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- Operation Insaniyat: India to send relief to B’desh to help with Rohingya influx
India is sending humanitarian assistance under Operation Insaniyat to Bangladesh to help with the influx of Rohingya refugees.
- India is sending basic amenities that the refugees are in urgent need of at the moment.
- These things include rice, pulses, sugar, salt, cooking oil, tea, ready to eat noodles, biscuits, mosquito nets etc.
- UN estimates claim that around 379,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh after the clashes between Rohingya militants and Myanmar army.
- Rohingya villages have been burnt and people have been killed in large numbers since August 25.
Points to Remember
- The Rohingya people are stateless Indo-Aryan people from Rakhine State, Myanmar.
- There were an estimated 1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar before the 2016–17 crisis.
- Described by the United Nations in 2013 as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya population are denied citizenship under the 1982 Burmese citizenship law.
- President Ram Nath Kovind launches ‘LILA Mobile App’
On the occasion of Hindi Diwas, President Ram Nath Kovind has launched a new ‘LILA Mobile App’ for Hindi lovers.
- Kovind launched the ‘ LILA Mobile App’ in the presence of Union Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh and Minister of State (Home) Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and Ministers of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju.
- Centre to launch sanitation campaign Swachhta Hi Seva
The Centre will launch a nation- wide, fortnight-long sanitation campaign from 15 September to highlight the Modi government’s flagship cleanliness initiative Swachh Bharat Mission.
- The campaign, named ‘Swachhta Hi Seva’ (Cleanliness is Service) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be launched by President Ram Nath Kovind from Ishworiganj village in Kanpur.
- The initiative, which is being coordinated by the Ministry of Drinking water and sanitation, will include ‘Sharamdaan’ or voluntary work and will focus on mass mobilisation and reinforce ‘jan andolan’ for sanitation to contribute to Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of a clean India.
- Prakash Javadekar Announces Swachhta Ranking 2017
Ministry of Human Resource Development announced the Swachhta Rankings 2017 for Higher Education Institutes.
- In the rankings for this year, about 3500 institutes participated out of which 25 were selected for the awards in four different categories.
- The four categories are University, Colleges, Technical Institutes, and Government Institute.
The complete list of award recipients in the University category is:
- O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana
- Manipal University, Jaipur, Rajasthan
- Chitkara University, Kalu Jhanda, Solan, Himachal Pradesh
- K.L.E. Academy of Higher Education and Research, Belgaum, Karnataka
- Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra, UP
In the Colleges category, the awardees are:
- Kongu Arts and Science College, Erode, Tamil Nadu
- Vidya Pratishthans Arts, Commerce & Science College, M.I.D.C. Baramati, Pune, Maharashtra
- Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
- S N R Sons College, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
- K.G. College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
The 7 awardees in the Technical Institutes category are:
- Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
- Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh
- Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
- Vivekananda College of Engineering for Women, Tiruchengode, Tamil Nadu
- R.M.D. Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
- R.M.K. Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
- ABES Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad, UP
The top 7 institutes in the government institute category are:
- G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand
- Madurai Kamraj University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu
- Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu
- NIT, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh
- IIT, Guwahati, Assam
- Govt. Post Graduate College for Girls, Chandigarh
- Panjab University, Chandigarh, Punjab
The awards are mostly dominated by institutes from down south and especially from Tamil Nadu which bagged 4 out of 5 places in colleges category and 5 out of 7 places in the Technical Institute category.
- Sachin Tendulkar launches project to develop the poorest ward in Mumbai
Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar launched Mission-24, a programme aimed at improving the quality of life in one of Mumbai’s poorest wards through collaborative efforts in the next 24 months.
- Under Mission-24, efforts will be made to provide basic amenities to residents of M-East ward that includes slums of Shivaji Nagar, Deonar and Mankhurd.
- Through this project, the organisations aim to provide amenities like secondary schools and colleges, aanganwadis, maternity homes, health posts and dispensaries in the ward.
- Connaught Place World’s 10th costliest office location
New Delhi’s Connaught Place is the world’s 10th most expensive office location with an annual prime rent of $111 per sq ft, reveals CBRE South Asia’s Global Prime Office Rents survey.
- The ranking has fallen by one position, moving down to tenth from ninth in March 2017.
- Hong Kong has emerged as the world’s costliest office location.
- Dr Harsh Vardhan launches ‘Wood is Good’ campaign in New Delhi
Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Dr Harsh Vardhan launched the ‘Wood is Good ‘ campaign in New Delhi.
- He said, wood is a climate-friendly material, as it is a renewable resource, having zero carbon footprint.
- The Minister advocated the balancing of environmental and developmental concerns and also urged the scientists and foresters to devise a solution to the problem of weeds.
- Google to launch mobile payment service in India
Tech giant Google is slated to unveil a digital payment service in India next week that has been developed for the local market.
- In July, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had said Google had completed the testing of its UPI payment service and was awaiting Reserve Bank of India’s approval to launch its service in the country.
- According to the website, Google is launching “Tez” which is more like Android Pay.
- Japanese industrial townships to come up in four states
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that four locations have been finalized for development of Japanese industrial townships in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
- India and Japan signed 15 agreements, including one to give a fillip to India’s Act East policy by enhancing connectivity and developmental projects in India’s northeast, and for more flights between the two countries.
- The agreements were inked after the annual bilateral summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.
- NPAs to touch 10.5% by March 2018
Crisil Ratings said banks have only recognised two-thirds of their stressed loans as non-performing assets, and estimated the bad loan ratio to rise by 1 percentage point to 10.5 per cent by March 2018.
- The 9.5 per cent NPA figure for March 2017 includes only two-thirds of the overall stressed assets, it said.
- The agency said it estimates the total amount of stressed loans, which includes NPAs and standard assets that are under pressure currently and could deteriorate into NPAs, to be at Rs 11.5 trillion or 14 per cent of the system.
- UN chief appoints first UN envoy for oceans
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed the outgoing president Peter Thomson of the General Assembly as the first special envoy for the oceans, seeking to galvanize efforts to protect the world’s seas.
- Peter Thomson played a leading role at the first-ever UN conference on oceans in June.
- The 193 UN member states issued an urgent call for action to reverse the decline in the health and productivity of the world’s oceans.
- Vijaya Bank bags Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar
Vijaya Bank has bagged the first prize under the Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar (Region C) for the year 2016-17.
- It got the award for active implementation of Hindi in its day-to-day activities.
- President Ram Nath Kovind gave away the award to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, R. A. Sankara Narayanan.
Points to Remember
- Vijaya Bank is a public sector bank with its corporate office in Bangalore, Karnataka.
- It is one of the nationalised banks in India. It was founded in 1931.
- ‘A friend you can bank on’ is the tagline of Vijaya Bank.
- Goa to host 36th National Games
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has formally awarded to Goa the rights to host the 36th National Games, the coastal state’s Sports Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar said.
- IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta, in a letter to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, had formally conferred the rights to the state to host the sporting event in November this year.
- Paris and Los Angeles confirmed as hosts of 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games
After three failed attempts and 12 years after the demoralizing and disheartening loss to the London bid in 2005, Paris has finally been awarded the Olympic Games it has craved.
- International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed that the French capital would host the 2024 Olympics, while Los Angeles was awarded the 2028 Games.
- Tokyo, Japan will host 2020 Olympic Games.
Source:- Daily Current Affairs Capsule
