NATIONAL NEWS

17th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas 2023

• The 17th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas 2023 will be held at Indore in January 2023.
• Secretary, Consular, Passport and Visa Division, Ausaf Sayeed and Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh Iqbal Singh Bains signed a Memorandum of Understanding for hosting the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas.
• On the occasion, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was also present.
• Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is celebrated every year on 09 Januray to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community in the development of India.
• It also commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to India on 09 January 1915.

The portal NIDAAN

• First-of-its-kind database of arrested narcotics offenders has been made operational for use by various central and state prosecution agencies tasked to enforce anti-drugs laws in the country.

• The portal–NIDAAN or the National Integrated Database on Arrested Narco-offenders has been developed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

• It is part of the narcotics coordination mechanism (NCORD) portal that was launched by Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah in Chandigarh during the national conference on ‘Drug trafficking and national security.
• The NIDAAN platform sources its data from the ICJS (inter-operable criminal justice system) and the e-Prisons (a cloud-based application) repository and it is planned to integrate it in the future with the crime and criminal tracking network system or CCTNS.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference

• An Indian Parliamentary delegation led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will attend the 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPA) at Halifax in Canada.
• This conference is scheduled to be held from 20 August to 26 August 2022.
• The Conference will also be attended by 23 Presiding Officers and 16 Secretaries from State Legislatures from India who are also members of CPA.
• During the Conference, eight workshops will be held on various subjects.
• Speaker Om Birla will participate as a panelist in workshop on 'People’s Parliament: Accessibility through Innovation.'

'Pitch Black' Exercise

• The Indian Air Force joined Pitch Black 2022, a joint military exercise in Australia.
• India's contingent was led by Group Captain YPS Negi, which comprised more than 100 air warriors deployed with four Sukhoi-30MKI fighters and two C-17 heavy lift aircraft.
• The three-week 'Pitch Black' exercise will have participants from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea, the UAE, Singapore, Thailand, the US and the UK in Australia's Northern Territory.
• The Exercise is scheduled to be held from 19 August to 08 September 2022.
• It is a biennial, multi-national exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force.

First Country to Make Period Products Free

• Scotland has become the first in the world to legally protect the right to access free period products with a new law, the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act in November 2020.

• The Scottish government already invested millions of pounds since 2017 to fund free period products in educational institutions.

• The bill, which was passed unanimously in 2020 was introduced by Scottish Parliament lawmaker Monica Lennon who had campaigned against ‘period poverty ‘.
• Under the new law, schools, colleges and universities as well as local government bodies must make a range of period products such as tampons and sanitary pads available for free in their bathrooms.

BANKING

Edelweiss MF to Launch India’s First Gold and Silver Fund

• The asset management company (AMC) Edelweiss Mutual Fund is scheduled to launch India’s first scheme Edelweiss Gold and Silver Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) Fund of Fund (FoF) that offers exposure to gold and silver through a single fund on 24 August 2022.
• The new fund offer for Edelweiss Gold and Silver ETF Fund of Fund (FoF) will close on 07 Sep 2022.
• The fund managers for the scheme are Bhavesh Jain and Bharat Lahoti.
• In September 2022, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) allowed MF houses to introduce silver exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the Indian market.

IOB Rupay Select Card

• Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) Managing Director (MD) & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shri. Partha Pratim Sengupta has launched a special variant of debit card IOB Rupay Select Card that can be used for domestic and international payments.
• The Card is designed to help the HNI Customers with add-on freebies at Airport lounges, Gyms, Spa Clubs, etc.
• 6 VIP Customers of the Bank were present at the function to receive the initial issue of the Card.

AWARDS & PRIZES

Vayu Sena Medal

• Wing Commander Deepika Misra, a pilot of the Indian Air Force was conferred with the Vayu Sena medal.

• She became the first woman to bag the prestigious award.

• The government also conferred the Vayu Sena medal to Group Captain Rahul Singh and Group Captain Ravi Nanda for their respective roles during India’s Operation Devi Shakti, the evacuation mission launched to bring back Indians from Kabul after its takeover by the Taliban
• she has been chosen for her role during a sortie under a disaster relief operation following flash floods in northern Madhya Pradesh.

IMPORTANT DAYS

Renewable Energy Day

• Renewable Energy Day is celebrated every year on 20 August.
• to create awareness about the importance of renewable resources of energy.
• it is also celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
• The main objective on celebrating this day is to make people aware of the use of natural sources of energy like hydroelectric power, solar energy, wind energy and biogas because the earth’s resources are depleting at a dangerous rate every day.

World Mosquito Day

• World Mosquito Day is celebrated every year on 20 August.

• It is a commemoration of a British doctor, Sir Ronald Ross’s discovery in 1897 that ‘female mosquitoes transmit malaria between humans.

• He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on Malaria in 1902.
• The theme for the year 2022 is ‘Harness innovation to reduce the malaria disease burden and save lives.’

OBITUTARY

Former Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibtey Razi

• Former Governor of Jharkhand, Syed Sibtey Razi passed away in Lucknow.

• Razi was associated with the Congress. He was a member of Rajya Sabha thrice.

• Later he was made the Governor of Jharkhand and Assam.
• He served as the Governor of Jharkhand from the year 2004- 2009.
• He started his political career in 1969.

Former Olympic Football Captain Samar ‘Badru’ Banerjee

• Former Indian football team captain Samar 'Badru' Banerjee passed away in Kolkata.
• The footballer had captained the national team to a fourth-place finish in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, which also included a famous 4-2 victory against hosts Australia in the quarterfinals.
• Banerjee played a total of nine matches for the Blue Tigers, and scored three goals for the country.
• At the domestic level he had won the Santosh Trophy with Bengal in 1953 and also captained the state in 1956.

Kerala’s First Tribal Novelist Narayan

• Kerala’s first tribal novelist and short story writer, Narayan died in Kochi, Kerala. He was at the age of 82.

• He received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1999 for his first noval ‘Kocharethi’.

• The English translation of this novel titled ‘Kocharethi: The Araya Woman’ won the Crossword Prize in 2011.
• His debut novel "Kocharethi", which explored the life, history and miseries of the Malayarayar tribe.