GK and Current Affairs Updates

Squadron Leader Abhishek Singh Tanwar (28211) Flying (Pilot) is on the posted strength of a Sukhoi-30 MKI Squadron since 14 Jul 14 as Sqn Pilot.
•    On 06 Jan 16, Sqn Ldr AS Tanwar was authorised to fly a valley flying sortie as No. 2. During the sortie, the pilot experienced multiple failures in quick succession while in the valley with difficult terrain all around. At first he experienced oil system failure after approximately 20 mins of flying. He took correct actions and set course towards base for a priority recovery. Subsequently he experienced "Fire on Left Hand (LH) Engine". The pilot immediately switched off the left engine and operated the fire extinguisher. This was followed by all four channels of the Fly By Wire (FBW) system failing accompanied with vicious oscillation due to autonomous movement of the rudder. This coupled with Fire on LH engine presented the pilot with an emergency of the most critical nature.
•    Despite experiencing multiple emergencies of dire nature, displaying exceptional courage, Sqn Ldr AS Tanwar calmly assessed the situation and reacted in a controlled manner while remaining with the aircraft. His prompt and correct actions prevented a Category-I accident and saved the valuable aircraft. In having piloted the aircraft under such odds and executed correct emergency actions, Sqn Ldr AS Tanwar displayed courage and presence of mind of a high order.
•    For this act of exceptional courage, Squadron Leader Abhishek Singh Tanwar is awarded of Vayu Sena Medal (Gallantry).

67 personnel have been awarded Fire Service Medals on the occasion of the Independence Day this year.  
•    President’s Fire Service Medal for Gallantry have been awarded to 04 personnel, Fire Service Medal for Gallantry have been awarded to 04 personnel, President’s Fire Service Medal for Distinguished Service to 10 personnel and Fire Service Medal for Meritorious Service to 49 personnel.
•    59 personnel have also been awarded Home Guard & Civil Defence Medals on the occasion of the Independence Day this year.  
•    President’s Home Guard & Civil Defence Medal for Gallantry have been awarded to 04 personnel, Home Guard & Civil Defence Medal for Gallantry has been awarded to 01 personnel, President’s Home Guard & Civil Defence Medal for Distinguished Service to 04 personnel and Home Guard & Civil Defence Medal for Meritorious Service to 50 personnel.

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh flagged off the Jammu-Haridwar Express train from Baroda House, Railway headquarters. 
•    Speaking on the occasion Dr Jitendra Singh said that his personal presence at Railway headquarters during the flagging - off ceremony was meant to convey a deep sense of gratitude on behalf of the people of Jammu for the manner in which, one after the other, the Ministry of Railways had positively responded to the needs and demands of the people of Jammu. He recalled that, less than three months ago, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had flagged off the historic Kamakhya (Assam) to Katra (Vaishno Devi) train covering a distance of more than 2,000 Km and connecting the two destinations of religious pilgrimage. 
•    Dr. Jitendra Singh said a train does not mean a mere means of transport but much more than that and is therefore, deeply embedded in our psyche and culture thus instantly conjuring up images of movement, progress and reaching out to people and places. He said, PM Shri Modi’s dictum of “Speed, scale and skill” for growth and progress is best personified by the manner in which the Indian Railways has registered its growth in the last two years under the dynamic leadership of the Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu. 
•    It is not a small achievement, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, that Railway network has today reached even the remotest parts like Kashmir Valley and Katra where people could have never imagined of it. He also referred to the plan for setting up a new Railway Station at Kathua, expansion of Udhampur Railway Station and setting up of sitting benches and shades at Kathua, Udhampur and Ram Nagar Railway Stations, for which he is also contributing from his Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS). Expressing satisfaction over the progress in the construction of Railway bridge at Reasi, he said, this part of the Railway link from Jammu to Kashmir will be an illustration for posterity.
 

The President awarded the Certificate of Honour to the following scholars of Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Arabic and Persian:
Sanskrit.
•    Shri R.Venkatraman
•    Shri Viswanatha Gopala Krishna
•    Shri Jiya Lal Kamboj
•    Dr.  Bhavendra Jha
•    Prof.  Priyatam Chandra Shastri
•    Prof. Gurupad K.Hegde
•    Prof.  S.T. Nagaraja
•    Shri Sanatan Mishra
•    Shri Sristi Lakshmi Prasannanjaneya Sarma
•    Prof. (Mrs.) Laxmi Sharma
•    Prof.  Biswanath  Bhattacharya
•    Prof.  Ramnarayan Das
•    Dr.  Ramshanker Awasthi
•    Shri Hridaya Ranjan Sharma
•    Prof. (Dr.) Janaki Prasad Dwivedi
 Sanskrit (International)
•    Mr. Fernando Tola
Arabic
•    Shri Abdul Musabbir Bhuiya
•    Shri Sayyad Asad Raza Hussaini
•    Shri Badr-E-Jamal Islahi
Persian
•    Hkm. Syed Ghulam Mehdi Raz
•    Chowdhry Wahhaj Ahmad Ashraf
•    Moulvi  H. Rehman Qabli
Pali
•    Smt. Bela Bhattacharya
Prakrit
•    Dr. Damodar Shastri
•    Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman
In addition, the Hon’ble President is also pleased to award the Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman to the following young scholars of Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Arabic and Persian:
Sanskrit
•    Dr. Mahanand Jha
•    Dr. Sundar Narayan  Jha
•    Dr. G.S.V Dattatreya  Murthy
•    Dr. Vishwanath Dhital
•    Dr.  Shankar Rajaraman
Arabic
•    Dr. Md. Qutbuddin
Persian
•    Dr. Haseen Uz Zaman
Pali
•    Dr. Ujjwal Kumar
Prakrit
•    Dr. Yogesh Kumar Jain
The distinction is conferred once a year on the Independence Day in recognition of substantial contribution in the field of Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Arabic and Persian.
 

Indian steeplechase sprinter Lalita Babar became the first Indian in 32 years to qualify for the finals of an athletic event at the Olympics.
•    She qualified for the finals of the 3,000-metre steeplechase event on Saturday, after registering a new national record of 9 minutes and 19.76 seconds. 
•    Lalita will compete for a medal in the final on Monday.
•    Lalita clocked a national mark of 9 minutes, 19.76 seconds while finishing fourth in heat 2 and progressed to the final, scheduled on August 15, on the basis of being among the fastest six from the rest who did not directly qualify from the three preliminary heats.
•    Lalita, who had won the bronze medal in the event in the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, two years ago, in fact finished with the seventh-best time in the heats with the new national record to boot.
 

Anthony Ervin has capped a remarkable turnaround to become the oldest ever Olympic swimming champion at the age of 35 with victory in the 50m freestyle.
•    The American won joint gold in the same event in 2000 when he was 19 years old but quit the sport aged just 23.
•    US swimmer Anthony Ervin, aged 35, became the oldest swimmer to win an individual Olympic gold medal, after winning the 50-metre freestyle event on Saturday. 
•    The swimmer had earlier won a joint gold medal in the same event 16 years ago in 2000 Sydney Olympics. 
•    Ervin broke Michael Phelps' record who had become the oldest Olympic swimming champion on Tuesday.
•    France’s Florent Manaudou, the defending champion, finished second and just 0.01 seconds behind the 35-year-old veteran, who won in 21.40 seconds in a splash and dash down the pool.
 

•    The Four Seasons Hotel in the Australian city of Sydney and the Sofitel New York Hotel in the United States have ranked second and third respectively. 
•    The Chatrium Hotel Riverside Bangkok in Thailand and the Dolce CampoReal Lisboa in Portugal complete the top five.
•    Here are the top-ranked luxury hotels according to Hotels.com:
1.    W Taipei, Taiwan
2.    Four Seasons Hotel Sydney, Australia
3.    Hotel Sofitel New York, US
4.    Chatrium Hotel Riverside Bangkok, Thailand
5.    Dolce CampoReal Lisbon, Portugal
6.    Playford Adelaide MGallery by Sofitel, Australia
7.    Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
8.    Mondrian London, UK
9.    Waldorf Astoria Orlando, US
10.    Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, US
•    Set in the cosmopolitan district of Xinyi, this striking hotel is across the road from the Taipei City Hall Metro and a 12-minute walk from Taipei 101. 
•    The vibrant rooms feature contemporary art, playful furniture, panoramic views, flat-screen TVs, Bose sound systems and WiFi , some add whirlpool tubs. 
•    Suites also have separate living rooms, and the flashy, upgraded, split-level, 2-bedroom suite has a gym, a sauna, a kitchen and a fireplace.
 

The Centre has constituted the National Committee on Trade Facilitation following India’s ratification of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in April. 
•    The NCTF will facilitate domestic co-ordination and TFA provisions' implementation, and help develop the pan-India trade facilitation road map. 
•    The committee is a mandatory, institutional arrangement under TFA.
•    The defined objective behind setting up the NCTF is to have a national level body that will facilitate domestic co-ordination and implementation of TFA provisions. 
•    It will play the lead role in developing the pan-India road map for trade facilitation. 
•    It will be instrumental in synergizing the various trade facilitation perspectives across the country and will also focus on an outreach programme for sensitization of all stakeholders about TFA.
•    The composition of the NCTF is inclusive at the national committee level which will comprise of Secretaries of all key Departments involved in trade issues like Revenue, Commerce, Agriculture, Home, Shipping, Health etc. 
•    It will also have Chairman CBEC, Chairman Railway Board, and Director General Foreign Trade as Members. 
•    Major trade associations like CII, FICCI, and FIEO etc are also its Members.
 

Rafael Nadal added a second Olympic tennis gold medal to all of those Grand Slam trophies, teaming with Marc Lopez to win the men’s doubles championship for Spain at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
•    Nadal and Lopez came back from a break down in the third set and claimed the last three games to beat Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau of Romania 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the final.
•    They’ve known each other since they were kids, first meeting in Barcelona when Nadal, who is four years younger, asked Lopez to play a set for fun. 
•    They joked about it at their news conference, agreeing that Lopez won 6-0, but trading good-natured barbs and chuckles because Lopez insisted Nadal was 14 at the time, while Nadal said he was only 12 and, therefore, couldn’t possibly have had a fair chance.
•    Nadal has gone on to collect 14 major championships, as well as an Olympic title in singles at the 2008 Beijing Games.
 

Rihana will receive MTV's lifetime achievement award at the Aug. 28 Video Music Awards (VMA) show.
•    The Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award is the highest honor in the video music industry, and reflects an artist's impact not just on music but on pop culture, fashion, film and philanthropy.
•    Rihanna, 28, has twice won the coveted video of the year at the MTV ceremony and is an eight-time Grammy winner with more than 61 million albums sold. 
•    The "Umbrella" singer also set up the Clara Lionel Foundation, which works to improve health and cultural services in her home of Barbados and beyond.
•    Rihanna will perform at the ceremony in New York, where she is nominated for four VMA's for her song "Work" with Canadian rapper Drake, and her collaboration with Calvin Harris on "This is What You Came For."
•    It was awarded to three fictional characters (Godzilla, Jason Voorhees, and Chewbacca) and Richard Roundtree's win was for his performance as John Shaft.