Hemant Khatri assumed charge as CMD of Hindustan Shipyard Limited

• Retired Commodore Hemant Khatri succeeds Rear Admiral L V Sarat Babu (Retd) and assumed charge as the Chairman and Managing director (CMD) of Hindustan Shipyard limited (HSL), Visakhapatnam
• Previously he was serving as the Director of Strategic Projects HSL.

More than 960 railway stations solarized

• The Indian Railways has solarized more than 960 railway stations. This is being done to achieve the objective of becoming 100% self sustainable for all its power needs.
• Currently, the Indian Railways have orders to place 198 MW of solar roof top in 550 stations.
• Plans of Indian Railways
  • The Indian Railways has set a target of becoming net zero carbon emitter by 2030.
  • Also, it has set to meet all of its consumption needs by solar power alone. This is to be achieved by 2030. In order to achieve this target, the Indian Railways requires 33 billion units of power.
  • Indian Railways has a mega plan to install solar plants of 20 GW in its vacant land by 2030. There are more than 51,000 hectares of vacant land available with the Indian Railways.
• Solar Power Plant by Indian Railways
  • The Indian Railways have set up a solar power plant in Bina, Madhya Pradesh. The solar power from the plant is to be used to power Railway overhead lines. This is the first time in the world, a solar power from a power plant is used to run trains.
• Railway Energy Management Company
  • It was established in 2013. It is a joint venture of the Ministry of Railways and RITES Limited. The RITES Limited holds a share of 51% and the Indian Railways holds 49%. The company was begun to tap the business potential in the energy sector by setting up renewable energy projects.

Indian Railways develops ‘MEDBOT’ to deliver food, medicines to COVID-19 patients

• Indian Railways has developed a remote-controlled medical trolley named ‘MEDBOT’ to deliver food, medicine to COVID-19 patients.
• At present, ‘MEDBOT’ is providing service in the Central Hospital of the Diesel Rail Engine Factory, Varanasi of Indian Railways.
• Using this robot trolley, food and medicines are being provided without any physical contact with the patients.

About Indian Railways

• Railway Board Chairman & CEO – Vinod Kumar Yadav
• Union Minister – Piyush Goyal
• MoS – Suresh Angadi

Bollywood Filmmaker Karan Johar authored a Children’s Book “The Big Thoughts of Little Luv”

• Bollywood Filmmaker Karan Johar authored a children’s picture book titled “The Big Thoughts of Little Luv” inspired by his Twins Yash and Roohi.
• The book narrates the story of the twins Luv and Kusha and features the challenges faced by the parents and the difference imposed between the boys and girls by the parents while raising them.
• This is the first picture book authored by Karan Johar.
• Books: Johar Karan released his autobiography titled “An Unsuitable Boy” in 2017.
• He received the Padma Shri Award in the field of Arts in January 2020.

MHA notifies ‘Rules of Transaction of Business’ for the UT of Jammu & Kashmir

• Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notified the ‘Rules of Transaction of Business’ for the Government of Union Territory (UT) of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).
• The rules have been issued under the exercise of powers conferred by section 55 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, read with the Proclamation, dated 31st October, 2019 issued under section 73 of the said Act.
• The new notification delineates roles and responsibilities between the Centre-appointed functionary and Legislators (to be elected in future).
• Police, Civil Services and anti-corruption bureau of Jammu and Kashmir will be under the Lieutenant Governor.
• If the Lieutenant Governor (LG) and Council of Ministers differ on any issue, the LG is required to refer the matter to the President and the LG will act according to the decision taken by the President.
• There will be 39 departments in the Union Territory including agriculture, school education, higher education, horticulture and floriculture.
• The LG will be the final authority in transfer-posting of officers All India Services, Police and Anti-Corruption Bureau.

About J&K

• Capital – Srinagar, Jammu
• Governor – Manoj Sinha

Ministry of Defense sets up committee to review AFHQ

• In order to enhance the combat potential and rebalance defense expenditure, the Ministry of Defense has set up a three-member committee under Lt. General Shekatkar (retd).
• The main task of the committee is to review the utilization of Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Services (AFHCS).
• The Committee is to identify appointments in Inter Service Organizations and Service Headquarters. The main objective of the committee is to help save expenditure of Rs 25,000 crores in the next five years.
• Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Services – The headquarters is responsible to provide civilian staff, support services, secretarial and clerical to the headquarters of Indian Armed Forces. It was established in 1968.

Supreme Court imposes token penalty of Re. 1 on Prashant Bhushan as punishment

• Supreme Court imposed Re. 1 a token penalty on activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan as punishment in criminal contempt case.
• The courts need contempt power to punish willful disobedience to court orders as well as interference in administration of justice and threats to judges. It exists to insulate the judicial system from unfair criticism and also to prevent fall in the reputation of judiciary in the eye of the public.

Coal India to invest Rs. 1.22 lakh crores on 500 projects by 2023-24

• The Coal India Limited is to invest Rs. 1.22 lakh crores to develop 500 projects related to coal evacuation, infrastructure, project development, exploration and clean coal technologies.
• It will also help to achieve production target of 1 billion tones by 2023-24.

About Coal India

• HQ – Kolkata, Chairman & MD – Pramod Agarwal,

NCRB releases data on Farmer Suicides

• National Crime Records Bureau released the data on farmer suicides. This is a part of the report Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India published by NCRB.
• The National Crime Record Bureau released ‘’Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India” report in October 2019. However, it did not include the data on farmer suicides. This created huge controversies in the country.
• The data about farm suicides were available only till 2015. The data of farm suicides of 2016 was submitted by NCRB to the Government in early 2018. However, it was not published.
• The recently released data on farmer suicides say that in 2019 around 42,480 farmers and daily wagers committed suicide. This is an increase of about 6% from the previous year. The other findings of the report are as follows :
  • Around 10,281 farmers committed suicides in 2019. It was 10,357 in 2018
  • In 2019, the number of daily wagers committed suicide were 32,559. It was 30,132 in 2018.
  • Chhattisgarh had the highest suicidal rate in the country with 26.4%
  • The total number of suicides in the country were 1,39,123 in 2019.

About NCRB

• Director – RamphalPawar, IPS
• Headquarters – New Delhi

United Nations Guidelines on Access to Social Justice for people with Disabilities

• The United Nations recently released the first ever guidelines to social justice for people with disabilities in order to make it easy for them to access justice systems in the world.
• The Guidelines are as follows :
  • All persons with disabilities have legal capacities. Therefore, none shall be denied access to justice based on disability.
  • The persons with disabilities have right to accommodations.
  • In order to ensure equal access to justice to the disabled without discrimination, the services and facilities must be universally accessible.
  • The Disabled persons have right to access to legal notices in a timely manner in equal basis with the others
  • The disabled persons are entitled to procedural safeguards that re recognized by the international law on an equal basis with the others. The States shall provide required accommodation in order to guarantee due process.
  • The persons with disabilities have the right to participate in the judicial administration as that of the others
  • They have rights to file a complaint or initiate legal proceedings concerned to human rights violations and crimes.
  • There has to be a robust monitoring mechanism to support access to justice for persons with disabilities.
  • The persons working in the judicial system should be provided with awareness raising and training programmes and address the rights of persons with disabilities.

Union Cabinet approves India-Finland Cooperation in the field of Geology and Mineral Resources

• Union Cabinet approved Memorandum of Understanding between India and Finland for the cooperation in the field of geology and mineral resources.
• The agreement was signed between Geological Survey of India, Ministry of Mines and Geological Survey of Finland and Ministry of Employment and Economy, Finland.
• The MoU will facilitate cooperation in the field of geology, training, suitable analysis and mineral prognostication.
• Finland is rich in minerals such as iron, copper, chromium, nickel and gold.

Capital – Helsinki, President – Sauli Niinistö, PM – Sanna Marin, Currency – Euro

India and Nigeria to deepen their ties on defense, energy and counter terrorism

• India and Nigeria agreed to deepen their cooperation to counter terrorism, piracy and insurgency to boost trade exchanges.
• The countries agreed to their cooperation in defense equipment, maintenance services and medical. They also agreed on regular exchange of information to counter terrorism, insurgency and piracy. During the meet, Nigeria appreciated donation of essential medicines to India. In July 2020, India donated 50 million USD worth essential medicines to Nigeria to fight COVID-19.
• The countries also agreed to strengthen their cooperation in Extradition treaty, mutual legal assistance and transfer of sentenced persons.
• India-Nigeria – India is the largest trading partner of Nigeria. The bilateral trade between India and Nigeria was 13.9 billion USD in 2019-20.
  • Nigeria is rich in oil. Recently, Nigeria stated that India has replaced the United States as its largest oil importer. Around 20% to 25% of oil demand of India is covered by Nigeria. Currently, India purchases 30% of Nigeria’s every day crude oil production
  • Nigeria is the largest crude oil supplier to India in the continent of Africa. India imports 400,000 barrels of oil from Nigeria every day. Per year, India buys oil of 10 billion USD annually.

About Nigeria

• Capital – Abuja
• President – Muhammadu Buhari
• Currency – Nigerian Naira

INDRA 2020 : India-Russia to conduct Naval drills in Andaman Sea

• India and Russia are to hold bilateral naval exercise INDRA 2020 in Andaman Sea, close to strategic Strait of Malacca.
• Three Russian Naval ships are to take part in the exercise on September 4 and 5.
• The exercise comes just after India withdrew from Kavkaz-2020 multinational exercise that is to be held in Russia.

About Russia

• Capital – Moscow
• PM – Vladimir Putin
• Currency – Russian ruble

ICICI Prudential Life Launched AI-Powered Voice Chatbot, ‘LiGo’ on Google Assistant

• ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited (ICICI Prudential Life) has introduced an AI powered voice chatbot, ‘LiGo’, on Google Assistant. LiGo is ICICI Prudential Life’s customer service chatbot.
• This will enable the company’s policyholders to address their queries by simple voice commands.
• It provides an easy to use and convenient service touch-point for customers.
  • Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer – S. Kannan.
  • HO – Mumbai.

Federal Bank &Innoviti Partnered to provide Affordable Options of Federal Bank Debit Cards by Innoviti POS terminals

• To provide convenient and affordable options of Federal Bank Debit Cards through Innoviti Point of Sale (POS)terminals, the Federal Bank and Innoviti Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd (Innoviti) have entered into a partnership, which will offer Equated Monthly Installments(EMIs) options to over 7.5 million Federal Bank Debit Card holders at over 70,000 Innoviti POS terminals across 1000 cities.

About Innoviti Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd

• Registered office – Bangalore, CEO – Rajeev Agrawal

About Federal Bank

• Headquarters – Aluva
• MD & CEO – Shyam Srinivasan
• Tagline – Your Perfect Banking Partner