1) International Youth Day: 12th August
•International Youth Day (IYD) is observed globally on 12th August every year. This day is celebrated to recognize the efforts put in by the youth for the betterment of society. The Day aims to promote the ways to engage the youth and make them more actively involved in their communities through positive contributions.
The theme of International Youth Day:
•The theme of International Youth Day 2020, “Youth Engagement for Global Action”. The theme highlights the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes, as well as draw lessons on how their representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.
2) PM to launch platform for “Transparent Taxation-Honoring the Honest”
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi will roll out the platform for “Transparent Taxation – Honoring the Honest”. The new platform will carry forward the journey of direct tax reforms and will also reward the honest taxpayers.
•Several major tax reforms in direct taxes have been carried out by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). These reforms includes reduction in the Corporate Tax rates from 30% to 22%, abolition of Dividend distribution Tax as well as reduction in the rates for new manufacturing units to 15%. The reforms also includes Direct Tax “Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020″ under which declarations for settling disputes are being filed currently, and introducing more transparency in official communications via the newly launched Document Identification Number (DIN).
3) Gujarat government announces Mukhya Mantri Kisan Sahay Yojana
•Mukhya Mantri Kisan Sahay Yojana has been announced by the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. The yojana has been announced for the current Kharif season and all farmers of the state will be covered under this scheme. Farmers would not have to pay any premium or registration process for the scheme.
•The Mukhya Mantri Kisan Sahay Yojana will replace the existing crop insurance scheme. Hence, those farmers who have already paid the premium for the existing scheme will receive the refund. Tribal farmers would also be a part of this scheme as compared to the previous one in which they were excluded.
4) Chhattisgarh Govt rolls out “Indira Van Mitan” Yojana
•Chhattisgarh Government has launched the “Indira Van Mitan” Yojana. The new scheme will aim to make the forest dwellers of the state self reliant. Under this scheme, government will form groups of youth in 10,000 villages of tribal areas of the state and they will be responsible to conduct all forest based economic activities. These economic activities will create self employment opportunities for the forest dwellers.
•Under this scheme, Chhattisgarh Government has planned to cover 19 lakh families in scheduled areas through the youth groups. These groups will also manage the trees and will collect the forest produce from the trees in forest areas. They will also arrange the purchase of forest produce to ensure right price of the forest produce.
5) Mumbai becomes 1st city in India to have female icons on traffic signals
•Mumbai’s Dadar has become the first city in India to have women symbols on traffic signals and signage. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has installed traffic signals that display female icons sporting triangular frock, a shift from the default representation of men.
6) Lebanon′s Govt resigns over deadly Beirut port blast
•The Prime Minister of Lebanon, Hassan Diab and his entire government has resigned, in the wake of the major blast in Beirut that has triggered public outrage, and anger at the Lebanese government for their failure to prevent the disaster.
•President Michel Aoun has ordered Diab government to stay on caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed. Diab served as the PM from 21 January 2020 to 10 August 2020.
7) Skyroot Aerospace tests upper stage rocket engine “Raman”
•Skyroot Aerospace, a Spacetech startup has successfully test fired an upper stage rocket engine “Raman”. With this, Skyroot Aerospace has become the first Indian private firm to exhibit the potential to build a homegrown rocket engine. “Raman” is a 3-D printed rocket engine which has been named after Nobel laureate CV Raman.
•Skyroot Aerospace expects to launch its first rocket, which can hurl satellites of 250-700 kgs, into a lower earth orbit by December 2021. These developments from the private players has become possible after the union cabinet’s approval of private player participation in space in June 2020.
8) Harsh Kumar Bhanwala becomes new executive chairman of Capital India Finance
•Former NABARD Chief, Harsh Kumar Bhanwala has been appointed as executive chairman of the Capital India Finance Limited. Prior to this, Bhanwala was chairman of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for over six years. He was appointed as the chairman NABARD in December 2013 and demitted the office on May 26, 2020.
9) Paytm launched India’s 1st pocket android POS device
•Paytm has launched India’s 1st Pocket Android POS (Point of Sale) Device named ‘Paytm All-in-One Portable Android Smart POS’ for contactless ordering and payments in India. This is the first such Android-based device to be introduced in India and is much more powerful than the portable Linux based POS devices presently available in the country. It is an effort to digitise and empower a large number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The company aims to issue over 2 lakh devices within the next few months which will generate over 20 million transactions per month.
10) BSE partners with Akola-based bullion associations
•A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by the Bombay Stock Exchange with Akola, Maharashtra-based bullion trade and industry associations namely Akola Sarafa Association and Akola Sarafa Va Suvarnakar Yuva Sangh. The partnership will seek to enhance cooperation between the BSE and physical markets represented by the two trade bodies in various areas like knowledge sharing, education and training, events as well as explore areas of mutual interests.
•The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) will conduct various activities such as seminars and awareness programmes on price-risk management for bullion traders and jewellers. These programmes will help them in shifting to more organised forms of trading. BSE will also aware them about effective hedging tools like derivatives contracts, especially ‘options in goods’ and hence enable them to face a volatile market.
11) A book titled ‘Connecting, Communicating, Changing’ released
•The Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar unveiled an e-version of the book titled ‘Connecting, Communicating, Changing’. The book chronicles Shri M Venkaiah Naidu’s three years in office as the Vice President of India. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu has completed three years in office on 11 August 2020.
