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Daily G.K. - Top Stories

10 Aug 2020

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Lebanon Information Minister Resigns

  • Lebanon's Information Minister, Manal Abdel Samad, quit in the first government resignation since an explosion in the port of Beirut killed more than 150 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.
  • The head of Lebanon's Maronite church called on the entire government to step down over the explosion, widely seen as proof of the rot at the core of the state.
  • Lebanese protesters enraged by the blast vowed to rally again after a night of street clashes in which they stormed several ministries.
  • The Maronite patriarch, Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, joined the chorus of people pressing Prime Minister Hassan Diab's cabinet to step down over the explosion, which he said could be described as a crime against humanity.

Afghan 'Loya Jirga' Approves Prisoner Release

  • The Afghan government and the Taliban are "on the verge of peace talks" after thousands of prominent Afghans approved the release of about 400 contentious militant prisoners, the head of Kabul's peace council said on Sunday. The prisoners' fate has been a crucial hurdle in launching peace talks between the two warring sides, which had committed to completing a prisoner exchange before negotiations can start.
  • The resolution was passed at the end of a three-day "loya jirga" — a traditional Afghan meeting of tribal elders and other stakeholders sometimes held to decide on controversial issues. "In order to remove the hurdles for the start of peace talks, stopping bloodshed, and for the good of the public, the jirga approves the release of 400 prisoners as demanded by the Taliban," jirga member Atefa Tayeb announced.
  • The jirga urged the government to give assurances to the population that the released prisoners would be monitored and would not be allowed to return to the battlefield, adding that foreign fighters should be sent back to their respective countries.

Ramaphosa Announces Business Boost for Women

  • South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the government will set aside 40% of public procurement for women-owned businesses.
  • The move will boost women financially and reduce gender inequality.
  • The President spoke during Women's which marked 64 years since thousands of South African women marched to the Union Buildings in the capital, Pretoria, on 9 August 1956 to protest against the extension of the pass laws to women.
  • As per President Ramaphosa, financial independence is key to achieving gender equality.
  • The first action is to expand the access of women to economic opportunities... We now expect national departments in government to monitor and report on how many women have participated in each public procurement process. They will have to develop clear plans about how they will broaden women's participation over the next 12 months.
View Month Wise

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

PM Launches Financing Facility under Agri-Infra Fund

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a financing facility of Rs. 1 lakh crore under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund for agri-entrepreneurs, startups, agri-tech players and farmer groups for post-harvest management and nurturing farm assets.
  • Modi also released the sixth installment of Rs. 17,100 crore to more than 8.55 crore farmer beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.
  • The Prime Minister launched the new Agriculture Infrastructure Fund through video conference. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and senior ministry officials were also present on the occasion.

Twitter Looking at a Possible TikTok Tie-up

  • Twitter has approached TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to express an interest in buying its US operations, according to reports.
  • Video-sharing platform TikTok has been at the centre of fierce debate in recent weeks and takeover talk.
  • Last week US Donald Trump ordered firms to stop doing business with TikTok within 45 days over security concerns.
  • Tech giant Microsoft is the front-runner to buy TikTok but now Twitter has emerged as a possible suitor.
  • But it remains unclear whether Twitter can afford to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners and can complete a deal within the 45-day window.
  • The value of TikTok's US operations are unclear but estimates put it at tens of billions of dollars.
  • Twitter's market capitalisation is about $29bn (£22bn), dwarfed by Microsoft's at more than $1.6tn.
  • But experts believe a possible Twitter deal would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsoft's.

Swiggy Joins Quick Grocery Delivery Race with InstaMart

  • Swiggy is preparing to launch a chain of virtual convenience stores to deliver grocery and household items within 45 minutes.
  • The launch of InstaMart comes at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has hastened consumer preference for doorstep deliveries, especially in metros, and as deep-pocketed entrants, including Flipkart Quick, as well as existing players Amazon, BigBasket and Dunzo have heightened focus on this category.
  • The move has also come amid the entry of Reliance JioMart, which has expanded into 200 cities, a foray that is expected to give stiff competition to established players.
  • Swiggy plans to offer about 2,500 items from its partner 'dark stores', the sources who are aware of its plans said. These dark stores do not have walk-in locations and exist only on its app.
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

IIT Guwahati, in Collaboration with Imperial College London, Develops Nanoparticle 'Meta-grid'

  • The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, India, and Imperial College London, United Kingdom, have developed nanoparticles called the 'meta-grid' or 'metamaterial grid' that makes the light-emitting diodes (LED) brighter, energy-efficient and durable.
  • It was jointly developed by Dr. Debabrata Sikdar, assistant professor at IIT Guwahati along with Prof. Sir John B. Pendry and Prof. Alexei A. Kornyshev from Imperial College London.
  • The findings have been recently published in Light: Science and Application journal of the Nature Publishing Group. The theoretical models, developed by Dr. Sikdar, find out the optimal conditions for the design of the nanoparticle 'meta-grid' layer.
  • Meta-grid is a specifically patterned array of nanoparticles acting as metamaterials and it is capable of exhibiting extraordinary optical properties.
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NATIONAL AFFAIRS

Government Forms Panel Under RoDTEP Scheme for Exporters to be Headed by G. K. Pillai

  • The Government of India under the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue has set up a three-member committee headed by Secretary (retired) G. K. Pillai for determination of ceiling rates under Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme.
  • The two other members are Y. G. Parande, retired Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs member and Gautam Ray, retired chief commissioner of custom and central excise.
  • The Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) scheme aims to reimburse taxes and duties incurred by exporters such as Duty on power charges, Value Added Tax on fuel in transportation, farm sector, captive power generation, mandi tax, stamp duty and central excise duty which are not compensated under any other scheme.
  • It is a World Trade Organization (WTO) compliant scheme.

Rajnath Singh Bans Import of 101 Defence Items,

  • Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that India is now ready for the big push to the atma nirbhar or self-dependent initiative announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The defence ministry has decided to put 101 items put on embargo to boost indigenisation of defence production.
  • The embargoed items include high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, and transport aircraft.
  • The list of items was prepared after consultations with the armed forces, state-owned and private companies to assess current and future capabilities of the Indian industry for manufacturing various ammunition & equipment within India.

Meghalaya Cabinet Approves Policy on Reservation of Seats for Women in Village Employment Councils

  • Conrad Kongkal Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya informed the cabinet's approval for the passage of the "Policy on Reservation of seats for Women in Village Employment Councils(VECs)", the policy of reserving 50% seats for women in the village level community institutions.
  • This policy ensures the empowerment of Women by establishing a forum for women to exercise their leadership and freedom.
  • The VECs are a political organisation established to implement the works of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
  • Under MGNREGA, in 2006 VECs were constituted in Every village of the state.
  • The VECs consist of all male and female heads of every household with a headman as a head of the council.
  • The available data states that only a few VEC's have female members in chairperson Secretaries positions (112 and 260 respectively).
View Month Wise

DAYS AND EVENTS

Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

  • The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is observed on 9 August each year to raise awareness and protect the rights of the world's indigenous population. This event also recognizes the achievements and contributions that indigenous people make to improve world issues such as environmental protection. It was first pronounced by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1994, marking the day of the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in 1982.
  • The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples was first pronounced by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1994, to be celebrated every year during the first International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples (1995–2004). In 2004, the Assembly proclaimed a Second International Decade, from 2005–2015, with the theme of "A Decade for Action and Dignity".[1] People from different nations are encouraged to participate in observing the day to spread the UN's message on indigenous peoples. Activities may include educational forums and classroom activities to gain an appreciation and a better understanding of indigenous peoples.
  • By resolution 49/214 of 23 December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly decided that the International Day of the World's Indigenous People shall be observed on 9 August every year during the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. The date marks the day of the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

World Biofuel Day 2020

  • World Biofuel Day is observed annually on August 10 to raise awareness about the importance of non-fossil fuels as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels. The day honours the research experiments by Sir Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel(inventor of the diesel engine) who ran an engine with peanut oil in 1893. In India, the day has been celebrated by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas since 2015.
  • The day highlights various efforts made by the Government in the Biofuel sector.
  • On the occasion of the day, a webinar was organised by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, with the theme "Biofuels towards Atmanirbhar Bharat".
View Month Wise

AWARDS AND HONOURS

Nitin Sethi Bags ACJ Investigative Journalism Award

  • Nitin Sethi of The Huffington Post India and Shiv Sahay Singh of The Hindu bagged the prestigious Asian College of Journalism's Award for Investigative Journalism and the K. P. Narayana Kumar Memorial Award for Social Impact Journalism, respectively.
  • While Sethi won the award for his six-part series titled 'Paisa Politics' on electoral bonds, Singh's story titled 'Death by digital exclusion: On faculty, public distribution system in Jharkhand' earned him the inaugural version of the social impact journalism award.
  • The awards were presented at a ceremony conducted online due to the ongoing Covid19 pandemic. The final jury comprising Senthil Changalvarayan, Vidya Subrahmaniam and Jose Martin Tharakan chose the winners from ten shortlisted entries in each category.

Food Vision 2050 Prize for Naandi Foundation's Arakunomics

  • Rockefeller Foundation selected Naandi Foundation, Hyderabad-based non-profit, as one of the 'Top 10 Visionaries' in the world for the Food Vision 2050 Prize, announced in New York. The recognition fetches Naandi a prize money of $200,000.
  • The award recognised the application of Arakunomics model in regions of Araku, Wardha and New Delhi, leading to the Food Vision 2050 that follows an "ABCDEFGH" framework centring on: Agriculture, Biology, Compost, Decentralised decision-making, Entrepreneurs, Families, Global Markets, and 'Headstands', or turning current approaches on their head.
  • Naandi competed with over 1,300 entries in a two-level contest that was spread over almost a year.
View Month Wise

GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION

IIT-Madras to Start a Course on Biomimicry

  • The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras will soon offer a course on biomimicry. It would be a full semester, elective course and would teach students to imitate nature as a source of inspiration to solve complex problems, the IIT-Madras informed.
  • "Biomimicry is the intersection of biology and engineering. You do not have to be either a biologist or an engineer to learn biomimicry, all you need is curiosity.
  • Students can have multiple applications from one organism, and there are millions of such organisms that have evolved strategies over billions of years of adaptation to our planet. We can use these blueprints and recipes from nature to design and build solutions for our world.
  • IIT-Madras claims to be among the first institutions in India to offer a full-fledged course on biomimicry. The course will be taught by MS Sivakumar – dean of students, IIT-Madras, Shiva Subramaniam, CIO, Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, IIT-Madras, Satyanarayanan Seshadri, department of applied mechanics, and Srinivasa Chakravarthy a professor at Department of Biotechnology.
View Month Wise

ART AND CULTURE

Piyush Goyal Dedicates Railway Museum at Hubballi, Karnataka Dedicated to the Nation

  • Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi dedicated a Railway Museum at Hubballi in Karnataka through video conferencing. The event was presided over by Minister of State of Railways Suresh Angadi and was attended by other dignitaries and senior officials.
  • This Rail Museum is first of its kind in North Karnataka and second in South Western Railway after the historic Rail Museum at Mysuru.
  • Mr. Joshi said that the museum is most relevant as Hubballi is an important Railway junction historically as well. He said it will become another prominent tourist destination in the region.
  • At Hubballi Museum, the artefacts are broadly arranged in three sections, at two cottages named Malaprabha and Ghataprabha and the outdoor section.
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