Daily Current Affairs 3rd September, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 3 September 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Madhya Pradesh govt launches campaign ‘Gandagi Bharat Chhodo’
A massive ‘Gandagi Bharat Chhodo’ campaign was launched by the Madhya Pradesh, State Government. This campaign has been given the shape of a mass movement.

• The campaign was divided into five themes- Cleanliness Oath, Continuous reduction in urban waste emissions, Cleanliness in COVID conditions, Separation of waste from sources of houses and Launching a special cleanliness campaign for public places.
• Urban Development and Housing Minister informed that ranking of urban bodies will be done on the basis of work under this campaign. Bodies coming in good rankings will be awarded by the Chief Minister.

Andhra Pradesh to set up crop insurance firm
Andhra Pradesh, which is among the few States that have chosen to have their own crop insurance schemes, is in the process of establishing AP General Insurance Company (APGIC) to run the scheme. The State had begun implementing its own scheme from the rabi season.

• The farmers have been asked to enroll for the scheme by September 5 by paying a nominal premium fee of ₹1.
• The authorised share capital of the company is pegged at ₹101 crore divided into 10.10 crore equity shares of ₹10 each.

Uttarakhand, Karnataka paired under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme
Uttarakhand and Karnataka are paired under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme to promote national integration through mutual understanding.

• Both the states have established relations through sports, trade and culture. Uttarakhand had inspired people in Karnataka in forest conservation.

Cabinet approves Mission Karmayogi – National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building
The e Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its nod to Mission Karmayogi – National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building.

• The scheme will lay the foundation for capacity building for Civil Servants so that they remain entrenched in Indian culture while they learn from best practices across the world.
• Mission Karmayogi aims to prepare the Indian Civil Servants for future by making them more creative, constructive, imaginative, innovative, proactive, professional, progressive, energetic, enabling, transparent and technology-enabled.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

India ranks in top 50 countries for 1st time in Global Innovation Index
India ranked in the top 50 countries for the first time in the Global Innovation Index, which was released recently . India jumped four positions to rank at 48th since 2019.Switzerland has topped the index.

• The index compiled by World Intellectual Property Index (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD Business School presented the latest global trends and annual innovation ranking for 131 countries.
• Moving up four positions since last year, India became the third most innovative lower middle economy in the world.The report added that due to universities like IIT Delhi and Bombay, IIS  Bengaluru and other top scientific publications, India is the lower middle-income economy with the highest innovation.

Rajnath Singh attended Shanghai Cooperation Organization Defence Ministers Meet in Russia 
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh went to Russia to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Defence Ministers’ Meet.

• The Defence Ministers of all eight SCO member nations are expected to deliberate on regional security challenges like terrorism and extremism and ways to deal with them collectively in Moscow.

BANKING & FINANCE

Irdai sets up panel to study index-linked products for life insurance companies
Insurance regulator IRDAI has constituted a six-member working group on index-linked products following requests for permission from life insurers to introduce such products.

• The working group, to be led by Dinesh Pant, appointed actuary of LIC of India, will examine the need for such products in India and how they will better serve needs and interests of customers relative to traditional savings product.

Federal Bank, Innoviti team-up to extend affordability through Debit Card EMI
Federal Bank and Innoviti Payment Solutions have joined hands to offer convenient and affordable options of Federal Bank Debit Cards through Innoviti POS terminals.

• This partnership will be providing convenient EMI options to more than 7.5+ million Federal Bank Debit Card holders at around 70,000+ Innoviti POS terminals across 1000+ cities.
• This facility will be an add on to EMI options that the Bank already offers on Amazon, Flipkart and POS terminals of Pine Labs.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Adani ranked world’s largest solar power generation asset owner
Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) has become the world’s largest solar power generation asset owner in terms of operating, under construction and awarded solar projects, according to the latest rankings of global solar companies by Mercom Capital.

• AGEL’s under-construction and awarded capacity stands at 10.1 GW, while its operational capacity is nearly 3 GW.
• The company’s renewable energy portfolio exceeds the total capacity installed by the entire US solar industry in 2019 and will displace over 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide over the life of its assets.

IIT Guwahati collaborates with university in Czech Republic for data protection project
A team of researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, in collaboration with scientists from the University of Pardubice, Czech Republic, is working towards developing indigenous algorithms that can protect the Nation’s digital data from cyber-attacks by advanced computers.

• The team has also designed encryption architectures that can be used to protect sensitive health data that is transmitted through the internet.

SPORTS

Sumit Nagal becomes 1st Indian to win grand slam singles main draw match in 7 years
Sumit Nagal stormed into the second round of the ongoing US Open Tennis. Nagal defeated Bradley Klahn of USA 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round of the US Open to progress further into the tournament.

• With this result, the 23-year-old Nagal has become the first Indian to win a singles main draw match at a Grand Slam in the last seven years.

Olympic giant slalom champion Rebensburg retires at 30
Olympic ski champion Viktoria Rebensburg retired from the sport, saying an injury from last season was keeping her from performing at her best.

• The 30-year-old German, who won the gold medal in giant slalom at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. She also won the season-long World Cup giant slalom title in 2011, 2012 and 2018, and won world championship silver in giant slalom in 2015 and 2019. She finishes with 19 career World Cup wins and 49 podium finishes

APPOINTMENTS

K Padmakar to hold additional charge as CMD of Bharat Petroleum Corporation
The government has given K Padmakar additional charge of Chairman and Managing Director of state-run oil refining and marketing company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

• K Padmakar, Director (HR) has been entrusted with additional charge of Chairman and Managing Director until further orders by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
• The two key ports have become vacant after D Rajkumar and R Ramachandran stepped down from the posts of CMD and director refineries, respectively, on August 31, on superannuation

Govt extends tenure of LC Goyal as ITPO CMD
The Govt  has given  one year extension up to September 1, 2021 to LC Goyal as Chairman and Managing Director, India Trade Promotion Organisation. 

• He has been serving as the Chairman & Managing Director of India Trade Promotion Organization  since September, 2015.
• Goyal is a 1979 batch retired IAS officer of Kerala cadre served as the Union Home Secretary in 2015 apart from holding several key positions at the Centre and in the State of Kerala.

ACC approves appointment of V K Yadav as Railway Board’s first ever CEO
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of the current chairman of the Railway Board VK Yadav as the CEO, making him the first to hold such a post in the railway’s history. 

• While Yadav has been appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Pradeep Kumar has been appointed Member, Infrastructure, PC Sharma has been appointed Member, Traction and Rolling Stock, PS Mishara has been made Member, Operations and Business Development, Manjula Rangarajan has been appointed Member, Finance

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Govt blocked 118 mobile apps including PUBG
The Government has blocked 118 mobile apps including PUBG, Livik, PUBG MOBILE LITE, WeChat Work, WeChat reading, Cyber Hunter, LifeAfter and Warpath which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defence of India, Security of State and Public Order.

• The move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users.

Atmanirbhar Bharat: IIT Delhi incubated startup launches ‘‘Chakr DeCoV’’ to decontaminate N95 masks
In series on  Atmanirbhar Bharat, IIT Delhi incubated startup Chakr Innovation has launched ‘Chakr DeCoV’ to decontaminate N95 masks. 

• Designed in the shape of a cabinet, Chakr DeCoV is built with an innovative decontamination mechanism, which utilises the high penetrability of Ozone gas for cleaning the pores of the N95 mask, ensuring complete decontamination of its intricate layers.

BOOKS

Ramachandra Guha to come out with new book on cricket
Historian Ramachandra Guha will come out with a book on cricket in November, which will trace the entire arc of the game in India, across all levels at which it is played and also present vivid portraits of local heroes, provincial icons, and international stars.

• The book titled “The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind” will be co-published by HarperCollins India and William Collins UK.

Actor Channing Tatum to release first children’s book, ‘The One and Only Sparkella’
American actor Channing Tatum is a proud dad and wants to honor his 7-year-old daughter by writing his first children’s book titled  ‘The One and Only Sparkella” (Feiwel & Friends).

• The One and Only Sparkella was illustrated by Kim Barnes, and will be the first in a series of picture books.

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Coconut Day 2020
September 2 is observed as World Coconut Day. The main objective of celebrating this day is to create awareness across the globe about the importance of the coconut and its benefits.

• The theme of World Coconut Day 2020 this year is – “Invest in Coconut to save the world”. 

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