Daily Current Affairs 1st August, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 1 August 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

India”s new National Education Policy unveiled after 34 years

The government unveiled the new National Education Policy (NEP) that introduced several changes in Indian education system-from school to college level. The new policy comes after a period of three decades.

• The NEP will replace the existing National Policy on Education 1986, which was later modified in 1992. The NEP includes the extension of the Right to Education Act 2009 to cover children between the age group of 3 to 18 years. The new policy also seeks to reduce the content load in the school education curriculum.

India, Mauritius PMs inaugurate New Supreme Court Building in Port Louis

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth jointly inaugurated Mauritius’ new Supreme Court building in latter’s capital city Port Louis which has been constructed with Indian assistance.

• The new Supreme Court building project is one of the five projects being implemented under the ‘Special Economic Package’ of $353 million extended by India to Mauritius in 2016.

SABIC chemical plant to become world’s first-of-its-kind to operate on 100 per cent renewable power

SABIC’s polycarbonate facility in Spain is set to become the world’s first large scale chemical production plant which will run entirely on renewable power after a major agreement was signed with Iberdrola, an electricity utility company.

• The plant is expected to be completely operational by 2024 and is expected to help SABIC reach it’s 2025 clean energy target.

DIAT develops medical bed isolation system to combat Covid-19

Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), Pune has developed ‘Aashray’, the medical bed isolation system to combat Covid-19 by minimizing the spread of the disease.

• This is a low cost, reusable solution to maintain proper isolation of Covid-19 patients by creating suction /negative pressure near exhale, and further filtering and disinfecting the aerosol.

Sidbi, Transunion Cibil partner to launch portal to help MSMEs

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) in association with credit bureau TransUnion Cibil has launched a portal to help Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), seeking access to finance and also help borrowers manage their credit obligations. while also supporting entrepreneurs towards managing their credit obligations.

• The portal- MSMESaksham- aims to guide MSMEs across their credit lifecycle, from availing credit to start and grow their businesses, to managing credit lines to sustain and build structural strength of the business, as well as ensuring timely closures and renewals of credit facilities.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

NASA, ULA Launch Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission to Red Planet

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is on its way to the Red Planet to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples to send back to Earth.

• Humanity’s most sophisticated rover launched with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
• The ULA Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage initially placed the Mars 2020 spacecraft into a parking orbit around Earth. The engine fired for a second time and the spacecraft separated from the Centaur as expected. Navigation data indicate the spacecraft is perfectly on course to Mars.

Russia chaired 6th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting

The 6th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting was held under the presidency of Russia. The Environment Ministers of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa participated in the meeting held via the video conference. The meeting was preceded by the BRICS Working Group meeting. India will host the next meeting in 2021.

Iran launches underground ballistic missiles during exercise

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched underground ballistic missiles as part of an exercise “Great Prophet 14” involving a fake aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz, the latest barrage in a drill that saw two American bases temporarily go on alert over the launches.

BANKING & FINANCE

Kotak Mahindra Bank launches two-month campaign with offers, discounts

Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched a special two-month campaign with offers and discounts across its suite of products, including for loans, savings accounts, current accounts, corporate salary accounts as well as curated deals on Kotak debit cards, credit cards and digital payments.

• Called Kona Kona Umeed, it also includes competitive rates and attractive offers across customer segments including retail, business and agri segments.

MobiKwik launches personal UPI payment link mpay.me

FinTech company MobiKwik launched mpay.me – a UPI payment link service to send and receive money from any UPI payment app. Through mpay.me, users and merchants can set up a link using their mobile number to start receiving money.

• It gets confusing when a sender and a receiver are on different UPI apps. mpay.me simplifies the process. With mpay.me users will be able to generate their own mini personal payment gateways using their phone numbers and share it with anyone over chat, SMS, email etc. to collect payments.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

BOB Financial Solutions Limited partners Fiserv Technology for Digital Transformation

BOB Financial Solutions Limited (BFSL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda, has selected Fiserv, Inc., to enable the digitization of their end-to-end card issuance and processing cycle and support the unveiling of several new and high-tech products namely contactless credit cards, tokenisation and integration with branded wallets, and virtual credit cards.

RPower & JERA inks loan agreement for Bangladesh’s power plant

Reliance Power and Japanese energy major JERA have signed an agreement with a group of banks for their new gas-fired thermal power generation project in Bangladesh. The signed agreement will provide full finance of about $642 million (approx Rs 4,798 crore) for a new 745 MW natural gas combined-cycle power project in Meghnaghat in Bangladesh. This is one of the largest funding tie-ups for a project in Bangladesh’s power sector.

SPORTS

Harikrishna finishes 2nd at Biel Chess Festival

Indian Grandmaster P Harikrishna finished second in the rapid section of the 53rd Biel International Chess Festival in Switzerland.

• The World No. 26 scored 10 points, two less than Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland, who finished on top.

England wins The Wisden Trophy 2-1

England won the third and final Wisden Trophy test match against the West Indies by 269 runs and won the series by 2-1. After this final series, The Wisden trophy will be retired and displayed at the Museum at Lord’s. It will be replaced by the Richards-Botham Trophy.

APPOINTMENTS

Hardik Satishchandra Shah becomes new Private Secretary to PM Modi

2010-batch IAS officer, Hardik Satishchandra Shah has been appointed the Private Secretary (PS) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on co-terminus basis. He is is currently serving as a Deputy Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Hamed Bakayoko named as Prime Minister of Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast’s defence minister, Hamed Bakayoko, has been named prime minister, after acting as interim prime minister since the sudden death of Amadou Gon Coulibaly on July 8.

AWARDS

Ministry of Tribal Affairs receives SKOCH Gold Award

SKOCH Gold Award has been awarded to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) for its “Empowerment of Tribals through IT enabled Scholarship Schemes” project. The project was launched to show Government of India’s commitment to realize the dreams of Digital India and bringing transparency as well as ease in the delivery of services.

OBITUARIES

Amar Singh, former SP leader & Rajya Sabha MP, passes away at 64

Former Samajwadi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh passed away after a prolonged illness. He was 64. He had been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Singapore for several months.

Actor Anil Murali passes away

Malayalam actor Anil Murali passed away due to liver-related ailments. He was 56.

• After a stint on the small screen, Anil Murali made his silver screen debut with Kanyakumariyil Oru Kavitha in 1993. And he never looked back. He went on to star in over 200 movies across Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu film industries.

Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui passes away

Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui passed away. He served as president of Taiwan from 1988 to 2000. He was also considered as the “father of Taiwan’s democracy”.

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