Daily Current Affairs: August 20, 2021

Daily Current Affairs (August 20, 2021) like many other sections is inevitable and this also helps to score in the Banking awareness, Static GK, and Financial Awareness sections. Remember, Banking Awareness, and Static Awareness Questions are asked from the General Awareness section. This will also help you to ride your preparations for the forthcoming exams.

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Important Days

World Mosquito Day – 20 August

• World Mosquito Day is observed on 20 August every year to raise awareness and alertness about the diseases caused by mosquitos.
• The theme for World Mosquito Day 2021 is ‘Reaching the zero malaria target’.

National News

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited launches the AI-enabled chatbot ‘Urja’

• Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) launched a digital assistant named ‘Urja’ with AI /NLP (Artificial Intelligence/Natural Language Processing) Urja is skilled in greater than 600 use instances.
• This digital assistant is designed to ship seamless self-service expertise and allow quicker decisions of client queries/points.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL):

• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Founded: 1928

State News

Tamil Nadu Government forms a seven-member committee for the study of hydrocarbon projects

• The Tamil Nadu Government has constituted a seven-member committee led by Sultan Ahmed Ismail to study the exploration of hydrocarbon projects.
• This committee will also study whether drilling would have an impact on the land as well as destabilises the tectonic plates below the area of exploration.

Tamil Nadu                      

• Capital: Chennai
• Chief Minister: M. K. Stalin
• Governor: Banwarilal Purohit
• National Parks: Mukurthi National Park, Guindy National Park, Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park, Indira Gandhi (Annamalai) National Park, Mudumalai National Park

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited signs a loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank

• Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) signed a loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for $500 million (about Rs. 3643 crores) for the Outer Ring Road-Airport line.

Asian Development Bank (ADB)

• Founded: 19 December 1966
• Headquarters: Mandaluyong, Philippines
• President: Masatsugu Asakawa

Appointments

Apurva Chandra was appointed as the next Secretary of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting

• Apurva Chandra, a 1988-batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, was appointed the Secretary of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
• He succeeds Amit Khare, the current Secretary of Higher Education.

• At present, Apurva Chandra is serving as Secretary in the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Shanti Lal Jain was appointed as the MD & CEO of Indian Bank

• Shanti Lal Jain was appointed as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Indian Bank for three years.
• He is currently serving as the Executive Director of the Bank of Baroda.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas was named as Chairperson of Jio MAMI

• Priyanka Chopra Jonas was named the new Chairperson of the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) Film Festival.
• She replaced the position which was previously chaired by Deepika Padukone.

Ranks and Indices

Reliance Industries Limited tops the Indian list of companies with a market capitalization of $188 billion in the Hurun Global List

• Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) topped the Indian list of companies in the Hurun Global List with a market capitalisation of $188 billion. It was followed by Tata Consultancy Services Limited with $164 billion and HDFC Bank with $113 billion.
• The iPhone maker Apple retained the top position in the world with a market capitalisation of $2.4 trillion.

Huawei ranks 44 in the Fortune Global List 2021

• Huawei’s ranking in the Fortune Global List 2021 improved to 44 in 2021 from 49 in 2020.
• Huawei entered the list for the first time in 2010.
• The Fortune Global 500 annual ranking measures the business revenue of the top businesses across industries.

India ranks second in the Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index

• India ranks second in the Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index behind Vietnam according to the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index by blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

Agreements and MoUs

Facebook partners with Indian firm ‘Indifi’ for small business loans                       

• Facebook partnered with an Indian firm ‘Indifi’ and announced a new programme, the ‘small business loans initiative’, to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India that advertise on the social media platform to get quick access to credit through independent lending partners.

Facebook

• Headquarters: California, the United States
• MD & CEO: Mark Elliot Zuckerberg

Science & Technology

HCL Foundation rolls out ‘My e-Haat’ portal to support the handicraft sector

• HCL Foundation launched an online portal, ‘My e-Haat’, to empower artisans and strengthen the value chain of the handicraft sector in India.

Obituary

Indian athletic coach OM Nambiar passed away

• Legendary athlete coach PT Usha’s Othayothu Madhavan Nambiar passed away at the age of 89.
• He was honoured with the Dronacharya Award in 1985 and the Padma Shri in 2021. He earned a great reputation by training the legendary PT Usha in the 80s and 90s.

German footballer Gerd Mueller passed away

• Legendary German striker Gerd Muller nicknamed ‘Bomber der Nation’ passed away at the age of 75.

Daily CA August 20 one-liner:

Can you score 20/20 in Today’s Current Affairs Quiz? Attempt the Current Affairs Quiz of  August 20, 2021, now from the link given below.