Before we start with the updates for this week, here is a Fun Fact that you may not (or may) know:
Facebook once created two chatbots to talk to each other but they were shut after they started communicating in a language they made for themselves.
Let's start.
August 03, 2020 (Monday)
:::Corona Cases stood at:
Confirmed - 18,03,695
Recovered - 11,86,203
Deceased - 38,135
:::Special Operation Group, SOG, acted on a tip-off and caught Taushif Sama
for carrying ganja in Rajkot. The consignment weighed 57.2kg and is
worth Rs.3 lakh. SOG caught Taushif while he was transporting the
consignment from Surat to Rajkot. Taushif Sama is the owner of
'Merry-go-Round' ride and he has justified his crime by saying that he
did it because he was out of work for three to four months. He is 31
years young with primary education and with no criminal record.
:::Pensioners can now generate their Digital Life Certificate (DLC)
online. DLC is a biometric enabled Aadhar based Jeevan Pramaan that is
valid depending on the rules specified by Pension Sanctioning
Authority. It needs to be submitted every year to get a pension disbursed.
It can be generated using the UMANG app. UMANG is a mobile application
developed by the National e-Governance Division, Ministry of Electronics and
Information Technology. The app can be downloaded by giving a missed
call on 97183-97183.
August 04, 2020 (Tuesday)
:::The figures of Corona Cases, as reported on Aarogya Setu app were:
Confirmed - 18,55,745
Recovered - 12,30,509
Deceased - 39,938
:::Final results were declared for Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) 2019.
The exam consisted of two sections: Written Exam and Personality Test. A
total of 829 candidates qualified the exams and the result of eleven
candidates has been with-held. Pradeep Singh topped the exam, followed
by Jatin Kishore. Pratibha Verma ranked third in the country and topped
the exam among girls. She is an IIT Delhi 2014 graduate who hails from
Uttar Pradesh. The results were declared at the UPSC website.
:::MiG-23,
a retired single seater ground attack plane, got listed on OLX for sale
at Rs.10 crore. It was gifted and installed by Indian Air Force (IAF)
to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 2009. Professor Mohammad Wasim
Ali, the University proctor, issued a statement saying that it has not
taken a step to sell or auction it and that someone tried to defame the
university. The Kargil war retired aircraft was listed on OLX with a
short description saying, "Best Fighter Plane" and the listing has now
been taken down.
:::Indian Army, for the first time in history, deployed Rifle Women
along the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan in Jammu and
Kashmir. It will be led by women at an altitude of Ten Thousand feet of
Sadhana Top along with their male counter-parts. The Rifle Women
deployed are a part of Assam Rifles, which is the oldest paramilitary
force of India. They have also been entrusted with the duty to check for
smuggling of narcotics, fake currency and weapons through the Sadhana
Pass. This has paved way for empowering women officers to shoulder
larger roles in the Army.
August 05, 2020 (Wednesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were:
Confirmed - 19,08,254
Recovered - 12,82,215
Deceased - 39,795
:::Negligence in the discharge of duties came to light at Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve (MHTR),
Rajasthan. Tigress MT-2 was found dead, just a few days after Tiger
MH-3 died of cardiac arrest. One cub also went missing while the other
cub was found critically ill. The lapses in monitoring were exposed even
though the cameras were installed in the reserve. The Rajasthan
Government has removed Anand Mohan, Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF)
and T.Mohan Raj, Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF). Rajesh Kumar
Sharma, Assistant Conservator of Forests, has been suspended. Manoj
Parashar and Bijo Joy have now been appointed as the new CCF and DCF
respectively.
:::Ratan Lal Nath, the Education Minister of
Tripura, announced that the online admission to the state's twenty-two
general degrees will be done online this year. Candidates will have to
submit their photo, signature and marks to register. There will be no
extra charge or fees and telephonic guidance will be made available to
all the candidates to help them with the registration process. Online
admission process starts from August 10, 2020 and ends on August 20,
2020.
:::Suspected militants lobbed grenades and fired gun-shots on joint forces of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu-Kashmir Police
in Bonbazar area of Shopian district of South Kashmir. The joint forces
did not report any loss of life or injury. The whole area was sealed to
nab the attackers. As per the reports, the militants attacked in the
view of the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370. This was the
third attack in twenty-four hours.
:::Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, performed Bhoomi Pujan at Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
The Bhoomi Pujan was attended by Yogi Adityanath and Uma Bharti among
many others. The Ram Temple will be built by the Sompura family of temple
architects. They will be led by a seventy-seven year young man,
Chandrakant Sompura. The temple will be built based on the site plan
prepared by his son, Ashish. The family belongs to Palitana town of
Gujarat. Images of the Lord Ram and design of the temple were displayed
at Times Square in New York.
August 06, 2020 (Thursday)
:::The number of Corona Cases as registered on Aarogya Setu app were:
Confirmed - 19,64,536
Recovered - 13,28,336
Deceased - 40,699
:::A major fire broke out in the ICU of Shrey Hospital
in Ahmedabad. A total of eight patients died and forty patients were
shifted to another hospital. Shrey Hospital was completely dedicated for
the treatment of Covid-19.
:::Sameer Sharma was found
hanging at his Mumbai home in Malad. The case of accidental death has
been registered by the Police; however, it is suspected that he
committed suicide. His body has been sent to a government hospital for
autopsy. Based on the condition of his body, reports have stated that he
may have died two days before. He was a forty-four year young actor
best known for "Yeh Rishtey Hai Pyaar Ke".
:::Demand for used luxury cars and SUVs
went up. The increase in demand is mostly from non-metros like Lucknow,
Jaipur and Ludhiana. OLX saw sales go up by 20% between the months of
February and July. As per used marketers, the sales have increased
because of the sharp increase in prices of BS6 and drop in the purchase
budgets. Ashutosh Pandey, CEO of Mahindra First Choice Wheels, issued a
statement informing that their 60% of sales of used luxury cars is from
non-metros. Marketers have also said that a luxury car depreciates
faster at the rate of around 35%-45%, making it cheaper to buy after the
first owner has used it for three-four years.
:::The Punjab Cabinet
approved distribution of smartphones to the students of government
school to facilitate e-learning. These smartphones will be pre-loaded
with e-content related to class XI and XII as approved by the Department
of School Education. It is estimated that around 1,73,823 smartphones
will be distributed by November 2020. With this, the Punjab Government
is looking to implement, "The Punjab Smart Connect Scheme" that it
announced in its FY 2018-19 budget. The scheme is aimed to provide
digital access to youth and information regarding education, career,
skill and employment opportunities.
:::The Central Government released a financial package
of Rs.890.32 crore to states and union territories to tackle Covid-19. A
total of Rs.15,000 crore fund was announced by the Central Government
on March 24, 2020, out of which a financial package of Rs.3,000 crore
was released in April 2020 as the first installment. The financial
package of Rs.890.32 crore is the second installment announced by the
Central Government.
August 07, 2020 (Friday)
:::The figures of Corona Cases stood as follows:
Confirmed - 20,27,074
Recovered - 13,78,105
Deceased - 41,585
:::Alembic Pharmaceuticals,
a leading manufacturer of pharmaceutical products, raised Rs.750 crore
via QIP (Qualified Institutional Placement) to fund future growth
initiatives such as long lead niche injectable and oncology projects.
These funds will also be utilized for pairing down their debt
obligations. Some of the main investors include TATA MF, HDFC Life,
Sundaram MF, Bajaj Life and Nippon India MF. Alembic has three business
verticals namely: International Generics (58%), Domestic Branded
Formulation (31%) and APIs (11%). The company has its headquarter in
Vadodara, Gujarat.
:::Around Fifty-Two thousand people in Lebanon
signed a petition on a website, "Avaaz" for France to take control for
ten years. The people in Lebanon are currently unhappy with their
Government because of their failing system, high corruption, terrorism
and militia. French President, Emmanuel Macron, visited Lebanon and
announced that France will raise money for food, medicine, housing and
other urgent aid by organizing a conference with European, American and
Middle East and other donors.
:::Covishield, an Oxford vaccine to
fight Covid-19, will head to phase II/III trials in India starting from
next week. With this, it has become the first vaccine to enter the
critical trial in the country. A total of Sixteen Hundred volunteers
have been recruited to observe immunogenicity and safety response of the
vaccine. The vaccine will be marketed by Serum Institute of India
(SII), Pune.
:::The entire country came forward to celebrate National Handloom Day.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the people associated with India's
handloom and handicraft sector. The Prime Minister highlighted the need
to strengthen the efforts for a self-reliant India by being vocal for
handmade products. #Vocal4Handmade trended all over social media.
:::Manoj Sinha
became the first political leader to take charge of Jammu and Kashmir
since the time it became a Union Territory. He took oath as a new
Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He was administered by Jammu
and Kashmir Chief Justice Gita Mittal in Raj Bhavan. He succeeds Girish
Chandra Murmu, former IAS officer, who has now been appointed as the
Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Manoj Sinha is Sixty-One years
young and he is known for his connection with people, particularly in
rural areas.
:::The country remembered Rabindranath Tagore,
also known as 'Bard of Bengal', on his 79th death anniversary. He
passed away in 1941. He was a renowned poet and freedom fighter. He is
known for his major contributions in art and literature. He is the
writer of India's national anthem "Jana Gana Mana", and he is also the
writer of, "Amar Shonar Bangla", the national anthem sung in Bangladesh.
He is best known for, "Gitanjali" and "Ghare-Baire". He is the first
ever Non-European to have won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.
:::Koo
received a cash reward of Rs.20 lakh after it won Government's "Digital
India AatmaNirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge". It received the award in the social networking category and it is being promoted as India's answer
to Twitter. The parameters on which a total of 6,940 entries were
judged are Ease of use, robustness, security features and scalability.
Koo was launched in March 2020 by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank
Bidawatka. It is available for use in many regional languages like
Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu, to name a few. It provides a feature
to update a post with a maximum of 400 characters or a short video of
1-minute. Users can also follow each other, send one-on-one direct
messages and use hyper local hashtags. Some of the famous personalities
using Koo are Ravi Shankar Prasad, Shri Sadguru and Anil Kumble, to
name a few.
That is all for this week. I hope that the blog was useful and it helped you in catching up
with what happened. If you have anything to contribute, then please feel
free to comment. Do share this blog with everyone you know and help them too.
Nice!! Carry on!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It means a lot. :-)
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