Current Affairs 03rd September 2020| Current Affairs News

 CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL

MoD sets up a committee to review the AFHQ CS cadre

• To enhance the military’s combat potential and rebalancing the defence expenditure, a three member committee has been set up by the Ministry of Defence.
• This is in line with the recommendation of the Lt Gen DB Shekatkar (retd) committee and its main task is to review the utilisation of the Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Services (AFHQ CS) cadre.
• The other two members include R Chandrashekhar, a retired AFHQ cadre officer and AN Das from the MoD finance wing.
• It is expected to conduct a study and identify appointments in Service HQs and Inter-Service Organisations (ISO) which could be falling within the domains of AFHQ CS officers. And which have been recognized in the report by the committee of experts due to their longer tenures and expertise.
• This three member committee is expected to interact with other branches, directorates of the service Headquarters and ISOs for their study. The report of the study carried out is expected to be submitted in November.

About MoD

• Defence Minister of India: Rajnath Singh
• Constituency: Lucknow, UP

Cabinet Approves Mission Karmayogi – National Programme For Civil Services Capacity Building

• The Union Cabinet approved Centre’s Mission Karmayogi for Civil Servants aimed at  bringing post-recruitment reforms in government.
• The mission seeks to reincarnate the civil servants as an ideal servant to the nation.
• Mission Karmayogi which is the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building will lay the foundation for capacity building for Civil Servants so they remain entrenched in Indian culture while they learn from best practices across the world.
• It aims to prepare Indian Civil Servants for future by making them more creative, constructive, imaginative, innovative, proactive, professional, progressive, energetic, enabling, transparent and technology-enabled.

The key highlights of the programme are: 

• Prescribe annual capacity building plan for all departments and services
• Monitor the implementation of the capacity building plan
• Massive capacity building initiative to ensure efficient service delivery
• Promotes technology driven learning pedagogy
• Strengthen common foundations and remove departmental silos
• Set benchmark for learning in public servants
• Democratization of learning to cover all categories

Ladakh, Lakshadweep join Centre’s ration card portability scheme

• Ladakh and Lakshadweep have the joined the Centre’s ration card portability scheme ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’, taking the total number of states and Union territories linked with the scheme to
• Under the scheme, eligible beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) will be able to avail their entitled foodgrains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS), also called ration shops, in the country using the same ration card.
• The integration of Ladakh and Lakshadweep with the national portability network was approved recently in a review meeting chaired by Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
• Remaining states are targeted to be integrated in the scheme by March 2021.
• The other 24 states/UTs which have joined the ration card portability network are — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

About Ladakh

• Lieutenant Governor: Radha Krishna Mathur
• Capital: Leh, Kargil

About Lakshadweep

• Capital: Kavaratti
• Administrator: Dineshwar Sharma IPS

Qutub Minar illuminated in red and white to mark Poland’s Solidarity movement

• Embassy of Poland and Polish Institute in Delhi illuminated Qutub Minar in Poland’s national colours, white and red, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the creation of Poland’s Solidarity movement.
• This year, 2020, marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of Solidarity.
• The Solidarity movement of Poland is a trade union based on Gandhian principles of non-violence that fought for civil rights in the country during the communist rule.
• Solidarity was originated in Gdańsk, Poland on 31 August 1980 and in a short time gathered 10 million members.
• The Chief Guest at the Qutub Minar function is Dinesh K Patnaik who is the Director General of the Indian Council of International Relations.

About Poland

• Capital: Warsaw
• Currency: Polish złoty

Cabinet approves signing of MoU between India and Japan for improving quality of Indian textiles for Japanese market

• Cabinet has approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between India and Japan for improving quality and testing of Indian textiles and clothing for the Japanese market.
• The MoU would enable M/s Nissenken Quality Evaluation Centre, Japan in assigning Textile Committee as their cooperative Testing and Inspection service providers in India for Textiles and Apparel products.
• Government has also approved an MoU between India and Finland for cooperation in the field of Geology and Mineral Resources.
• The MoU facilitates cooperation in the field of geology, training, mineral prognostication and suitability analysis with the intent of reinforcing and strengthening scientific links.

About Japan:

• Capital: Tokyo
• Currency: Japanese yen

Govt. gives nod to 27 integrated cold chain development projects under PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana

• Government gave its nod to 27 projects under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana for development of integrated cold chains and value addition infrastructure in the country.
• The new integrated cold chain projects will generate direct and indirect employment for over 16,000 people and benefit nearly 2,57,000 farmers. Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal stated, saving the perishable produce, by provisioning adequate infrastructure, will help in augmenting farmers’ incomes and will also act towards making India self-reliant in the fruits and vegetables sector.
• These 27 new projects will leverage a total investment of Rs 743 crore for the creation of modern, innovative infrastructure and effective cold chain facilities for the food processing sector across various states including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
• 85 Cold Chain Projects have also been considered for financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana.

In 2019, a person died by suicide every four minutes: NCRB data

• Last year, 139,123 people died by suicide and 421,104 were killed in accidents in India, according to the Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India report for 2019 released by the National Crime Records Bureau. Between 2018 and 2019, the number of people dying in accidents increased by 2.3% while for suicides, this number was 3.4%.
• Traffic accidents were the single-biggest contributor to accidental deaths in India, amounting to 43% of all such fatalities. Sudden deaths, drowning and poisoning were other major causes of accidental deaths. These together led to 24% of accidental deaths. Forces of nature, such as natural disasters, killed 8,000 people, or 2% of all accidental deaths.
• Eighty-five percent of deaths caused in traffic accidents were reported in road accidents while railway accidents and accidents at railway crossings caused the remaining 15% of these deaths.
• The report is prepared with the data and information on deaths due to accidents and suicides which were collected by the State Crime Records Bureaux (SCRBx) from the District Crime Records Bureaux (DCRBx) and sent to the NCRB.

About NCRB:

• Director: Ramphal Pawar, IPS
• Headquarters: New Delhi

India received 4th highest rainfall in 120 yrs in August 2020: IMD

• India recorded 27% more rainfall than normal in August 2020, the fourth-highest amount in the last 120 years, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) Rainfall in August 2020 was the highest in 44 years, stated RK Jenamani, scientist with IMD’s national weather forecasting centre. August 1926 recorded 33% rainfall, which is the highest precipitation so far in the month.
• In its forecast for August last month, the IMD had predicted rainfall of 97 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA) with an error margin of plus or minus 9 per cent. Monsoon in the range of 96-104 per cent of the LPA is considered normal.
• This is also one of the rainiest months of August recorded. The August of 1926 saw 33 per cent more rainfall than normal, the highest precipitation recorded so far in the month; 1976 recorded 28.4 per cent more rainfall than normal, while the August of 1973 recorded 27.8 per cent than normal. This year saw 27 per cent rainfall.

About Indian Meteorological Department: 

• Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology
• Head Quarters : New Delhi

CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL

India, Australia and Japan to launch resilient supply chains for Indo-Pacific

• India, Australia and Japan agreed to launch an initiative to ensure the resilience of supply chains in the Indo-Pacific, with the move coming against the backdrop of tensions created by China’s aggressive actions across the region.
• During their first virtual meeting on the issue, commerce minister Piyush Goyal and his Australian and Japanese counterparts, Simon Birmingham and Kajiyama Hiroshi, outlined their intention to work for the launch of the new initiative because of the “pressing need for regional cooperation on supply chain resilience in the Indo- Pacific”.
• The supply chain initiative was a natural follow on to the security cooperation between the three countries, both bilaterally and through platforms such as the Quadrilateral Dialogue Mechanism or Quad, which also includes the US.
• The three countries will now work with regional partners, including members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), to build stronger supply and manufacturing chains that are protected from external shocks and influences.
• The three nations see countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and New Zealand among the players who can have a key role in the initiative.

Google partners with Bangladesh for flood forecasting

• Google has partnered with Bangladesh Water Development Board to bring the flood warning services to the country. Google stated that it currently covers more than 40 million people in Bangladesh and it is working to expand its coverage to the whole of the country.
• Quoting a study conducted in collaboration with Yale, it stated that more than 65 per cent of people who receive advance flood warnings take action to protect themselves and their assets. It stated Google is working to launch a new forecasting model to double the lead time so that people have an extra day or so to prepare in case of impending floods. It stated that this  is available in Hindi, Bengali and seven other local languages.
• The company is also partnering with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to build to deliver alerts to people who don’t have smart phones to receive the alerts directly.
• The company uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse  historical data to predict flood in the river basins. Google launched its flood forecasting pilot programme in Patna in 2018.

About Bangladesh:

• Capital : Dhaka
• Prime Minister: Sheikh Hasina
• Currency: Bangladeshi taka

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE

Federal Bank & Innoviti Tie-Up To Extend Affordability In Times Of COVID Crisis Through Debit Card EMI On POS Terminals

• Federal Bank and Innoviti Payment Solutions announced their partnership to provide convenient and affordable options of Federal Bank Debit Cards through Innoviti POS terminals.
• This partnership will offer convenient EMI options to over 7.5+ million Federal Bank Debit Card holders at over 70,000+ Innoviti POS terminals across 1000+ cities.
• This scheme will enable customers to access credit which can be repaid in convenient EMIs through their Federal Bank debit card. The customer just needs to enter their PIN and access the credit in a seamless manner. Merchants and brands can also enable product specific EMI schemes.
• This initiative will provide the convenience of credit to debit card users, in the most convenient manner.

About Innoviti Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd

• Registered office: Bangalore, Karnataka
• Chief Executive Officer(CEO): Rajeev Agrawal

About Federal Bank

• Headquarters: Aluva, Kerala
• MD & CEO: Shyam Srinivasan

Irdai sets up panel to study index-linked products for life insurance companies

• Insurance regulator Irdai constituted a six-member working group to examine various aspects for allowing life insurance companies to offer index-linked products.
• The current regulations of Insurance Regulatory and Develop Authority of India (Irdai) do not specifically permit insurers to sell index-linked products.
• Life insurers had approached Irdai with a request to allow them to offer index-linked products. Life insurance companies currently offer two product categories — unit-linked insurance plans and traditional plans.
• The working group will be headed by Dinesh Pant, appointed actuary of LIC, and submit the report within two months.
• Other members include Anil Kumar Singh, appointed actuary, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance; Jose C John, appointed actuary, Max Life Insurance; Manish Kumar, chief investment officer, ICICI Pru Life Insurance; Y Srinivasa Rao, DGM, investment department, IRDAI and DNK LNK Chakravarthi, AGM, actuarial department, IRDAI.
• The working group will examine the need for index-linked products in the country, especially with respect to the availability of various indexes and how it will better serve the needs and interests of customers relative to traditional savings product.
• It will also examine the index-linked products, which were earlier available for sale in the country in terms of product structure, ease of customer understanding and administrative processes, sales volumes and any other matter of relevance.

About IRDAI

• Headquarters: Hyderabad
• Chairperson: Subhash Chandra Khuntia

CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATES

Uttar Pradesh to create Udyog Bandhu-like body for farmers

• Uttar Pradesh (UP) is all set to create a dedicated body, on the lines of Udyog Bandhu, to assist enterprising farmer producer organisations (FPOs) in investing in projects for post-harvest infrastructure management and community farming assets with the help of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) that the Centre had announced in August, sources revealed.
• The UP cabinet is likely to clear the FPOs policy, 2020 soon in the wake of the Central government’s decision to form 10,000 such units in the country by 2023-24.
• The Central government plans to make Rs 1 lakh crore AIF available to banks that will finance these projects.
• “The new body will be headed by an official to be designated as the chief executive officer (CEO), who will be assisted by officials to be drawn from other departments such as agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy development on deputation,” they added.
• The proposed policy also makes it mandatory for all government departments to chalk out action plans that are aligned to FPOs.
• The UP government will also coordinate with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to help FPOs get loans from banks either as working capital or to set up food processing units, cold stores, branding and packaging units, warehouses among others. Each FPO will be entitled to a maximum loan of Rs 2 crore.
• The FPOs can operate at district, state and national level for the product identified as per their requirement of processing, branding and marketing. One district, one product policy will get a thrust under this initiative.

About Uttar Pradesh:

• Capital: Lucknow
• Governor: Anandiben Patel
• Chief minister: Yogi Adityanath

SIDBI, Maharashtra Govt ink pact to develop MSME ecosystem

• Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Maharashtra Government to develop the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) ecosystem in the state.
• Under the agreement, a Project Management Unit (PMU) will be deployed by SIDBI with the Government of Maharashtra, SIDBI stated.
• The role of the PMU will be to design schemes/programmes in the areas of equity support, interest subvention, resolution of stressed MSMEs, supporting MSME entrepreneurs and facilitate other need-based intervention based on evaluation of the existing status of MSMEs, it added.

About Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI):

• Chairman & Managing Director (CMD): Mohammad Mustafa
• Headquarter: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

About Maharashtra:

• Capital: Mumbai
• Governor: Bhagat Singh Koshyari
• Chief Minister:Uddhav Bal Thackeray

CURRENT AFFAIRS: ACQUISITIONS AND MERGERS

IndiGrid completes Rs 1,080 cr acquisition of GPTL Transmission project

• India Grid Trust (IndiGrid) has completed the acquisition of another transmission asset Gurgaon Palwal Transmission Ltd (GPTL) from Sterlite Power at an enterprise value of Rs 1,080 crore.
• With this acquisition, IndiGrid’s assets under management have increased by 9 per cent to Rs 13,300 crore. Its asset portfolio will now consist of 10 power transmission projects with a total network of 25 power transmission lines and 7 substations extending over 6,080 circuit kilometres and 10,735 mega volt amperes (MVA) in 15 Indian states.
• The acquisition of GPTL was envisaged as part of the framework agreement signed with Sterlite Power in April 2019 for the acquisition of three assets upon commissioning. This acquisition has been funded by internal accruals, proceeds from the preference issue done in May 2019 and new debt.
• IndiGrid Chief Executive Officer Harsh Shah stated the infrastructure investment trust has another Rs 5,500 crore pipeline of transmission projects under the framework agreement with Sterlite Power providing visibility of Rs 18,000 crore of assets under management over the next two years.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

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.
• 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.
• Padmakar is the senior most among the functional directors on the board of BPCL.

About BPCL

• Headquarters: Mumbai

ITPO CMD L C Goyal gets one-year extension till Sep 1, 2021

• A one-year extension was given to L C Goyal as the Chairman and Managing Director of India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) and he will continue in the post till September 1, 2021.
• Goyal, who had worked as Union Home Secretary briefly, was on August 31, 2015 appointed as the ITPO chief.
• His term was extended for one-year each on August 14, 2017, July 31, 2018 and on August 22, 2019.
• This is his fourth extension on the post.

About ITPO

• Headquarters: New Delhi

Charu Sinha becomes first woman IG to lead CRPF in Kashmir

• IPS officer Charu Sinha has become the first woman commander to head the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) formation in the Kashmir Valley, officials stated .Sinha, a 1996-batch officer of the Telangana cadre, has been appointed as the Inspector General (IG) of CRPF’s Srinagar sector that oversees the deployment of the paramilitary forces’ battalions in Srinagar city of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The officer was till now serving as the CRPF IG in Jammu. She earlier headed the CRPF formation in Bihar that includes the deployment of the force in anti-Naxal operations in that state.

About CRPF:

• Head quarters: New Delhi
• A P Maheshwari , IPS, Director General, CRPF

M V Raja Sekhar takes charge as Director (R&D) of BEL

• M V Raja Sekhar took charge as Director (R&D) of Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL).
• He was working as Chief Scientist of BELs Central Research Laboratory-Bangalore, and Officer on Special Duty at BELs corporate office, before his elevation, the Bengaluru- headquartered company stated in a statement.
• As Chief Scientist, he had led a team of around 260 scientists working on such diverse technologies as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Drones, Cyber Security, Cloud & Data Analytics, Tactical Communications, Radar Signal & Data Processing, it was stated

About Bharat Electronics Limited:

• Headquarters:Bengaluru, Karnataka
• Chairman & MD: M V Gowtama

CURRENT AFFAIRS: RANKINGS

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. India jumped four positions to rank at 48th since 2019. The index compiled by World Intellectual Property Index (WIPO) 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. According to the report jump can be attributed to newly available indicators and improvements in various areas of the GII. India ranks in the top 15 in indicators such as ICT services exports, government online services, graduates in science and engineering and R&D-intensive global companies.
• The report added that due to universities like IIT Delhi and Bombay, IISC  Bengaluru and other top scientific publications, India is the lower middle-income economy with the highest innovation.

About World Intellectual Property Organization:

• Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
• Director-General: Francis Gurry

Elon Musk is now the third richest person in the world

• Elon Musk’s net worth is now $115 billion, pushing him past Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the list of the world’s richest people, according to Bloomberg.
• Musk’s increase in wealth was propelled by Tesla’s (TSLA) wild 12% stock gain that happened Monday after Tesla’s 5-1 stock split. This makes the Tesla founder and CEO the third-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He is now only poorer than Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
• The world’s top five billionaires (in order) are: Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH in France.
• Musk is also the founder of several other companies including SpaceX, The Boring Company, Hyperloop and OpenAI.
• Tesla’s stock has already soared about 500% in 2020, and the company is now worth about $475 billion.
• Musk’s pay package, which was approved by Tesla shareholders in 2018, doesn’t pay him any salary or cash bonuses. Instead, the CEO gets paid in millions of stock options, worth billions of dollars. He has received two multi-billion-dollar payouts as the company hit certain profit and stock price thresholds, and he is due to receive another soon.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BOOKS AND AUTHORS

The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind by Ramachandra Guha

• Historian Ramachandra Guha will come out with a book on cricket in November,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.
• Publisher Udayan Mitra acquired the book in India and Arabella Pike, William Collins Publishing Director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding India).
• Guha has authored books like The Unquiet Woods, India after Gandhi, and a two-volume biography of Mahatma Gandhi. Guha has also written quite a few books on cricket – A Corner of a Foreign Field, The Picador Book of Cricket, Spin and Other Turns, Wickets in the East.

Channing Tatum To Release First Children’s Book ‘The One And Only Sparkella’

• American actor Channing Tatumannounced the publication of his picture book ‘The One and Only Sparkella’ (Feiwel & Friends).
• Channing Tatum’s picture book debut is a charming ode to self-esteem and the love between a father and daughter.
• The picture book, published by Feiwel & Friends.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

India bans PUBG, 117 other Chinese apps for ‘stealing, transmitting users’ data’ to servers outside India’

• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.
• Besides PUBG Mobile, the Centre also banned the recently released PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik, as well other popular Chinese apps such as WeChat Work, WeChat Reading and Alibaba Group’s payment app AliPay.
• These 118 apps join the earlier 59, including TikTok, UC Browser, CAM Scanner, etc, which were banned by the Union government in June this year following a clash in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh.

About MEITY

• Union Minister of the Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications: Ravi Shankar Prasad
• Constituency: Patna Sahib, Bihar.

SpiceJet launches portable ventilator SpiceOxy for patients with breathing issues

• SpiceJet introduced a portable ventilator for patients ‘SpiceOxy’, the compact ventilator was designed by engineers of SpiceJet Technic, a subsidiary of SpiceJet.
• This light weight device can be used at home, in an ambulance, on hilly terrain like army base camps, hospitals, and portable applications like wheelchairs and gurneys, according to the airlines.
• The company claimed that the device is an “effective solution for patients with mild to moderate breathing issues”.
• The new SpiceOxy ventilator could be useful to coronavirus patients as well. Along with the ventilator, SpiceJet also launched fingertip pulse oximeter, a handy device making it easier for people to measure the oxygen level of the blood.
• SpiceOxy has been certified by international agency TUV and has also obtained ISO certification that is exclusive for medical equipment’s among other necessary certifications.

About Spicejet

• CEO: Ajay Singh
• Headquarters: Gurugram

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.
• The phenomenal computational power of quantum computers not only embodies possibilities of astronomical progress, but also enormous threats.
• It is generally feared that once quantum computers become the predominant workhorse of the near-future digital era, almost all existing data-protective encryption schemes would become vulnerable and obsolete.
• This need has given rise to a new field of research, called Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and state-of-art research teams all over the world, such as the one at IIT Guwahati, has been working on developing algorithms to secure data from attacks by advanced computers.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS

Former Olympic Giant Slalom Champion Viktoria Rebensburg Retires at 30

• Olympic ski champion Viktoria Rebensburg retired from the sport, who won the gold medal in giant slalom at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
• Rebensburg had only one World Cup podium finish when she won Olympic gold in Vancouver.
• Rebensburg developed into a consistent medal challenger in the following years, especially in giant slalom, and won an Olympic bronze in the same discipline at the 2014 Sochi Games. She became the face of the German women’s team when three-time Olympic champion Maria Hfl-Riesch retired that year.
• Rebensburg 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.

CFI all set to host first-ever Cycling Summit in 2021

• The Cycling Federation of India (CFI) is all set to host the first-ever Cycling Summit in 2021, with an aim to promote the culture of cycling in the country.
• The CFI stated that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a marketing exploration firm, Contarctica, for the summit.
• The Cycling Summit 2021 will be hosted in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore and is expected to be a unique confluence of cycling enthusiasts, renowned athletes, and businesses from all over the country.
• This one-day summit is designed to promote the culture of cycling and exchange knowledge with budding and professional cyclists.
• The summit aims to offer a platform to all sections of the cycling community to get a deeper understanding of the technical know-how related to cycling, as a hobby and as a professional sport.

About Cycling Federation of India(CFI):

• President: Parminder Singh Dhindsa
• Secretary General: Maninder Pal Singh
• Headquarters: New Delhi

DAILY CA 2nd SEP  

• National Nutrition Week- 1st to 7th sep
• National Nutrition Month- september
• World Coconut Day- 2nd sep
• Coal India to invest over Rs 1.22 lakh crore on 500 projects by 2023-24
• Indian power market goes green with launch of pan-India GTAM in electricity
• of Fertilizers to observe Swachhta Pakhwada from 1st to 15th September
• China to unveil statue of Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis, the most celebrated Indian doctor in China
• RBI announces more measures to foster orderly market conditions
• India’s GDP contracts by 23.9% in April-June quarter
• European Investment Bank to invest 650 million euros into Kanpur city metro rail
• Naveen Patnaik launches citizen-centric apps
• Madhya Pradesh govt launches campaign ‘Gandagi Bharat Chhodo’
• UP govt decides to set up exclusive anti-electricity theft police stations in every district
• MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurates Technology Centre at Bhiwadi in Rajasthan through video conferencing
• AP to set up crop insurance firm
• Adani Group buys 74% stake in Mumbai international airport
• Central Board Of Direct Taxes Chairman Pramod Chandra Mody Gets 6-Month Extension
• Aveek Sarkar elected new Press Trust of India chairman
• Tamil Nadu Appoints India’s First-ever Woman Ambulance Driver Under New Initiative by CM Palaniswami
• Former Bureaucrat Rajiv Kumar Takes Over As Election Commissioner
• Vice Admiral S R Sarma assumes charge as Chief of Materiel of the Indian Navy
• Air Force Sports Control Board conferred with ‘Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2020’
• Karan Johar writes his first children’s book ‘The Big Thoughts of Little Luv’
• CSIR-CMERI develops World’s Largest Solar Tree
• Indian astronomers discover one of the farthest Star galaxies in universe
• IIT Madras startup subsidiary launches nano textile coating to inactive Coronavirus
• BEML bags 842 cr mobility vehicles order for Pinaka project
• Sumit Nagal becomes 1st Indian to win grand slam singles main draw match in 7 years

DAILY CA 3rd  SEP  

• MoD sets up a committee to review the AFHQ CS cadre
• Cabinet Approves Mission Karmayogi – National Programme For Civil Services Capacity Building
• Ladakh, Lakshadweep join Centre’s ration card portability scheme
• Qutub Minar illuminated in red and white to mark Poland’s Solidarity movement
• Cabinet approves signing of MoU between India and Japan for improving quality of Indian textiles for Japanese market
• gives nod to 27 integrated cold chain development projects under PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana
• In 2019, a person died by suicide every four minutes: NCRB data
• India received 4th highest rainfall in 120 yrs in August 2020: IMD
• India, Australia and Japan to launch resilient supply chains for Indo-Pacific
• Google partners with Bangladesh for flood forecasting
• Federal Bank & Innoviti Tie-Up To Extend Affordability In Times Of COVID Crisis Through Debit Card EMI On POS Terminals
• Irdai sets up panel to study index-linked products for life insurance companies
• Uttar Pradesh to create Udyog Bandhu-like body for farmers
• SIDBI, Maharashtra Govt ink pact to develop MSME ecosystem
• IndiGrid completes Rs 1,080 cr acquisition of GPTL Transmission project
• K Padmakar to hold additional charge as CMD of Bharat Petroleum Corporation
• ITPO CMD L C Goyal gets one-year extension till Sep 1, 2021
• Charu Sinha becomes first woman IG to lead CRPF in Kashmir
• M V Raja Sekhar takes charge as Director (R&D) of BEL
• India ranks in top 50 countries for 1st time in Global Innovation Index
• Elon Musk is now the third richest person in the world
• The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind by Ramachandra Guha
• Channing Tatum To Release First Children’s Book ‘The One And Only Sparkella’
• India bans PUBG, 117 other Chinese apps for ‘stealing, transmitting users’ data’ to servers outside India’
• SpiceJet launches portable ventilator SpiceOxy for patients with breathing issues
• IIT Guwahati collaborates with university in Czech Republic for data protection project
• Former Olympic Giant Slalom Champion Viktoria Rebensburg Retires at 30
• CFI all set to host first-ever Cycling Summit in 2021