Current Affairs 23rd August, 2017

NATIONAL

1. Home Minister Launches Digital Police Portal

Ministry of Home Affairs undertakes steps to integrate the various organs of the Criminal Justice System such as the Police, Courts, Prisons, Prosecution, Forensic Laboratories, Finger Prints and Juvenile Homes with the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) database.

• Launching the Digital Police Portal under the CCTNS project, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said this Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) will be a useful resource for all stakeholders including the policy makers.
• According to Home Ministry, the Digital Police Portal will enable citizens to register FIRs online and the portal will initially offer seven Public Delivery Services in 34 States & UTs, like Person and Address Verification e.g. of employees, tenants, nurses etc, permission for hosting Public Events, Lost & Found Articles and Vehicle theft etc.
• Besides, the portal will enable restricted access to law enforcement agencies on topics such as Antecedent Verification and make assessment of FIRs. 

2. Cloud-Seeding Project of Karnataka Takes off at Jakkur Airfield

Cloud seeding project of the Karnataka took off at Jakkur Airfield. The project - named Varshadhare – has been fully operational and taken up for a period of 60 days.

• Cloud-seeding is a technique employed to increase precipitation in clouds. Experts say precipitation in clouds has been affected recently due to increase in particulate matter in the atmosphere, among other factors.
• Cloud-seeding aims at catalysing the process of precipitation, so that rainfall could be increased by 15-20 per cent in drought-affected areas of the State.
• By introducing impurities such as Silver Iodide, Potassium Chloride and others, the objective is to ensure that the size of the droplets is large enough to fall down as rain.

3. NITI Aayog Launched Mentor India Campaign

NITI Aayog launched the Mentor India Campaign, a strategic nation building initiative to engage leaders who can guide and mentor students at more than 900 Atal Tinkering Labs, established across the country as a part of the Atal Innovation Mission. CEO NITI Aayog, Shri Amitabh Kant unveiled the online nationwide initiative in the capital.

• Mentor India is aimed at maximizing the impact of Atal Tinkering Labs, possibly the biggest disruption in formal education globally. The idea is to engage leaders who will nurture and guide students in the Atal Tinkering Labs. These labs are non-prescriptive by nature, and mentors are expected to be enablers rather than instructors.
• NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission is among one of the flagship programs of the Government of India to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the country to set up the Atal Tinkering Labs across the country. 

4. SC Strikes Down Instant Triple Talaq

The Supreme Court set aside the practice of instant divorce through triple talaq among Muslims, terming it as unconstitutional, illegal and void.

• In a 3:2 majority judgment, the apex court held that triple talaq is against the basic tenets of Quran and hence, is unacceptable. The three judges also said, triple talaq is manifestly arbitrary and violative of the constitution and must be struck down.
• While Justices Kurian Joseph, RF Nariman and U U Lalit held triple talaq as violative of the constitution, Chief Justice J.S Khehar and Justice S Abdul Nazeer were in favour of putting the practice on hold for six months and asking the government to come out with a law.

5. ICMR Inks Deal to Promote Vaccine Development

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has signed an MoU with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) for collaborating on vaccine research and development.

• The MoU was signed between Soumya Swaminathan, the Director General of ICMR and Secretary, Department of Health Research, Manoj Jhalani, Additional Secretary and managing director, National Health Mission, and IVI Director General Jerome H. Kim.
• One of the most successful collaborations was with Shantha Biotech on the development of Shanchol, the world’s first low-cost oral cholera vaccine.
• The vaccine was licensed in India in 2009 and WHO-prequalified in 2011.

BUSINESS 

6. FDI Jumps 37% to 10.4 Billion USD During April-June 2017

Foreign direct investment, FDI, into the country grew by 37 per cent to 10(point) 4 billion US Dollar during the first quarter of the current fiscal. According to the figures of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, DIPP, India had received around eight billion FDI US Dollar during the same period last year.

• The main sectors which attracted the highest foreign inflows include services, telecom, trading, computer hardware and software and automobile.
• Bulk of the FDI came in from Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands and Japan.
• A strong inflow of foreign investments will help improve the country’s balance of payments situation and strengthen the rupee value against other global currencies, especially the US dollar.

APPOINTMENTS

7. I & B Ministry Constituted 40-Member Preview Panel for IFFI

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry constituted a 40-member 'preview committee' with filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri as its convenor to select movies for the international film festival at Goa.

• Film editor Aarti Bajaj, film critic and screenwriter Khalid Mohamed, and film director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury are among the other members of the newly-constituted committee.
• The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be held in Goa from November 20 to 28.
• I and B Ministry had constituted the steering committee and the technical committee for the IFFI.
• Filmmaker Jahnu Barua was appointed as the convener of the new 13-member steering committee, while filmmaker and screenwriter Nagesh Kukunoor was made the head of the 12-member technical committee.

AWARDS

8. National Sports Awards 2017 Announced

Para Olympian Devendra Jhajharia and Hockey player Sardar Singh have been selected for this year's Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.  This award is given to sportsperson for spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field over a period of four year.

• Cricketers Harmanpreet Kaur and Cheteshwar Pujara, shooter PN Prakash, pugilist L. Devendro Singh and Tennis player Saketh Myneni are among the 17 sportspersons who will be given Arjuna Awards this year.
• The Dronacharya awardees are R. Gandhi (athletics), Heera Nand Kataria (kabaddi), G.S.S.V. Prasad (badminton), Brij Bhushan Mohanty (boxing), P.A. Raphel (hockey), Sanjoy Chakraverthy (shooting) and Roshan Lal (wrestling).
• The Dhyan Chand Award will be given to Bhupender Singh (athletics), Syed Shahid Hakim (football) and Sumarai Tete (hockey).
• Apart from a medal and a citation, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardees will receive a cash prize of Rs 7.5 lakh. Arjuna, Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand awardees will receive statuettes, certificates and cash prize of Rs five lakh each.
• The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award are given for performance over a period of four years. The Dronacharya Award honours coaches for producing medal winners at the international level while the Dhyan Chand Award is given for life time contribution to sports development.

9. India Football Star Oinam Bembem Devi Receives Arjuna Award

Oinam Bembem Devi, the flagbearer of Indian women's football for over the past two decades was named the winner of the prestigious Arjuna Award.

• Bembem becomes the second Indian woman footballer to win the award, the first being Shanti Mullick in 1983.
• Bembem made her international debut in 1995 and bowed out on a high after winning the SAF Games Gold Medal in Shillong in February 2015.
• She has hence been closely associated with All India Football Federation (AIFF) for spreading awareness about women's football in India and is actively involved as a scout and Brand Ambassador for FIFA Live Your Goals, India.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 

10. Android Oreo Released by Google

Google has released the latest version of its Android mobile operating system (OS), which is named after Oreo chocolate biscuits.

• It adds a new "picture-in-picture" mode that lets some apps run in a small corner of the screen.
• Google's own Nexus and Pixel phones are expected to be the first to receive the software update.
• New versions of Android can be slow to roll out, and just 14% of Android devices run the previous OS, Nougat.
• Android Oreo introduces measures to help people manage the volume of notifications on their devices, which has been described as "notification diarrhoea".

SPORTS

11. Subroto Cup International Football Tournament Began in Delhi

58th edition of Subroto Cup International Football Tournament began in Delhi.

• A total of 99 teams from India and abroad are participating across three categories in this edition of famous inter-school football tournament. Teams from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Afghanistan and Singapore are participating in this edition.
• The one month long football carnival will be played in three categories Sub-Junior boys (Under-14), Junior Girls (Under-17), Junior Boys (Under-17).
• This season seems to be more promising with a special emphasis on “BETI-BACHAO, BETI-PADHAO, BETI-KHILAO”.

DEATHS

12. Former Manipur CM Rishang Keishing Died

Former Manipur Chief Minister and a member of the first Lok Sabha Rishang Keishing passed away following brief illness in Imphal.He  was 96.

•  Veteran Congress leader Keishing, served as the chief minister of Manipur from 1980 to 1988 and from 1994 to 1997.

About Manipur

• Manipur is a state in northeastern India. It is bounded by Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south, and Assam to the west; Burma (Myanmar) lies to its east.
• Formation: - 21 January 1972
• Capital:-Imphal
• Governor:-Najma Heptulla
• Chief Minister:-N. Biren Singh