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1.Oscar organizers declared that they will give a esteemed humanitarian award to US actor-producer-singer Harry Belafonte, whose efforts as an activist has assisted throw light on racism and discrimination. It will be presented at the body’s 6th annual Governors Awards on November 8, 2014 in Hollywood.2.Eminent Kannada writer and one of the most heralded public intellectuals in the country, U.R. Ananthamurthy (82) passed away.
He was a contemporary writer and critic in the Kannada language and is considered as one of the path-breakers of the Navya movement.
He was conferred Jnanpith Award- the highest literary honor in India- for the Kannada language. He is the sixth person among eight recipients of the Jnanpith Award for the Kannada language. In 1998, he was honored with the Padma Bhushan award from the Government of India.
3.Partha Mitra, an Indian researcher in the US has been awarded a prestigious research grant under President Barack Obama’s initiative to map the human brain.
4. Noted filmmaker and Poet, Muzaffar Ali (69), has been conferred 22nd Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, the president of All-India Congress Committee (AICC), presented him the award.
5. President Mr. Pranab Mukherjee presented the Outstanding Parliamentarian Awards to Arun Jaitley, Dr Karan Singh and Sharad Yadav for the year 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively. The awards were conferred upon them for their priceless contribution in discharge of their parliamentary duties.
6. The 12-member selection panel, headed by legendary cricketer Kapil Dev, recommended the names of 15 sportspersons for the prestigious Arjuna Award. However, the committee did not recommend anyone one for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. This is the third time when no sportsperson has been recommended for the Khel Ratna since the establishing of the country’s highest sporting award in 1991.
The awardees:
Arjuna award:
1. Abhishek Verma (archery)
2. Tintu Luka (athletics),
3. H.N. Girisha
(para-athletics),
4. V. Diju (badminton)
5. Geethu Anna Jose (basketball)
6. Jai Bhagwan (boxing),
7.R. Ashwin (cricket),
8. Anirban Lahiri (golf),
9. Mamta
Pujari (kabaddi),
10. Saji Thomas (rowing)
11. Heena Sidhu (shooting),
12. Anaka
Alankamony (squash),
13. Tom Joseph (volleyball),
14. Renubala Chanu
(weightlifting)
15.Sunil Kumar Rana (wrestling).
Dronacharya award:
Mahabir Prasad (wrestling)
Lifetime achievement: N. Lingappa
(athletics)
G. Manoharan (boxing)
Gurcharan Singh Gogi (judo)
Jose
Jacob (rowing).
Dhyan Chand award:
1. Gurmail Singh (hockey)
2. K.P. Thakkar (swimming-diving)
3.Zeeshan Ali (tennis).
Tenzing Norgay Awards:
1.Land adventure: Subedar Jagat Singh, Passang Tenzing Sherpa
2. Air adventure: MWO Surender Singh
2. Air adventure: MWO Surender Singh
3. Lifetime achievement: Wg. Cdr. (retd) Amit Chowdhury.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy: Punjabi University, Patiala.
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar: Oil
and Natural Gas Corporation (employment of sports persons and sports
welfare measures)
Jindal Steel Works (community sports–identification
and nurturing of budding/young talent); Guru Hanuman akhara
(establishment and management of sports academies of excellence); Child
Link Foundation of India–Magic Bus (other forms of sports activities not
covered in the categories mentioned in the schemes).
7. The names of four outstanding mathematicians for the Fields Medal, the
most prestigious award in mathematics, have been announced.
The four 2014 Fields Medalists:
- Artur Avila: For his most noteworthy research is in the study of chaos theory and dynamical systems.
- Manjul Bhargava: For his contribution to number theory and algebra.
- Martin Hairer: For his researches on stochastic partial differential equations.
- Maryam Mirzakhani: For her work on the geometry of Riemann surfaces
9. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Trust, the body overseeing the world famous news corporation, is set to get its first female head.
Rona Fairhead, 53, a high-flying executive who sits on the boards of a number of blue-chip companies, was yesterday announced as the prospective new chairperson of the BBC Trust.
Rona Fairhead, 53, a high-flying executive who sits on the boards of a number of blue-chip companies, was yesterday announced as the prospective new chairperson of the BBC Trust.
10. P.V. Sindhu suffered a heartbreak at the World Badminton
Championship as the Indian shuttler had to settle for a second
consecutive bronze medal after succumbing to Carolina Marin of Spain in
straight games at the semifinals, in Copenhagen.
11. International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment
arm of the World Bank, will lend $14.3 million to Azure Power India’s
subsidiary for building a 40-MW solar power plant in Rajasthan.
12. The US Post Service (USPS) will honour legendary actor Vibhushan
Akkineni Nageswarara Rao by issuing a postage stamp on the late star’s
birthday, Akkineni Foundation of America (AFA) announced.
13.August 29 was celebrated as National Sports Day across the country. The day marks the birth anniversary of Hockey Wizard, Major Dhyan Chand.
The legendary player contributed immensely in winning gold medals for India at 1928, 1932 and 1936 Olympic Games.
14. PM of India, Narendra Modi launched the ambitious ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana’ which aims to achieve comprehensive financial inclusion. Mr. Modi had announced this scheme on his maiden Independence Day speech on August 15, 2014. On the very first day, a record 1.5 Crore (15 million) bank accounts were opened under this scheme.
The slogan for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan mission is “Mera Khata – Bhagya Vidhaata”.
Benefits
Every individual who opens a bank account will become eligible to receive an accident insurance cover of up-to Rs. 1 Lakh for his entire family. An additional Rs. 30,000 life insurance cover will be provided for those opening bank accounts before January 26, 2015. Once the bank account becomes active for 6 months and is linked to account holders Aadhar identity, the account holders will be eligible for an overdraft facility of up to Rs. 2500, which will be enhanced to Rs. 5000 over time.
15. Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in as 12th President of Turkey. He was sworn-in a ceremony held at Parliament of Turkey in Ankarra.
16. Maharashtra has become the second state of the country to announce the formation of Transgender Welfare Board after State Cabinet approved the formation of the same. The first state of the country to take the same step is Tamil Nadu.
17. The Supreme Court has advised the Prime Minister or Chief Minister of a State not to appoint chargesheeted persons facing trial for offences involving moral turpitude as Ministers.
Justice Dipak Misra is his judgment observed “Article 75 of the Constitution does not contain any limitation as to who can or cannot be included in the Council of Ministers” and therefore no new disqualification could be added to prevent charge sheeted persons from being appointed as Ministers.
18. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has been named the new Prime Minister of the country. He will succeed Recep Tayyip Erdogan as PM. A close ally of Mr Erdogan, Mr Davutoglu has held the job of foreign minister since 2009. On August 10, 2014, Mr Erdogan won the country’s first direct presidential poll.
19.Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) has become the first Indian to become the brand ambassador of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL).
Interpol has signed SRK as the ambassador for its global “Turn Back Crime” campaign.
20.Union Government launched a new domain Dot Bharat (.भारत) in Devanagari script . Originally the domain will cover 8 languages like Hindi, Bodo, Dogri, Konkani, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali and Sindhi.
These 8 languages are from the list of 22 languages that has been contained in the Schedule-8 of the Constitution of India.
21. Yashwardhan Shukla, a 13-year old school boy based in Delhi, has penned a novel titled ‘Gods of Antarctica’. The book is a fictional tale of gods and monsters. The book was published by the Readers Paradise.
22. Seema Malhotra (42), an Indian-origin British MP, has been appointed as the Labour party’s maiden shadow minister dealing with violence against women and girls. Malhotra was nominated shadow minster by Britain’s Opposition party leader Ed Miliband
23. Snapdeal has partnered Tata Value Homes in order to sell the latter’s affordable apartments on its e-commerce platform. This is the first an e-commerce company has tied up with a real estate venture. The deal has now put Snapdeal on a competition with other property-focused online websites like CommonFloor, 99Acres and MagicBricks.
24. American space agency NASA has planned to launch Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite in November 2014. It is part of the first tier of missions recommended for NASA by the Earth Science Decadal Survey.
25. The Supreme Court declared illegal all coal block allocations between 1993 and 2010, saying these were done in an unfair, arbitrary and non-transparent manner without following any objective criteria. The court, however, said that further hearing was required to decide whether there is a need for cancelling around 200 coal block allocations.
26. India launched “The Green Bus project” in Nagpur with the launch of its first ethanol-run, environment-friendly public bus. The bus will emit carbon dioxide as low as 15% to 90% and its emissions will be monitored by the Union government, Maharashtra state government and Nagpur Municipal Corporation.
27. Eminent Oscar-winning British director and actor Richard Attenborough (90) passed away As a director he was best known for Gandhi, which won him two Oscars.
28. Thailand’s military’s top official, General Prayuth Chan-ocha (60), has been named the new Prime Minister of the country. Gen Prayuth was nominated in a legislature chosen by the junta and consisting mostly military and police figures.
29. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the first Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) of the country in Shibpur located in the city of Howrah, West Bengal.
30. With a view to provide online marketing platform to handloom weavers to boost the handloom sector, empower the weavers and boost manufacturing in the country, Ministry of Textiles, through DC (Handlooms), has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with online retailer Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd.
31. Guru Hanuman Akhara, a wrestling academy based in Delhi, has been chosen for Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar (RKPP) for year 2014. As per Sports Ministry, Guru Hanuman Akhara has been chosen for ‘establishment and management of sports academies of excellence.’
32. The RBI has shut the overseas payment gateway for credit card transactions within India, saying that the rules need to be followed with respect to e-commerce credit card transactions “essentially taking place between two residents in India”
33. Hockey India brought Hockey Madhya Pradesh on board by inducting it as its 23rd Associate Member. Prior to being the associate member of Hockey India, Hockey Madhya Pradesh was known as Madhya Pradesh Hockey Association
34. India’s first indigenously-built stealth anti-submarine warfare INS Kamorta was commissioned into Indian Navy by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley at naval dockyard in Vishakhapatnam.
35. Mr. T M Bhasin, CMD, Indian Bank, has been elected by the managing committee of Indian Bank’s Association (IBA) as its Chairman for the year 2014-15.
On behalf of IBA, Mr Bhasin, will be associated with “Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana” Mission, headed by Union Finance Minister.
36. 16-year old Max Verstappen is set to create history by becoming the youngest ever Formula One (F1) driver next season after Toro Rosso announced that the youngster will replace Jean-Éric Vergne
37. Pakistan’s first-ever world champion in any sport, squash star Hashim Khan (100) passed away in the US. Former players paid homage to the legend of the sport
38. Prof. Kuruppassery Varkey Thomas has been appointed as Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC)
39. Globally acclaimed yoga exponent B.K.S. Iyengar (95) passed away in Pune
40. China opened its second railway line in Tibet, constructed at a cost of $ 2.16 billion, close to Indian border in Sikkim. The rail link will make efficient mobility of its military in the remote and strategic Himalayan region.
41. With a view to produce the world’s most affordable motorcycle,Yamaha Motor has launched Project Indra. Yamaha, which sees both India and Africa as future growth regions, is expected to be price the bike around Rs 30,000. The ASEAN region and Latin America could also be target markets
42. The UPSC has informed that marks of questions on English Language Comprehension Skills, asked in second paper of civil services (preliminary) examination, will not be included for gradation
43. The Central Government has re-launched the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana, for the benefit of citizens aged 60 years and above. The scheme will provide financial security to almost half a million senior citizens of the country by ensuring regular income during old age
44. The militaries of India and Nepal will jointly conduct a Combined Training Exercise, Surya Kiran-VII, from August 18 to August 31, 2014.
45. India has join hands with Singapore to get its expertise in building ‘Smart Cities’ even as the two nations decided to ramp up economic engagement besides defence and security cooperation. Recently, India allocated over Rs 7,000 crore in its Budget 2014-15 for development of 100 ‘Smart Cities’
46. World’s first smartphone to come into existence— a $900 klutzy IBM Simon mobile phone —turned 20. The phone was developed by IBM and the American cellular company BelSelf and hit the market in 1994.
47. Rajni Razdan (64) assumed charge as new chairman of Union Public Service Commission, which conducts the prestigious civil services examination to select IAS, IFS and IPS officers among others. Outgoing chairperson D P Agrawal administered Razdan the oath as UPSC chief.
48. As per an annual ranking of global educational institutions released by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is the only Indian institution to secure a spot in the top 500. The top positions are dominated by American universities with four US universities standing at the top four spots.
49. Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, commissioned INS Kolkata into the Indian Navy at a scintillating ceremony held at the Naval Dockyard, Mumbai.
50. PM Narendra Modi stressed on the need to promote tourism saying it provides employment to the poorest of the poor. He pointed out ‘filthiness’ in the country as a big obstacle in promoting tourism and our national character.
He decided to launch a ‘Clean India’ campaign from October 2, 2014 this year on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi marking the importance Mahatma gave to cleanliness. The campaign will be carried out for next 4 years and will conclude on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma in 2019.
50. While delivering his maiden Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a scheme on behalf of the Member of Parliament- ‘Sansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana’.
He called upon the Members of Parliament (MPs) to select any one of the villages having population of 3 to 5 thousand in their constituency. They must fix parameters according to the time, space and situation of that locality. It will include the conditions of health, cleanliness, atmosphere, greenery, cordiality etc. On the basis of those parameters, each of the MPs should make one village of his or her constituency a Model Village by 2016
51. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed Banks to set a limit on free ATM transactions customers can do at ATMs of rival lenders. Now customers of a bank can make only three free transactions per month from the ATMs of rival banks. The banks are also allowed to set a limit on the number of free transactions at their own ATMs at five. The central bank has also permitted banks to charge up to Rs 20 for every transaction beyond the limit
52. Swiss tennis star Roger Federer achieved a new milestone as he became the first man to win 300 matches at the ATP Masters 1000 level, defeating Vasek Pospisil in Cincinnati.
53. The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to make Vijayawada an ad hoc capital of the state until the required infrastructure and other projects for the new capital are completed.
54. Justice R Banumathi has become the first woman judge from Tamil Nadu to be elevated to the Supreme Court.
55. Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Bimal Jalan has been appointed as head of the Expenditure Management Commission, which will study various aspects of expenditure reforms to be undertaken by the government. The panel will submit its interim report before the 2015-16 Budget and its final report before the 2016-17 Budget.
56. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved the use of drug ZMapp to combat Ebola spread as the death count surged.
57.The renowned and one of the last exponents of ‘Burra Katha’ Daroji Eramma (84) passed away.
Ms. Eramma, belonged to the ‘Budaga Janagama’ community, a nomadic tribe (SC), had perfected the folk art form of storytelling based on mythological and social themes. She was a famous personality across the country. Ms. Eramma could render as many as 12 epics by-heart, as per the records of the Department of Tribal Studies, Kannada University in Hampi. In recognition to her contribution to this art, the Kannada University honored her with the Nadoja Award.
58. Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation the Chutak Hydroelectric Plant at Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir. The power station is a run-of-the-river power project on the Suru River (a tributary of Indus). The barrage of the project is at Sarze village and the powerhouse has been built on the right bank of the Suru near Chutak Village.
59. With Congress supporting candidature of AIADMK leader M Thambidurai as deputy speaker of Lok Sabha, he is set to be elected unopposed for the post. Mr. Thambidurai is the leader of AIADMK in the House. He was deputy speaker from 1985 to 1989.
60.The International Mathematical Union (IMU) awarded mathematicians of Indian-and Iranian-origin with the 2014 Fields Medal, also considered as the “Nobel Prize of Mathematics“.
Persons of India Origin (PIOs) Manjul Bhargava bagged the Fields Medal 2014 while Subhash Khot won the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize conferred by the IMU at International Congress of Mathematicians 2014 held in Seoul, South Korea.
61. Vistara’ has been announced as the brand name of the Tata-SIA joint venture Airlines. Vistara is derived from the Sanskrit word, which means ‘limitless expanse’.
The airline by the Tata Group and Singapore International Airlines is targeting to start its operations in October 2014.
62. Member of India’s first Lok Sabha Reshamlal Jangde (90) passed away. A law graduate from Nagpur, he contested polls on a general seat despite being a Schedule Caste and made it to the first Lok Sabha in 1952 from Bilaspur as a Congress contestant
63. India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh has been selected as venue to host Paragliding World Cup 2015. This will be the first para-gliding World Cup to be hosted in India. The tournament will be organized under the auspices of Para-gliding World Cup Association, France.
64. Oscar-winning actor Robin McLaurin Williams (63) passed away. Williams was an American actor, stand-up comedian, film producer, and screenwriter. He became famous with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy (1978–82).
65. India’s women archers’ team led by Deepika Kumari won the recurve team gold after defeating Mexico 6-0 in the final as India returned with 5 medals in the Archery World Cup Stage IV in Wroclaw, Poland.
Deepika clinched3 medals and a bronze each in recurve women’s individual event and recurve mixed team pair event with her partner Jayanta Talukdar.
The men’s recurve team managed to clinch a silver after losing to Mexico 3-5 in the final.
66. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated two hydel power projects in Leh and Kargil in Jammu & Kashmir.
First he inaugurated the 45 MW Nimoo Bazgo project in Leh district and then dedicated to the nation the 44 MW Chutak hydro-electric project in Kargil district. He also laid foundation stone for the first power transmission line from Leh to Kargil and Kargil to Srinagar.
67. President of Iraq Mr. Fuad Masum has nominated Dr Haider Al-Abadi for the role of country’s Prime Minister.
68. With a view to introduce an ‘anytime anywhere payment system’, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued draft guidelines for the implementation of Bharat Bill Payment System (BPPS).
69. A book ‘Strictly Personal, Manmohan and Gursharan’ penned by Daman Singh was released. It tells the untold story of Manmohan Singh, India’s 14th PM, and his wife Gursharan.
70. NASA has announced that it will launch a new mission to Mars in 2020 named as Mars 2020 Rover mission.
71. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) spacecraft ‘Rosetta’ became the first spacecraft to intercept and go into orbit around a comet. It is now in position to help researchers to begin with their investigations into how the Solar System came into being.
72. The Union Cabinet cleared a proposal to enhance the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit in defence sector to 49% from the current 26%.
73. Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014 passed in the Lok Sabha. By the virtue of the bill, Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will be empowered and strengthened to clamp down on fraudulent investment schemes and to seek information from any entity related to an investigation.
74. As per RBI’s third bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2014-15 the central bank has not made any change in Repo rate which is currently at 8%. The Reverse Repo rate has also been left unchanged at 7% and the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) is also the same at 4%. The only major change is in Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) which has been slashed by 50 basis points (bps) to 22% from previous 22.50%.
75. The central Government has proposed to establish a Telecom Finance Corporation (TFC) in the 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17). As per the proposal, TFC would be registered as Non-Banking Finance Company and Non-Deposit Infrastructure Finance Company. It would be a Public Sector Unit (PSU) under the administrative control of Department of Telecom (DoT).
76. As per a report by an independent market research and consulting firm, CounterPoint Research, Micromax has overtaken Samsung to become the largest mobile phone supplier in India in Q2 2014.
77. A four-member Committee under the chairmanship of former UGC chairman Hari Gautam has been constituted by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) with a view to review the present status of Universities Grants Commission’s (UGC).
78. The list of Awardees for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards for year 2014 has been announced.
The Awardees are:
- Hu Shuli: An investigative journalist from China whose work was instrumental in the dismissal of corrupt officials. She is the founder and former editor of Caijing a business magazine widely-known for its groundbreaking investigative reporting that has made a significant impact on China.
- Saur Marlina Manurung: The Award recognizes her outstanding efforts to protect and improve the lives of Indonesia’s forest people, and her kinetic leadership of volunteers in SOKOLA’s customized education program.
- Omara Khan Masoudi: The award has been conferred upon him in recognition of his courage, labor, and leadership in preserving Afghan cultural heritage. At great risk to his life, the deputy director of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul led his colleagues in moving some of the museum’s most precious objects to safety during the Taliban’s attack on his country’s cultural treasures in the 1990s.
- The Citizens Foundation from Pakistan: It is an NGO in Pakistan founded by six business leaders. It built 1,000 schools over hundreds of cities and towns in the country which is home to the world’s second highest number of children who are out of school.
- Wang Canfa: He is a Chinese Professor who founded the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims, which has provided free legal services to thousands of people and imparted environmental law training to lawyers and others.
- Randy Halasan: The award is in recognition of his extraordinary leadership and service to the indigenous Matigsalug tribe. He made huge efforts in teaching the children of the Matigsalug tribe in one of the remotest mountain villages in Mindanao, Philippines.
80. China’s has unveiled the sophisticated Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), which has a range of 12,000 kms, placing it among the world’s longest-range missiles.
81. Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Department of Public Enterprises, Government of India granted Navratna status to Container Corporation of India Ltd. (CONCOR).
82. Robert Frederick Panara (94), the pioneer of deaf studies passed away in Rochester, US. Robert was an author, a poet, a professor who later went on to become the first deaf teacher within the mainstream Higher Education in the US.
83. S S Mundra (60) has taken charge as deputy governor Reserve Bank of India. As a deputy governor of the central bank, he will be responsible for banking supervision, currency management, financial stability and rural credit. The government has notified his appointment for a period of 3 years.
84. General Dalbir Singh Suhag (59) took charge as the new Chief of the Army Staff of 1.3-million strong Indian Army. He succeeded out going General Bikram Singh whose tenure ended.
85. An autobiography of the former External Affairs Minister and veteran Congress Party leader Natwar Singh was released. The book titled “One Life is Not Enough” is penned by Kunwar Natwar Singh.
86. European Space Agency (ESA) satellite ‘Gaia’, the billion star surveyor, launched in 2013, has reached its intended location 1.5 million kilometers from Earth and is ready to start operation.
87.Dipa Karmakar (20) scripted history as she clinched bronze in the vault event in the Commonwealth Games 2014 at Glasgow, Scotland, by becoming the first Indian woman gymnast and second person of the country to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games.
88. The world’s first malaria vaccine– RTS,S created by pharma company GSK, is expected to hit the markets by 2015. GSK has submitted a regulatory application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its malaria vaccine candidate, RTS,S.
89. In a sharp contrast to the 100,000 tigers that once lived in the wild a century ago, the number now has reduced to just 3,200. This was revealed by a latest report released by the World Wide Fund (WWF).
90. Theodore VanKirk (93), also known as “Dutch,” who was the last surviving member of the crew that jettisoned an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, bringing an end of World War II and forcing the world into the atomic age, passed away in Georgia.
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