares in the forest land at Gorewada in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
• The Zoo will be equipped with Bio Park, Indian Safari, African Safari, Night Safari, Research, Education and Training, facilities for tourists among others. Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited (FDCM), a wholly-owned company of the Government of Maharashtra (GoM)has been established for this purpose.
• Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV) formation was approved between the Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (having 51% shareholding) and the Joint Venture(JV) Company of private investors under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode Partner (with 49%).

Foot Notes:
About Maharashtra:
1. Capital: Mumbai
2. Chief Minister: Devendra Fadnavis
3. Governor: C. Vidyasagar Rao
4. National Parks: Chandoli National Park ,Gugamal National Park ,Nawegaon National Park , Pench National Park ,Sanjay Gandhi (Borivilli) National Park, Tadoba National Park.

8. ‘Ghaznavi’ surface-to-surface ballistic missile test fired by Pakistan

• Pakistan army successfully test fired its 290km range surface to surface(SSM) name “Ghaznavi” during its night training launch.
•  The missile was launched from Sonmiani flight test range of Balochistan and is developed by National Development Complex (NDC) which is a missile developer for Pakistan army headquartered at Fatehjang, Punjab (Pakistan).

About Pakistan
1. Capital- Islamabad.
2. President- ArifAlvi.
3. Prime minister- Imran Khan.
4. Currency- Pakistani Rupee.

9. Prestigious award to Sattriya danseuse

• Noted Sattriya danseuse and scholar Dr Anwesa Mahanta chosen for the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Yuva Pratibha Samman for her contributions to the Sattriya tradition.Sayanacharya Ghanakanta Bora, a Sangeet Natak Akademi and Padma Shri awardee, Anwesha extensively in India also overseas, including the USA, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, France, England, Northern Ireland, Malaysia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. The academic presentations in various institutions of higher learning and research.
• She was also awarded Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar by Sangeet Natak Akademi. Currently, Dr. Anwesa is the Director of Kalpavriksha that imparts training in Sattriya dance, music and theatre.
• The coveted Kelucharan Mohapatra National Award instituted by Srijan, an acclaimed institution of Odissi in memory of its founder guru, is offered to both senior and young scholars and practitioners to mark the 25th anniversary of Srijan.

10. Veteran Bengali actor Nimu Bhowmik passes away

• Veteran Bengali actor Nimu Bhowmik passed away. He acted characters of different shades in 'Ganadebata' (1979), 'Baghini' (1968), 'Dadar Kirti' (1980), 'Guru Dakshina' (1987). His last film, 'Dash Mash Das Diner Galpo'.