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CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS
National Broadcasting day
- India celebrates 23 July every year as the “National Broadcasting day”.
- On this day in 1927, the first ever radio broadcast in the country went on the air from the Bombay Station under the Indian Broadcasting Company.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
Norms for PM-KUSUM scheme
- The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) issued guidelines to roll out the 34,422-crore PM-KUSUM scheme, which would encourage farmers to generate solar power in their farms and use the clean energy to replace their diesel water pumps.
- The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) scheme entails setting up of 25,750-MW solar capacity by 2022 with the total central financial support of Rs 34,422 crore.
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the launch of the scheme with the objective of providing financial and water security.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE
India to be first recipient of AIIB local currency funding
- India is set to be the first recipient of local currency financing by the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB).
- AIIB president Jin Liqun had announced the bank’s intention to roll out local currency financing to provide more options to borrowers.
- India, which is the second largest shareholder of Beijing-based AIIB with a 7.5% stake, has received about $2-billion funding for various projects so far. China holds 20.06% in the over-three-year-old bank.
| USEFUL INFO |
| Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) |
| President | Jin Liqun |
| Headquarters | Beijing |
CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATION
M.M. Naravane to be next Vice-Chief of Army Staff
- Lieutenant-General M.M. Naravane, currently General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Army Command, has been appointed the next Vice-Chief of the Army Staff.
- He will take over from Lt. Gen. D. Anbu when he retires on August 31.
- Gen. Naravane, the senior-most officer in the force after the Chief of the Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat, is in line to succeed him on his retirement on December 30.
Reebok signs Varun Dhawan as its new brand face
- Leading fitness brand Reebok announces Bollywood actor and fitness enthusiast, Varun Dhawan, as their Indian brand ambassador.
- The brand recently also signed in Katrina Kaif as the new face.
- With Varun, Reebok launches its biggest campaign Sole Fury, that aims to disrupt conventionality and celebrates those who dare to #SplitFrom the ordinary.
Coca-Cola appoints Sarvita Sethi as VP M&A for India & South West Asia
- Coca-Cola India appointed Sarvita Sethi as the Vice-President (VP) for Merger and Acquisitions (M&A) and new ventures for Coke’s India and Southwest Asia region with effect from August 1, 2019.
- She will be responsible for any new acquisition. She is a chartered accountant with more than 15 years of experience in corporate finance. She had worked for Sainsbury’s and Viacom in London before joining Coca-Cola in 2008.
- Harsh Bhutaniwas appointed as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with effect from August 1, 2019
Acharya Devvrat takes oath as new Governor of Gujarat
- In Gujarat, Shri Acharya Devvrat took the oath as a new Governor of the state.
- He took the oath in Sanskrit. He succeeded Om Prakash Kohli.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOUR
Carnatic vocalist S. Sowmya chosen for Sangita Kalanidhi Award 2019
- The Music Academy’s Executive Committee unanimously selected Carnatic vocalist S. Sowmya for Sangita Kalanidhi Award 2019. She will preside over the 93rd annual conference of The Music Academy .
- Seetha Narayanan, a veteran vocalist and M S Sheela, who has been a torch-bearer of Carnatic music in Karnataka, were selected for the Sangita Kala Acharya award.
- Nagaswaram artist ‘Vyasarpadi’ Kothandaraman and vocalist Rajkumar Bharathi, great grandson of national poet Subramani Bharath, were selected for the TTK Award in memory of T T Krishnamachari.
- Arati N Rao, an assistant professor in Bengaluru-based Jain University, was chosen for the Musicologist Award.
- The Nritya Kalanidhi title will be conferred to Bharatanatyam dancer Priyadarshini Govind.
- The Sangita Kalanidhi and other music awards will be conferred at the Sadas of the Music festival on January 1, 2020.
- The Nritya Kalanidhi award will be conferred at the inaugural of the dance festival scheduled which will be held on January 3, 2020.
Hilary Swank to receive Leopard Club Award at Locarno Film Fest
- Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank will be honoured with the Leopard Club Award at the 2019 Locarno International Film Festival.
- The award is given to a “great personality of the cinema who through her or his work has managed to mark the collective imagination”.
- The festival will also hold screenings of her films — “Boys Don’t Cry” (1999) and “Million Dollar Baby” (2004). The actor won Best Actress Academy Awards for her performance in the films.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BOOKS AND AUTHOR
Author Sunil Mishra’s book ‘Who Stole My Job’ enters second print run
- Srishti Publishers and Distributors, India’s leading publishing house announced the second print run of ‘Who Stole My Job’ by nationally acclaimed author Sunil Mishra.
- The book was first released in April 2019 and has received a very positive response from readers across the globe.
- Who Stole My Job’ is a work of business fiction that relates to new technological disruptions in the age of artificial intelligence and their impact on daily and work lives.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
India Successfully Launches Chandrayaan-2 from Sriharikota
- India successfully launched its second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 from its most powerful rocket GSLV-Mk0III-M1with a plan to land the rover on September 7 in the unexplored lunar south pole, exactly a week after the liftoff was aborted due to a technical snag.
- The total cost of the 3,850-kg Chandrayaan-2 mission is Rs 978 crore.
- Once Chandrayaan-2 reaches to south pole region of lunar terrain, India will become the fourth ever nation to have a soft-landing on the moon.
- Other three nations are United States, China and Russia.
IIT Madras students develop ‘Agricopter’ to eliminate manual spraying of pesticides in agricultural farms
- Students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have developed a “smart agricopter” to eliminate manual spraying of pesticides in agricultural fields and help identify crop health by using a imaging camera.
- The innovation will allowing spraying pesticides ten times faster and with 100% precision at the same cost as manual spraying.
- Students at the Centre For Innovation, IIT Madras, identified manual pesticide spraying as an extremely hazardous activity as it endangered farmers’ and labourers’ health and resulted in a massive overuse of toxic chemicals.
- The advanced multispectral imaging camera allows the hexacopter drone to make smart maps of farmland based on crop health and its completely autonomous pesticide refilling system ensures entire spraying is completely autonomous.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS
Manny Pacquiao Beats Keith Thurman to Take WBA Super Welterweight Title
- Filipino professional boxer, Manny Pacquiao, claimed the WBA Welterweight Super Championship title after securing a split decision victory over Keith Thurman of America in Las Vegas.
- The 40-year-old pacquiao has now become the oldest welterweight champion in history to lift the title.
Harmeet, Ayhika win as India complete golden sweep in C’wealth TT
- Harmeet Desai and Ayhika Mukherjee won the men’s and women’s singles titles as hosts India completed a clean sweep, claiming all the seven gold medals on offer at the 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships.
- Harmeet made a valiant comeback to outwit Sathiyan in a marathon seven game contest.
- Anthony Amalraj and Manav Thakkar claimed the men’s doubles gold by stunning top seeds Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal.
- Ayhika won her maiden gold in the championships, thrashing former national champion Madurika Patkar
- Pooja Sahasrabudhe and Krittwika Sinha Roy defeated compatriots Sreeja Akula and Mousumi Paul to claim the women’s doubles crown.
Brilliant Lowry wins The Open at Royal Portrush
- The Republic of Ireland’s Shane Lowry won the 148thOpen Championship at Royal Portrush in a six-shot romp over runner-up Tommy Fleetwood.
- The 32-year-old is the only second player from Ireland after Padraig Harrington (2007 and 2008) to lift the Claret Jug, or win any of golf’s four majors.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: OBITUARY
Former Australian Tennis Star Peter McNamara Passes away
- Former Australian Davis Cup tennis star and Wimbledon doubles champion Peter McNamara has died aged 64.
- McNamara won five singles titles and nineteen doubles titles in his career.
UN nuclear watchdog chief Yukiya Amano passes away
- Yukiya Amano, the Japanese diplomat who led the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for a decade and was extensively involved in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme, has died at 72.
- He had been chief of the key United Nations agency that regulates nuclear issues worldwide since 2009.