Read to crack any Competitive Exams

Dipor Bil/Deepor Beel  is the only Ramsar site of the state of Assam. It is located in the south-western edge of Guwahati.The site, which houses of a variety of aquatic life forms along with 219 species of birds, was designated a Ramsar site in the year 2002. The District officials has banned Community fishing at the site.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) releases the quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS).
As per the recent quarterly PLFS, the unemployment rate in urban areas increased to 9.1 per cent in January-March 2020 from 7.9 per cent in October-December 2019. Labour force participation rate increased to over a five-quarter high of 37.5 per cent.

The White House has recently released the 1776 Commission report, which was initiated by former US President Donald Trump in September last year.
Trump signed an order to set up a National commission to promote patriotic education in the country, also called as the ‘1776 Commission’. This was seen as a counter to 1619 Project, The New York Times initiative, to mark the completion of 400 years since the enslaved Africans arrived.

The species found in the Periyar Tiger Reserve of Kerala has been named Ooceraea Joshii in honour of professor Amitabh Joshi — a distinguished evolutionary biologist from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR).

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, have spotted rare hot UV-bright stars in a massive cluster in our Galaxy called NGC 2808.
The Astronomers have used the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) onboard the first multi-wavelength space satellite of India, AstroSat.

In an initiative to apply quantum computing to advance India’s science and technology development initiatives and bolster the economy, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in collaboration with AWS will establish a Quantum Computing Applications Lab in the country.

Quantum computing is an emerging field harnessing the laws of quantum mechanics to build powerful tools to process information and has the potential to solve computational problems that are beyond the reach of classical computers. This new lab will help accelerate quantum computing-led research and development and enable new scientific discoveries. It will also provide quantum computing as a service to the government ministries and departments, researchers, scientists, academia, and developers, to enable advances in areas such as manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, and aerospace engineering.

Assam to come up with of Science City at Tepesia in the outskirts of the Guwahati with an expenditure of Rs 184 Crore.Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal laid foundation stone of Science City for popularising science and technology at the grassroots. The Science City would be built for a total expenditure of Rs. 184 crore covering an area of 250 bighas of land and roads, drainage system etc. have already been completed there by the government.

India and France is set to hold their annual strategic dialogue in Delhi, as per the recent statement of the Ministry of external affairs.National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval will lead the Indian delegation while Emmanuel Bonne, the diplomatic advisor to President Emmanuel Macron will lead the French side. Discussions on wide-ranging bilateral and global issues are expected.

Vietnam, the world’s third biggest exporter of rice, has started buying the grain from rival India for the first time in decades after local prices jumped to their highest in nine years amid limited domestic supplies, four industry officials told Reuters. The purchases highlight tightening supplies in Asia, which could lift rice prices in 2021 and even force traditional buyers of rice from Thailand and Vietnam to switch to India – the world’s biggest exporter of the grain.

The ship has been designed by the Indian Navy’s in-house organisation, Directorate of Naval Design (DND), and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata.It has state-of-the-art weapons and sensor suite capable of “detecting and prosecuting” submarines and good endurance for long-range deployments.

Playback singer, music director and actor K J Mohammed Babu, popularly known as ‘Zero’ Babu passed away. He was a recipient of the Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award. He has sung in nearly 90 films and various plays. His first movie was the 1964 film ‘Kudumbini’.

The state government of Tamil Nadu has launched the Smart Black Board scheme in 80,000 government schools of the state. The initiative aims to ensure a better teaching environment.Under this Smart Black Board scheme, audiovisual teaching material would be possible, that can even be fed into the computer screens in classes using widely available pen drives.

UK-based Indian-origin plastic surgeon, Dr Jajini Varghese has been named an ‘Outstanding Young Person of the World 2020’ by a non-profit NGO for her “incredible” scientific contributions to diagnosing and treating breast cancer.She has been recognized in the “Medical Innovation” category for making it her personal mission to attempt to restore the lives of millions of women affected by breast cancer.

Indian diplomat Dr Neena Malhotra, 1992-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, appointed as next Ambassador to the Republic of San Marino. She will have a residence in Rome. Presently, she is serving as the Ambassador of India to the Republic of Italy.

Ace Indian cricketer and Captain of Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma has been signed up by India’s leading beauty accessories brand, Vega, for its men’s personal grooming electronics range under the ‘Vega Men’ brand. Rohit Sharma will feature as the brand ambassador for ‘Vega Men’ range in the upcoming digital campaign.

Integrated Model Agricultural Village scheme is a concept which will prove to be a milestone in strengthening the economy of farmers and doubling their income. The limit for the interest-free loan given to farmers is being hiked to Rs 3 lakh from Rs 2 lakh. Farmers to focus on it with emphasis on mechanised and scientific farming to boost productivity.

Project 28 is a project under which four Anti Submarine Warships have to be built indigenously in India by Garden Reach Shipbuilders And Engineers (GRSE) , Kolkata. It’s objective was to enhance localization and development of warship construction industry in India.It was approved in 2003.The the four corvettes are – INS Kamorta , INS Kadmatt and INS Kiltan and INS Kavaratti. The warships are named after the islands in the Lakshadweep archipelago.

In order to provide safety for women in public spaces, the Government has identified eight cities(Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai) for implementation of Safe City project. The Centre and States share the expenses for the scheme in the ratio of 60:40.Some of the key features of the safe city project includes-

• Identification of sensitive hot spots in each city. The hot spots may be areas where crimes against women have recently taken place or places where women feel more vulnerable.
• Installation of CCTV surveillance covering the entire hot spot
• Automated number plate reading machines to be deployed in extremely sensitive areas.
• Intensive patrolling in vulnerable areas beyond the identified hot spots.
• Improving street lighting and public toilet facilities for women.
• Setting up women help desks in police stations, augmentation of women support centers, etc.

Indian side was represented by Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju. Indian side emphasized on galvanizing the youth to take on the challenges set forth by the worldwide COVID 19 Pandemic. The theme of the Summit was ‘Government – Youth dialogue on post-COVID-19 opportunities’. The Summit concluded with the drafting of the Y20 Communique under the three overarching priority areas(Future Fit, Youth Empowerment and Global Citizenship)

The IIT-Madras incubated dairy-tech startup, “Stellapps” has launched a first-of-its-kind, fully-automated direct payment platform, ‘mooPay’, for dairy farmers in Rajasthan. The Digital technology solutions provider Stellapps is a first of its kind end-to-end dairy technology solutions company of India. It is also one of the technology pioneers of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

It recently came in news as Union Education Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has virtually launched the campaign ‘KAPILA’ on 15th October 2020. The day was launched in honour of 89th birth anniversary celebration of former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

The campaign is against end-to-end encryption of messages by social media giants such as Facebook, which they say hinder law enforcement by blocking all access to them.It will prevent law enforcement investigating and prosecuting the most serious crimes being committed on these services such as online child sexual abuse, grooming and terrorist content.

He is currently focused on scaling the organization and streamlining the execution to keep pace with the increasing market traction in India and abroad. Prior to this, he was with Wipro Technologies as its Global Head of Telecom Value Added Applications (VAS) Practice and Head of Centre of Excellence (CoE)

It is a forum for developing cooperation with the future generation, and provides a platform for young people to have their voices heard on issues relevant to the G20 agenda.

It is located in the Northern coasts of Norway and Russia. It is a Shallow shelf sea and bordered by the Norwegian sea in the west, Kola Peninsula to the south. There are three main types of water in the barents sea. They are Atlantic water from North Atlantic drift, cold Arctic water from the north and coastal waters.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has announced a special scheme to revive lapsed policies named ‘Special Revival Campaign’. This campaign is open from 10 August to 9 October during which customers can revive their individual lapsed policies.

It has been launched by the Maharashtra government to offer reemployment opportunities to local residents.It will help in recruitment of skilled, semiskilled and unskilled employees by bridging the gap between employers and local workers.

The coronavirus outbreak in the country has brought the concept of social distancing to the forefront. At the same time, contact services have also gained unprecedented importance due to health and hygiene reasons. Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport has introduced contactless parking by using FASTag, which is India’s first car parking service to offer 100 per cent contactless service.Now vehicle owners will no longer have to interact with parking executives or wait in queues.

GRETI stands for Global Real Estate Transparency Index.The GRETI is a unique benchmark of real estate market transparency and an essential guide for companies operating in foreign markets.It covers 99 countries and territories and 163 cities.

It was test-fired twice on July 15 and once on July 16 from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur(Odisha) as part of the developmental trials conducted by DRDO. It is the helicopter version of ‘Nag Helina’ with several new features and meant to be fired from air to destroy enemy bunkers, armoured vehicles and main battle tanks.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has appointed Ashok Lavasa as its Vice-President for Private Sector Operations and Public–Private Partnerships, who is currently serving as one of the Election Commissioners of India (since January 2018). He will succeed Diwakar Gupta, whose term will end on 31 August, 2020.

China has successfully launched “APSTAR-6D” telecommunication satellite via a Long March 3B carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. It has been developed by China Academy of Space Technology.

Recently the place came in news due to launching of ‘Ofek 16’ spy satellite into orbit. The airbase is located in the central Israel.

Israel Defense Ministry has announced the successful launch of a new ‘Ofek 16’ spy satellite into orbit by using a locally-developed Shavit rocket from a launch pad at Palmachim airbase in central Israel. This was the first launch of an Israeli spy satellite into space since the Ofek-11 which entered orbit in September 2016.

It came in news recently as Assam Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal has announced, Poba Reserve Forest in Dhemaji district would be upgraded to a wildlife sanctuary. The announcement was made during a meeting with senior officials of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Majuli districts at Jonai. Poba Reserve Forest declared in 1924 with an area of 10,522 hectares is home to a large number of flora and fauna.

Country’s ‘first cable-stayed’ Indian Railways bridge will connect Katra and Reasi in Jammu and Kashmir. Recently, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that the ambitious project of Indian Railways is being constructed with superior technology and engineering excellence.It is being developed by Konkan Railway Corporation Limited, which is a Government of India undertaking. The cable-stayed railway bridge is a part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project.

The Human Resource and Development Ministry has announced guidelines for online classes operationalised by schools amid the COVID pandemic. Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank virtually released the PRAGYATA guidelines on digital education in New Delhi, on Tuesday. The guidelines recommend a cap on the screen time for students.The PRAGYATA guidelines include eight steps of digital learning that is, Plan- Review- Arrange- Guide- Yak (talk)- Assign- Track- Appreciate.

Recently, Pakistan and China signed an agreement for the 700 MW Azad Pattan hydel power project on the Jhelum River in the Sudhoti district of PoK.It is a run-of-the-river project with a reservoir located near Muslimabad village.It will be commissioned by 2024.It will be developed on the ‘Build, Own, Operate, Transfer (BOOT)’ model and will be transferred to the government of Pakistan after 30 years.

Jean Castex has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of France. He has replaced the former french
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe who resigned from the post ahead of a government reshuffle.He was an adviser on social affairs in former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s cabinet, before becoming deputy secretary-general of the Elysée in 2011.

Major General Nigar Johar became the first woman officer in the history of Pakistan Army to be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General.The Army officer has been appointed as the first female surgeon general of the Pakistan Army.She hails from Panjpeer, District Swabi KPK.

He was sworn in to office on June 27. The 59 year-old Premier heads Dublin’s unprecedented coalition between FF(Fianna Fail) and its traditional rival Fine Gael (FG) following the February election. Having propped up a minority FG government in the last four years, Mr. Martin will now serve as Prime Minister until December 2022, after which his predecessor and FG chief Leo Varadkar will assume charge for the remainder of the five-year term.

It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education for improving the quality of education, in the Indian School Education System.It will cover the six Indian states(Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Rajasthan).

A carbon tax is the policy for reducing and eliminating the use of fossil fuels whose combustion is destabilizing and destroying our climate.

The SCO summit will be held at Qingdao,in June 2018.Headquarter of the SCO is Beijing.China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan are the present member countries of this organization.India joined SCO as full members on 9 June 2017.

It was organized by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to provide a platform for LPG consumers.It will also help to interact with each other, promote mutual learning and share experiences.Each LPG Panchayat consists of 100 LPG customers.LPG Panchayat discuss issues like safe practices and sustainable usage of LPG, its benefits and the link between clean fuel for cooking and women’s empowerment.

He has been elected as new president of the Sahitya Akademi.He is the third Kannada writer to head the country’s premier literary institution.He has served as member of the Akademi executive board for over 10 years and was vice-president for 2013-18.

State health department has issued notification under Section 20 of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003. Bihar is the 12th state in the country which bring such a ban into effect after Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi and others.

Asma Jilani Jahangir has passed away in Lahore on February 11, 2018.She was a Pakistani human rights lawyer and social activist who co-founded and chaired the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.She was the first woman to serve as the President of Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan.She was in a prominent role in the Lawyers’ Movement.

Rohan is the youngest person in the world to swim across the Ocean Seven.He is the pune-based swimmer.The Ocean seven includes the North Channel, the Cook Strait, the Molokai Channel, the English Channel, the Catalina Channel, the Tsugaru Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar.He has received the Tenzing Norgay Award from the Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The National Adventure Award also , was presented by President Ram Nath Kovind.

The theme for the 2018 National Productivity Week is – Industry 4.0 Leapfrog Opportunity for India.

It will guide road engineers and policy makers how to expand or manage different types of roads and their intersections and the level of services to be put in place.It was released by Shri Nitin Gadkari who is the Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation .It has been developed by CSIR – CRRI.

It belongs to the same genus as yellow fever virus, dengue virus serotypes 1–4, Japanese encephalitis virus, and West Nile virus.It is transmitted mainly by rice field breeding mosquitoes.JE sympotoms are mild like fever,headache.

The case was 10-year-old graft case.

The objective is to support hybrid/electric vehicles market development and Manufacturing eco-system.

The Convention is global treaty that aims to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.It’s name is derived as per the Japanese city Minamata which was highly effected due to mercury poisoning.

The main purpose of that project is to study the implement ability of the system in the country.It is a satellite-based electronic toll collection system on GPS/GSM technology.The project will run for one year.

The veteran theatre artist, director, and pioneer of Children’s Theatre in Maharashtra, Sudha Karmarkar has passed away in Mumbai . She was 83. She founded the children’s theatre in Mumbai which is known as ‘Bal Rangbhumi- Little Theatre’ and directed various plays for children.

Japan has successfully launched the world’s smallest satellite-carrying rocket.The rocket was about the size of a utility pole, measuring around 33 feet in length and about 20 inches in diameter. It carried a microsatellite weighing about 6 and a half pounds. It will collect imagery of the Earth’s surface.

He is the 22nd chief justice of Bangladesh.President M Abdul Hamid administered his oath at the Darbar Hall of the Bangabhaban.

The International Kala Mela has been organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi in partnership with IGNCA of the Ministry of Culture.The Minister of State for Culture (I/C) and Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Mahesh Sharma, the Administrator of Lalit Kala Akademi, Shri C.S. Krishna Setty and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

The insecticides that are banned includes Tricholorofon, Phosphamidon, Dicofol, Methomyl, Thiophanate Methyl, Benfuracarb, Bifenthrin, Endosulfan, Chlorfenapyr, Carbosulfan, Ethofenprox (Etofenprox), Phorate, Triazophos, Dazomet, Diflubenzuron, Fenitrothion, Metaldehyde, Kasugamycin, Alachior and Monocrotophos as these pesticides have been considered as class I pesticides by World Health Organization (WHO).