Current Affairs | National | International | SSC | UPSC 8th August 2024

 

1. Purandar Highlands exports India’s first GI-tagged fig juice to Poland 

• Purandar Highlands Farmers Producer Company Ltd has achieved a significant milestone by exporting India’s first GI-tagged fig juice to Poland. 
• This follows the successful export of India’s first commercial consignment of GI-tagged Purandar figs to Hong Kong in February 2023. 
• Purandar Highlands has become the first company to export Indian fig juice to the European market and the first to export commercial quantities of Purandar figs to Hong Kong.
• The successful export to Poland and Hong Kong has generated interest in these products, indicating a promising global market for Indian figs and fig-based products. 

About Poland 

• Capital – Warsaw 
• Currency – Zloty 
• Official language – Polish
• Prime Minister – Donald Tusk 

2. Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya in collaboration with Airbus begins its first executive training program for aviation sector 

•  Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya in collaboration with Airbus has started its first executive training program for the aviation sector in New Delhi. 
• This three-day program, will be focused on Safety Management Systems for working professionals. The program attracts participants from leading airlines as well as representatives from Airbus and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
• This course is also being attended by international professionals, including four participants from Nepal and four from Bhutan. The instructors for the program are leading experts from the industry. 

3. India to host World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly 2024 in New Delhi 

• India will host the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) 2024 from October 15 to 24 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. 
• The event will be preceded by the Global Standards Symposium (GSS) on October 14, as announced by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
•  The theme for GSS-24 is “Charting the Next Digital Wave: Emerging Technologies, Innovation, and International Standards.” 
•  Organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), WTSA occurs every four years to “define the work program, working methods, and structure of study groups” for ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T).
• The assembly is expected to bring together 1,800 to 2,000 delegates from 193 member countries, global standardization bodies, and the telecom/ICT industry. 

About World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly 

• Founded in 1865, the ITU is a specialized agency of the United Nations for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It includes 193 member countries and over 900 private-sector entities and academic institutions. 
• The ITU promotes international cooperation between governments and the private sector to address issues shaping the future of the ICT industry. 
•  India, a member of the ITU since 1869 and a member of the ITU Governing Council since 1952, was originally set to host WTSA-20. '

4. Microsoft regains top spot as best employer to work for in India: Randstad 

• Microsoft has emerged as India’s most ‘attractive employer brand,’ according to the findings of Randstad Employer Brand Research (REBR) 2024. 
• Tata Consultancy Services climbed the rankings this year to emerge as the runner-up, followed by Amazon, which occupied the third spot. 
• Drawing insights from 3,507 respondents in the country, the report reveals that work-life balance, equity, and attractive salary & benefits, are the three most important drivers for the Indian workforce when choosing an employer. 
• Tata Power Company, which was the top brand last year, slipped to fourth rank this year. Another Tata brand, Tata Motors stood fifth. All the top five most attractive companies to work for received high ratings for their financial health and good reputation. 

5. Lok Sabha passes Finance Bill, amends provision on LTCG tax 

• The Finance Bill, 2024 was passed in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday with an amendment relaxing a proposal for the long-term capital gains tax on real estate. It allows taxpayers an option to switch to a new lower tax rate or stick to the old regime that had a higher rate with indexation benefit. 
• The amendment comes after a proposal to remove indexation benefit in calculation of long-term capital gains on sale of immovable properties in the Budget, 2024-25 had evoked criticism from various corners, including Opposition parties and tax professionals. The Budget had proposed a lower 12.5% rate of LTCG tax, down from 20%, while doing away with the indexation benefit. 
• With this amendment, individuals or Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) who bought houses before July 23, 2024, can opt to pay LTCG tax under the new scheme at the rate of 12.5% without indexation ог claim the indexation benefit and pay 20% tax. 
• The Finance Bill was passed by a voice vote in the Lok Sabha with a total of 45 official amendments. Replying to the debate before the passage of the Bill, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rejected criticism from Opposition parties that the middle class was heavily taxed. She said that the Budget proposals were aimed at promoting investment and benefiting the middle class. 
• She said the Narendra Modi government had brought in a simplified taxation regime and eased compliance without drastically increasing taxes. 
• Among the various measures taken to help the middle class, Ms. Sithara man mentioned the reduction in customs duty on various goods that would promote trade and investment and generate employment. She also referred to the hike in tax exemption limit on long-term capital gains in listed equities and bonds to 21.25 lakh from 21 lakh, a move that she said would benefit those investing in the stock market. 
• The Finance Minister said that simplification of the tax regime was the primary objective of the Modi government, highlighting that 72% of those who had paid income tax had opted for the new regime while filing returns this year. 
• "We have made transformational changes in tax governance. In 2023, the tax slabs were significantly reduced. Again, this has been done this year," Ms. Sitharaman said, adding that the standard deduction for the salaried class had been increased. 
• On the Opposition's demand for removal of Goods and Services Tax on health and life insurance premiums, the Union Minister said that 75% of the GST collected went to the States. 
• "Prior to levying 18% GST on health insurance [premium), all States used to levy tax on insurance premiums. So when GST was rolled out, the tax automatically got subsumed into GST," she said.
• Opposition MPs staged a walkout after a furore over the government not taking up an amendment in the Finance Bill to withdraw the 18% GST levy on medical and life insurance premiums. 
• The amendment had been moved by N.K. Premachandran of the Revolutionary Socialist Party. 
• The Finance Minister said any amendment in GST had to be approved by the GST Council. 

6. Government appoints Harish Dudani as Member in Central Electricity Regulatory Commission 

• Harish Dudani has been administered Oath of Office and Secrecy by the Hon’ble Minister for Power as Member, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).
• CERC was established by the Government of India under the provisions of the Electricity Regulatory Commissions Act, of 1998. CERC is the Central Commission for the Electricity Act, 2003. 
• Which has repealed the ERC Act, of 1998. Harish Dudani held the post of Principal Judge, Family Court, in the High Court of Delhi. Before this, he held the charge of District Judge (Commercial Court), Additional Session Judge, and Special Judge (PC Act) CBI in the High Court of Delhi. 

Recent Appointment 

• COO of Instamart – Sairam Krishnamurthy 
•  President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -Janet Yang 
• Director of ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) – Grinson George 
• First woman DG Medical Services (Army) – Lt Gen Sadhna Saxena Nair 
• 2 New Members in CBDT – Ramesh Narain Parbat and Prabodh Seth 
• Chairman of UPSC – Preeti Sudan (replace Manoj Soni)

7. Amit Singh Negi appointed Additional Secretary in PM’s Office 

• Senior IAS officer Amit Singh Negi has been appointed additional secretary in the PMO as part of a major top-level reshuffle effected by the Centre. 
• A 1999-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Uttarakhand cadre, Mr Negi is currently joint secretary in the Department of Expenditure under the Union Ministry of Finance. 
•  Samir Ashwin Vakil, a 1998-batch Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) officer, has been appointed director in the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) under the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs for a tenure of five years. 
• Maneesh Garg, Sanjay Kumar and Ajeet Kumar have been appointed deputy election commissioners in the Election Commission of India. 

Other Appointments 

• Additional secretary in PMO – Amit Singh Negi 
• Director in Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) under Ministry of Corporate Affairs – Samir Ashwin Vakil 
• Deputy Election Commissioners in ECI – Maneesh Garg, Sanjay Kumar and Ajeet Kumar 
• Additional Secretary in Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) – Manisha Saxena 
• Director General in Tourism – Mugdha Sinha 
• Additional Secretary in Home Ministry – Ashutosh Agnihotri 
• Joint Secretary in the home ministry – Niraj Kumar Bansod 
• Additional secretary in Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry – Ajay Bhadoo 
• Additional Secretary in Union Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change – Amandeep Garg 
• Director general of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation – Ashok Kumar Singh 
• CEO of Khadi and Village Industries Commission under Ministry of MSMEs – Vatsalya Saxena 
• Additional secretary in NITI Aayog – Nidhi Chhibber 
• Additional secretary in Department of Rural Development under Ministry of Rural Development – TK Anil Kumar 
• MD of Small Farmers’ AgriBusiness Consortium under Dept. of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare – Dheeraj Sahu 
• Additional secretary in the Department of Rural Development – Caralyn Khongwar Deshmukh 
• Additional secretary in Ministry of Cooperation – Rabindra Kumar Agarwal 
•  Additional secretary and financial advisor in Ministry of Road Transport & Highways – Puneet Agarwal
• Additional secretary in Dept. of Telecommunications – N Gulzar 
• MD of the Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation of India under the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs – Ashish Chatterjee
•  Additional secretary in Dept. of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances under the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions- Puneet Yadav
•  Joint secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat – Nila Mohanan 
• Joint secretary in the Department of Defence – Pawan Kumar Sharma 
• Joint secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs – Alok Tiwari 
• Joint secretary in the Department of Military Affairs – Kumar Ravi Kant Singh 
• CEO of the National eGovernance Division (NeGD) under the Union Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology – Nand Kumarum 
• Joint secretaries in the Department of Health & Family Welfare – Latha Ganapathy and Nikhil Gajraj 
• Joint secretary in the National Health Authority under the Department of Health & Family Welfare – V Kiran Gopal 
• Secretary in the Capacity Building Commission – V Lalithalakshmi 
• Additional registrar general in the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner – Sunil Kumar 
• Director of Census Operations in Andhra Pradesh – P Bala Kiran 
• Director of Census Operations in Arunachal Pradesh & Meghalaya – Pooja Pandey 
•  Director (Census Operations) in Uttar Pradesh – Sheetal Verma 
•  Joint secretary in the DoPT – J Ashok Kumar and Chhavi Bhardwaj 
• Joint secretary in the Department of Petroleum & Natural Gas – Vinod Seshan 
• Joint secretary in the Department of Revenue – Naval Kishore Ram 

8. Challa Sreenivasulu Setty appointed Chairman of SBI 

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved a proposal to appoint Challa Sreenivasulu Setty as Chairman of State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest commercial bank, for a three-year term. 
• Setty will be succeeding current chairman Dinesh Khara, whose term ends on August 28 as he will be turning 63, the upper age limit for the SBI’s chairman position. 
• Before this elevation as Chairman, Setty was the SBI Managing Director heading Global Markets & Technology.
•  In June this year, the Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB) recommended the name of Challa Sreenivasulu Setty for being appointed SBI Chairman. 

About State Bank of India (SBI)

• Founded – 1 July 1955 
• Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra 
• Chairman – Challa Sreenivasulu Setty; 27th (replace Dinesh Kumar Khara) 
• Tagline – (1) Pure Banking Nothing Else (2) With you all the way (3) A bank of the common man (4) The banker to every Indian (5) The Nation banks on us 

9. DBS Bank CEO Piyush Gupta to step down in Mar 2025; Tan Su Shan to take over

•  Piyush Gupta, the Indian origin Chief Executive of Singapore’s largest bank DBS Group, will step down in March 2025.
•  He will be succeeded by Tan Su Shan, who was appointed as deputy CEO, in addition to her current role as the group head of institutional banking.4
• Gupta, who took the top position in DBS in 2009 after spending 27 years at Citigroup, was awarded the Public Service Star by Singapore’s President in 2020.
• During his tenure, DBS was recognized for its use of technology and named the “World’s Best Bank” by publications such as Euromoney and Global Finance. 

About Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) Bank 

• Founded – 1968 
• Headquarters – Singapore 
• Chairman – Peter Seah 
• CEO – Piyush Gupta 
• DBS Bank India’ CEO- Surojit Shome 

10. Kailashnathan Sworn in as 25th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry 

•  Kailashnathan took the oath as the 25th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. 
• The oath was administered by the Acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, D. Krishnakumar. 
• Kailashnathan, a retired Gujarat cadre IAS officer, is the first full-time Lt. Governor of Puducherry since Kiran Bedi left in 2021. 

About Puducherry 

• Formation- July 1, 1963 
• Capital- Pondicherry 
• Chief Minister- N. Rangasamy 

Recent Appointment 

• Governor of Jharkhand – Santosh Kumar Gangwar 
• Governor of Chhattisgarh – Ramen Deka 
• Governor of Rajasthan – Haribhau Kisanrao Bagde 
• Governor of Telangana – Jishnu Dev Varma 
• Governor of Punjab – Gulab Chand Kataria 
• Governor of Maharashtra – CP Radhakrishnan
• Governor of Sikkim – OP Mathur 
• Governor of Meghalaya – C H Vijayshankar 
• Governor of Assam – Lakshman Prasad Acharya (also additional charge of Manipur) 

11. 7 August – National Handloom Day

•  National Handloom Day is celebrated every year on 7 August to honour the nation’s handloom weavers and to shed spotlight on India’s handloom industry. 
• Notably, this is the 10th Handloom Day in India. The first Handloom Day was celebrated in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Chennai. Now, it is celebrated across the country with a variety of events and activities.
• The origin of National Handloom Day has its roots back in the Swadeshi Movement of 1905. 
• The objective of the movement was to boycott British goods in favour of Indian-made products. Notably, handloom textiles were one of the essential products that were widely promoted during this time. all States/UTs. 

12. CCPWC Initiative 

• CCPWC stands for Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children. 
• The CCPWC initiative launched under the Nirbhaya Fund, focuses on tackling cybercrimes. 
• A key part of this initiative is the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP). 
•  The main features of the scheme are: 
•  Online cybercrime reporting platform 
• One national level cyber forensic laboratory 
• Training of Police officers, judges & prosecutors
•  Cybercrime awareness activities 

Research & Development 

13. Saturn and Comet A117uUD 

•  Scientists have found that Saturn has thrown Comet A117uUD out of the solar system in 2022. 
•  After coming into contact with Saturn, the comet A117uUD was flung into a highly elliptical orbit, sending it into interstellar space at 10,800 km/h.
•  Interstellar space is the area between the stars, but it is far from empty. 
•  This is the 2nd comet observed being ejected from our solar system. 
• The first comet to have been thrown out of the solar system was the Comet C/1980 E1 (Bowell) after an encounter with Jupiter. 

14. Jerdon’s Courser status – Andhra Pradesh 

•  Jerdon’s Courser, a critically endangered species, is exclusively endemic to Andhra Pradesh, specifically within the Sri Lankamalleswara wildlife sanctuary in Kadapa. 
•  It is locally called Kalivi Kodi. 
• However, this elusive bird has not been visually spotted in over a decade. 
• Kalivi Kodi was listed among the 50 rarest birds of the world.
• Once thought extinct, with no records after 1900, the species was miraculously rediscovered in 1986 near Reddipalli village in Kadapa. 

15. WHO Study on Adolescent Girls 2024

• One fourth of adolescent girls who have been in relationships have endured physical or sexual violence. 
• WHO’s report showed that 24% of them had been subjected to intimate partner violence at least once, with 16% reporting it in the past year. 
• Rates were highest in Oceania followed by Africa, with 49% of girls reporting intimate partner violence in Papua New Guinea and 42% in Democratic Republic of Congo. 
• The lowest rate was Europe where 10% reported incidents.
• According to the UN, 1 in 5 young women worldwide (19%) were married in child hood in 2022. 

16. Crew members for Axiom-4 

• India has shortlisted two astronaut-designates for the upcoming Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station. 
• The Indian astronauts Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair have been shortlisted. 
•  The Axiom-4 mission is the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. 
•  Among them, Mission Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla was finalized by Ax-4.
• The other 3 members are: o NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson o Polish Sławosz Uznański (ESA), and o Tibor Kapu of Hungary. 

17. Chandrayaan-3 team, ex-IISc Director win top science awards 

•  Tment has an- nounced the first set of Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar, or national awards for scientists, ever since it controversially cut down the number of such awards in 2022. Thirty-three of these awards, slated to be given on August 23, National Space Day to mark Chandrayaan-3's moon landing, were announced on Wednesday. 
• Following the overhaul of the scientific awards scheme, the Ministry of Science and Technology in January this year had notified four categories of awards, comprising a maximum of 56, for scientists. These are up to three Vigyan Ratna to recognise life-time achievements and contributions made in a given field of science and technology, up to 25 Vigyan Shri to recognise distinguished contributions, up to 25 Vigyan Yuva: Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award to recognise and encourage young scientists who made an exceptional contribution, and up to three Vigyan Team awards to recognise a team of three or more scientists/researchers/innovators who have made an exceptional contribution working in a team. 
• Noted biochemist and former Director of the Indian Institute of Science, G Padmanabhan, was announced as the winner of the Vigyan Ratna. Thirteen scientists spanning a diverse set of fields from physics, chemistry, mathe-matics, atomic energy, biological sciences, earth sciences were awarded the Vigyan Shri and 18 scientists were nominated for the Viyan Yuva. 
• The Vigyan team award went to ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 team. The awards are expected to be given at a ceremony on Au- gust 23 here. The awards this year were decided by a nomination process on a portal maintained by the Union Home Ministry that is a repository of a range of national awards.