Today's Current Affairs-22nd August 2022

INTERNATIONAL

Greece's exit from enhanced EU scrutiny ends 12 years of pain, prime minister says

• Greece's exit on Saturday from the European Union's so-called enhanced surveillance framework for its economy ends 12 years of pain and allows the country greater freedom in policy making, its prime minister said.
• Greece's economic performance and policies have been closely monitored under the framework since 2018 to ensure it implemented reforms promised under three international bailouts - totalling more than 260 billion euros ($261 billion) - from the European Union and the IMF between 2010 and 2015.
• EU officials had confirmed Saturday's exit earlier this month, saying Athens had delivered on the bulk of its commitments.

About Greece:

President : Katerina Sakellaropoulou

Capital: Athens

Currency: Euro

Continent: Europe

Official language: Greek

 NATIONAL

MP's Mandla becomes country's first fully 'functionally literate' district

• Madhya Pradesh’s tribal-dominated Mandla region has become the first fully “functionally literate” district in the country. Another report of 2020 highlights that, more than 2.25 lakh people in this district were not literate, most of them were tribals from forest areas. Tribals frequently complained to the authorities about money being taken from their bank accounts by fraudsters and the root cause of this was that they were not functionally literate.
• To make people functionally literate, a major campaign was launched on Independence Day 2020, in association with the school education department, Anganwadi & social workers, women and child development department, to educate women and senior citizens.
• With this campaign, the entire district has turned into a functionally literate district, within two years.
• Mandla is the first district of India to reach this mark, where people were able to write their names, read and count.

About Madhya Pradesh:

Capital: Bhopal (Executive Branch)

Chief Minister: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Governor: Mangubhai C. Patel 

E-marketplace feature Aqua Bazar launched in Matsya Setu app

• During the 9th general body meeting of the National Fisheries Development Board, Shri Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairy, introduced the “Aqua Bazar” online market place feature in the “MatsyaSetu” mobile app. The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana was used to fund the development of the MatsyaSetu app by the ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFA), Bhubaneswar, with assistance from the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad (PMMSY). The Aqua Bazar, online market will assist fish farmers and other interested parties in locating the inputs—such as fish seeds, feed, medicines, etc.—and services needed for fish cultivation. Farmers may also offer their table-size fish for sale on the Aqua Bazar market. The Aqua Bazar marketplace intends to link up all parties involved in aquaculture.
• For the success and expansion of freshwater aquaculture in the nation, reliable information regarding the timely availability of high-quality inputs in the appropriate locations Aqua Bazar is absolutely essential.
• This MatsyaSetu digital platform was created by ICAR-CIFA and NFDB to solve the issue and bring all the stakeholders together in one location.

Rajnath Singh to inaugurate National Seminar on 'Introspection

• Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister) Shri Rajnath Singh will open a national seminar entitled “Introspection: Armed Forces Tribunal” that the Armed Forces Tribunal (Principal Bench) Bar Association is hosting in New Delhi. In addition to serving members of the armed forces, the Introspection: Armed Forces Tribunal seminar is being held to evaluate how the Armed Forces Tribunal, which was formed to assure prompt and affordable justice for veterans, their families, and war widows, operates.
• The Introspection: Armed Forces Tribunal seminar’s goals are to examine how it functions, offer fixes for any flaws, and address the issues and challenges that litigants encounter when trying to obtain swift justice.
• The Raksha Mantri will attend as the chief guest, while Shri Kiren Rijiju, the minister of law and justice, will be the guest of honour.
• The Introspection: Armed Forces Tribunal conference is anticipated to include senior officials and employees from the Judiciary, Ministry of Law & Justice, and Ministry of Defense.

About Ministry of defence:

Officeholder: Rajnath Singh (Minister)

Formed: 1776; 246 years ago (as Military Department);

15 August 1947; 75 years ago (as Ministry of Defence)

Indian Army Set to Possess Quantum Communication Tech, joins elite list

• India is all set to join the elite global club, and the Indian Army will soon possess indigenous and more advanced quantum communication technology with equipped troops and a high-end secured defense system. With the support of Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDEX), Defence Innovation Organisation, the QNu Labs which is a Bengaluru-based deep tech startup has innovated advanced secured communication through Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). The Defence Ministry has initiated the procurement process of QNu Labs developed QKD systems by issuing a commercial Request for Proposal (REF) after the successful trials.
• The leading countries in the QKD systems are China, the US, Canada, and other European countries. A QKD system allows the creation of a quantum secure secret pair of symmetric keys between two points that are separated by a certain distance in terrestrial optical fiber infrastructure. Indian Defence officials also considered this Innovation as a milestone in the Azadi ka Amrit Kaal. The Ministry of Defence explained that QKD helps to create a non-hackable quantum channel for creating un-hackable encryption keys, which are used to encrypt critical data.

About Indian Army:

Motto(s):  "Service Before Self"

Headquarters: Integrated Defence Headquarters, Ministry of Defence, New Delhi

Founded: 1 April 1895, India

Commander-in-Chief: President Draupadi Murmu

Indian Railways: 3.5 km long Super Vasuki, India's longest train with 6 engines and 295 wagons

• The Indian Railways conducted a test run of its latest train called Super Vasuki. The Super Vasuki is operated by the South East Central Railway (SECR) zone of the Indian Railways. The SECR ran the record long-haul freight trains Vasuki and Trishul last year and the 2.8 km long SheshNaag train before that. The Super Vasuki was set up by amalgamating five rakes of goods trains as one unit.
• The train took 11.20 hours to cover a distance of 267 km.The freight train is 3.5 km long.
• During the test run, the train had six locos, 295 wagons and of 25,962 tonnes gross weight, making it the longest and heaviest freight train ever run by the Railways.
• The train was formed by amalgamating five rakes of goods trains as one unit.
• The amount of coal carried by Super Vasuki is enough to fire 3000 MW of power plant for one full day, according to officials.

About Indian Railway:

Founded: 6 May 1836, India

Headquarters: New Delhi

Founders: Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, Jagannath Shankarseth

Chairman: V K Tripathi

Chhattisgarh govt plans to set up 300 rural industrial parks in one year

• In a move aimed to strengthen the rural economy and make the “gauthan” (cattle shed) a centre of livelihood, the Chhattisgarh government will set up rural industrial parks in the state. In the first year of the project, there will be 300 such parks.
• “The project will be launched on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2,” Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has said.
• “We are going to start ‘gramin aajeevika parks’, to be known as ‘rural industrial parks’, to develop gauthans as livelihood centres.”
• In keeping with Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of gram swar¬aj, which is strengthening the rural economy by promoting cottage industries, Baghel has started the initiative to establish such units to provide income-generating opportunities. The first such park in Chhattisgarh came up in Kulgaon, Kanker district, which has been named Gandhi Gram. The district administration, along with women’s self-help groups, has developed the park.

About Chhattisgarh:

Capital: Raipur (Executive Branch)

Governor: Anusuiya Uikey

Chief Minister: Bhupesh Baghel

SPORTS

Manisha Kalyan becomes First Indian to play in UEFA Women's Champions League

• Young striker Manisha Kalyan became the first Indian footballer to play at the UEFA Women’s Champions League when she made her debut for Apollon Ladies FC in the European Club competition in Engomi, Cyprus. In November 2021, the 20-year-old had become the first ever Indian footballer to score a goal in the AFC Women’s Club Championship.
• Kalyan had produced impressive performances for the national team and Gokulam Kerala in the Indian Women’s League (IWL). Kalyan is the second player from Gokulam Kerala to sign for an overseas club after Dangmei Grace joined Uzbek outfit FC Nasaf. She was recently awarded the AIFF Women’s Footballer of the Year for the 2021-22 season.

About UEFA Women’s Champions League:

Current champions: Lyon (8th title)

Founded: 2001; 21 years ago

Television broadcasters: DAZN; beIN Sports (MENA only)

Thailand Para Badminton International: Indian para shuttlers Pramod Bhagat, Sukant Kadam clinch Gold

• Indian para shuttlers Pramod Bhagat and Sukant Kadam clinched the Gold at the Thailand Para Badminton International tournament in Pattaya yesterday.
• The Indian duo defeated Indonesian pair of Dwiyoko Dwiyoko and Fredy Setiawan 21-18, 21-13 in the men's doubles summit clash.
• In the men's singles, Bhagat and Kadam had to settle for a silver medal each after losing their respective finals.
• In other results, Ruthick Ragupathi and Manasi Joshi finished second best in mixed doubles, losing to France's Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel in the final.
• In women's singles, Mandeep Kaur got the better off compatriot Manasi in finals to claim the gold medal, while Manisha Ramadass also bagged the yellow metal after beating Japan's Kaede Kameyama in final.

About Thailand:

Capital: Bangkok

Currency: Thai baht

King: Maha Vajiralongkorn

 SUMMIT'S & MOU's

India’s NPCI International Signs PayXpert As UK’s Acquirer For UPI, RuPay - Crowdfund Insider

• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which is the world’s largest real-time payment solution, the Unified Payments Interface, and the RuPay card scheme has signed an MoU through their subsidiary corporation NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), with the PayXpert, the payment solutions to establish and internationalize the acceptance of its payment solutions in the UK.
• The collaboration between NIPL and PayXpert will promote Indian payment solutions on the PayXpert in the UK. The payment method will be available on PayXpert’s Android point-of-sale (POS) devices for in-store payments, along with the availability of UPI-based QR code payments and RuPay card payments.
• Unified Payments Interface or UPI is the most successful real-time payment method.
• In India, UPI has been a simple, safe, secure, and time-saving payment method.
• In 2021, UPI has achieved a volume of US $940 Bn, which is equal to 31% of GDP in India.

About NPCI:

Founded: 2008

Headquarters: Mumbai

Founders: Reserve Bank of India, Indian Banks' Association

About Unified Payments Interface:

Owner: National Payments Corporation of India

Introduced: 11 April 2016; 6 years ago