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  • Current Affairs 22nd August 2017

    Updated : 22-Aug-2017

    Current Affairs 22nd August 2017 - Important Points

    • TDRS-M Satellite to help astronauts communicate with Earth launched by - NASA
    • Polish-US writer Janusz Glowacki passed on - 19th August 2017
    • Arabian cap-shaped World Cup stadium to be built for FIFA 2022 in - Qatar
    • RBI to issue new fluorescent blue Rs 50 banknotes on - 18th August 2017
    • Compassionate family pension instead of employment to be launched by - Assam government
    • India’s first calf born to surrogate cow in - August 2017
    •  Physical police verification of passport to be replaced with - Online verification
    • New Android version named Oreo introduced by - Google
    • Who has been selected for 2017 Global Agriculture Leadership Award ? - K Chandrashekhar Rao
    • Anti-dumping duty on tempered glass from China imposed by - Union Government

        Current Affairs 22nd August 2017 - Details

      TDRS-M Satellite to help astronauts communicate with Earth launched by - NASA

    NASA launched Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-M) to help astronauts at the International Space Station in communicating with the Earth on 18th August 2017. This USD 408 million Boeing-made satellite was sent into space through United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket and it was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

    The TDRS-M satellite will be facilitating space-to-ground communication for NASA’s low-Earth orbit operations.
    It will be making sure that scientists, engineers and control room staff can readily access data for missions like the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station.
    It will be supporting critical space communication into the mid-2020s. The 7600 pound TDRS-M satellite is the last of 13 such satellites that have been launched since 1983 and it is designed to last at least 15 years.
    More about NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite series

    • It has been revolutionizing mission operations for US human spaceflight and robotic craft since 1983 continuously.
    • The TDRS system plays a very important role in human spaceflight by supporting continuous communication between the International Space Station and Mission Control.
    • The TDRS network receives signals from vehicles like the space station flying at a mere 250 miles above Earth and routes the telemetry,video,  voice, and science information to a dedicated ground terminal.
    • It also helps in tracking the rockets launching including the Atlas V.
    • NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite series is now in its fourth decade.
    • Currently NASA has 7 operational TDRS satellites- two launched by the space shuttle in 1993 and 1995 and five were launched by Atlas rocket birds from 2000 to 2014. NASA also has two aged shuttle-era craft between 1988 and 1991 that are now held in reserve due to diminished capabilities.

    Polish-US writer Janusz Glowacki passed on - 19th August 2017

    Renowned Polish-US playwright and screenwriter Janusz Glowacki passed away on 19th August 2017. Glowacki was the author of award-winning plays “The Fourth Sister” and “Antigone in New York”.
    More about Janusz Glowacki

    • Born in Poznan, Western Poland in 1938, Glowacki made a name for himself in the 1960s with
      short stories and screenplays including one for the movie “Hunting Flies” by Andrzej Wajda.
    • His absurd and dark humour was also helpful to protect his works from censors like the 1970 movie 'The Cruise' that in complicated showed the absurdities of life under communism in Poland.
    • He settled in the early 1980s in New York, and decided not to return to Poland after its communist authorities imposed martial law on him.
    • His drama “Hunting Cockroaches” won the Hollywood Drama League Critics Award in 1987.
    • His play 'Antigone in New York' was awarded with the Le Balladine Award in Paris as the best play of 1997.
    • While, In 2001 “The Fourth Sister” won the main Grand Prize at the International Theatre Festival in Dubrovnik.

    Arabian cap-shaped World Cup stadium to be built for FIFA 2022 in - Qatar

    The organisers of the 2022 FIFA World Cup announced on 20th August 2017 that Qatar, the host nation, would be building  a stadium shaped like an Arabian skull cap for the event.
    The gulf state has moved ahead with its preparations for the big tournament despite rising tensions
    due to a diplomatic rift with its Arabian neighbours.
    Four Gulf States including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates boycotted Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of supporting and sponsoring terrorism- a charge that Qatar
    has denied in response. These states not only cut off all links with Qatar but also imposed economic sanctions on it.
    Despite that boycott, Qatar has got food flown in from Turkey and Iran and chartered ships through Oman to bring in construction material required for World Cup building projects.

    Important Details

    • The stadium called Al Thumama is located in Doha and a Qatari architect will be designing it in the shape of a traditional knitted "gahfiya" Arabian cap.
    • It is estimated to host around 40000 fans in the World Cup quarter-final match.

    RBI to issue new fluorescent blue Rs 50 banknotes on - 18th August 2017

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced Rs 50 banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, bearing signature of Urjit R. Patel, Governor of Reserve Bank of India on 18th August 2017. The bank will shortly be issuing these new 50 denomination banknotes which are fluorescent blue in color. The banknote dimension will be 66 mm x 135 mm. The new notes have motif of Hampi with Chariot on the backside, depicting the country’s cultural heritage.

    The note has other designs also with other geometric patterns aligning with color scheme on both sides at the reverse and obverse sides. However, all the banknotes in the denomination of Rs 50 issued by the Reserve Bank in the earlier series will be continuing to be legal tender.

    Compassionate family pension instead of employment to be launched by - Assam government

    The state government of Assam announced on 20th August 2017 that it would be launching a new scheme called Scheme for Compassionate Family Pension (CFP) in place of Compassionate Appointment, as the former approach didn’t serve the objective due to practical difficulties in implementation such as lack of educational qualifications and non-availability of vacancies.
    Also Only five percent vacancies can be filled under that appointment.
    • Further, a standing high court ruling stated that if the next of kin of a deceased doesn’t get appointment within three years of the employee’s death then, the appointment can not be claimed later on by that person.
    • Other problems was that the deceased employee’s next of kin cannot get a post where his guardian worked even if he/she has the required qualification.

    Key Guidelines of the new Scheme:

    • Incase the employee dies before superannuation, the family pension equal to 100% of the last pay drawn by the deceased employee be paid for a period up to the date of ‘deemed superannuation’ of the deceased employee, which is the date on which the employee would have superannuated had he been alive.
    • The last pay drawn for this purpose will be the last basic pay (pay in the pay band plus grade pay). In addition to that, the Compassionate Family Pensioner will also be getting the applicable Dearness Relief and other Relief amounts as admissible in the normal family pension.
    • This CFP is fixed at 100% of the last pay drawn will get revised periodically as and when normal pension/family pension are revised.
    • Once the date of deemed Superannuation is attained; the CFP will be converted into normal Family Pension. This normal family pension shall be fixed at 50% of
    • CFP from the date of deemed superannuation till 67 years of age of that deceased employee. 

    India’s first calf born to surrogate cow in - August 2017

    Surrogate cow delivered India’s first calf through In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) technology carried out in a mobile laboratory was born in August 2017 in Indapur, Pune, Maharashtra. The baby calf has been named as Vijay. The basic motto to produce surrogate calf through this IVF technology was to protect indigenous cow breeds in its original form which are getting destroyed due to cross-breeding.
    Important Highlights

    • The donor cow, Ratan, belongs to the Gir breed, whose population is around one lakh currently across the country.
    • The Gir breed unevenly spread across Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
    • JK BovaGenix , under the guidance of JK Trust’s initiative has aimed to promote genetically superior indigenous cattle breeds, the oocytes (immature eggs) of the donor  cow were collected from the Rachana Cow Farm which is owned by a Pathan family in Indapur, on 9th November 2016.
    • The oocytes were then kept in a special incubator, which worked as an artificial uterus, for next 24 hours.
    • In between semen was collected from a Gir bull. The process of fertilisation then started in a petridish inside the incubator at a temperature of 38.5 degree celcius.
    • After a week, the oocytes developed into an embryo, which was then transferred to the recipient cow.
    • The embryo can be transferred to the cow seven days before its oestrus cycle. Its body will then be accepting it as its own embryo and the chances of pregnancy will be increased.

     Physical police verification of passport to be replaced with - Online verification

    The Union Government is planning to connect the procedure with the national database of crimes and criminals,CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems). The Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi during an event in New Delhi shared this information.

    Mehrishi stated that the CCTNS is expected to be linked with the passport service of the External Affairs Ministry and it will be replacing physical police verification for passport applicants with online verification within an year.

    He revealed that in some of the states, the police were already using the wide database for the passport credentials. Now, after this development, the police would be given hand held devices to go to an applicant's address and his/her details will be uploaded with the network. It would not only minimise contact with the police but minimize time as well.

    The move follows the launch of a digital police portal under the CCTNS project by Home Minister Rajnath Singh,aiming to create a national database of crimes and criminals and connect country's all 15398 police stations with it. The new portal will also be allowing citizens to report crime and request antecedent’s verification online.

    New Android version named Oreo introduced by - Google

    Google officially introduced final version of Android 8.0 named as Oreo, previously it was known as Android O on 21st August 2017. It is smarter, faster and more powerful than all of the previous versions. It comes with new features like picture-in-picture and Autofill to help navigating tasks seamlessly.

    More about Android Oreo

    • Android Oreo is more secure with Security Status Front, inbuilt Google Play Protect and tighter app install controls.
    • Google Play Protect detects and remove harmful apps by scanning more than 50 billion apps on 2 billion devices daily.
    • Picture-in-picture feature will help you text, browse the web and read emails while watching a video on YouTube.
    • Autofill on Android Oreo also remembers things like logins with permission to quickly get you into your favourite apps.
    • Android Instant Apps gives you access to apps with no need to download them.
    • With Android Oreo, one can get started on tasks more fastly than ever with a faster boot speed.
    • It will be minimizing unintentional overuse of battery from apps in the background.
    • Android Oreo also brings along a team of fully-redesigned emojis with more than 60 new emojis.
    • This new version also makes viewing notifications easier. Now, the notification dots will be appearing on app icons which users can tap to quickly see what's new without opening the app fully.

    Who has been selected for 2017 Global Agriculture Leadership Award 2017? - K Chandrashekhar Rao

    Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was selected for the prestigious Global Agriculture Leadership Award 2017 on 21st August 2017 by the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA).

    He was also selected for the award for his innovative services rendered to the welfare of farm sector and farmers. He launched various initiatives for the farmers welfare in the state such as to provide free power to farmers, waiving off 1 lakh loan for every farmer, supplying fertilizers in time and announced to credit 4000 per acre per crop to every farmer.

     More about Global Agriculture Leadership Award

    • The Indian Council of Food and Agriculture instituted the award in 2008 and since then, it is presented every year.
    • A Committee headed by agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan recommended his name.
    • The award will be presented to him on 5th September 2017 at Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi.

    Anti-dumping duty on tempered glass from China imposed by - Union Government

    The Union Revenue Department has issued a notification to impose anti-dumping duty on tempered glass imported from China for five years in order to protect the domestic industry from low-cost imports.

    The duty has been imposed on 'textured toughened (Tempered) Glass with a minimum of 90.5 percent transmission having a thickness less than 4.2 mm including tolerance of 0.2 mm and where at least one of the dimension exceeds 1500 mm, irrespective of the coating.
    The type of glass is generally used to protect mobile phone screens. The DGAD also concluded that the cheap imports from China are also causing material injury to the Indian domestic industry.
    The imposed anti-dumping duty will going to be effective for a period of five years.
    Important Highlights

    • India imposes the anti-dumping duty to protect its domestic industry from an increase in cheap price imports, especially those ones which are from China.
    • Government has imposed an anti-dumping duty on 93 products imported from China till date.
    • The products include a broad group of chemicals and petrochemicals, products of steel, other metals, rubber or plastic products, machinery items, fibres and yarn, electric and electronic items and consumer goods among others.
    • As a result, India's imports from China marginally went down to $61.28 billion in 2016-17 in comparison to $61.7 in the previous fiscal year.