CURRENT AFFAIRS WEEKLY ONE LINERS: AUGUST 15 – 21, 2018

NATIONAL

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the launch of world’s largest government-funded programme – the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyaan.
• ISRO Chairman has announced that an Indian astronaut will be sent into space by 2022 on board Gaganyaan. K Sivan has reciprocated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day announcement.
• NITI Aayog has launched “Pitch to Move” – a mobility pitch competition that aims to provide budding entrepreneurs of India a unique opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a distinguished jury.
• The Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has launched a road safety awareness campaign by releasing a series of videos in New Delhi.Akshay Kumar is also the brand ambassador of Indian government’s road safety campaign.
• The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has announced that his state is the first among the 28 other states in the country to provide Right to Skills’ Development to the youth.
• India’s first genetic resource bank was inaugurated at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology’s (CCMB) Laboratory of Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) facility, Hyderabad.
• The 24th World Congress of Philosophy (WCP) has been opened in Beijing. It is the first time that the quinquennial event is being held in China.The theme of the 2018 event is “Learning To Be Human.”
• The Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh has proposed to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to declare the year 2019 as international year of millets.
• The Pension Fund and Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) has set up a standing committee to suggest steps to deal with cybersecurity challenges to protect the interest of subscribers.
• India has successfully flight tested the indigenously developed helicopter launched Anti-Tank Guided Missile ‘HELINA’ from Pokhran in Rajasthan.
• NABARD has released the results of its All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS).
• The Northern states have decided to set up a joint secretariat at Panchkula, Haryana for data and information sharing to effectively fight the drug menace.
• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has decided to form a three-member committee to look into the draft food labelling and display regulations.

INTERNATIONAL

• The 11th World Hindi Conference begins in Mauritius. Prime Minister of Mauritius Praveen Kumar Jagannath will inaugurate the conference in Port Louis.“Hindi World and Indian Culture” is the theme of conference.
• India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has revised down its FY19 economic growth forecast to 7.2% from 7.4% earlier.
• The External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj has inaugurated ‘Panini Language Laboratory’ at Mahatma Gandhi Institute (MGI) in Mauritius.
• The Indian Air Force, IAF was invited for the first time to participate in Exercise Pitch Black – a biennial multi-national large force employment warfare exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). This exercise was conducted in Australia’s Darwin.
• India and Japan has resolved to expand their maritime cooperation and work together to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, which is witnessing growing Chinese assertiveness.
• The Indian Army and the Royal Thai Army has completed a two-week-long platoon level annual joint military exercise “Maitree”.It is aimed at strengthening partnership and cooperation between the two countries.
• In Sri Lanka, the ten-day festival of the historic Esala Maha Perahera began in Kandy.The procession set off from the biggest Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka, Sri Dalada Maligawa.

BANKING AND ECONOMY

• The Private life insurer Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance inked bancassurance partnership with Fincare Small Finance Bank.
• The Private life insurer Bharti AXA Life Insurance and Airtel Payments Bank have entered a tie-up to offer Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) to the Payment bank’s customers.
• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched Unified Payments Interface (UPI) 2.0.NPCI has upgraded unified payments interface (UPI) with enhanced security features and overdraft facilities.
• Sarvatra Technologies, have announced that they have started ‘Sevalia Urban Co-operative Bank’ as their 450th cooperative bank on National Financial Switch (NFS).

APPOINTMENTS

AWARDS AND HONOUR

• The Major Aditya Kumar is among 20 personnel of the Indian Army to be conferred the Shaurya Chakra on the occasion of Independence Day.
• The Oscar-winning director Ang Lee will be one of the recipients of the annual Directors Guild of America (DGA) honours at its ceremony.The event will be held at the DGA Theatre in New York City.
• Three US scientists James Allison, Carl June and Steven Rosenberg were declared winners 2018 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research.
• The former army chief gen Dalbir Singh has been awarded with United States (US) ‘Legion of Merit’.
• The Dutch challenger Kiki Bertens defeated Simona Halep to score the biggest win of her career.This is her first defeat since Wimbledon to lift the the WTA Cincinnati title.
• Novak Djokovic finally clinched Cincinnati title after defeating Roger Federer .
• India defeated Bangladesh in the final of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Under-15 Women’s Championship in Thimpu, Bhutan.
• The Wrestler Bajrang Punia won India’s first gold medal on the opening day of the 18th Asian Games.Punia clinched the gold medal in the men’s freestyle 65-kg category defeating Daichi Takatani of Japan 11-8 in the final.
• Deepak claimed the Silver in the Men’s 10-metre Air Rifle event with a score of 247.7 points. China took home the Gold, while Chinese Taipei won the Bronze.
• The Former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi was honoured with this year’s Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavna Award for promoting communal harmony and peace.The award was presented on the birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The Delhi government’s additional director of health S.K. Arora has been awarded the prestigious WHO World No Tobacco Day 2018 Award for his extraordinary contribution towards tobacco control.

 RANKING

• The Austrian capital of Vienna is ranked first in the Economist Intelligence Units’ (EIU) latest Global Liveability Survey.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

• The Union Minister for Oil and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan launched Prime Minister Narendra Modi authored book ‘Exam Warriors’ in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar city.

SPORTS

• Nihal Sarin became India’s 53rd Grandmaster after attaining his third and final GM-norm in the Abu Dhabi Masters.
• The 18th edition of the Asian Games officially kick off in Indonesian capital Jakarta. The opening ceremony will take place at Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.
• Indian football team has improved a spot to be placed at the 96th position in the latest FIFA world rankings.
• Esow Alban won India’s first ever junior cycling World Cup medal when he finished second in the keirin event in Aigle, Switzerland.
• Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Asian Games gold after she defeated Japan’s Yuki Irie in the 50 kilogram women’s Freestyle final.
• Saurabh Chaudhary became only the fifth Indian shooter to claim a gold in the Asian Games history in the 10m air pistol.
• Sanjeev Rajput clinched a silver medal in men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions event.

OBITUARY

• The Chhattisgarh Governor Balram Das Tandon has passed away.
• The Asian Games gold medallist athlete Hakam Singh passed away.
• The Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has passed away.
• Former India cricket captain Ajit Wadekar, who led the team to path-breaking Test wins in England and the West Indies, passed away.
• The Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has passed away.He served as the UN Secretary General from 1997 to 2006.
• Uri Avnery, a trailblazing Israeli journalist and peace activist and one of the first to openly advocate for a Palestinian state has passed away.

IMPORTANT DAY

Aspirants can use the link given below for downloading the Weekly One Liners pdf.

CURRENT AFFAIRS WEEKLY ONE LINERS: AUGUST 15 – 21

OTHER IMPORTANT LINKS

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