Govt Announcement:
- Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has signed MoUs with AFC India Limited and National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), Delhi. The objective is to to synergize the activities in the interest of agriculture and allied sectors for bringing better value to the stakeholders.
- Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh inaugurated a webinar to improve implementation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) in 62 cantonments. Ministry of Defence and Directorate General of Defence Estates (DGDE) organised Webinar. Raksha Mantri also launched the “Chhavni COVID: Yodha Sanrakshan Yojana“, a group life insurance scheme through Life Insurance Corporation. Insurance will cover more than 10,000 employees in all 62 Cantonment Boards in event of any unfortunate fatal calamity. This Insurance scheme gives cover of Rs five lakhs each employee.
- In review meeting of National Bal Bhawan on 25 Aug 2020 in New Delhi, Union Education Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank‘ said that in order to promote creative activities among children National Bal Bhawan should start a national level award for children. He directed officials to make a plan on this matter.
- The Reserve Bank of India will conduct a simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under open market operations (OMO). The auctions will be held on August 27 and September 03 for an aggregate amount of Rs 20,000 crore in two equal tranches.
Award:
- Subedar Ajay Anant Sawant has been conferred the Arjuna award for the equestrian sport of tent pegging. He belongs from Army’s 61 Cavalry. Now, his focus is on the 2023 Tent Pegging World Cup.
- “Krushu Bhawan” inspired by Sambal Purilkat , the official building of Odisha’s agriculture and farmers empowerment department has became the first building in state to be listed in Dezeen Award 2020. Dezeen is a prestigious international journal on architecture. Earlier, building had received international recognition in 2019, when it was shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Award.
- The Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration for 2020 shall be conferred by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on Rashtriya Ekta Diwas – October 31, 2020 at the “Statue of Unity”, Kevadia, Gujarat.
Technology:
- ICICI Bank has introduced the use of satellite data to assess credit worthiness of farm sector customers. They will use imagery sent by Earth observation satellites to measure diifferent parameters related to agriculture sector. This will be helpful for speedy lending decisions for farmers.
- The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has added new feature of Open API Service for Arogya Setu app. Using this feature any organisation can check the real-time Health status of employees & integrate him with work-from-home features.
- IBM launched an education portal in collaboration with National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) to offer online courses. The courses include cybersecurity, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning for the professional development of youth aged between 18 and 22. IBM will curate over 30 courses on its Open P-TECH platform and offer them to users via NSDC’s eskill India portal.
Others:
- Reliance-owned music streaming app JioSaavn will soon be embedding Triller into the streamer. Triller is an AI-powered music video app. It provides facility to users to create professional-looking videos.
Union Minister for Education Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said that Centre will start a programme called “Study in India – Stay in India”. The Programme aims to prevent students from leaving the country seeking higher education abroad and also bringing back Indian students studying abroad.
INS Viraat, the aircraft carrier served 30 years & was decommissioned three years ago, now INS Viraat wiil be dismantled in next month at Alang in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district & sold as scrap.
M. Vijaya Kumar, Chairman of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation inaugurated Payasam fest (Food Festival) on 24 Aug 2020. Payasam festival will end on 31 Aug i.e. Thiruvonam day.