National
Atmanirbhar Narishakti se Samvad
⇒ Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi participated in ‘Atmanirbhar Narishakti se Samvad’ and interact with women Self Help Group (SHG) members/community resource persons promoted under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) on 12th August 2021.
Handbook:
During the event, a compendium of success stories of women SHG members from all across the country, along with a handbook on universalization of farm livelihoods was released by the Prime Minister.
Capitalization support funds:
The Prime Minister also released capitalization support funds to the tune of Rs 1625 Crore to over 4 lakh SHGs.
In addition, he released Rs 25 crore as seed money for 7500 SHG members under the PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme of Ministry of Food Processing Industries and Rs 4.13 crore as funds to 75 Farmer Producer Organizations being promoted under the Mission.
Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM):
DAY-NRLM aims at mobilizing rural poor households into Self Help Groups (SHGs) in a phased manner and provides them long-term support to diversify their livelihoods, improve their incomes and quality of life.
Investor Summit in Gujarat
⇒ Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed the Investor Summit in Gujarat on 13th August 2021.
Organized by:
The Summit was organized by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Government of Gujarat. It was held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
The Summit has been organized to invite investment for setting up vehicle scrapping infrastructure under the Voluntary Vehicle-Fleet Modernization Program or the Vehicle Scrapping Policy.
It also focused on the synergies presented by the ship breaking industry at Alang, for development of an integrated scrapping hub.
Participants:
Potential investors, industry experts, and concerned central and state government ministries were participated in the summit.
Vehicle Scrappage Policy:
At the summit, the Prime Minister launched the Vehicle Scrappage Policy.
Aim:
The Vehicle Scrapping Policy is aimed at creating an eco-system for phasing out unfit and polluting vehicles in an environment friendly and safe manner. The policy intends to create scrapping infrastructure in the form of Automated Testing Stations and Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities across the country.
Launching the National Automobile Scrappage Policy, the Prime Minister said:
» This policy is going to give a new identity to the auto sector and to the mobility of New India.
» The Policy will bring in a fresh investment of more than Rs 10 thousand crores and will create thousands of jobs.
» Under the new policy vehicles will not be scrapped merely on the basis of age. Vehicles will be scientifically tested through authorized, automated testing centres. Unfit vehicles will be scrapped scientifically.
International
New Chair of FEMBoSA:
⇒ Chief Election Commissioner of India and current Chairman, FEMBoSA Shri Sushil Chandra accompanied by Election Commissioners Shri Rajeev Kumar and Shri A.C.Pandey, inaugurated the 11th Annual meeting of the Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) for the year 2021. The meeting was held in Virtual mode on 11 August 2021.
Host:
The meeting was hosted by Election Commission of Bhutan.
Theme:
The theme of the meeting was ‘Use of Technology in Elections’.
Participants:
Along with India, delegations from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka participated in the day-long meeting.
Handover of Chairmanship:
During the meeting, Shri Sushil Chandra, CEC, as the outgoing Chair of FEMBoSA, virtually handed over the Chairmanship of FEMBoSA to Dasho Sonam Topgay, Chief Election Commissioner of Bhutan for 2021-22.
Sports
2020 Summer Olympics
⇒ The 2020 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan, from 23 July to 8 August 2021. Some of the preliminary events of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics began on July 21.
The mascot of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was ‘Miraitowa’. The slogan of the 2020 Summer Olympics torch relay was “Hope Lights Our Way”.
Read More About 2020 Summer Olympics
Important Day
World Bio Fuel Day 2021
⇒ World Bio Fuel Day is observed every year on 10th August.
Theme:
The theme of World Biofuel Day 2021 was “the promotion of biofuels for a better environment.”
Oil and Gas companies, under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas celebrated World Biofuel Day 2021 with the theme ‘Biofuels for Sustainability and Rural Income’.
Significance:
It is celebrated to create awareness about the importance of non-fossil fuels as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels and to highlight the various efforts made by the Government in the biofuels sector.
History:
August 10 is marked as the World Biofuel day because on August 9, 1893 Sir Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine, had run the mechanical engine with Peanut oil for the first time efficiently.
Schemes launched on World Biofuel Day 2021:
GIS based inventory tool:
» A GIS based inventory tool of organic waste streams developed under the GEF-MNRE-UNIDO project was also launched during the webinar on World Biofuel Day.
» The tool provides district level estimates of available urban and industrial organic wastes and their energy generation potential across India.
» The GIS tool will enable SME’s and project developers to set up new waste to energy projects and may facilitate the rapid growth of biomethanation in waste-to-energy sector in the country.
Interest subvention scheme:
» The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India launched the Global Environment Facility funded loan interest subvention scheme that provides financial assistance to innovative waste to energy biomethanation projects and business models.