03rd August, 2023

1. 50th meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Mission for Clean Ganga has been held.
2. 7 different products from Rajasthan, Goa and Uttar Pradesh get Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
3. Directorate General of Training under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has partnered with Amazon Web Services to upskill students.
4. India has withdrawn its 8-athlete ‘Wushu’ (martial arts) athletes contingent from the Summer World University Games in Chengdu, China.
5. Foxconn to invest $600 million in Karnataka for two manufacturing projects.
6. Government has asked Pharma companies to adopt good manufacturing practices to ensure manufacturing of quality drugs.
7. Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) has transformed industry incubators into co-working space called ‘LEAP Coworks’
8. Israel has planned to sell its “David’s Sling” anti-missile defence system to Finland.
9. Voyager Space and Airbus have announced Joint Venture to Build and Operate world’s first commercial space station ‘Starlab’.
10. Russia has planned to conduct “Ocean Shield-2023” naval exercise in the Baltic Sea.
11. CRED, fintech company has launched RuPay credit card-based UPI payments in collaboration with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
12. According to government data, the fiscal deficit for Q1 FY24 is ₹4.51 trillion, accounting for 25.3% of annual estimates.
13. 9th WHO REPORT ON THE GLOBAL TOBACCO EPIDEMIC, 2023
14. Reza Mia, a South African Indian-origin innovator has won the National Science and Technology (NSTF) award in the category for Innovation and research
15. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conferred with Lokmanya Tilak Award in Pune.
16. 1 August- Muslim Women’s Rights Day
17. 1 August- World Fintech Day
18. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Brookfield Asset Management for manufacturing renewable energy and decarbonization equipment in Australia.
19. Uday Kumar Hebbar has been appointed as the chairman of Microfinance Industry Network (MFIN).
20. Shivendra Nath has been appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of Engineering Projects (India) Ltd, a PSU under the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises.
21. Prof Ganesan Kannabiran has been appointed as the new director of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
22. A partial skeleton of a new whale that has lived nearly 40 million years ago has been discovered in Peru.
23. A Lunar Codex programme to send a collection of varied digitised art to the moon as a lasting record of human creativity is being taken up.

National News

1. 50th meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Mission for Clean Ganga has been held.

Approvals given for-

• 7 projects worth around 692 crores.
  • 4 Projects are related to sewage management in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
• Initiation of Sc. Course in Freshwater Ecology and Conservation at Ganga Aqualife Conservation Monitoring Centre, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun at an estimated cost of Rs. 6.86 crore for 10 years.
• Preparation of 60-70 Urban River Management Plans (URMPs) in two phases costing around Rs 20 crore.
  • The project is part of the River-Cities Alliance (RCA) under Namami Gange, which provides cities opportunities to cooperate and work together.

2. 7 different products from Rajasthan, Goa and Uttar Pradesh get Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
   • Geographical Indication (GI) is an indication used to identify goods having special characteristics originating from a definite geographical territory.

3. Directorate General of Training under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has partnered with Amazon Web Services to upskill students.
   • The Amazon India’s cloud services arm Amazon Web Services (AWS) will upskill students in cloud computing, data annotation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML), to boost their capabilities and employability.
   • DGT implements long-term institutional skill training in the country through its network of about 15,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and 33 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs).
     Source: FE
4. India has withdrawn its 8-athlete ‘Wushu’ (martial arts) athletes contingent from the Summer World University Games in Chengdu, China.
   • Reason of the move- In response to China’s issuance of stapled visas to 3 athletes from the Indian team, all of whom were from Arunachal Pradesh.

5. Foxconn to invest $600 million in Karnataka for two manufacturing projects.
   • The first project, with an investment of $350 million, will focus on producing casing components for iPhones. The venture is expected to create 12,000 jobs, providing a significant boost to local employment.
   • In other project, Foxconn will collaborate with Applied Materials in a $250 million project to manufacture chip-making tools.
   • A week ago, Foxconn has signed a letter of intent with Tamil Nadu government to invest ₹1,600 crore to establish a manufacturing facility in Kancheepuram district.
   • Taiwanese firm Foxconn Technology Group is a key supplier to Apple Inc.
     Source: ET , TH

6. Government has asked Pharma companies to adopt good manufacturing practices to ensure manufacturing of quality drugs.
   • The Union Health Ministry has given 6 months’ time to Pharma companies with turnover of more than 250 crores to adopt Good Manufacturing Practices and those with less than Rs. 250 crores have been given 12 months.

   What are Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)?

   • These are mandatory standards that bring quality into the product by way of control of materials, methods, machine, and processes.

   Present scenario:

   • There are around 10,500 manufacturing units in the country, of which around 8,500 falls under micro, small and medium level enterprises, or
   • India is a major exporter of medicines to low- and middle-income countries which require GMP certification from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
   • However only 2,000 units in the MSME category in the country have WHO GMP certification.

Source: NoA

State News

1. Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) has transformed industry incubators into co-working space called ‘LEAP Coworks’
   • KSUM is Kerala government’s nodal agency for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.
   • LEAP, which is short for Launch, Empower Accelerate, Prosper aims to empower startups and foster their culture of innovation.
   • Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has inaugurated the operations of first phase of the new Digital Science Park in Thiruvananthapuram. Kerala will also host India’s First Technopark, first digital university.
   • KSUM CEO: Anoop Ambika
     Source: BS, ToI

International News

1. Israel has planned to sell its “David’s Sling” anti-missile defence system to
   • David’s Sling system is capable of intercepting missiles fired towards Israel by enemy countries such as Iran and Syria.

2. Voyager Space and Airbus have announced Joint Venture to Build and Operate world’s first commercial space station ‘Starlab’.
   • Voyager Space (USA) is a global leader in space exploration, and Airbus Defence and Space (Airbus) is the largest aeronautics and space company in Europe.
   • Starlab may replace the International Space Station which is due to retire in 2031.
     Source: prnewswire
3. Russia has planned to conduct “Ocean Shield-2023” naval exercise in the Baltic Sea.
   • Purpose- To assess the Russian Navy’s readiness to defend the country’s interests in a critical area, as well as the coordination of the various military forces.

Source: ET

Banking and Economy

1. CRED, fintech company has launched RuPay credit card-based UPI payments in collaboration with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
   • The launch of credit-on-UPI will empower CRED’s members to utilise their RuPay credit cards for making payments via UPI.
   • The users can pay businesses or merchants by scanning any UPI QR code, using their RuPay credit card linked to their UPI.
     Source: HBL
2. According to government data, the fiscal deficit for Q1 FY24 is ₹4.51 trillion, accounting for 25.3% of annual estimates.
   • Reasons for rise in fiscal deficit- Increased capital expenditure and accelerated tax devolution to the state governments.

   For Q1 FY24

   • Total expenditure– ₹10.5 trillion, or 23.3% of the annual estimates.
     • During Q1 FY23- ₹5.86 trillion
   • Capital expenditure– ₹2.78 lakh crore
     • During Q1 FY23- ₹1.75 trillion
   • Revenue expenditure– ₹7.72 trillion
   • Total receipts– ₹5.99 trillion, or 22.1% of the annual estimates.
   • Tax receipts – ₹4.3 trillion, or 18.6% of annual estimates.
   • The Centre aims to bring down the fiscal deficit to 5.9% of the gross domestic product during FY204.
     Source: LM

Reports and Indices

1. 9th WHO REPORT ON THE GLOBAL TOBACCO EPIDEMIC, 2023
   • Report tracks the progress made by countries in tobacco control since 2008 and, marks 15 years since MPOWER measures are introduced.
   • It focuses on controlling second-hand smoking (SHS or passive smoking).

Key highlights

• Global Tobacco Control Progress
  • Number of countries implementing at least one MPOWER measure has increased to 151 in 2022 from 44 in 2008.
  • Over the last 15 years, the number of countries covered by comprehensive smoke-free environments has increased from 10 in 2007 to 74 in 2022.
  • 4 countries (Brazil, Turkey, Netherlands, and Mauritius) have implemented all measures.
• Second-hand smoking– Tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year, of which 3 million non-smokers are those exposed to SHS.
• Challenge ahead
  • 44 countries still do not implement any MPOWER measure.
  • 53 countries do not have a complete ban on smoking in healthcare facilities.
  • 2 billion people are still unprotected by any regulatory restrictions on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS).

India specific

• India has the highest level of achievement with regards to putting health warning labels on tobacco products and providing tobacco dependence treatment as per the report.

Source: Official report

Awards

1. Reza Mia, a South African Indian-origin innovator has won the National Science and Technology (NSTF) award in the category for Innovation and research
   • The NSTF Awards honour and celebrate outstanding contributions to science, engineering and technology and innovation.
   • Reza Mia has led the Pegasus Universal Aerospace Team, which created a pioneer in vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
     Source: NoA
2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conferred with Lokmanya Tilak Award in Pune.
   • He is the 41st recipient of this award

   About the award

   • The award was instituted in 1983 by the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust.
   • This award is given every year on 1st August, the death anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak, to persons who have made remarkable and extraordinary contributions, working for the progress and development of the nation.
     Source: NoA

Important Days

1. 1 August- Muslim Women’s Rights Day
   • Purpose- To commemorate the enactment of law against Triple talaq. The central government had enforced the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 or popularly known as Triple Talaq law on August 1, 2019.
     Source: IE
2. 1 August- World Fintech Day
   • A recent report by IIFL FinTech suggests that the Indian Fintech market is expected to cross USD 1 trillion by 2030.
     Source: ET

Memorandum of Understanding

1. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Brookfield Asset Management for manufacturing renewable energy and decarbonization equipment in Australia.
   Source: LM

Appointments

1. Uday Kumar Hebbar has been appointed as the chairman of Microfinance Industry Network (MFIN).
   • Vice-chairperson- Manoj Nambiar
   • MFIN is the premier association and RBI-recognised Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) for the microfinance
     Source: ANI
2. Shivendra Nath has been appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of Engineering Projects (India) Ltd, a PSU under the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises.
   Source: PSUwatch
3. Prof Ganesan Kannabiran has been appointed as the new director of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

Source: NIE

Miscellaneous

1. A partial skeleton of a new whale that has lived nearly 40 million years ago has been discovered in Peru.
   • The whale, known as Perucetus colossus is believed to be heaviest animal ever, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
   • Currently, blue whale is the largest and heaviest animal known.
     Source: TG
2. A Lunar Codex programme to send a collection of varied digitised art to the moon as a lasting record of human creativity is being taken up.
   • Lunar Codex is stored on memory cards or laser etched on NanoFiche, a 21st-century update on film-based microfiche.
   • The program is being spearheaded by Samuel Peralta.
     Source: TG

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