International Affairs
Today
(10th August) is International
Biodiesel day.
·
During the 1850s two scientists
named as E. Duffy and J. Patrickhad designed the first diesel engine.
·
After that another renowned
scientist named as Rudolf Diesel built
a prime model of diesel engine with a 10 feet iron cylinder and flywheel at its
base.
·
This model was powered for the first
time on 10th August 1893 in
Augsburg, Germany. Thereafter this day is celebrated as International biodiesel
day.
India and the US have
agreed on a $30 million joint
research initiative on Smart
Grid and Energy Storage Technology.
·
India, the US and their respective
private partners will annually commit $1.5 million each for five years, subject
to congressional approval.
·
Important
Note : The public-private five-year deal
is the fourth such agreement, where the earlier ones focussed on solar energy,
efficiency and bio-fuels.
India has approached United
States (US) and select
European countries part of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to crack terror fund trail
details of the Al Rehmat Trust from
Pakistan.
·
Al Rehmat Trust is financer of
terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad
(JeM) which had carried out the attack at the Pathankot airbase (in Punjab) in
January 2016.
National Affairs
PM Narendra Modi today inaugurated Unit 1 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant along
with Russian President Vladimir
Putin and Tamil Nadu
CM Jayalalithaa via video conferencing.
·
Modi dedicated the plant to Indo-Russian
friendship and cooperation.
·
The plant, which has been in service
since 2014, can generate 1,000 MW of power once fully operational and provide
energy to various states.
·
Modi also launched Yaad Karo
Kurbani (remember the
sacrifices) celebrations at birthplace of freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad at Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh.
·
The Yaad Karo Kurbani is 15-day programme aimed to
commemorate 75th anniversary of
the Quit India Movement (QIM) and 70 years of Independence.
The Haryana government today
announced that the social security
pension benefit will be extended to persons with 40% disability as
well.
·
The Ministry of Tourism today issued
an advisory to all states, instructing them to restrict selfies in front of national memorials from August 12 till
August 18.
·
The advisory has been issued as part
of security measures being taken in view of Independence Day and ‘Bharat Parv’ event to be organised by
the government at Raj Ghat in Delhi.
The Lok Sabha today passed the Employees Compensation (Amendment) Act 2016,
which provides for the payment of
higher compensation of ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh to employees and their kin in an event of injury by
industrial accidents, including occupational diseases.
·
Note : The bill also provides for a hefty penalty in case of an
employer violation.
Awards & Honors
Goa Tourism has been awarded the 'Film Tourism Destination of the Year' Award at
the India International Travel Mart (IITM) in Chennai.
·
Note : More than 100 films have been shot in Goa over the past
decade.
General Knowledge
Khashaba Jadhav finished third in the Bantamweight Freestyle wrestling event
at the 1952 Helsinki
Olympics, becoming the first athlete in independent India to win an individual Olympic medal.
·
Born in 1926 into a family of
wrestlers in Maharashtra, Jadhav was introduced to wrestling when he was
five.
·
He passed away in 1984, aged 58.
Business & Economy
The Rajya
Sabha today passed the Enforcement
of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws and Miscellaneous Provisions
(Amendment) Bill, 2016, which was earlier approved by the Lok
Sabha.
·
The bill amends four existing laws
and allows easier conditions for the secured creditors to take possession over
a collateral upon a default during the loan repayment.
Food and
beverages brand Nestlé has
topped Fortune Magazine's list of the 'Most
Admired Food Companies' for 11 consecutive years, since 2006.
·
Henri
Nestlé, born on August 10, 1814, founded
the company as an infant food brand 150 years ago, in 1866.
·
Note : The company merged with Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk in 1905
to form Nestlé.
The Madhya Pradesh transport
department today banned the services of taxi aggregator firms Uber and Ola in the state with immediate
effect.
·
The ban was imposed for the violation of the Central Motor Vehicles Act,
which does not provide for surge pricing or a 'peak time' charge.
The Union
Government has announced that the Non-Performing
Assets (NPA) of commercial banks have increased by around 4% in the last one year (March
2015 to March 2016).
Sports
American
swimmer Michael Phelps won
his 20th and 21st Olympic Gold medalsin 200m
butterfly and 4x200m freestyle relay today.
·
Phelps, competing in his fifth
Olympics, is the most decorated
Olympian of all time with a total of 25 Olympic medals.
·
He has equaled a 2,168-year old record set by late
sprinter Leonidas of Rhodes.
·
Phelps has won more Olympic gold
medals than 80% of the 206 countries participating at the Rio Olympics.
·
Some of the countries the swimmer
has gone past in this Olympics include Austria (19 gold medals), Argentina
(18), Jamaica (17), and Iran (15). Moreover, Phelps's gold medal count is more
than double that of India (9).
South
Africa's Laura Wolvaardt,
at 17 years and 105 days, became the youngest South African cricketer, male or female, to register
a century in international cricket, after scoring 105 against Ireland
today.
·
The record was previously held by
South African female cricketer Johmari Logtenberg who scored an international
ton at the age of 17 years and 338 days.
Indian
boxer Vikas Krishan Yadav qualified
for the men's middleweight
category's pre-quarterfinals at the Rio Olympics.
·
The 24-year-old boxer from Haryana
will now face Turkish boxer Onder Sipal in the pre-quarterfinals on Saturday.
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