24th-25th August, 2022

1. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has unveiled the digital version of the One District-One Product (ODOP) gift catalogue during the Export Promotion Councils and Industry Associations meeting at Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi.
2. Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh has said that India’s Bioeconomy will grow from $70 Billion to $150 Billion by 2025.
3. India has nominated the dance form Garba to be inscribed on UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list.
4. National Workshop on Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) in Panchayats through Thematic Approach on ‘Village with Self-Sufficient Infrastructure’ was inaugurated by Shri Kapil Moreshwar Patil, Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj.
5. India’s first commercial space situational awareness observatory will be set up in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand by Digantara, a space sector start-up.
6. Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and the Ministry of External Affairs have signed a headquarters agreement in New Delhi to provide the status of an ‘Independent and International Legal Entity’ for CDRI.
7. Union External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar has unveiled the bust of Mahatma Gandhi at Asuncion, Paraguay.
8. Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired the 23rd meeting of the Central Zonal Council in Bhopal.
9. 6th meeting of Australia India Education Council (AIEC) was organized at the Western Sydney University (WSU).
10. Union Minister of State for Textiles Darshana Jardosh has inaugurated the Silk Mark Expo in New Delhi.
11. Himachal Pradesh will receive USD 96.3 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for providing safe drinking water and improve water supply and sanitation services in the state.
12. Rajasthan and Maharashtra State Legal Services Authorities have launched the Digital Lok Adalat in their respective states as part of the third National Lok Adalat of 2022.
13. For the first time, the Uttar Pradesh government is planning to build an education township in the state to provide high-quality education to the youth and equip them with a variety of professional skills in a single place.
14. Rajasthan govt has established the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Advanced Technologies to offer joint global training and certification programs of IT majors, in IT/ITES arena leading towards better employment opportunities.
15. Central govt has given the geographical indication (GI) tag to ‘Mithila Makhana’ to help farmers get the maximum price for their produce.
16. DRDO and the Indian Navy successfully flight-tested the indigenously developed Vertical Launch Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.
17. Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) has signed an MoU with Mahatma Phule Renewable Energy and Infrastructure Technology Ltd. (49% owned by Govt. of India and 51% owned by Govt. of Maharashtra).
18. Akshaya Patra Foundation has signed an MOU with Nutrihub to introduce millets in mid-day meals aka PM-POSHAN.
19. Diversified agri-business firm Godrej Agrovet has signed MOU with Assam, Manipur and Tripura governments for development and promotion of oil palm cultivation under the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP).
20. India and Iran have signed an MOU for recognition of Certificates of Competency in Unlimited Voyages to help seafarers from both the countries as per the provisions of International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch Keeping for Seafarers (1978).
21. India secured the third rank in medal tally at the 15th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA).
22. Portugal is the fasted ageing country within the European Union region, according to a study published by the Contemporary Portugal Database Pordata.
23. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a spectacular picture of the planet Jupiter for the first time.
24. Ulchi Freedom Shield is the joint military drills conducted by South Korea and USA
25. According to a new study by Pew Research Center, the “son bias” is on the decline in India as the average annual number of baby girls “missing” in the country fell from 4,80,000 in 2010 to 4,10,000 in 2019.
26. IRDAI has announced to rename its Integrated Grievance Redressal System (IGMS), launched in 2011, as Bima Bharosa.
27. RBI has released the data on the remittance flows conducted during the first quarter of FY23 under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).
28. SEBI has joined the Account Aggregator Framework of RBI to allow customers to share information about their mutual fund and stock holdings with financial service providers.
29. NHPC has signed an initial pact with Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) to set up a large capacity solar equipment manufacturing facility.
30. Muthoot Finance (NBFC) has launched ‘Milligram Reward Programme’ for their customers- wherein transactions with the Muthoot Group will be rewarded with at least a milligram gold.
31. HDFC has opened its first all-women branch with four women bankers in north Kerala region in Kozhikode.
32. Google has dedicated a special doodle to Indian physicist and meteorologist Anna Mani to mark her 104th birth anniversary.
33. Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd has formed a joint venture with its parent company Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and others to build a 9 MMTPA refinery at a cost of $3.95 billion in Tamil Nadu.
34. BrightChamps Tech Pvt Ltd, which offers new age online courses such as programming, artificial intelligence, design thinking, and financial literacy, has bought Singapore-based live learning platform Schola for $15 million in a cash-and-stock deal.
35. Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that the government will approach the capital market next month to raise funds for four road projects through infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs).
36. Gautam Adani’s AMG Media Networks has acquired a 29% stake in broadcaster NDTV Ltd for Rs 493 crores and launched an open offer to acquire an additional 26% from shareholders.
37. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Alkesh Kumar Sharma (Secretary to the Union Department of Electronics and Information Technology) on to its new Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Leadership Panel.
38. Central govt has given an extension to Meenesh Shah as the chairman of the Anand-headquartered National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for a period of another 6 months.
39. Credit Suisse Group AG has appointed Dixit Joshi as chief financial officer (CFO).
40. Revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj will hold the additional charge of the post of secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
41. Vikram K. Doraiswami has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom.
42. August 23 – International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
43. 2022 Liberty Medal will be awarded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
44. Magnus Carlsen (Norway) has won the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami, Florida, USA.
45. Indian has won the bronze medal in the 14th Asian men’s (under-18) volleyball championship in Tehran, Iran by defeating South Korea.
46. ‘Sing, Dance and Pray’ – biography of ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada, has been released by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.
47. Former Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibtey Razi passed away.
48. Veteran filmmaker Abdul Gaffar Nadiadwala has passed away.
49. A new infection dubbed as tomato flu, or tomato fever, has been detected in India mostly among children younger than five.

National News

1. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has unveiled the digital version of the One District-One Product (ODOP) gift catalogue during the Export Promotion Councils and Industry Associations meeting at Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi.
2. Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh has said that India’s Bioeconomy will grow from $70 Billion to $150 Billion by 2025.
   • Startups, Industries, Academia and Research Bodies can create a Team Science Grant together in a Public-Private Partnership mode to avail the grant of Rs 10-15 crore over a period of two to three years for inter-disciplinary, high-quality research.
3. India has nominated the dance form Garba to be inscribed on UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list.
   • India was elected by UNESCO to serve on the distinguished Intergovernmental Committee of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in July.
4. National Workshop on Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) in Panchayats through Thematic Approach on ‘Village with Self-Sufficient Infrastructure’ was inaugurated by Shri Kapil Moreshwar Patil, Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj.
   • On the occasion, Shri Kapil Moreshwar Patil released the SDG’s Anthem and its Booklet and launched a Prime App and the website of Punjab State Rural Livelihood Mission (PSRLM).
5. India’s first commercial space situational awareness observatory will be set up in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand by Digantara, a space sector start-up.
   • Purpose – to track objects as small as 10 cm in size orbiting the earth
   • The space situational awareness (SSA) observatory will help India track any activity in space including that of space debris and military satellites hovering over the region.
6. Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and the Ministry of External Affairs have signed a headquarters agreement in New Delhi to provide the status of an ‘Independent and International Legal Entity’ for CDRI.
   • Director General, CDRI – Amit Prothi
7. Union External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar has unveiled the bust of Mahatma Gandhi at Asuncion, Paraguay.
   • The stone statue was unveiled by Jaishankar, who is now on his first-ever official trip to South America.
   • Mr Jaishankar also inaugurated the newly opened Indian Embassy in Asuncion.
   • India and Paraguay have completed 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations. This was the first ever visit of an Indian Foreign Minister to Paraguay.

8. Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired the 23rd meeting of the Central Zonal Council in Bhopal.
9. 6th meeting of Australia India Education Council (AIEC) was organized at the Western Sydney University (WSU).
   • Union Minister for Education & Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan and his Australian Counterpart Jason Clare co-chaired the meeting.
   • The 7th meeting of the AIEC will be held in India next year.
10. Union Minister of State for Textiles Darshana Jardosh has inaugurated the Silk Mark Expo in New Delhi.
    • Organizer – Silk Mark Organisation of India under Central Silk Board, Ministry of Textiles

State News

1. Himachal Pradesh will receive USD 96.3 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for providing safe drinking water and improve water supply and sanitation services in the state.
   • More than 90% of the state’s rural population have access to drinking water, but the water supply infrastructure needs revamping, to result in efficient and improved service quality.
2. Rajasthan and Maharashtra State Legal Services Authorities have launched the Digital Lok Adalat in their respective states as part of the third National Lok Adalat of 2022.
   • Over 75 lakhs cases were registered on the Digital Lok Adalat in Rajasthan.
   • Digital Lok Adalat is powered by AI and Blockchain.
   • Both the Digital Lok Adalat were launched during the ’18th All India Legal Services Authorities’ summit in July 2022.
3. For the first time, the Uttar Pradesh government is planning to build an education township in the state to provide high-quality education to the youth and equip them with a variety of professional skills in a single place.
   • The education township will be developed on the idea of ‘Single Entry, Multiple Exit’.
   • Besides, it will provide accommodation and many other facilities to both students and teachers.
4. Rajasthan govt has established the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Advanced Technologies to offer joint global training and certification programs of IT majors, in IT/ITES arena leading towards better employment opportunities.

Agriculture and Rural Development

1. Central govt has given the geographical indication (GI) tag to ‘Mithila Makhana’ to help farmers get the maximum price for their produce.
   • Mithila Makhana is also simply known as ‘makhan’. Its botanical name is ‘Euryale Ferox Salisb’ and it is a special variety of aquatic fox nut.

Defence News

1. DRDO and the Indian Navy successfully flight-tested the indigenously developed Vertical Launch Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.
   • The VL-SRSAM, a ship-borne weapon system, is meant for neutralising various aerial threats at close ranges, including sea-skimming targets, and was last test-fired in June.

Memorandum of Understanding

1. Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) has signed an MoU with Mahatma Phule Renewable Energy and Infrastructure Technology Ltd. (49% owned by Govt. of India and 51% owned by Govt. of Maharashtra).
   • IREDA will offer technologies and financing facilities to MAHAPREIT for the Renewable Energy projects to be implemented for state utilities, local bodies and the infrastructure of Renewable Energy Parks.
2. Akshaya Patra Foundation has signed an MOU with Nutrihub to introduce millets in mid-day meals aka PM-POSHAN.
   • The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been supplying nutritious food to students in 1,162 schools in and around Bengaluru and beyond.
   • Nutrihub is the Incubation Program of ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) for encouraging research and development in the field of millets.
   • 2023 ­– International Year of Millets (led by Indian govt)
3. Diversified agri-business firm Godrej Agrovet has signed MOU with Assam, Manipur and Tripura governments for development and promotion of oil palm cultivation under the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP).
   • Godrej Agrovet is the largest oil palm processor in India and works directly with farmers for the entire crop cycle.
   • As part of the MOUs, Godrej Agrovet will be allotted land across the three states for setting up palm oil plantations in the region.
   • In August 2021, the NMEO-OP was launched with a planned outlay of Rs 11,040 crore for raising oil palm area to 10 lakh hectare by 2025-26 and 7 lakh hectare by 2029-30 with special focus on North-East and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
4. India and Iran have signed an MOU for recognition of Certificates of Competency in Unlimited Voyages to help seafarers from both the countries as per the provisions of International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch Keeping for Seafarers (1978).

International News

1. India secured the third rank in medal tally at the 15th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA).
   • India held the third position jointly with Singapore with students winning three gold and two silver medals.
   • The 15th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) 2022 was held in Kutaisi, Georgia, from 14 to 21 August, 2022.

• Raghav Goyal won a special prize for the best solution to the most challenging theoretical question.
• Iran is at the first position with 5 gold medals, and a guest team with 4 golds is at 2^nd
• International Astronomy Olympiad and Astrophysics is the highest level astronomy and associated science competition for high school students from across the world.

2. Portugal is the fasted ageing country within the European Union region, according to a study published by the Contemporary Portugal Database Pordata.
3. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a spectacular picture of the planet Jupiter for the first time.
   • Images of Jupiter’s stormy Great Red Spot, Ring, Aurora and Aurora at the North and South Poles were not clearly visible in any photo taken to date.
4. Ulchi Freedom Shield is the joint military drills conducted by South Korea and USA

Reports and Indices

1. According to a new study by Pew Research Center, the “son bias” is on the decline in India as the average annual number of baby girls “missing” in the country fell from 4,80,000 in 2010 to 4,10,000 in 2019.
   • The “missing” refers to how many more female births would have occurred during this time if there were no female-selective abortions.

Banking and Economy

1. IRDAI has announced to rename its Integrated Grievance Redressal System (IGMS), launched in 2011, as Bima Bharosa.
   • The system will be revamped to make complaint redressal more efficient with the option of customers filing their complaints in regional languages.
2. RBI has released the data on the remittance flows conducted during the first quarter of FY23 under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).
   • The outward flows were $6.04 billion.
   • International travel contributed $2.92 billion of the $6.04 billion remitted under LRS in Q1FY23, contributing almost 48% of the money remitted under the LRS scheme.
3. SEBI has joined the Account Aggregator Framework of RBI to allow customers to share information about their mutual fund and stock holdings with financial service providers.
   • Under the framework, Financial Information Providers (FIPs) in the securities market, like depositories will provide financial information related to securities markets to the customers and consented Financial Information Users (FIUs) through any of the account aggregators registered with the RBI.
   • Account aggregator is an RBI-regulated NBFC that facilitates the collection of the financial information pertaining to a customer from financial information providers on the basis of the consent of the customer.
4. NHPC has signed an initial pact with Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) to set up a large capacity solar equipment manufacturing facility.
5. Muthoot Finance (NBFC) has launched ‘Milligram Reward Programme’ for their customers- wherein transactions with the Muthoot Group will be rewarded with at least a milligram gold.
   • For the first time in India, a customer reward program is run in 24 carat gold under this program.
   • Customers can participate in this two-year long programme. The program will be applicable for 30 plus services offered by the company.
   • MD of Muthoot Finance – George Alexander Muthoot
6. HDFC has opened its first all-women branch with four women bankers in north Kerala region in Kozhikode.
7. Google has dedicated a special doodle to Indian physicist and meteorologist Anna Mani to mark her 104th birth anniversary.
   • Anna Mani is remembered as the “Weather Woman of India”.
   • She played a crucial role in the field of meteorological instrumentation. She made many valuable contributions in the field of Physics and Meteorology.
   • Anna Mani took birth in a Syrian Christian family in Kerala on 23 August 1918.
8. Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd has formed a joint venture with its parent company Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and others to build a 9 MMTPA refinery at a cost of $3.95 billion in Tamil Nadu.
9. BrightChamps Tech Pvt Ltd, which offers new age online courses such as programming, artificial intelligence, design thinking, and financial literacy, has bought Singapore-based live learning platform Schola for $15 million in a cash-and-stock deal.
   • It is the company’s first overseas acquisition since its inception.
10. Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that the government will approach the capital market next month to raise funds for four road projects through infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs).
    • There will be an investment limit of ₹10 lakh for retail investors.
11. Gautam Adani’s AMG Media Networks has acquired a 29% stake in broadcaster NDTV Ltd for Rs 493 crores and launched an open offer to acquire an additional 26% from shareholders.

Appointments

1. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Alkesh Kumar Sharma (Secretary to the Union Department of Electronics and Information Technology) on to its new Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Leadership Panel.
   • Sharma is among the panel of 10 distinguished experts on digital governance.
   • Maria Reesa, Nobel Prize-winning journalist and Vint Cerf, a global pioneer and recognised as one of ‘the fathers of the Internet’ have also been nominated on the panel.
   • IGF Leadership Panel also has 5 ex-officio members on board, including Amandeep Singh Gill, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology. The members have been appointed for a two-year term during the 2022–23 IGF cycles.
2. Central govt has given an extension to Meenesh Shah as the chairman of the Anand-headquartered National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for a period of another 6 months.
3. Credit Suisse Group AG has appointed Dixit Joshi as chief financial officer (CFO).
4. Revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj will hold the additional charge of the post of secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
5. Vikram K. Doraiswami has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom.
   • Presently, he is the High Commissioner of India to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Important Days

1. August 23 – International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

Awards

1. 2022 Liberty Medal will be awarded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
   • Liberty Medal is an annual award administered by the National Constitution Centre (NCC) of the United States to recognize leadership in the pursuit of freedom.

Sports

1. Magnus Carlsen (Norway) has won the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami, Florida, USA.
   • In this championship, India’s GM R Praggnanandhaa (aged 17) has defeated Magnus Carlsen in a match.
   • This was the third time in just six months when Praggnanandhaa has defeated Carlsen.
   • Praggnanandhaa finished the tournament as the runner-up to the championship.
2. Indian has won the bronze medal in the 14th Asian men’s (under-18) volleyball championship in Tehran, Iran by defeating South Korea.
   • Japan won the gold after defeating Iran.
   • The Indian U-18 team has qualified for the FIVB World U-19 Men’s Volleyball Championship in Poland and Slovenia from 26 August to 11 September 2022.

Miscellaneous

1. ‘Sing, Dance and Pray’ – biography of ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada, has been released by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.
   • The book has been authored by Dr Hindol Sengupta.
2. Former Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibtey Razi passed away.
3. Veteran filmmaker Abdul Gaffar Nadiadwala has passed away.
4. A new infection dubbed as tomato flu, or tomato fever, has been detected in India mostly among children younger than five.
   • The ‘tomato flu’ is caused by Coxsackie virus A 16.
   • The “non-life-threatening” virus was first identified in Kollam district of Kerala in May.

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