Important Current Affairs 25th August 2017

Important Current Affairs 25th August 2017

Current Affairs 25th August 2017: NATIONAL NEWS

RBI To Issue Rs 200 Notes

The central bank will soon issue 200-rupee note the Finance Ministry has confirmed today. 
●    The move will help fill the vast demand for cash after the notes ban, which wiped out over 85 per cent of the cash in circulation.
●    The Finance Ministry, in a notification, said that on the recommendations of the Central Board of Directors of the RBI, "the central government hereby specifies the denomination of banknotes of the value of two hundred rupees".
●    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposal to bring in 200 denominated bank notes for the first time in history was cleared by the Finance Ministry; the design has reportedly been approved by the Prime Minister's Office.
●    The central bank reportedly decided to bring in 200-rupee notes in March, after consulting with the Finance Ministry. 
●    The notes are going through multiple checks for security and quality, sources have said.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh held guilty in rape case

The CBI court held Gurmeet Ram Rahim guilty of rape and criminal intimidation. 
●    “The Dera chief has been convicted, held guilty for rape. He was held guilty on charges of rape (Section 376 IPC) and criminal intimidation (Section 506 IPC),” CBI counsel HPS Verma confirmed to The Indian Express. 
●    The argument on his sentencing will begin on Monday. 
●    He is likely to face seven-year imprisonment. 
●    Just after the verdict Ram Rahim Singh was taken into custody by Haryana Police. 
He was later taken to Rohtak jail. The verdict came as a big set back to Gurmeet’s followers who have converged in large numbers in Panchkula for last few days.

Current Affairs 25th August 2017: WORLD NEWS

Samsung heir found guilty of corruption, sentenced to five years in prison

A court has sentenced Lee Jae-yong, the acting chairman of the Samsung company, to five years in prison after finding him guilty of offering bribes and other crimes.
●    Jae-yong, who is considered to be one of the richest men in South Korea and heir to the Samsung empire, had been accused of making "large donations" to foundations run by a close friend and confidante, the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, in return for political favours.
●    The court said Lee had provided bribes anticipating support from Park, who was still president at the time.
●    Lee, the successor of South Korea's richest family and its biggest company, had been accused of offering $38m (£30m) in bribes to four entities controlled by Choi, to whom Park often turned for advice and allegedly gave access to government documents even though she did not have security clearance.

NASA rockets to create glowing artificial clouds

A NASA rocket mission is set to form white artificial clouds that will glow in the night sky, to study disturbances in the upper atmosphere that interfere with communication and technology systems. 
●    The artificial clouds will be visible to residents of the Republic of the Marshall Islands during two rocket flights to occur between August 29 and September 9, the US space agency said.
●    The Waves and Instabilities from a Neutral Dynamo (WINDY) mission will study a phenomenon that occurs in the ionosphere – a layer of charged particles in the upper atmosphere. Known as equatorial spread F (ESF) these disturbances occur after sunset at latitudes near the equator in part of the ionosphere known as the F region.
●    The disturbances interfere with radio communication, navigation and imaging systems and pose a hazard to technology and society that depends on it. 
●    The WINDY mission consists of two NASA suborbital sounding rockets that will be launched nearly simultaneously in a window between 8 and 11 pm local time from August 29 through September 9 from the island of Roi-Namur .

Scientists develop new way to track HIV infection

Scientists have developed a new way to track HIV infection that can identify how individual particles infect each cell, and lead to novel therapies for prevention and treatment of the disease.
●    It has become routine to visualise the movement and progression of individual virions - individual infectious particles - in cells, but the relevance of these observations was previously unclear, as many virions are defective or do not progress to make further copies of themselves.
●    "This approach - and the ability to say 'that virion infected that cell' - will help bring clarity to the field," said Thomas Hope, professor at Northwestern University in the US. 
●    "It allows us to understand what the virus really needs to do to infect a cell. It gives us new details, like where in the cell it happens and the timing of specific events. 
●    The more we know about the virus, the better our chances are to stop it," said Hope.
●    During the course of infection, HIV fuses onto a target immune cell and delivers its capsid - a cone that holds the genetic material of the virus - into the cell's cytoplasm. 
●    From there, the capsid disassembles through a process called "uncoating," which is crucial to the synthesis of viral DNA from its RNA genome and the hijacking of the cell's functions.
 

Current Affairs 25th August 2017: SPORTS

England to host 2018 International Table Tennis Federation Team World Cup

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on 24 August 2017 awarded hosting rights for the 2018 Team World Cup to England.
●    The Team World Cup is ITTF’s second most prestigious tournament after the World Championships.
●    The 2018 Team World Cup will be staged at the iconic Copper Box Arena in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from 22 February to 25 February 2018.
●    The Team World Cup comprises 12 men's and 12 women's teams, which include the host team, Continental Champions and the other top finishers at the World Team Table Tennis Championships.
●    The Team World Cup was last held in Dubai in 2015.

Rani to lead Indian women's hockey team

Forward Rani will be leading an 18-member Indian women's hockey team for the tour of Europe, which begins against the Netherlands on September 5.
●    Goalkeeper Savita will be her deputy.
The team features a mix of youth and the experienced in their line-up with the defence formed by Deep Grace Ekka, Sunita Lakra, Gurjit Kaur, Navdeep Kaur and Rashmita Minz.
●    The custodians are Savita and Rajani Etimarpu while the midfield will feature Namita Toppo, Nikki Pradhan, Monika, Karishma Yadav, Lilima Minz and Neha Goyal.
●    The forwardline will see Rani, seasoned Poonam Rani, Vandana Katariya, Reena Khokhar and Lalremsiami.
●    In their previous outing at the Women's Hockey World League Semi Final, the team lost to England in the quarter final and eventually ended the competition in 8th place.