1) International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition
•The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is an international day celebrated on August 23 of each year. The day was chosen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to memorialize the transatlantic slave trade.
2) World Water Week 2022: 23 August to 1 September
•World Water Week 2022 takes place from 23 August to 1 September. The World Water Week is an annual event organized by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) since 1991 to address the global water issues and related concerns of international development. The theme of the 2022 World Water Week is: “Seeing the unseen: The value of water”, which helps us view water in new and fascinating ways.
This overarching theme is captured in three main perspectives:
•The value of water for people and development.
•The value of water for nature and climate change.
•The financial and economic value of water.
3) Rashtriya Puruskar Portal Launched by Union Government
•Union Government has launched Rashtriya Puruskar Portal to bring together all the awards of the various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of the Government of India. The Rashtriya Puruskar Portal will make sure that all the awards are under one platform to ensure transparency and public partnership or Jan Bhagidari. The portal allows every citizen and organization to nominate individuals and organizations for various categories of Awards instituted by the Government of India.
•Rashtriya Puruskar Portal is the first of its kind in the history of India to provide information about all awards to the public on a single digital platform. The information includes criteria, selection procedure, and details of past awardees. The portal is very simple and user-friendly which enables all citizens of India and various organizations to interact with it and nominate individuals and organizations. The last date for nominations for the Padma Shri Award is 15th September 2022, for the National Award for Excellence in Forestry is 30th September 2022, and for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puruskar 2023, the last date is 31st August 2022.
4) Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma launched ‘Vidya Rath – School on Wheels’ project
•Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma has launched the ‘Vidya Rath -School on Wheels’ project. This project aims at providing economically challenged underprivileged children to access elementary education for a period of 10 months. The project was launched at a function held at the premises of Gauhati High Court in Assam.
5) Country first indigenous monkeypox test kit launched
•India has developed the first indigenously-developed RT-PCR kit for testing monkeypox disease. The kit is developed by Transasia Bio-Medicals, the kit was unveiled by Principal Scientific Adviser to the Centre Ajay Kumar Sood. The kit would help in early detection and better management of the infection which the WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern.
6) Punjab & Haryana agree to be name Chandigarh airport after Bhagat Singh
•The Punjab and Haryana governments have agreed to name the Chandigarh International Airport in Mohali after Shaheed Bhagat Singh. The decision was taken during a meeting between Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann & Haryana deputy CM Dushyant Chautala. The Punjab government has already declared a state holiday on March 23, the martyrdom day of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.
7) Govt Grants Permission To Defence Forces To Buy Emergency Weapons Through Make in India
•Taking a major step towards strengthening the Indian defence forces, the Centre has allowed them to purchase critical weapon systems for their operational requirements through an emergency procurement route. The approval was given in a meeting of the Defence Ministry which was headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. It is pertinent to note that the defence forces have extensively used the emergency procurement powers in the past and further strengthened their preparedness through these acquisitions. Also, by utilising the power in different phases, they had equipped themselves with the necessary weaponry to handle any conflict or aggression by enemies on both sides.
8) India’s First Observatory To Monitor Space Activity To Come Up In Uttarakhand
•India’s first commercial space situational awareness observatory, to track objects as small as 10 cm in size orbiting the earth, will be set up in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand by Digantara, a space sector start-up. The space situational awareness (SSA) observatory will help India track any activity in space including that of space debris and military satellites hovering over the region. Currently, the United States is a dominant player in monitoring space debris with observatories in multiple locations and commercial companies providing additional inputs from across the world.
•The observatory in Uttarakhand will fill the crucial gap in SSA observations in the region as there is a lack of such facilities between Australia and southern Africa. The high-quality observations, along with those of its partner ground-based sensor network, would help improve its ability to monitor events occurring in deep space, especially in the geostationary, medium-Earth, and high-Earth orbits.
9) 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference to be host by Canada
•The 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) will be led by Amos Masondo, the chair of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), along with a distinguished team of MPs. The 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC), will be held in Halifax, Canada, from August 22 to 26, 2022. The 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference provides delegates of Commonwealth parliaments and legislatures with an annual forum to discuss parliamentary system improvements and international political issues.
10) Indians Remitted $6 Billion Q1 Of FY23 Under LRS Scheme
•Outward remittances under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) liberalised remittance scheme (LRS) made a strong comeback in the first quarter of FY23 as Indians increased spending on international travel, maintenance of close relatives, and gifts. The latest data for Q1-FY23 released by the RBI shows that remittance by Indians under the scheme jumped 64.75 per cent to over $6.04 billion from $3.67 billion in Q1FY22. The amount remitted in Q1FY23 is even higher than that in Q4FY22, where outward remittance under LRS was to the tune of $5.8 billion.
11) Greece’s left enhanced EU scrutiny after 12 years of pain
•Greece‘s exit from the EU‘s enhanced surveillance framework for Greece‘s economy, ending 12 years of suffering and giving it more flexibility to make its own policies. Greece’s economic performance and policies have been rigorously watched under the framework since 2018 to ensure it carried out the reforms pledged during three multilateral bailouts from the European Union (EU) and the IMF between 2010 and 2015, totaling more than 260 billion euros ($261 billion).
12) Jitendra Singh unveiled first completely indigenously built hydrogen fuel cell bus
•Union Minister Jitendra Singh in Pune, unveiled the first hydrogen fuel cell bus made in India. Dr. Jitendra Singh referred to Green hydrogen as a superb clean energy vector that enables deep decarbonization of hard-to-abate emissions from the refining industry, the fertiliser industry, the steel industry, the cement industry, as well as from the heavy commercial transportation sector.
13) International Astronomy & Astrophysics Olympiad: India ranks 3rd
•Indian team secured the third rank in the medal tally at the 15th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA). India held the third position jointly with Singapore with students winning three gold and two silver medals. In the medals tally, India was placed jointly in the third position along with Singapore, behind Iran’s official team (5 golds) and guest team (4 golds, 1 silver).
