GK and Current Affairs Updates

A monumental moment in Greek politics happened when Vassiliki Thanou, president of the country's Supreme Court, was sworn in as the first female prime minister in the nation's history. The 65-year-old justice was named to head a caretaker government until the country holds early elections next month.After a final effort to get political party leaders to form a coalition led by former Energy Minster Panagiotis Lafazanis failed, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos was obligated to appoint a caretaker administration. She has been the President of the Court of Cassation, one of Greece's three supreme courts, since 1 July 2015, and is currently the most senior judge in Greece.

The Indian women’s hockey team has become the 10th side to qualify for next year’s Rio Olympics. India had last played in the Olympics in 1980, the year in which women’s hockey made its debut in the mega event, and finished fourth after losing to the Soviet Union in the bronze medal match. India has qualified only second time in the Olympics since its inception

The International Day against Nuclear Tests is observed on August 29. It was established on December 2, 2009 at the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly by the resolution 64/35, which was adopted unanimously.The resolution in particular calls for increasing awareness "about the effects of nuclear weapon test explosions or any other nuclear explosions and the need for their cessation as one of the means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world". The resolution was initiated by Kazakhstan together with several sponsors and cosponsors to commemorate the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site on August 29, 1991.Following the establishment of the International Day against Nuclear Tests, in May 2010 all state parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons committed themselves to "achieve the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons".

Tennis star Sania Mirza, who won the Wimbledon women's doubles title recently, was on Saturday conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.Mirza became the second tennis player to receive the country's highest sporting honour after Leander Paes.President Pranab Mukherjee presented the National Sports Awards for 2014-15 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

About Sania Mirza --She is the third Indian woman in the Open Era to feature and win a round at a Grand Slam tournament . She has also won a total of 14 medals (including 6 Gold) at three major multi-sport events, namely the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Afro-Asian Games.Mirza was named one of the "50 heroes of Asia" by Time in October 2005. In March 2010, The Economic Times named Mirza in the list of the "33 women who made India proud". She was appointed as the UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia during the event held to mark the International Day To End Violence Against Women on 25 th November 2013 . 

The first Sunhak Peace Prize 2015 was awarded to award to Kiribati President Anote Tong and fisheries scientist Dr. M. Vijay Gupta on August 28, 2015. This award is given to eminent individuals from around the world for their contribution to peace and development of the world.Indian agriculture scientist Dr Modadugu Vijay Gupta, has done pioneering work in aquaculture in India, Bangladesh and several Southeast Asian countries.
He has been selected for this award for his pioneering work in the blue revolution. He has invested his entire life to developing sustainable aquaculture as an alternative solution to the future food crisis.Tong, 63, the head of the Pacific Ocean island nation which is facing dire prospects of being engulfed by rising sea waters by 2050, was chosen for the award for his dogged fight to end the carbon emissions which are spelling doom for small island nations.The winners, who were announced at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on June 8, 2015, will share the $1 million international peace prize.

About Modadugu Vijay Gupta

Dr. Modadugu Vijay Gupta born on 17 August 1939 is an Indian biologist and fisheries scientist.He is considered a pioneer in the blue revolution of Southeast Asia.He was awarded the World Food Prize in 2005, for development and dissemination of low-cost techniques for freshwater fish farming by the rural poor.Gupta hails from Bapatla in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India.Till his recent retirement, Dr. Gupta served as the Assistant Director General at World Fish, an international fisheries research institute under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) based at Penang in Malaysia.

About Sunhak Peace prize --The Sunhak Peace Prize was established at the proposal of Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon who wished to honor and inherit the peace ideology and will of her late husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who dedicated his life to a movement that transcends race, religion, and nation for the realization of his One Global Family peace ideology.The Sunhak Peace Prize pursues the three key banners of ‘respect for human rights’, ‘conflict reconciliation’, and ‘ecological conservation’.The laureate is awarded with a certificate, a medal, and US 1 million dollars.

A renowned Kannada scholar, Sahitya Akademi award winner and former vice-chancellor of Karnatak University M M Kalburgi, 77, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants at his residence in Dharwad in north Karnataka.

About M M Kalburgi

He was an Indian scholar of Vachana sahitya (Vachana literature) and academic who served as the Vice-Chancellor of Kannada 

In its ninth flight (GSLV-D6), India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, equipped with the indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS), successfully launched GSAT-6, the country's latest communication satellite, into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The achieved orbit is very close to the intended one. The launch took place from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota, the spaceport of India. This was the fifth developmental flight of GSLV and the third to carry the indigenous CUS. GSLV-D6 was intended to further test and qualify the CUS developed by ISRO. In its oval shaped GTO, the GSAT-6 satellite is now orbiting the Earth with a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 168 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 35,939 km with an orbital inclination of 20.01 deg with respect to the equator. 

After a smooth 29 hour countdown, the 416 tonne, 49 m tall GSLV-D6 carrying the 2117 kg GSAT-6, lifted off at 16:52 Hrs IST. About seventeen minutes after lift-off, GSAT-6 was successfully placed in GTO. At 4.8 seconds before the countdown reached zero, the four liquid propellant strap-on stages of GSLV-D6, each carrying 42 tonne of liquid propellants, were ignited. At count zero and after confirming the normal performance of all the four strap-on motors, the mammoth 139 tonne solid propellant first stage core motor was ignited and GSLV lifted off. The major phases of the flight included the core motor burn-out, strap on burn-out, ignition of the second stage, separation of the core motor together with strap-ons, payload fairing separation, second stage separation, CUS ignition and its timely shut down after satisfactory performance. Following this, GSAT-6 separated from CUS about 17 minutes after launch. 

Lionel Messi  picked yet another award in his already glittering career by winning the 2014-15 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. The Argentine play-maker beat his Barcelona team-mate Luis Suarez and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo.The fifth edition of the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award ceremony was held in Monaco, with the who's who of world football attending the gala. He became the youngest Argentine to play and score in the FIFA World Cup.

State-owned NTPC  Ltd, India's largest power generator, has achieved a record highest single-day electricity generation of 733.12 million units. The record generation of 733.12 million units from NTPC's 18 coal-based power plants, 7 gas-based units and 8 solar and hydro power stations.
 

About NTPC--NTPC Limited (also known as National Thermal Power Corporation Limited) is an Indian Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSU) under the Ministry of Power, Government of India, engaged in the business of generation of electricity and allied activities. It is a company incorporated under the Companies Act 1956 and a "Government Company" within the meaning of the act. The headquarters of the company is situated at New Delhi. NTPC's core business is generation and sale of electricity to state-owned power distribution companies and State Electricity Boards in India. The company also undertakes consultancy and turnkey project contracts that involve engineering, project management, construction management and operation and management of power plants. The company has also ventured into oil and gas exploration and coal mining activities. It is the largest power company in India with an electric power generating capacity of 43,803 MW . Although the company has approx. 18% of the total national capacity it contributes to over 27% of total power generation due to its focus on operating its power plants at higher efficiency levels (approx. 83% against the national PLF rate of 78%).It was founded by Government of India in 1975, which now holds 70% of its equity shares on 13 May 2015 (after divestment of its stake in 2004, 2010, 2013, and 2015).
In May 2010, NTPC was conferred Maharatna status by the Union Government of India. It is ranked 424th in in the Forbes Global 2000 for 2014.

International bestselling science-fiction novel "The Three-Body Problem" by Chinese author Liu Cixin was announced as the winner of the Best Novel award during the 2015 Hugo Awards in Spokane, Washington
The announcement was made by astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgren, while the award was received on behalf of Liu by novelist Ken Liu, who served as the translator for the English version of "The Three-Body Problem." This marks the first time a Chinese novel won a Hugo Award.
The story depicts a speculative account of China's Cultural Revolution, wherein the military sends signals to space. The signals are then received by aliens who decide to invade the Earth.
The book is named after a physics concept that is applied to the planet of the alien race in the story, which revolves around three suns.