GK and Current Affairs Updates

Sonam Kapoor joined Gems Education, UNICEF, Reliance Group and the Global Goals Campaign to launch the World’s Largest Lesson India programme on the occasion of Teacher’s day here on Monday. 
•    The actress says that a proper education can build a great future and lead a child to imbibe good qualities.
•    Launched in September 2015, lessons have taken place in 160 countries. 
•    The materials included lesson plans, comic books and an animated film introduced by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, tennis champion Serena Williams and international football star Neymar Jr.
•    In India alone, the World’s Largest Lesson reached an estimated 3 million children who watched an animation film on the Global Goals.
•    Sonam Kapoor is an Indian actress who appears in Bollywood films. Kapoor is one of the highest-paid actresses in the industry. 
•    She has been nominated for four Filmfare Awards.

Former Indian women’s team captain Anjum Chopra has been awarded an honourary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) along with former men’s team stalwarts Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag. 
•    She is the first Indian woman cricketer to get the prestigious life membership of MCC.
•    The 39-year-old Anjum played 12 Tests, 127 ODIs and 18 T20 Internationals for India. 
•    She scored 548 runs in Tests with 4 half centuries while in 50 overs format, she scored 2856 runs with a century and 18 half-centuries.
•    Anjum Chopra is an Indian Women Cricketer. She was born in New Delhi. 
•    A sports girl from the start, the first time she stepped on to the ground was at the age of 9. 
•    Played her first friendly match with college girls team at the inter college level scoring 20 runs and taking 2 wickets. 
•    Later the same year she was selected to play for New Delhi in the under −15 tournament
 

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday is set to hear the diesel vehicle ban case. 
•    The tribunal had on July 18 asked the Delhi's transport authorities to cancel registration of diesel-fuelled vehicles that were older than 10 years. 
•    Two days later, it asked the Delhi Government to first focus on vehicles order than 15 years. 
•    The Centre was expected to oppose the tribunal's order to phase out more than 15 years old diesel vehicles in Delhi. 
•    The Union Government had on July 29 challenged the NGT's order to phase out diesel vehicles, saying there was no legal provision for the move described by a carmaker as a "corporate death penalty". 
•    The Supreme Court has also stopped registration of new diesel vehicles with engine capacity of 2000CC and above and ordered all diesel taxis to convert to compressed natural gas. 

Urjit R Patel on 4 September 2016 assumed charge as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
•    The handover ceremony will take place on 6 September 2016.
•    Patel had been serving as the Deputy Governor since January 2013.
•    Patel succeeds Raghuram Rajan, who after serving a three-year term, is going back to academia.
•    On 20 August 2016, the appointment committee of cabinet approved the appointment of Patel for three years.
•    Urjit Patel headed a panel that recommended landmark changes to monetary policy in India. The changes included a switch to inflation-targeting and the creation of a panel to set interest rates.
•    In January 2016, he was reappointed as the Deputy Governor in Charge of monetary policy, the department he headed from 2013.
•    Earlier between 1990 and 1995, he had worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) covering US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar.
•    He carries a doctorate from Yale University.
•    He also carries M Phil from Oxford.

The Odisha Government on 3 September 2016 launched the Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana (BKRY) in three districts of the state.
•    The scheme was launched for the development of girls.
•    The scheme will be implemented for three years in Ganjam, Dhenkanal and Angul districts on a pilot basis.
•    The objective of the Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana is to improve Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) and Child Sex Ratio (CSR) in the three districts.
•    The BKRY will ensure enrolment of girls in elementary education.
•    It will track dropout girls from schools and create a better environment for them.
•    The scheme will create awareness on gender discrimination against girls, their health, nutrition and education.
•    According to the provision of BKRY, the state government will spend 3.5 crore rupees for the three-year planned scheme, which is expected to be completed by 31 March 2019.

Nico Rosberg on 4 September 2016 won the 2016 Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Monza, Italy.
It is Rosberg’s seventh victory of the 2016 Formula One season. In this season, he has won the 2016 Australian Grand Prix, the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix, the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix, the 2016 Russian Grand Prix, the 2016 European Grand Prix and the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix.
Top 5 in the race
Position    Driver    Car
1    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes
2    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes
3    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari
4    Kimi Räikkönen    Ferrari
5    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer
About Italian Grand Prix
•    The Italian Grand Prix is one of the longest running events on the Formula One calendar.
•    The Italian Grand Prix was also one of the inaugural Formula One championship races in 1950. It has been held every year since then.
•    The 2016 Italian Grand Prix was the fourteenth round of the 2016 Formula One season.
•    It marked the eighty-sixth running of the Italian Grand Prix and the eighty-second time the race was held at Monza.

The USOF, which is maintained by the government, was formed to help fund projects to boost connectivity in rural areas. 
•    The money for this fund comes through a ‘Universal Access Levy,’ charged from the telecom operators as a percentage of various licenses fees being paid by them.
•    Last month, Telecom Secretary J.S. Deepak had said that about Rs.10,000 crore will be spent in the current financial year from the USO Fund to execute various digital infrastructure projects to boost connectivity in rural areas. In the last fiscal, about Rs.3,000 crore was spent from the USOF.
•    The official added that another scheme — funded by the USOF — to connect Left wing extremism (LWE)-affected areas in ten identified states in on the “verge of completion.” “Together, these will help take forward the Digital India drive.”
•    As on date, the total available fund in USOF is more than Rs.47,411.56 crore. 
•    The total collection since the scheme was started in 2002-03 stands at about Rs.78,587.31 crore, while total amount disbursed for various initiatives to boost rural connectivity is about Rs.31,175.75 crore, according to government data.
•    The Centre is also in middle of executing the Bharat Net project which aims to connect all of India’s households, particularly in rural areas, through broadband by 2017.

 
•    The theme of 2016 G20 Summit was Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy.
•    It was the 11th summit since the inception of G20 in 1999.The summit was attended by all the leaders of the G20 including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
•    The chair of the summit was Xi Jinping, President of China.
•    The world leaders endorsed free trade and a crowded agenda that included the Koreas, Syria and refugees.
•    The guest invitees in the summit were: Egypt, Kazakhstan, Laos, Senegal, Spain, Singapore and Thailand.
•    The 2017 G20 Summit will be held in Hamburg, Germany, under the leadership of Angela Merkel.
•    G20 Members: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and European Union.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first time met new British Premier Theresa May on Monday here and held discussions on enhancing bilateral ties in the aftermath of UK's decision to exit the 28-member European Union.
•    Both the leaders held discussions on the sidelines of the G20 summit here on "building opportunities" after the UK voted to leave the EU- the world's single largest market.
•    May was sworn in as Prime Minister on July 13, succeeding David Cameron who resigned after the country voted in favour of exiting the EU.
•    May, 59, is UK's second woman Prime Minister after Margaret Thatcher, also known as Iron Lady, with whom May is often compared.
•    Modi had congratulated May on her assumption of new responsibility on July 27 and had affirmed India's commitment to further strengthen the strategic bilateral partnership.
•    Modi earlier today said fighting corruption, blackmoney and tax-evasion were central to effective financial governance.

Sedition or defamation cases cannot be slapped on anyone criticising the government, the Supreme Court said on Monday. 
•    “Someone making a statement to criticise the government does not invoke an offence under sedition or defamation law. 
•    We have made it clear that invoking of section 124(A) of IPC (sedition) requires certain guidelines to be followed as per the earlier judgement of the apex court,” a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U.U. Lalit said.
•    The observation came as advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for an NGO, said sedition was a serious offence and the law on it was being grossly misused for stifling dissent. 
•    He cited the examples of sedition charges being slapped on agitators protesting against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project and cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, among others.