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AWARDS AND HONOURS

NAME OF THE AWARD	AWARD WINNER	KEY POINTS TO NOTE
Bharat Gaurav – East Bengal’s highest honour	Dhanraj Pillay	He is Former India hockey captain
National Geographic Photographer of The Year	Sergio Tapiro Velasco	For photographing Mexico’s Colima volcano
Prem Nazir’ award	Actor Sharada	She is national award winner
World’s Highest Paid Author by Forbes	JK Rowling

APPOINTMENTS

NAME	DEPT/ FIELD
Sameer Garde	President for SAARC operations
Dhirendra Swarup	Chairman of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)
Sanjaya Baru	secretary general of FICCI
Devendra Chawla	COO of Walmart India
Harmanpreet Kaur	DSP of Punjab government
Hassan Rouhani	President of Iran
S Aparna	Executive Director of  World Bank
Rajiv Kumar	Vice-Chairperson of NITI Aayog
Akshay Kumar	Brand ambassador of the Swachh Bharat Mission in UP
Air Marshal Hemant Narayan Bhagwat	Air Officer-In-Charge Administration Of Indian Air Force
Prabhat Kumar	Ambassador of India to the Republic of Kazakhstan
Mohammad Mustafa	CMD of SIDBI
Ushanath Banerjee	Chairman of Transfers Dispute Committee
Venkaiah Naidu	13th Vice President of India
Woody Johnson	US Ambassador to UK

INDIAN AFFAIRS

• Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya has resigned from his position and said he will return to academia.
• ‘Rajaswa Gyansangam’ is going to be held on 1st and 2nd September, 2017 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
• Union Government launched ‘Swachh Survekshan-2018’ to rank all the 4,041 cities and towns in the country based on infrastructure development for improved sanitation services and their sustainability, outcomes, citizen connects and visible impact on the ground.
• NDA Government has been working with commitment to “inclusive growth” and “Antyodaya” to ensure prosperity, security and dignity of the last person of the society.
• Citing health hazards, the Supreme Court asked firecracker manufacturers not to use heavy metals like lithium, antimony, mercury, arsenic and lead and chemical elements like antimony “in any form whatsoever” in their products.
• Mukesh Ambani is Asia’s second-richest man second-richest man and the chairman of Reliance Industries Limited(RIL) added $12.1 billion to his wealth in 2017.
• The government has constituted a 10-member committee to recommend a framework for securing personal data in the increasingly digitised economy as also address privacy concerns and build safeguards against data breaches.
• The government has launched a portal, e-RaKAM, to provide a platform to sell agricultural produce. The portal is a joint initiative by state-run-auctioneer MSTC and Central Warehousing Corporation arm CRWC.
• An autonomous Research Council, namely, Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN) is working under the Ministry of AYUSH as the apex body for Research and Education in the field of Yoga and Naturopathy.
• Recognising the importance of data protection and keeping personal data of citizens secure and protected, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India has, on 31st July 2017, constituted a Committee of Experts under the Chairmanship of Justice B N Srikrishna.
• The Raghubar Das Cabinet in BJP-led Jharkhand ohas approved the draft anti-conversion Bill that forbids religious conversion through allurement or coercion and has penal provisions.
• The Lok Sabha has passed legislation to extend the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to Jammu and Kashmir, making it part of the “one nation, one tax” regime.
• India is permitted to construct hydroelectric power facilities on these rivers subject to constraints specified in Annexures to the treaty.
• The Haryana government has barred school teachers from stepping inside the classrooms with mobile phones and decided to hold head of the school “accountable” for violation of this norm.
• Maharashtra Government launched two online portals MahaDBT and MahaVASTU to streamline the process of direct benefit transfer (DBT). It is the first state in the country to launch such a system that will provide direct benefits with Aadhaar authentication.
• A bill to enable exit of RBI from NABARD and increase authorised capital of the development institution six times to Rs 30,000 crore was passed by the Lok Sabha.
• The Lok Sabha has gave its nod for a Bill to replace the NPA Ordinance promulgated on May 7 this year.
• The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the proposed merger between Bharti Airtel and Telenor India. The tribunal has instructed the companies to hold a meeting of equity shareholders and unsecured creditors.
• After Grofers and Amazon India, online grocery firm BigBasket has received the government’s nod for foreign direct investment to undertake retailing of food products, which are manufactured or produced in India, Hari Menon, co-founder and CEO.
• Amid deepening Indo-Iranian ties, the government is hopeful that the strategic Chabahar Port will be operational by 2018.
• Nasscom Foundation and post-trade technology firm Arcesium jointly established the first rural digital literacy centre in Telangana, in Peddashapur village, on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
• The Indian Army has developed a mobile application through which serving soldiers can track details like postings and promotions.
• The government has made Aadhaar number mandatory for issuance of death certificates. The rule comes into effect on 1st October.
• National Handloom Day is being observed on 7 August 2017 to encourage people to use hand-made loom in the country. The main event will be held in Guwahati to celebrate the third National Handloom Day.
• The centre has approved a proposal to rename the Mughalsarai railway station in Uttar Pradesh after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.
• A High-Level Committee set up to review the Institutionalization of Arbitration Mechanismin India submitted its report to the Union Law Ministry. It was headed by Justice (retired) BN Srikrishna.
• Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport will become the first airport in India to have a helicopter taxi service. The helicopter service will commence within three months.

CABINET APPROVALS

• States will soon be able to conduct exams for students of class 5 and 8 who fail in the annual exams to give them another chance to pass with the Union cabinet likely to take up a proposal of scrapping the ‘no-detention policy’.
• Cabinet has approved a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between India and BRICs countries to set up BRICS Agriculture Research Platform.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved doubling of tracks of three railway lines and their electrification in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

BANKING AND FINANCE

• The Reserve Bank of India cut its main policy rate by a quarter percentage point to a more than 6-1/2 year low, saying a slump in inflation opened room for monetary easing, while pinning further action on upcoming economic data.
• The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a monetary penalty aggregating ₹3 crore on Union Bank of India for non-compliance with the regulatory direction on ‘know-your-customer’ (KYC) norms.
• E-commerce major Flipkart has completed the merger with eBay India’s operations.  With this, eBay.in will now be a Flipkart Group company.
• Airtel Payments Bank, which has achieved 10 million customer bases since launch, has tied up with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited for enabling all its petrol stations that are typically cash surplus to be used as ATM points for customers of the bank.
• The State Bank of India (SBI) and Samsung India announced the availability of Samsung Pay for higher variants of SBI debit card, giving a major boost to government’s ‘Digital India’ initiative.
• Ahead of the implementation of the stringent capital requirements under the Basel-III regime from 2019, the Reserve Bank amended a slew of previous regulations on the same, helping banks shore up their capital buffers and improve liquidity coverage ratios.
• Regulator Sebi has set up a committee on ‘fair market conduct’ which will suggest measures for improving surveillance of the markets and strengthen rules for algo trades, among other norms.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

• India and Bhutan mutually decided to bring into force the ‘new’ bilateral Agreement on Trade, Commerce and Transit with effect from this July 29.
• India and Somalia have signed a bilateral agreement for the transfer of sentenced persons, thus deepening humanitarian cooperation between the two countries.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Scientists have developed a super strong, flexible adhesive material inspired by the glue secreted by slugs that sticks to biological tissues – even when wet – without causing toxicity.
• Indian Institute of Science researchers have developed a highly sensitive nanometre-scale carbon monoxide sensor by employing an innovative fabrication technique.
• An international team of researchers, led by the University of Exeter, made the new discovery by observing glowing water molecules in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-121b with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

• An Army medic who “ran into danger” to save wounded soldiers during a Vietnam War battle despite his own serious wounds became the first Medal of Honor recipient under President Trump, 48 years after the acts of bravery for which James McCloughan is now nationally recognized.
• John Kelly was sworn in as President Donald Trump’s new chief of staff, tasked with bringing order to an often chaotic White House and jump-starting the President’s stalled legislative agenda.
• Over 2 lakh people have been evacuated after Typhoon Haitang struck China’s eastern Fujian Province with incessant rain battering different parts of the region.
• China has formally opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti with a flag raising ceremony and military parade.
• The US senate on 1 August 2017 confirmed the appointment of Christopher Wray as the Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
• S. President Donald Trump has signed legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia into law.
• The 7th Meeting of Brazil Russia India China and South Africa (BRICS) Countries with the corresponding Trade Ministers was held in Shanghai, China.
• Qatar plans to allow some expatriates to obtain permanent residency. A draft law approved at a cabinet meeting will allow permanent residence to the children of Qatari women married to non-Qataris, as well as expatriates who provide outstanding services to Qatar
• A ban on travel by U.S. passport holders to North Korea will take effect on Sept. 1 and Americans in the country should leave before that date, the U.S. State Department.
• Qatar’s Cabinet approved a draft law making permanent residency available to some non-citizens of the country.

SPORTS

WINNER	TITLE	SPORT/ VENUE
India	Jordan Open Table tennis title
Indian shuttler C Rahul Yadav	Lagos Open	Nigeria
Manju Kumari (Bronze)	Junior World Wrestling	Tampere, Finland
Vijender Singh	WBO Oriental Super Middleweight title

OBITUARY

NAME OF THE PERSON	FIELD
Ustad Hussain Sayeeduddin Dagar	Maestro of Hindustani classical music
Sam Shepard	Actor and Pulitzer-Winning Playwright
Robert Hardy	Harry Potter actor

IMPORTANT DAYS

DATE	DAY ODSERVED	THEME / PURPOSE
1st August Week	World Breast feeding Week	Sustaining Breastfeeding – Together!
1st Sunday of August	International Friendship Day
August 6	Hiroshima Day	The day aims to end nuclear testing and to promote peace and security
August 8	World Senior Citizen’s Day	First established at 14th of December in the year 1990 by the United Nations General Assembly
August 8	World cat day	The International Fund For Animal Welfare