Daily Current Affairs for Aug 20,2018 (English)
Important Days:
1.
August19-
World Humanitarian Day (WHD) is observed every
year to recognize work of humanitarian personnel and those who have lost their
lives. The campaign theme for this year
is #NotATarget.
National:
1. The Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority of India (IRDAI) on August 16, 2018 directed all the
insurance companies to make a provision to cover mental illness also in
insurance policies. Thus, all insurance companies
were directed to comply with the aforesaid provisions of the Mental Healthcare
Act, 2017 with immediate effect.
2. Union Ministry of Human Resource
Development (HRD) has proposed to set up five-member committee headed by
IIT-Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthy to suggest changes
to JEE (Advanced) in the wake of an inadequate number of candidates qualifying
entrance test this year.
3. The Unique Identity Authority of
India (UIDAI) announced phased roll-out of face recognition for carrying out
Aadhaar authentication from September 15, 2018 as additional security layer. The
face authentication will be in addition to fingerprint or iris scans for
Aadhaar authentication. It also has announced new feature ‘Live Face
Photo’ which is live feed of person facial features whose 12-digit unique
number Aadhaar is submitted. In initial phase, telecom service providers
(TSPs) will be first to use face recognition to authenticate subscribers while
issuing new SIM cards. This move is aimed at curbing possibility of
fingerprint cloning or spoofing and also seeks to tighten security around the
issuance and activation of mobile SIMs.
International:
1.
Panini
language laboratory was recently inaugurated at Mahatma Gandhi institute in
Mauritius by External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on the sidelines of 11th
World Hindi Conference held in Mauritius. It aims to promote
reading and writing Hindi amongst young generation and its further development.
2.
Around
180 families, who were torn apart by the 1950-53 Korean War, will be
temporarily reunited in North Korea starting from August 20, 2018 briefly after
65 years. The move comes after the two Koreas renewed
exchanges in 2018 following the decades-long standoff over North Korea’s
nuclear and missile programmes.
3. Kofi Annan (88), former UN
Secretary-General passed away on August 18, 2018 after a short illness.
In 1997, Annan became the first African to take up the role of Secretary
General at the United Nations. He served two terms as the chief of United
Nations, from 1997 to 2006. He later served as the UN special envoy for Syria,
leading efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Science & Technology:
1.
The
indigenously developed light weight glide bomb Smart Anti Airfield Weapon
(SAAW) dropped from an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft has tested successfully by
DRDO. Total of three tests with eighth round of
developmental trails with different release conditions were conducted during 16
to 18 August 2018 and all the mission objectives have been achieved.
Defence:
1. Maitree 2018 – the joint platoon
level military exercise between India and Thailand was conducted in Thailand
from 6 to 19 August 2018. The Maitree 2018 immensely
benefitted both armies from each other’s expertise and experience in conduct of
tactical level counter terrorist operations.
2. The biennial multinational air
exercise - Pitch Black – 18 (PB-18) hosted by Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)
concluded recently Darwin, Australia. In this edition of
exercise, Indian Air Force (IAF) for the first time participated with air
assets and in earlier exercises it had participated as observer. It was the
largest Pitch Black ever conducted by Australia. The objectives of this
exercise were to foster closer relationship between participating friendly
forces and promote interoperability through exchange.
3. (ATGM) ‘HELINA’ – the indigenously
developed Helicopter launched Anti-Tank Guided Missile was successfully flight
tested from Indian Army Helicopter at Pokhran range.
HELINA is helicopter launched version known of NAG ATGM. HELINA is one of the
most advanced Anti-Tank Weapons in the world. It works on “fire and forget”
principle and operates in Lock on Before Launch mode. It has operational range
of 7-10km (after air-launched). It is equipped with highly advanced Imaging
Infrared Radar (IIR) seeker along with integrated avionics.
4. Israeli Navy announced to
procure multi-purpose Barak 8 missile defence system.
The system has been jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and
India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It will be
used by Israeli Navy’s Sa’ar-6 corvettes to expand operational capabilities of
Israeli navy. It is an operational air and missile defense system used
by Israeli Navy as well as by Indian Navy and air forces.
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Economy:
1. The Parliament's Committee on
Estimates, headed by veteran BJP leader Murali Manohar Joshi, looking into the
issue of mounting non-performing assets (NPAs), asked former RBI Governor
Raghuram Rajan to appear before it and brief it on the matter of NPAs.
Rajan was invited after former Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian
praised him before the Parliamentary Committee for identifying the NPA crisis
and trying to resolve it.
2. A Draft Notification proposing
amendments in Form No. 13, and Rules 28, 28AA, 28AB, 37G and 37H of the
Income-tax Rules, 1962 has been uploaded on the website of the Income Tax
Department for comments from stakeholders and general public.
Income-tax Rules, 1962 (I.T.Rules) prescribe Form No.13 for filing an
application for seeking a certificate under Section 197 and/or under Section
206C (9) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) and for no deduction of tax; or
deduction/collection of tax at lower rate.
Appointments/Resignations:
1. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran
Khan’s 21 members-cabinet took the oath on August 20, 2018.
President Mamnoon Hussain administered the oath to the nominated cabinet
members, at a ceremony held at the President House in Islamabad.
Awards:
1. The Prestigious World Health
Organization (WHO) World No Tobacco Day 2017 Award was awarded to Delhi
government’s additional director of health, SK Arora for his extraordinary
contribution towards tobacco control. He was presented
the award by Henk Bekedam, WHO India country head in New Delhi. World No
Tobacco Day is observed around the world every year on 31 May.
Sports:
1.
India’s
first gold medal won by Wrestler Bajrang Punia in the men’s freestyle 65 kg
final event by defeated Japan’s Takatani Daichi at the 18th edition of the
Asian Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was Bajrang’s maiden gold medal
and overall second medal in Asian Games after he had earlier won silver medal
in 2014 Asian Games (Incheon, South Korea) in the men’s freestyle 61 kg
category.
2.
Apurvi
Chandela and Ravi Kumar were first Indian athletes to win medals in 2018 Asian
Games. Both had won bronze medal in mixed team rifle
shooting event.
3.
India’s
first medal was won by shooter Deepak Kumar, who won much-deserved
silver in the men’s 10m air rifle finals
event.
4.
Two
–time CWG champion Vinesh Phogat defeated Japan’s IrieYuki in the women’s free style 50kg final to become the first Indian Woman
wrestler to win gold at the Asian games .She bagged
her second Asiad medal. Indian has won two gold medals at 2018Asiad so far.
Announcement !
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