Current Affairs 10th August 2019

Current Affairs 10th August 2019 - Important Points

• Bharat Ratna 2019 Awards presented by President of India on - 8th August 2019
• Loan for improving road infrastructure in Maharashtra provided by - ADB
• Attainment of 2 BrahMos supersonic missile batteries for Navy approved by - DAC

Current Affairs 10th August 2019 - Details

Bharat Ratna 2019 Awards presented by President of India on - 8th August 2019

President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, announced Bharat Ratna Awards to Nanaji Deshmukh (posthumously) , Bhupendra Kumar Hazarika (posthumously) and Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati
Bhavan.
Bharat Ratna 2019 Award Winners

• Pranab Mukherjee’s life-long political career covered about 5 decades. He was 13th President of
  India from 2012-2017. He has also worked as the Union Finance Minister from 2009-2012 under
  PM Manmohan Singh.
• Bhupen Hazarika was a legendary Assamese singer and composer who passed away in 2011.
• He was most famous in Bengal and Bangladesh and was accountable for presenting culture and folk music of Assam and northeast India to Hindi cinema.
• He is prevalently known as Sudhakantha, i.e the nightingale.
• Nanaji Deshmukh had been a member of RSS. He is accredited with bolstering Jana Sangh in UP.
• As a social activist, he laid stress on education. He recognized 1st Saraswati Shishu Mandir at
  Gorakhpur in 1950. He has been bestowed with Padma Vibhushan earlier.
  More about Bharat Ratna
• It is highest civilian award of Republic of India. It was introduced in 2nd January 1954.
  1st recipients of Bharat Ratna award in 1954 were C. Rajagopalachari, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
  and C. V. Raman.
• Bharat Ratna receivers rank 7th in order of precedence of Republic of India.
• Bharat Ratna award is bestowed in recognition of exceptional service or performance of highest
  order in any field of human endeavour. Till 2011 the award was originally restricted to
  achievements in fields of arts, literature, science, and public services which was then upgraded.
• Also, original statutes did not deliver for posthumous awards but were revised in 1955 to permit
  them.
  Eligibility
• It is bestowed without distinction of race, occupation, position/sex. Although usually Bharat Ratna
  is bestowed on India-born residents, but it has been bestowed to one naturalised citizen Mother
  Teresa and to 2 non-Indians former South African President Nelson Mandela and Pakistan national
  Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.
• Maximum of 3 nominees can be awarded every year.

Loan for improving road infrastructure in Maharashtra provided by - ADB

Asian Development Bank has sanctioned US $200 million loan for Road Infrastructure Improving project in Maharashtra’s 34 districts for improved connecting rural areas with markets and services. 
The processes of loan from Asian Development Bank will be utilised for upgrading roads in rural areas of these districts to all-weather standards for improving links between local residents and economic centres across the state.
ADB Project for improving road infrastructure

Its complete cost is US $296 million, of which State Government will deliver US $96 million. It will
be executed by Asian Development Bank and Maharashtra Rural Road Development Association. It
will be finished by end of September 2024. Its chief components are evolving road safety, road
asset management, contract management, and climate resilient outline.

It will assist to increase links between local residents, productive agricultural land and economic
centres across the state. It will also assist in civilizing farmers’ access to markets, which in turn will
benefit to enhance agricultural productivity and incomes of farmers and promote investment in
agribusiness and agriculture value chain infrastructure.
More about Asian Development Bank (ADB)

• It is multilateral lending agency and Regional Development bank. It was recognized in December
  1966 and is HQ in Manila, Philippines.
• It predicts inclusive, resilient, prosperous, and sustainable Asia and Pacific and goals towards sustaining efforts to eliminate extreme poverty in region.
• Presently, there are 68-member nation of Asian Development Bank (including India) which includes 49 from Asia-Pacific region and 19 from outside.
• It is jointly owned by its member and is closely modelled on World Bank. Its member nations have similar weighted voting system and votes are distributed in proportion with member’s capital subscriptions to bank.

Attainment of 2 BrahMos supersonic missile batteries for Navy approved by - DAC

Defence Acquisition Council sanctioned attainment of indigenous Software Defined Radio and Next Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Batteries-Long Range for Indian Navy. This was the 1st Defence Acquisition Council meeting led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh since assuming office. Both of these indigenously developed equipment’s are of latest generation and their attainment will issue fillip to Make-in-India initiatives of the Government.
Attainment sanctioned by DAC

• Software Defined Radio (SDR Tactical) is complex and state of art communication system
  indigenously outlined and developed by DRDO, BEL and Weapons Electronics System Engineering
  Establishment.
• It will facilitate data collaboration, sharing and situational awareness through high-speed data and secure voice communication with anti-jamming ability.
• Next Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Batteries -Long Range has been developed and produced in India by Indo-Russia Joint Venture Company-BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.
• It will be equipped with supersonic BrahMos surface-to-surface cruise missiles and will be positioned along the coast.
  Amendments to Defence Attainment Procedure 2016
• Defence Acquisition Council also sanctioned modifications to Defence Attainment Procedure 2019
  to streamline processes under ‘Make’ category and ‘Offsets’.
• This conclusion was taken as in continuity to emphasis on ‘Ease of doing businesses in defence acquisition.