Important Current Affairs 6th August 2018

Important Current Affairs 6th August 2018

Current Affairs 6th August 2018: NATIONAL NEWS

India elected as President of Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development

The Asia-Pacific Institute of Broadcasting Development (AIBD) on 3rd August elected Fayyaz Sheheryar, Director-General of All India Radio, as its new President. This is the first time India has been elected for the position of president of AIBD.

Asia-Pacific Institute of Broadcasting Development (AIBD)

Established in 1977 under the auspices of UNESCO, AIBD is a unique regional inter-governmental organisation servicing countries of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in the field of electronic media development. The elections were held at the 44th annual meeting of AIBD in Colombo.

Approval of 122 new research projects at a cost of Rs 112 crore under IMPRINT-2

•    For advancing research in the high education institutions, the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved 122 new research projects at a cost of Rs 112 crore under IMPRINT-2 covering Energy, Security, Healthcare, Advanced Materials, ICT and Security/Defence domains.

•    According to Union HRD Minister PrakashJavadekar said in a statement - “Out of 2145 proposals, 122 best proposals were selected for funding under IMPRINT-II, advancing cutting edge level technology,” 

IMPRINT-2

Impacting Research, Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT), a national initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) designed to address all major engineering challenges relevant to India through an inclusive and sustainable mode of translational research has now reached its next phase, IMPRINT Round 2.

Startup Academia Alliance Programme of India

Startup India launched the Startup Academia Alliance programme, a unique mentorship opportunity between academic scholars and startups working in similar domains.

Startup Academia Alliance

•      The Startup Academia Alliance aims to reduce the gap between scientific research and its industrial applications in order to increase the efficacy of these technologies and to widen their impact.

•      By creating a bridge between academia and industry, the Alliance strives to create lasting connections between the stakeholders of the startup ecosystem and implement the third pillar on which the Startup India Action Plan is based - Industry Academia Partnerships and Incubation.

Approved and allocated an amount of Rs 60,039,297 for Project Mausam for F.Y 2018-19 and 2019-20

An amount of Rs 60,039,297 has been approved and allocated for Project Mausam. Expenditure for the project during 2017-18 and first three months of 2018-19 is Rs 16, 75,614.

Project ‘Mausam’

Project ‘Mausam’ is the initiative of Ministry of Culture to be implemented by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as the nodal agency with research support of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and National Museum as associate bodies.

Aim of this project:

•              This project aims to explore the multi-faceted Indian Ocean ‘world’ – collating archaeological and historical research in order to document the diversity of cultural, commercial and religious interactions in the Indian Ocean.

•      The main objective of the project is to inscribe places and sites identified under Project Mausam as trans-national nomination for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

For the first time, the Supreme Court will have three sitting woman judges

•      With the elevation of Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee as the Supreme Court judge, the apex court has created a new record in the Indian judicial history.

•      For the first time, the top court will have three sitting woman judges, that include Justices R Bhanumathi and Indu Malhotra the most woman judges the apex court has had.

•     Justice Banerjee would become the eighth woman judge in the history of the Supreme Court. She succeeds the likes of Fathima Beevi, Sujata V. Manohar, Ruma Pal and Gyan Sudha Misra and Ranjana Prakash Desai.

•     At present, the SC has 22 judges.

President inaugurates ‘Festival of Democracy’

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the ‘Festival of Democracy’ in Thiruvananthapuram (August 6, 2018 to mark the conclusion of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Kerala legislative assembly.

Objective:

“Festival of Democracy” will provide actionable and practicable inputs for the progress of legislative democracy in our country.

Important About Kerala Government:

•  Governor P. Sathasivam

•  Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan

•  Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan

•  Cultural Affairs Minister A.K. Balan

Government e- Marketplace (GeM) Initiative:

As an initiative to improve transparency in procurement, Government has set up Government e- Marketplace as a 100% Government owned company registered under the Companies Act, 2013 for providing online platform for procurement of common use goods and services by government organizations.

Government e- Marketplace

Government e- Marketplace (GeM) is an online platform for government users which was launched on 9th August, 2016.

Salient Features:

•  It leverages technology to enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement. It provides the tools of e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation to facilitate the government users, achieve the best value of their money.

•  It is paperless, cashless and contactless platform giving end to end solution.

Important:

The Minister of State of Commerce & Industry is C R Chaudhary.

Inauguration of Sustainable Growth through Material Recycling: Policy Prescriptions

•    NITI Aayog’s International Conference on “Sustainable Growth through Material Recycling: Policy Prescriptions” was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways & Ganga Rejuvenation, Shri. Nitin Gadkari at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra in the capital on 6th August 2018.

•   NITI Aayog Shri. Rajiv Kumar, CEO, NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant and renowned experts from all over the world in material recycling took part in the deliberations at the conference.

Objective:

“Recycling will increase growth, create wealth, and generate employment”,

Current Affairs 6th August 2018: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

IIT- Madras has developed the first of a family of six industry-standard microprocessors.

•    The computer scientists and a student team from the IIT- Madras have developed the first of a family of six industry-standard microprocessors.

•     The initial batches of 300 chips named RISECREEK, produced under Project Shakti, have been fabricated free at Intel’s facility at Oregon, U.S., to run the Linux operating system.

RISECREEK microprocessors

This microprocessors can be adapted by others, as the design is open source. They optimise power use and compete with international units such as the Cortex A5 from Advanced RISC Machines (ARM).

Shakti project

“The Shakti project is not aimed at only building processors. It also aims to build high speed interconnect for Servers and Supercomputers based on variants of the RapidiIO and GenZ standards. These are key to build large clusters of processors to get Petaflop and Exaflop level supercomputers,”

Current Affairs 6th August 2018: ECONOMY

Four-pronged strategy to help banking sector

•       The government is working on a four-pronged strategy to improve the health of the banking sector and help it get rid of non-performing assets.

Four-pronged strategy ("4Rs")

1. Recognition

2. Resolution

3. Recapitalisation

4. Reform

Important:

The Minister of State for Finance is Shiv Pratap Shukla.

Current Affairs 6th August 2018: SPORTS

India captain Virat Kohli topped the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen

•     India captain Virat Kohli on 5th of August 2018 topped the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen.

•     Kohli thus became the seventh India batsman, and first since Sachin Tendulkar (in June 2011) to be ranked the number one Test batsman in the latest ICC rankings released on 5th August.

•    Kohli has gone up by 31 points, which has helped him to end Steve Smith’s 32-month reign as the top-ranked batsman and reach the top of the summit for the first time in his 67-Test career.