Current Affairs Today 4th & 5th August 2019 | Current Affairs News

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Daily Current Affairs PDF of 4th & 5th August  2019

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CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL

Government Launches Vernacular Agro Advisory App Meghdootfor Farmers

• The ministries of Earth Sciences and Agriculture have launched a mobile application — Meghdoot — that will provide location, and crop and livestock-specific weather-based agro advisories to farmers in local languages.
• At the launch, minister for Earth Science, Science and Technology Dr. Harsh Vardhan introduced the app. Meghdoot app will provide forecast to farmers relating to temperature, rainfall, humidity, and wind speed and direction, which play critical roles in agricultural operations and how to take care of the crops and livestock. The information would be updated twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays.
• To begin with, the service would be available for 150 districts in different parts of the country. It will be extended to rest of the country in a phased manner over the next one year.
• It has been developed by the India Meteorological Department and Indian Institute of Tropical meteorology and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Government revokes Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, bifurcates state into two UTs

• Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019 in the RajyaSabha
• The Bill seeks to make Jammu and Kashmir a Union Territory with Legislature, and Ladakh Union Territory without Legislature.
• The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 having provisions of 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections of upper caste in the state was also introduced
• The government also revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir
• Shah stated that the union territory in Ladakh will have no legislature like Chandigarh. The other union territory of Jammu and Kashmir will have a legislature like Delhi and Puducherry.

President issues Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 2019

• The President has issued Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019. The Order comes into force at once and supersedes Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954 as amended from time to time.
• The Order adds several clauses to Article 367. These include, the Constituent Assembly of the State shall become Legislative Assembly of the state as mentioned in Clause 2 of the Article.
• The Governor of the state shall act on the advice of his Council of Minister
• The order reads that the President, acting on the advice of the Legislative Assembly of the State shall henceforth be construed as references to Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATE

Gujarat CM launches ‘VhaliDikriYojna’

• Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has launched the ‘VhaliDikriYojna’ from his home town Rajkot. The scheme for the welfare of girl child has been launched to mark the 63th birth day of Chief Minister.
• It is a statewide cash incentive scheme for every girl child born in Gujarat, with a view to raising the female birthrate at par with male to achieve gender equality.
• According to scheme, the State Government will pay Rs. 4,000 to every girl child at the time of admission to Standard 4th, Rs. 6,000 at the time of taking admission to Standard IX, Rs. 1-lakh at the time of taking admission for higher education at the age of 18 and another Rs. 1-lakh at the time of marriage.
• Chief Minister Rupani said that Rs.133-crore has been allocated for this scheme.

World’s first hyperloop transportation system to come up at Maharashtra

• The Government of Maharashtra – one of the first proponents of hyperloop technology in the world – has deemed hyperloop a public infrastructure project, setting it up to be the first passenger hyperloop project in the world.
• The MahaIDEA Committee has also approved Virgin Hyperloop One-DP World (VHO-DPW) Consortium as the Original Project Proponent (OPP). This is a landmark announcement for building the Pune-Mumbai hyperloop transportation system, recognising hyperloop technology alongside other more traditional forms of mass transit.
• The hyperloop project will link central Pune to Mumbai in under 35 minutes, as opposed to the current three-and-a-half hours by road.
• The project will generate hundreds of thousands of new high tech jobs, bringing over $36 billion in wider socio-economic benefits, and creating new hyperloop component and manufacturing opportunities for Maharashtra to export to India and the rest of the world.

Kolkata to Get India’s First Underwater Metro

• Kolkata Metro has constructed the first-ever transport tunnel in the country which will pass through underwater.
• The train passes through an underwater tunnel which is 520 meters in length, built 30 meters below the riverbed of the Hooghly River, for about a minute at 80 kilometers per hour. The project’s foundation stone was laid in 2009.
• Kolkata metro is spending Rs 8,572 crore on this entire project.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE

NHB to provide liquidity infusion facility of Rs 10,000 cr to HFCs

• National Housing Bank (NHB) will provide additional liquidity infusion facility of Rs 10,000 crore to Housing Finance Companies (HFCs). This will be an additional liquidity infusion for individual loans for affordable housing.
• The Finance Ministry launched the Liquidity Infusion Facility (LIFt) Scheme for Housing Finance. This new scheme will cater to the demand of HFCs to address the housing finance requirements in the affordable housing finance sector.
• The objective of the refinance scheme is to support HFCs in creating individual housing loan portfolio that falls under the priority sector, as defined by the Reserve Bank of India.
• The maximum amount that can be drawn under this scheme shall not exceed ₹ 500 crore per HFC.

RBI allows Bank of China to offer regular banking services in India

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed Bank of China to offer regular banking services in the country.
• All commercial banks, like SBI, HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank, are in the Second Schedule. Banks falling under this schedule have to adhere to the norms of the RBI.
• “Jana Small Finance Bank Limited” has been included in the Second Schedule of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
• “National Australia Bank” excluded from the Second Schedule of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934
• Name of “The Royal Bank of Scotland plc” altered to “NatWest Markets Plc” in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

RBI imposes Rs 50 lakh fine on Punjab National Bank

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a fine of Rs. 50 lakh on Punjab National Bank for delay in flagging the fraud in the account of Kingfisher Airlines.
• RBI observed from the fraud monitoring report-1 submitted by Punjab National Bank on July, 10 2018
• The fine was imposed In exercise of the powers conferred under section 47(A)(1)(c) read with section 46(4)(i) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949
• In a separate filing, Bank of Baroda said the RBI has imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on it for delay in reporting fraud in an account.

RBI imposes fine of Rs. 11 crore on seven public sector banks

• The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a collective penalty of Rs. 11 crore on seven public sector banks for violating norms on current account opening
• Allahabad Bank and Bank of Maharashtra have been imposed a fine of 2 crore each
• Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and United Bank of India have been slapped with fines of 1.5 crore each
• While Oriental Bank of Commerce has been imposed with a penalty of 1 crore.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

Flipkart launches ‘Samarth’ to empower Indian artisans, weavers and craftsmen

• Flipkart, India’s leading e-commerce marketplace launched ‘Flipkart Samarth’ – a breakthrough initiative aimed at bringing India’s artisans, weavers, and handicrafts producers onto e-commerce.
• The initiative was launched by Minister of state for Finance & Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur along with Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy in New Delhi.
• Flipkart Samarth has been designed to support the e-commerce journey for artisans from on-boarding until they reach familiarity with the process of selling online.
• The host of initiatives and benefits under Flipkart Samarth include dedicated support for onboarding, cataloguing, account management, business insights, dedicated seller support, reduced commission where eligible, and warehousing support.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATION

Siddhartha Mohanty takes over as MD, CEO of LIC HFL

• LIC Housing Finance (LIC HFL) stated that Siddhartha Mohanty has assumed charge as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the NBFC.
• Before joining LIC HFL, he was Executive Director – Legal with LIC of India.

GuruprasadMohapatra takes charge as DPIIT secretary

• GuruprasadMohapatrahas assumed charge of the office of Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)
• Prior to taking over as DPIIT secretary he was served as chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI)
• He replace Ramesh Abhishek as the new DPIIT Secretary

Ravi Capoor assumes Charge as Secretary Textiles

• Ravi Capoor has assumed charge of the office of Secretary, Ministry of Textiles in New Delhi.
• Ravi Capoor worked as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India from 2011 to 2016
• Ravi Capoor has vast experience of working in international agencies like the World Bank, European Union, United Nations, Department for International Development in the Primary Education Project with Government of India.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOUR

President Kovind honoured with National order of Merit, highest award of Republic of Guinea

• President Ram NathKovind has been awarded the National order of Merit by the President of Guinea for his exceptional contribution to the advancement of overall relations and development of mutual cooperation between India and Guinea and for promoting friendship and partnership between the people of both the countries.
• This is the highest award of Republic of Guinea.
• Three MoUs were signed between the two countries, Cooperation in the Field of Traditional System of Medicine, e- Vidhyabharati – e-AarogyaBharati Network Project and Renewal Energy. President also announced a new Line of Credit of US$ 170 million for Water Supply Project of Conakry city.

Indian-origin doctor BhashaMukerjee wins Miss England 2019 crown

• A 23-year-old Indian-origin doctor has been crowned Miss England after fending off competition from dozens of other models.
• Bhasha, who moved to the UK from India aged 9, will now compete in the 69th Miss World contest to be held in December 2019 in London.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Isro to set up new centre to protect Indian satellites from space debris

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) laid the foundation stone for the Space Situational Awareness Control Centre in Bengaluru.
• The control centre would host a range of activities related to the protection of Indian Space assets from inactive satellites, pieces of orbiting objects, near earth asteroids and adverse space weather conditions.

DRDO Test-Fires State-of-the-Art Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missiles in Odisha

• India test-fired a sophisticated all-weather and all-terrain Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) from a test range in Odisha.
• The state-of-the-art missile has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Indian army.
• QRSAM uses solid-fuel propellant and has a range of 25-30 km.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS

Lewis Hamilton Wins Hungarian Grand Prix 2019

• Mercedes driver, Lewis Hamilton has won the Formula 1, Hungarian Grand Prix 2019.
• This is the 8th win for him in this season. Also, this was his seventh win in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
• Max Verstappen was second followed by Sebastian Vettel at third.

VineshPhogat Wins Third Successive Gold in 53kg In Poland Open

• Star India grappler VineshPhogathas bagged her third consecutive gold in women’s 53kg category after winning the Poland Open wrestling tournament in Warsaw
• This was her third consecutive gold in the 53 kg category after winning Gold at Grand Prix of Spain and at the YasarDogu International at Istanbul, Turkey last month.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: OBITUARY

Veteran Telugu actor DevadasKanakala Passes Away

• Noted Telugu actor DevadasKanakalahas passed away
• Devadas was 74 years old and was reported to be suffering from some health issues.
• Besides movies like ChaliCheemalu and Nagamalli, which he had directed, O Seeta Katha, Gang Leader, Manchu Pallaki, Gorintaku, ManasanthaNuvve, Josh and Nee Sneham are the movies where he was acclaimed for his acting.

Cricket commentator AnantSetalvad passed away

• Yesteryear cricket commentator AnantSetalvad has passed away
• Anant was commentator for AIR in Ranji Trophy and other BCCI tournaments and also for Test matches
• He used to draw pictures of the game’s progress on airwaves with his fine command of the English language.

Veteran Gujarati journalist Kanti Bhatt passed away

• Veteran Gujarati journalist, author and columnist Kanti Bhatt has passed away
• Bhatt started his journalism career in the late 1960s as a financial journalist in Mumbai. He later became a freelance journalist and also wrote columns for various publications
• As per an estimate, he must have written more than 45,000 articles in his journalistic career.
• Bhatt was also founding editor of one of the leading Gujarati magazines, Abhiyan, launched with his wife Sheela

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