Assam Current Affairs & GK – August 29-31, 2020
( Covers all important Current Affairs & GK topics for the week of August 29-31, 2020)
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August 29, 2020
Assam’s Ranjan Bezbaruah bestowed with Rashtriya Sanskrit Geetikavi title
- The Lokobhasha Prachar Samitih has bestowed the title of Rashtriya Sanskrit Geetikavi on Assam’s noted Sanskrit singer, teacher and translator Ranjan Bezbaruah.
- Lokobhasha Prachar Samitih, Bhubaneswar-based organization, is a national organization that promotes Sanskrit. It has 42 branches in different countries of the world and in different states of India, will confer the title and hand over a certificate to Bezbaruah in a online event.
- The title was bestowed on Bezbaruah for his excellent, outstanding and continuous contribution in presenting songs popular in other languages in a modern and attractive style in Sanskrit.
- Bezbaruah’s avowed aim is to take the hits of Bhupen Hazarika and other greats like Jyoti Prasad Agarwalla and Bishnu Rabha to the rest of the country by translating and singing them in Sanskrit without deviating from tune and cadence.
- His ‘Saare Jahaan se accha Hindustan Hamara’, sung on August 16, 2016, in the Vartavalli programme of Doordarshan, is considered to be one of the most popular Sanskrit songs by the exponents of the language.
Union Social Justice Ministry to launch ‘VISHVAS’ scheme for Loan Beneficiaries
- Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment will come up with the “VISHVAS (Vanchit Ikai Samooh aur Vargo Ke Liye Arthik Sahayta Yojana)” scheme, under which, people from underprivileged sections who have taken bank loans will get five per cent subsidy per annum through direct cash transfer.
- Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said that the government is diligently working towards promoting economic development of the underprivileged through various focused schemes.
- Minister Athawale also said that banks need to play a more proactive role in order to help the underprivileged by providing loans to the aspiring entrepreneurs, instead of discouraging them.
New rules for J&K’s governance, law and order under Lt Gov
- The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has notified new rules for administration of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir ‘The Transaction of business of the government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Rules, 2019’.
- It specify the functions of the Lt Governor and the Council of Ministers. These rules provide that “police, public order, All India Services and anti-corruption,” will fall under the executive functions of the Lt Governor.
- Proposals or matters which affect or are likely to affect the peace and tranquility of the UT or the interest of any minority community, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Backward Classes “shall essentially be submitted to the Lt Governor through the Chief Secretary, under intimation to the Chief Minister, before issuing any orders”.
- The Chief Minister led Council of Ministers will decide service matters of non-All India Services officers, proposals to impose new taxes, land revenue, sale grant or lease of government property, reconstituting departments or offices and draft legislations.
- I n case of difference of opinion between the Lt Governor and a minister, the decision of the Lt Governor “shall be deemed to have been accepted by the Council of Ministers”.
IIT Alumni Council signs MOU with Russia for building Quantum Computers
- The Indian Institute of Technology’s Alumni Council has signed an MoU with Lomonosov Moscow State University and Russoft to access and transfer key technologies from Russia to build the world’s largest and fastest hybrid quantum computer in India.
- Under the agreement, the Russian state-owned companies will transfer critical modules in cryogenics, cryptography and modularised cloud management technology to IIT Alumni Council.
- These technologies will support solutions for solving infrastructure challenges in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, transport and logistics, pollution and weather forecast.
- Quantum Computing is million times faster than the supercomputer and thus will drastically reduce the cost of genome testing from over ₹1 lakh per sample to under ₹1,000.
- The IIT Alumni Council is the largest global body of alumni, students and faculty, spread across all the 23 IITs and partnering Technical Institutes of Excellence.
FACTFILE – Quantum computing
- Quantum computing is the use of quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform computation.
- Quantum computers are believed to be able to solve certain computational problems, such as integer factorization (which underlies RSA encryption), substantially faster than classical computers.
- Quantum computing began in the early 1980s, when physicist Paul Benioff proposed a quantum mechanical model of the Turing machine. Richard Feynman and Yuri Manin later suggested that a quantum computer had the potential to simulate things that a classical computer could not.
- In 1994, Peter Shor developed a quantum algorithm for factoring integers that had the potential to decrypt RSA-encrypted communications.
- In recent years, investment into quantum computing research has increased in both the public and private sector.
August 30, 2020
President Kovind virtually presents Arjuna Award to Assam’s boxer Lovlina Borgohain
- President Ram Nath Kovindvirtually presented the prestigious Arjuna Award to Assam’s boxer Lovlina Borgohain for her outstanding performance in boxing.
- All the winners of National Sports Awards were connected virtually to President Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan from 9 different Sports Authority of India-designated locations.
- Lovlina Borgohain from Golaghat district, is the first woman from Assam to qualify for the Olympics and the second boxer from the state to represent India after Shiva Thapa.
- Lovlina won a gold medal at the 1st India Open International Boxing Tournament held in New Delhi and a silver medal at the 2nd India Open International Boxing Tournament held in Guwahati. She also won a bronze medal at the 2019 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships held at Ulan-Ude in Russia.
- The other players who won the Arjuna Awad aree Dutee Chand, Sawant Ajay Anant, Sandesh Jhingan, Aditi Ashok, Akashdeep Singh, Deepak, Kale Sarika Sudhakar, Divya Kakran, Rahul Aware, Suyash Narayan Jadhav, Sandeep Para, Manish Narwal, Chirag Chandrasekhar Shetty, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Subedar Manish Kaushik, Ishant Sharma and Deepti Sharma.
- Recently, prize money for the Arjuna Award has been enhanced to Rs 15 lakh from Rs 5 lakh.
Union IT Minister launches “Chunauti” Next Generation Start-up Challenge
- Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad launched next-generation startup contest `Chunauti” which aims to encourage startups and software products with special focus on Tier-II towns.
- With Rs 95 crore outlay over a three-year period, the challenge programme aims to identify around 300 startups working in identified areas and provide them seed fund of up to Rs 25 lakh and other facilities.
- Ministry of Electronics and IT will invite startups in areas such as edu-tech, agri-tech and fin-tech solutions for masses; supply chain, logistics and transportation management, infrastructure and remote monitoring, medical healthcare, diagnostic, preventive and psychological care; and jobs and skilling, linguistic tools and technologies.
- Startups selected through ”Chunauti” will be offered various support from the government through the Software Technology Parks of India(STPI) centers across India.
- The startups will be provided cloud credits from leading cloud service providers and they will also get incubation facilities, mentorship, security testing facilities, access to venture capitalist funding, industry connect as well as advisories in legal, Human Resource (HR), IPR and patent matters.
Kerala’s inaugurated its first Marine ambulance
- Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the first marine ambulance ‘Pratheeksha’ acquired by the state fisheries department. The marine ambulance, having a length of 23m and a width of 5.5m, can move at a speed of 14 knots per hour and are being acquired to rescue fishermen in distress at sea.
- The boats have facility to provide medical assistance to 10 people at a time. This will help provide first aid to rescued fishermen and shift them to shore as soon as possible.
- Each boat will have four sea rescue guards, paramedical staff, emergency medicines and a mortuary. While Pratheeksha will be stationed at Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram, Prathyasa and Karunya will be stationed at Vypeen and Beypore in Kozhikode.
14th India-Singapore Defence Policy Dialogue
- India and Singapore agreed to further enhance the security partnership, while participating in the 14th India-Singapore Defence Policy Dialogue (DPD) via video-conferencing.
- The dialogue, co-chaired by Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar and Permanent Secretary (Defence), Singapore Chan Heng Kee, discussed on various issues of bilateral defence engagements between India and Singapore.
- The Implementing Arrangement on Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief (HADR) between India and Singapore was also signed.
August 31, 2020
Cotton University to launch BA programme for sportspersons
- Cotton University to launch BA programme for sportspersons. The eligibility criteria are 10+2 qualified or equivalent from a recognised Board or Council with proficiency in sports.
- The applicant must have represented the National Team in International Events or secured one of the first three positions in National Level competitions organised by the respective federation in any SAI recognised sports events.
- In case of cricket, being a member of the National team (Junior or Senior) selected by BCCI will be considered.
FACTFILE – Cotton University
- Cotton University is a public state university located in Guwahati.
- It was established under The Cotton University Act, 2017 of the Assam Legislative Assembly to merge the Cotton College State University and Cotton College.
- The university made its way to become one of the top 200 institutions of the country by claiming rank in the band of 150–200 in the NIRF 2020 Ranking.
FACTFILE – Cotton College
- Cotton College was established in 1901 by Sir Henry Stedman Cotton, the Chief Commissioner of the erstwhile British province of Assam.
- It had been the oldest institute of higher education in Assam and Northeast India.
- It became the constituent college of Gauhati University in 1948, and then that of the Cotton College State University, when Cotton College State University was established by an Act (Act XIX of 2011) of the Assam Government in 2011.
BHU forms committee to implement National Innovation and Startup policy
- The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Varanasi has formed a 21-member committee to implement the new National Innovation and Startup policy-2019 introduced by the Union Ministry of Education, at the university level.
- The committee, headed by Vice-Chancellor Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar will comprises academicians as well as students and alumni, entrepreneurs and experts from different fields.
- The Design Innovation Centre and Atal Incubation Centre were established in 2015 and 2018 at the BHU campus to promote innovation.
- The BHU, which was ranked 11th, jumped to fifth position under the public funded institutions category of the country in the recently released Atal Innovation Rankings.
Karnataka plans for India’s 1st toy cluster
- India’s first toy making cluster would be built at Koppal in Karnataka state’s northwest region.
- Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa said Koppal will be India’s first toy making cluster in a 400-acre special economic zone, with Rs 5,000-crore investment to create 40,000 jobs over the next 5 years.
- India’s share in the global toy industry was very small, the Prime Minister said it was not fair to have such a small share and all have to work towards improving it. He also referred to the world famous Channapatna toys from the Karnataka’s Ramanagara district.
- State-run Karnataka Handicrafts Development Corporation provides assistance to the artisans with marketing efforts to promote and market the toys across the country and overseas.
Karnataka starts RO-RO train service between Bengaluru and Solapur
- Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa flagged off Roll-On/Roll-Off (RO-RO) train between Bengaluru (Nelamangala) to Solapur (Maharashtra) through video conferencing.
- The RO-RO service reduces accidents on the road, improves safety, saves fuel, and foreign exchange. And ensures faster transport of essential goods, perishables, food items and smaller cargo.
- It facilitates large-scale movement of goods and reduces pollution, and the cost of transport is lesser than transport by road.
Centre’s borrowing options to states to settle GST compensation
- States will have to forego borrowing flexibility of 1 percent of state GDP given under the Atmanirbhar Bharat package if they opt to settle their entire GST compensation shortfall for FY21 through market borrowings.
- As per the design of the options given to the states by the Union Govt to meet GST compensation gap, if the states decide to meet the entire shortfall of Rs 235,000 crores through issue of market debt, then additional unconditional borrowing limit of 0.5 percent and the final (bonus) tranche of 0.5 percent provided under the Atmanirbhar Bharat package.
- Under option one, the Centre has offered a special borrowing window to states, in consultation with the RBI, for an amount of Rs 97,000 crore (the shortfall arising out of GST implementation) at a “reasonable” interest rate.
- The second option given by the Centre allows states to borrow entire projected GST compensation shortfall of Rs 2,35,000 crore (total shortfall of Rs 3 lakh crore minus Rs 65,000 crore collected as GST compensation cess) for FY21.
Test Series for Junior Admin Asst (Assam Secretariat) 2020
August 2020 Current Affairs Monthly PDF | Assam 2020 Yearbook | July 2020 Quiz Monthly PDF
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