17th-18th August, 2022

1. India’s first 3D-printed cornea has been developed by LV Prasad Eye Institute-Hyderabad, IIT-Hyderabad, and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.
2. Border Roads Organization (BRO) has announced to develop the first-ever steel slag road in Arunachal Pradesh.
3. Asia’s largest Compressed Biogas (CBG) plant has now started commercial production in Sangrur district of Punjab.
4. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched ‘Paalan 1000 – Journey of the First 1000 Days’ campaign to encourage the cognitive developments of children in the first 2 years of its life.
5. Central Government has unveiled Manthan platform to promote collaboration at scale between industry and the scientific research and development ecosystem to help meet India’s scientific missions and goals in alignment with the UN defined Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) charter.
6. National Health Authority (NHA) has announced fund allocation to States and Union Territories for implementation of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) based on their performance in recording data in the Health Facility Registry (HFR) and Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR).
7. India has contributed four lakh US dollars to four Voluntary Trust Funds as part of its commitment to global promotion and protection of human rights and support for United Nations Human Rights.
8. IIT-Guwahati has partnered with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to explore solutions to issues related to water, electricity, internet for the AICTE-affiliated institutions in North East India.
9. Agasthiyarmalai Elephant Reserve has become the 5th elephant reserve of Tamil Nadu.
10. Rajasthan govt has signed an MOU with SJVN for developing renewable energy projects of 10,000 MW.
11. Karnataka govt has been implementing the Raitha Vidya Nidhi scheme to provide scholarship to the children of farmers, landless agricultural labourers, weavers, fishermen, and taxi driver, for education.
12. Sikkim CM Prem Singh Tamang has launched Vatsalya Scheme for increasing the fertility rate of women by providing them financial assistance of Rs 3 lakhs to undergo In-vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment.
13. Rajasthan government has launched ‘Mukhyamantri Anuprati Coaching Yojana’ to provide free coaching to students for competitive exams.
14. Delhi govt has renamed 16 parks after the freedom fighters on the occasion of 75th Independence Day.
15. Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan unveiled a 30-feet tall mural statue of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
16. Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu has launched pilot project drone service –‘Medicine from The Sky’.
17. India has delivered Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft to the navy of Sri Lanka.
18. Indian Army has received the first lot of indigenously-developed equipment and systems.
19. 10th Moscow Conference on International Security was recently held.
20. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has signed an MOU with South Korea for improving public health tools in the developing world and advancing vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases.
21. Climate Policy Initiative (a climate think tank based in US) has released the ‘Landscape of Green Finance in India’
22. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has announced to invest Rs 665 crores to buy a 99% stake in Aditya Birla Health Insurance Company.
23. BYD India, EV manufacturer, has signed an MOU with the HDFC Bank for providing a stock financing solution to its pan India dealer network.
24. State Bank of India (SBI) has launched Utsav Deposit– Fixed Deposit scheme at 6.1% interest with a tenor of 1000 days.
25. Bank of Baroda has launched the Bank of Baroda Tiranga Deposit Scheme (an FD scheme) at an interest rate of 6% for a tenor of 444 and 555 days.
26. Karnataka Bank has launched KBL Amrit Samriddhi (a new Fixed Deposit Scheme) for a tenure of 75 weeks (525 days) at an interest rate of 6.10% per annum.
27. Yes Bank and SellerApp, a seller-centric intelligence platform, have partnered to encourage the latter’s clients to adopt Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC).
28. Wholesale price-based inflation eased to a five-month low of 13.93% in July 2022 on easing prices of food articles and manufactured products.
29. State Bank of India (SBI) has launched its first “state-of-the-art” dedicated branch for start-ups at Bengaluru to facilitate and support them.
30. Tiger Global-backed fintech unicorn Razorpay has agreed to buy a controlling stake in payment solutions startup Ezetap Mobile Solutions for $126 million (₹1,000 crore) in a cash-and-stock deal.
31. Adani Logistics Ltd (ALL), a unit of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire an inland container depot (ICD) from Navkar Corporation Ltd in Gujarat for ₹835 crore.
32. William Samoei Arap Ruto has been elected as the next President of Kenya.
33. Bajaj Electricals has appointed Anuj Poddar as its MD and CEO.
34. August 7 – National Javelin Day
35. August 13 – International Lefthanders Day
36. August 15 – National Mourning Day in Bangladesh
37. August 16 – Parsi New year or Navroz
38. Muthoot Finance has won the ‘best growth performance award’ at Dun & Bradstreet’s 22nd edition of ‘India’s Top 500 Companies’ corporate awards.
39. Razorpay, India’s leading full-stack Payments and Banking Platform for Businesses, has become the first Indian company to be named in the 2022 Forbes Cloud 100 List at 49th position.
40. The south London home of Dadabhai Naoroji (Indian freedom fighter and Britain’s first Indian parliamentarian) has been honoured with a commemorative Blue Plaque.
41. 2022 Forbes Asia Best Under A Billion list has been released.
42. Kirti Chakra 2022 award winners are Naik Devendra Pratap Singh, the soldier who killed two terrorists, and BSF constables Sudip Sarkar and Paotinsat Guite (both honoured posthumously).
43. Meghalaya will host the 2nd North East Olympic Games 2022, which will be held from October 30 to November 6, 2022.
44. Pooja Ojha has become the first Indian to win the silver medal in the 2022 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Halifax, Canada.
45. 2022 National Bank Open Tennis Tournament (Canada) – Men’s Singles: Pablo Carreño Busta (Spain); Women’s Singles: Simona Halep (Romania)
46. For the first time, All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been suspended by FIFA due to “third-party interference”.
47. National award-winning singer Shivamogga Subbanna has passed away.
48. “Putin: His Life and Times” book has been authored by Philip Short.
49. Bharat Biotech is developing the BBV154 intranasal covid vaccine.

National News

1. India’s first 3D-printed cornea has been developed by LV Prasad Eye Institute-Hyderabad, IIT-Hyderabad, and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.
2. Border Roads Organization (BRO) has announced to develop the first-ever steel slag road in Arunachal Pradesh.
   • Slag is a by-product of smelting ores and used metals for producing steel.
3. Asia’s largest Compressed Biogas (CBG) plant has now started commercial production in Sangrur district of Punjab.
   • The CBG is being supplied to the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL).
   • This plant has a total operational capacity of 33.23-tonne CBG per day.
4. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched ‘Paalan 1000 – Journey of the First 1000 Days’ campaign to encourage the cognitive developments of children in the first 2 years of its life.
   • India has significantly reduced child mortality since 2014 from 45 per 1000 live births to 35 per 1000 live births in 2019.
5. Central Government has unveiled Manthan platform to promote collaboration at scale between industry and the scientific research and development ecosystem to help meet India’s scientific missions and goals in alignment with the UN defined Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) charter.
   • The platform is powered by National Stock Exchange of India (NSEIT).
6. National Health Authority (NHA) has announced fund allocation to States and Union Territories for implementation of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) based on their performance in recording data in the Health Facility Registry (HFR) and Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR).
   • Budget of ABDM – Rs 500 crores for over a period of 5 years (FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26)
   • 20% of these funds, i.e., 100 crores were earmarked as incentive-based funds.
   • In accordance, NHA has defined the parameters for fund allocation as:
     • 100 for each verified entries in HFR & HPR till 31st December 2022
     • 50 for each verified entries in HFR & HPR between 1st January 2023 till 31st March 2023
     • No funds will be allocated for entries verified in HFR & HPR after 31st March 2023
     • States and UTs are at liberty to use these funds for deploying human resources full time or part time for ABDM
7. India has contributed four lakh US dollars to four Voluntary Trust Funds as part of its commitment to global promotion and protection of human rights and support for United Nations Human Rights.

State News

1. IIT-Guwahati has partnered with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to explore solutions to issues related to water, electricity, internet for the AICTE-affiliated institutions in North East India.
2. Agasthiyarmalai Elephant Reserve has become the 5th elephant reserve of Tamil Nadu.
   • There are 32 elephant reserves in India after this addition.
   • Lemru Elephant Reserve in Chhattisgarh is missing from the picture given below.

3. Rajasthan govt has signed an MOU with SJVN for developing renewable energy projects of 10,000 MW.
   • This would require an investment in excess Rs 50,000 crores.
   • With this latest addition, the total energy portfolio of the company has increased to 42,000 MW.
   • SJVN aims to achieve 5000 MW by 2023, 25000 MW by 2030 & 50000 MW by 2040 in its energy portfolio.
4. Karnataka govt has been implementing the Raitha Vidya Nidhi scheme to provide scholarship to the children of farmers, landless agricultural labourers, weavers, fishermen, and taxi driver, for education.
5. Sikkim CM Prem Singh Tamang has launched Vatsalya Scheme for increasing the fertility rate of women by providing them financial assistance of Rs 3 lakhs to undergo In-vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment.
   • The state has also launched “Mobile Village Clinics” to deliver health services along the outlying locations of the state.
   • “Aama Sashaktikaran Yojana” was also launched to provide Rs 20,000 annually to all unemployed mothers in the bank accounts.
   • “Mukhyamantri Swasthya Suvidha Yojana” was launched to provide a health insurance for MR/Ad-hoc /Contractual/Probationary Employees.
   • The state has also launched “Mobile Village Clinics” to deliver health services at the doorsteps of villagers.
6. Rajasthan government has launched ‘Mukhyamantri Anuprati Coaching Yojana’ to provide free coaching to students for competitive exams.
   • Budget for the scheme has been set at over Rs 17 crores.
   • Students from SC/ST/OBC/minority/EWS and specially-abled — whose family’s annual income is Rs 8 lakh or less — are eligible to avail the benefits of this free coaching scheme.
7. Delhi govt has renamed 16 parks after the freedom fighters on the occasion of 75^th Independence Day.
8. Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan unveiled a 30-feet tall mural statue of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
9. Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu has launched pilot project drone service –‘Medicine from The Sky’.

Defence News

1. India has delivered Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft to the navy of Sri Lanka.
2. Indian Army has received the first lot of indigenously-developed equipment and systems.
   • These include Future Infantry Soldier as a System (F-INSAS), new generation anti-personnel mine named ‘Nipun’, rugged and automatic communication system, upgraded sights system for tanks and advanced thermal imagers.
   • Developers – Indian Army, DRDO, Defence PSUs, and private company

International News

1. 10th Moscow Conference on International Security was recently held.
2. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has signed an MOU with South Korea for improving public health tools in the developing world and advancing vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases.

Reports and Indices

1. Climate Policy Initiative (a climate think tank based in US) has released the ‘Landscape of Green Finance in India’
   • As per the report, the tracked green finance in 2019-2020 was Rs 3.09 lakh crore per annum, which is less than a fourth of India’s needs.
   • India requires an approximate of Rs 162.5 lakh crore from 2015 to 2030, or roughly Rs11 lakh crore per year to achieve its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.

Banking and Economy

1. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has announced to invest Rs 665 crores to buy a 99% stake in Aditya Birla Health Insurance Company.
   • The health insurance company is a 51:49 joint venture between Aditya Birla Capital and Momentum Metropolitan Strategic Investments, a subsidiary of South African-based Momentum Metropolitan.
2. BYD India, EV manufacturer, has signed an MOU with the HDFC Bank for providing a stock financing solution to its pan India dealer network.
   • BYD has four industries including auto, electronics, new energy and rail transit.
   • HDFC Bank has committed to becoming carbon neutral by
3. State Bank of India (SBI) has launched Utsav Deposit– Fixed Deposit scheme at 6.1% interest with a tenor of 1000 days.
4. Bank of Baroda has launched the Bank of Baroda Tiranga Deposit Scheme (an FD scheme) at an interest rate of 6% for a tenor of 444 and 555 days.
   • This is a special term deposit product which offers higher interest rates on retail deposits below Rs 2 crore.
5. Karnataka Bank has launched KBL Amrit Samriddhi (a new Fixed Deposit Scheme) for a tenure of 75 weeks (525 days) at an interest rate of 6.10% per annum.
6. Yes Bank and SellerApp, a seller-centric intelligence platform, have partnered to encourage the latter’s clients to adopt Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC).
7. Wholesale price-based inflation eased to a five-month low of 13.93% in July 2022 on easing prices of food articles and manufactured products.
8. State Bank of India (SBI) has launched its first “state-of-the-art” dedicated branch for start-ups at Bengaluru to facilitate and support them.
9. Tiger Global-backed fintech unicorn Razorpay has agreed to buy a controlling stake in payment solutions startup Ezetap Mobile Solutions for $126 million (₹1,000 crore) in a cash-and-stock deal.
10. Adani Logistics Ltd (ALL), a unit of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire an inland container depot (ICD) from Navkar Corporation Ltd in Gujarat for ₹835 crore.

Appointments

1. William Samoei Arap Ruto has been elected as the next President of Kenya.
2. Bajaj Electricals has appointed Anuj Poddar as its MD and CEO.

Important Days

1. August 7 – National Javelin Day
2. August 13 – International Lefthanders Day
3. August 15 – National Mourning Day in Bangladesh
4. August 16 – Parsi New year or Navroz

Awards

1. Muthoot Finance has won the ‘best growth performance award’ at Dun & Bradstreet’s 22nd edition of ‘India’s Top 500 Companies’ corporate awards.
   • Theme for 2022 awards – “ESG: The only way for sustainable and responsible growth”
   • The list recognises private and public sector Indian enterprises across 60 sectors, based on their income, net profit, net worth and other financial parameters.
2. Razorpay, India’s leading full-stack Payments and Banking Platform for Businesses, has become the first Indian company to be named in the 2022 Forbes Cloud 100 List at 49th position.
   • It is a definitive ranking of the top 100 private cloud companies in the world.
   • This is the second time for Razorpay to feature in this list.
3. The south London home of Dadabhai Naoroji (Indian freedom fighter and Britain’s first Indian parliamentarian) has been honoured with a commemorative Blue Plaque.
   • The Blue Plaque scheme, run by the English Heritage charity, honours the historic significance of particular buildings across London.
   • Naoroji is often referred to as the “grand old man of India”.
   • The plaque reads as “Dadabhai Naoroji 1825-1917 Indian Nationalist and MP lived here”.
4. 2022 Forbes Asia Best Under A Billion list has been released.
   • India is at the 4th position with 24 companies in this list.
   • Taiwan is at the 1st position, followed by Japan, and South Korea.

5. Kirti Chakra 2022 award winners are Naik Devendra Pratap Singh, the soldier who killed two terrorists, and BSF constables Sudip Sarkar and Paotinsat Guite (both honoured posthumously).
   • Shaurya Chakra was awarded to 8 Army personnel, including two posthumously. It was also awarded to one personnel from Indian Navy.
   • Total 107 gallantry awards have been given.

Sports

1. Meghalaya will host the 2nd North East Olympic Games 2022, which will be held from October 30 to November 6, 2022.
   • Athletes from all eight northeastern states — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura — will be competing
2. Pooja Ojha has become the first Indian to win the silver medal in the 2022 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Halifax, Canada.
   • This is the first-ever medal for India in the World Championships of para-canoe.
3. 2022 National Bank Open Tennis Tournament (Canada) – Men’s Singles: Pablo Carreño Busta (Spain); Women’s Singles: Simona Halep (Romania)
4. For the first time, All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been suspended by FIFA due to “third-party interference”.
   • India will not host the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. India will also not be able to participate in AFC Asian Cup 2023 (Philippines) and any other football championship.
   • AIFF joined FIFA in 1948.
   • AIFF was created in 1937.

Miscellaneous

1. National award-winning singer Shivamogga Subbanna has passed away.
   • He was the first Kannadiga to win National Award for playback singing.
2. “Putin: His Life and Times” book has been authored by Philip Short.
3. Bharat Biotech is developing the BBV154 intranasal covid vaccine.

Start Quiz of 17th-18th August 2022 on Mobile

Start Quiz of 17th-18th August 2022 on Desktop