Current Affairs Current Affairs August 2019

 Padma Shri Awardee, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu is an Indian professional badminton player. She was born on July 5, 1995, in Hyderabad. Her father PV Ramana and mother P. Vijaya are former Indian Volleyball Players. P.V. Ramana was also awarded the Arjuna Award in 2000 for his contribution to the sports in India. She started playing badminton at the age of 8 years and joined Pullela Gopichand’s Badminton Academy. Sindhu’s game was initially recognized during the 5th Servo All India ranking championship in the under-10 category. Later, she won the doubles titles at the Sub-Junior Nationals and the All India Ranking in Pune in the Under-13 Category. Sindhu made her International debut in 2009 Sub-Junior Asian Badminton championship held in Colombo and won the bronze medal. She defeated Singapore’s Gu Juan to won the Malaysian Open title which was her first Grand Prix in 2013 and also became the first Indian women’s singles player to win a medal at the Badminton World championship. In 2013, she was presented with the Arjuna Award, which is one of the highest honours for any sportspersons in India.
Going ahead in her international career, she won successive women’s singles titles at the Macau Open Grand Prix in the year 2015 and was honoured with India’s 4th highest civilian honour “The Padma Shri Award”. In Rio Olympics 2016, she made her country proud after becoming the first athlete from India to win the silver medal at Olympics, as she lost the finals against the Spanish badminton star Carolina Marin. Later in year 2017, Sindhu went on to win the Indian Open Super Series after defeating Rio Olympics gold medallist Carolina Marin. She further went on to win a silver medal at the BWF World Championships in the same year. After reaching the final of the 2018 World Championships, she became the first shuttler in the world to reach the finals of three successive major events. Later in 2018, she was appointed as the Deputy Collector by the Andhra Pradesh government. But, in 2019’s BWF World Championships, she created history and become the first Indian shuttler to win the title. She defeated Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara with 21-7, 21-7 to win the elusive gold in her 3rd successive final. Sindhu has made her country feel proud and will continue to do so.

  Spain motorcycle racer, Alex Rins of the Team SUZUKI ECSTAR has won the British Grand Prix. He defeated Marc Marquez by 0.013 seconds. While Maverick Vinales of spain finished with third position. The race was held at the Silverstone racetrack, in Silverstone, England.
Source: The BBC

  Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar has inaugurated the National Centre for Avian Ecotoxicology at Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural Sciences (SACON) in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The centre would study the movement of environmental contaminants such as pesticides, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls and drugs through the food chain, and their harmful effects on birds.
Source: The Business Standard

 Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan inaugurated FSSAI’s National Food Laboratory (NFL) in Ghaziabad on the occasion of 13th anniversary of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. This national lab is a result of a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP), the first-of-its-kind in the food laboratory sector. The lab is equipped with the latest technologies and facilities to conduct analysis as per global accreditation standards for testing and calibration. NFL is one of the two premier referral laboratories under the direct administrative control of the apex food regulator named- Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI).
Source: The Business Standard

  Russia launched the world’s first floating nuclear reactor. The vessel weighs 21,000 tons and has two reactors with a capacity of 35 megawatts each. This reactor loaded with nuclear fuel, the Akademik Lomonosov left the Arctic port of Murmansk to begin its 5,000 kilometres (3,000-mile) voyage to Pevek in northeastern Siberia.
Source: The DD News

  Bandhan Bank launched a co-branded credit card in association with Standard Chartered bank. This credit card would be offered to 40 lakh savings bank account holders across the 1,000 branches of Bandhan Bank. As part of the tie-up, while Standard Chartered bank will take the credit risk, Bandhan Bank will be responsible for identifying and issuing cards to its customers.
Source: The Hindu

  The Central Vigilance Commission has constituted a 4-member Advisory Board for Banking Frauds. The ABBF will be headed by former Vigilance Commissioner T.M. Bhasin. The panel will function as the 1st level of examination of all large fraud cases. Lenders will refer all large fraud cases above Rs 50 crore to the board and on receipt of its recommendation or advice, the bank concerned would take further action in such matters. The other members of the panel are Madhusudan Prasad, former Urban Development Secretary; D.K. Pathak, former Director General of the Border Security Force; and Suresh N Patel, former MD and CEO of Andhra Bank. The panel was previously called the Advisory Board on Bank, Commercial and Financial Frauds.
Source: The Hindu

  Prabhakar Singh, Director General, Central Public Works Department has been chosen for the ‘Eminent Engineer Award for the Year 2019’. This award will be given by the Institution of Engineers (India) for his distinguished and exemplary service in the field of Engineering and Technology. This Elite and Prestigious Award shall be conferred to him on the ‘Engineers Day’ on September 15, 2019, in New Delhi.
Source: The Press Information Bureau

  The Group of 7 or G7 Summit has begun in Biarritz, France. It is an informal meeting between France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada as well as the European Union. These world powers, which represent 50% of the global economy, also share the values of freedom and democracy, as well as a collective ambition to deal with the world’s major issues. India has been invited as a special guest in the summit. PM Narendra Modi will address sessions on environment, climate, oceans and digital transformation at the G7 Summit.
Source: The News On AIR

  Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi has partnered with Denmark-based firm to start DESMI Centre of Excellence on Waste-to-Wealth at IIT-Delhi. The centre will provide support for implementing framework of pilot projects, which address waste collection and management with possible energy generation.
Source: The Hindu


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