GK and Current Affairs Updates

Vijay Rupani was today sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Gujarat heading a 25-member ministry in which nine from the previous cabinet, including some considered as loyalists of his\ predecessor Anandiben Patel, were dropped.
•    Nitin Patel took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister, a post created for the first time in the state which goes to polls next year.
•    Governor O P Kohli administered the oath of office and secrecy to 60-year-old Rupani, a first time MLA who is considered close to BJP president Amit Shah, and Nitin Patel at a grand ceremony attended by top BJP leaders. Rupani is the 16th chief minister of Gujarat.
•    Ahead of 2017 Assembly polls in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, BJP appears to have tried to strike a caste balance by inducting eight Patel leaders, eight OBCs, three from Kshatriya community, two representatives of tribal community and one each from Brahmin, Jain, Sindhi and Dalit communities in the new council of ministers.
•    There is also an attempt to give representation to all regions: Saurashtra, north, south and central Gujarat. The cabinet has only one woman, Nirmala Wadhwani, MLA from Naroda.

The women's archery team made it to the quarter final by edging out Colombia 5-3.
•    The women's archery team of Laishram Bombayla Devi, Laxmirani Majhi and Deepika Kumari made the quarters of the recurve event .
•    This was the first time that the women archers had advanced to round two after their poor display in London four years ago when Denmark ousted them in round one. Bombayla and Deepika were part of that team.
•    The trio was to face Russian in the quarter-finals later.
•    However, the Indian shooters' unimpressive run continued unabated with Heena crashing out of the women's 10m air pistol qualification round by finishing way behind the leaders in the 14th position out of 44 competitors.
•    2010 Guangzhou Asian Games silver medallist shot an overall 380.
•    Heena, who had finished 12th in her maiden Olympics in 2012 London Games, failed to recover from a poor start and became the fourth shooter to be eliminated in day two of the competition.
•    Russia's Vitalina Batsarashkina topped the qualification round with a score of 390. 
 

The Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba, PVSM, AVSM, ADC is proceeding on an official tour to Indonesia from 09-13 Aug 16. The visit aims to consolidate existing Maritime Cooperation initiatives with Indonesia as well as explore new avenues in accordance with India's 'Act East Policy'. During the visit                      Admiral S Lanba is scheduled to hold discussions with the Indonesian Defence Minister, Chief of Defence Forces, Chief of Indonesian Navy, besides other Senior Dignitaries and Naval Officers.
•    India and Indonesia have historical linkages which date back centuries. In the modern era, India and Indonesia have been co-founders of the Non Aligned Movement besides mutually beneficial collaborations in multilateral forums such as, ARF, ADMM+, G20, WTO etc. Defence co-operation between India and Indonesia is robust and has seen ascendency through regular ships, aircraft and military delegation visits, training exchanges etc. Both countries had also signed the Defence Cooperation Agreement in 2001. Indonesia have adjoining Maritime Search and Rescue regions and Exclusive Economic Zones and share similar maritime challenges such as long coastline, extensive EEZ, coastal security, large coastal shipping and fishing fleet, wherein both navies have opportunities to learn from each other’s experiences. In addition, common ground exists for cooperation on a number of issues common to both navies.
•    IONS With shared maritime boundary, Maritime Cooperation between the Indian and Indonesian navies has been robust and one of the strong pillars of bilateral Defence cooperation. Indian Navy and Indonesian Navy are partners in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), a maritime cooperation construct conceptualised and pioneered by Indian Navy in 2008. Both countries have been conducting Coordinated Patrols along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) since 2002 and 27 editions of coordinated patrols have been completed till date. Both countries had also conducted the first Bilateral Maritime Exercise in Oct 2015. Warships of both countries visit each other’s ports regularly.
•    Staff Talks and IFR 2016 Both navies also engage in Navy to Navy Staff Talks which commenced in 2007. The 8th round of staff talks are scheduled to be held in 2017. Indonesian Navy was one of the first countries to confirm their participation in the International Fleet Review 2016 held at Visakhapatnam and participated in the review with a Ship. The Chief of the Indonesian Navy Admiral Ade Supandi also attended the Review and held bilateral discussions with the Chief of Naval Staff. Indian Navy too participated in the International Fleet Review conducted by the Indonesian Navy in Apr 2016 as well as the Multilateral Exercise Komodo (MNEK) conducted by the Indonesian Navy.
•    Admiral’s Cup at INA    The Indonesian Navy for the first time participated in the Admiral’s Cup Sailing Regatta conducted by the Indian Navy in 2015 at Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala from 03-13 Dec 15
 

Union HRD Minister, Shri Prakas Javedkar on 7th August 2016 inaugurated IIT Raipur in Chhattisgarh at the campus of Government Engineering College, Raipur. Inaugurating the IIT, Shri Javedkar said that the institute will have its own campus by the time first batch of students obtains degree. He said that to crack IIT entrance test is difficult task, hence all the students who got admissions in IIT deserve congratulations. 
•    Appreciating the ‘Prayas Avasiya Vidhyalaya’ initiative of Chhattisgarh Government, led by Dr. Raman Prasad Singh, Union HRD Minister said that it is a successful and meaningful example of imparting quality education to all specially those who come from disadvantage sections of society. He said Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has emphasized on quality education for all to ensure all round development of the country. 
•    The Minister had interaction with students of Prayas Vidyalaya. He said that it is remarkable that the talented students of Naxal affected districts are being given free coaching in 11th and 12th standards for appearing in PMT, JEE and other competitive exams.
 

Gujarat high court on 4 August 2016 quashed the state government's notification granting 10 percent reservation for the economically backward classes (EBCs).
•    The Court termed the notification as unconstitutional, which was issued by Anandiben Patel Government on 1 May 2016 granting 10 percent quota for EBCs in higher educational institutions and government jobs.
•    Earlier, the High court issued notices in response to a petition filed by a Rajkot-based writer and social worker, Jayantibhai Manani.
•    The petitioner had asked the high court that on the occasion of the foundation day of Gujarat unreserved economically backward classes Notification, 2016, non-reserved who belongs to the class of people who were provided 10 percent reservation & whose annual family income does not exceed Rs six lakh. The ordinance should be dismissed.
•    State Government spokesperson Nitin Patel has said that Government will challenge this order in the Supreme Court.
 

“The government has given high priority for improving the Nursing and Midwifery cadre through skill development and continued professional development, stated Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare.” He was speaking at the 1st convocation ceremony of National Institute of Nursing Education’, PGIMER, Chandigarh. 
•    While addressing the gathering, Shri Nadda mentioned that some of the initiatives undertaken for strengthening of nursing cadre are; establishment of ANM/GNM Schools, Upgradation of institutions from School of Nursing to College of Nursing, Training of Nurses, Development of eleven one year specialisation courses, Revision of curriculum for all nursing programs, New ‘Nurse Practitioner courses, Nurse Practitioner in Critical Care Program, Nurse Practitioner in Primary Healthcare Program, Nurses registration Tracking System (Live Register), and establishment of national PhD consortium for Nursing Research. The proposed ‘Nursing Practice Act’ will empower nurses and more reforms can be done in Nursing regulation, the Health Minister elaborated.
•    His visit is marked by addition of very important and valuable facilities in the premium Medical Institute of North India today. In the morning, he dedicated two more AMRIT (Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants) outlets at PGI. One in Nehru Hospital for providing generic medicines and orthopedic surgical implants and another in the Advanced Cardiac Centre  (ACC) for providing affordable cardio vascular medicines and implants making total number of such outlet three at PGI. The first shop which was established in April, 2016 has already crossed Rs.5 lakhs per day mark of value of drugs dispensed.
•    Health Minister also inaugurated SLEEP LAB in the Department of ENT for the diagnosis and surgical treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). This Lab is the first   to be started in ENT Department of North India. This Lab is designed to evaluate, diagnose, treat and help patients to manage OSA. The sleep study is a painless process conducted on the patient at night. In the next day he will received a complete sleep report with diagnoses of sleep related problems. Advanced Eye Center of PGI has been equipped with the femtosecond laser technology today which would ensure fast, accurate and predictable cataract surgery. This procedure commonly called as “Blade-less Cataract Procedure”/”Robotic Cataract Procedure”. Femtosecond Cataract Surgery helps to reduce the surgical complications and enhance the post-operative outcome in the complicated and challenging cataract cases. He specifically told that this facility is first of its kind in India which has been installed at the cost of Rs.7 crores. Health Minister also dedicated Kitten MRI/Mock MRI Scanner at PGI which is specifically designed to make MRI scanning safer and more child friendly. In this facility children will be exposed to the environment of MRI scanning before they are actually taking first scanning. This facility has been acquired at approximate cost of Rs.13 crores.

Minister of Urban Development Shi M.Venkaiah Naidu today launched ‘Swachh Suvekshan-2017’ to assess and rank 500 cities and towns based on levels of sanitation and efforts made by respective urban local bodies and also to capture progress towards achieving ‘Open Defecation Free’ status.  The Minister also released in New Delhi today various publications and mobile applications to help the 500 cities and towns prepare for the survey to be conducted in January next year.
•    Shri Venkaiah Naidu addressed Mayors, Municipal Chairpersons, Municipal Commissioners and other concerned officials of 500 cities and towns to be surveyed via video conferencing. He informed the city officials that cities will be ranked based on the reports by urban local bodies on the progress made towards construction of toilets, feedback of citizens and independent observation of sanitation levels. Cities with a population of one lakh and above each, heritage and tourism cities, capital cities with less than one lakh population are included in this survey, the second since the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission.
•    Referring to the stress being laid by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on creating a ‘Jan Andolan’ (Mass movement) to ensure ‘Swachh Bharat’ by 2019, Shri Naidu launched a web portal ‘Swachhata App’ and ‘Swachhta Helpline 1969’ to enable citizens associate more and more with Swachh Bharat Mission in urban areas. Citizens can post photos of unhygienic places in urban areas on Swachh Aap and they will be informed of action taken by respective urban local bodies in specific time period. Using toll free Helpline Number 1969, citizens can seek information about the ways of participating in cleanliness mission and can also enquire the status of their applications for construction of toilets.
•    Stressing on the need for behavioral change in favour of using toilets, Shri Venkaiah Naidu launched ‘Asli Tarakki’ campaign highlighting the need for construction of toilets and using them well. This campaign to be mounted on TV channels and in print media soon brings out that having two wheelers, air coolers, TV sets etc., is not ‘Asli Tarakki’ (real  development) if such people did not either have toilets or don’t use them.
•    The Minister stated that since the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission in October, 2014, construction of 21 lakh household individual toilets has been completed and construction of another 21 lakh toilets is in progress. The mission target in this regard is construction of 1.04 cr toilets by 2019.
 

Shri Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Government of India inaugurated the Indian Institute of Technology at Jammu today on 6th August 2016. 
•    The institution is the first IIT for the state set up to create a learning environment and will be built over 500 Acres of land near Jammu city. 
•    Jammu is among the six cities across the country which was set to get IITs. Meanwhile, in the first year, the institute will function from a well-equipped temporary campus in Paloura, Jammu that will have all the facilities to meet the standards. 
•    Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State with PMO and Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Government of India, Shri Jugal Kishore, Member Parliament, Shri Shamsher Singh Manhas, Member Parliament, Dr. Nirmal Kumar Singh, Dy. Chief Minister, Government of Jammu & Kashmir, Smt. Priya Sethi, MoS for Education, Government of Jammu and Kashmir and other dignitaries were present during the ceremony which was held at KCS College of Education, Paloura. 
•    On the occasion, Shri Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Government of India expressed his delight to inaugurate the campus in the city of temples bestowed with rich culture and heritage. The institution will go a long way in building and harnessing the immense talent of the entire State, he added. 
•    Every possible step will be taken with a special attention to bring in all the facilities and trainers ensuring quality generation out of the talent pool in order to fulfil the dream of Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Javadekar further added. 
•    Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State with PMO and Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Government of India, in his address appreciated the efforts of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development in making such a prestigious institution possible for imparting quality education keeping in mind the aspirations of the people of the State. 
•    The institution will offer a set of programmes across various academic streams that will follow a credit system and the performance in a course will be continuously evaluated.
 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Rajan, on 4 August 2016 launched Sachet portal, sachet.rbi.org.in, to check illegal money collection.
•    The website is available in vernacular languages for the benefit of the people of different regions of the country.
•    It will be helpful for the regulators in quick follow up of the unlawful money collection activities.
•    It will also enable people get information regarding the financial entities that are allowed to accept the deposits.
•    People will get the space to lodge complaints and share information regarding illegal collection of deposits by unscrupulous entities in their areas.
•    The website also incorporates regulations prescribed by all financial regulators that different entities have to follow.
•    The Reserve Bank of India is India's central banking institution, which controls the monetary policy of the Indian rupee. It commenced its operations on 1 April 1935 during the British Rule in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934
 

Noted sports promoter and founder chairperson of Reliance Foundation, Nita Ambani was elected as an individual member of International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 4 August 2016. 
•    With this, she also becomes the first Indian woman to join the prestigious body which governs Olympic sports in the world.
•    Sir Dorabji Tata was the first person to represent India in the IOC. 
•    Raja Randhir Singh is currently holding the post of an honorary member after serving the international body from 2000-2014.
Besides Nita, seven other IOC Members were elected at the 129th IOC Session ahead of the Olympic Games Rio 2016. They are:
•    Sari Essayah (Finland)
•    Ivo Ferriani (Italy)
•    Luis Moreno (Colombia)
•    Auvita Rapilla (Papua New Guinea)
•    Anant Singh (South Africa)
•    Tricia Smith (Canada)
•    Karl Stoss (Austria)
Apart from this, two Vice-Presidents were also elected on the executive board. They are:
•    Juan Antonio Samaranch (Spain)
•    Ugur Erdener (Turkey)