Current Affairs 1st September 2017

Current Affairs 1st September 2017 - Important Points

• Karnataka’s Ksheera Bhagya Scheme implementation help given by - Amazon
• President presents National Sports & Adventure Awards 2017 on - 29th August 2017
• IAS officer Rajiv Gauba takes charge as Union Home Secretary on - 31st August 2017
• Rajiv Mehrishi appointed as Comptroller and Auditor General on - 31st August 2017
• Sunil Arora appointed Election Commissioner on - 31st August 2017
• Annual conference ‘Rajaswa Gyan Sangam’ in Delhi inaugurated by - PM Modi
• ISRO's launch of IRNSS-1H satellite gone - Unsuccessful
• Anita Karwal replaces RK Chaturvedi as CBSE chairperson on - 31st August 2017
• Rajiv Kumar appointed as new DFS Secretary on - 31st August 2017
• Konkani writer Mahabaleshwar Sail receives 2016 Saraswati Samman on - 31st August 2017

Current Affairs 1st September 2017 - Details

Karnataka’s Ksheera Bhagya Scheme implementation help given by - Amazon

Amazon announced on 30th August 2017 a partnership with the Akshaya Patra Foundation to implement the Karnataka Government’s Ksheera Bhagya Scheme in the city. Under the scheme, the school children of the city would be provided a glass of milk each five days of a week. This scheme is to be started to ensure that children start their day in school with a healthy glass of milk, which is rich in protein and fat, important for healthy growth and all-round development of them.
The partnership between Amazon Cares and Akshaya Patra will be enabling Akshaya Patra to implement the Ksheera Bhagya Scheme to provide milk to school children for five days of the week for this entire academic year. The partnership is aiming to reach out to 170000 children across 1300 government schools in the state.

More about Ksheera Bhagya Scheme

• Karnataka Milk Federation launched this Ksheera Bhagya Scheme with the association of Lower and Higher Education Department, Women & Child Department of Karnataka State on 1st August 2013.
• The scheme is aiming to provide nutrition through milk to students of government schools and anganwadis across the state.
• Children studying in classes 1 to 10 and those in anganwadis will be the benefeciaries.
• In the beginning, 8 lakh litres of milk was being served under the program on each of the three days; i.e., Monday, Tuesday and Friday.
• When the milk production in the state went up to 63 lakh liters a day from 35 lakh liters a day, the government has announced that the children will now be served milk on five days in a week.

President presents National Sports & Adventure Awards 2017 on - 29th August 2017

President Ram Nath Kovind presented the National Sports and Adventure Awards 2017 at Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of National Sports Day on 29th August 2017. The awardees were announced on 22nd August 2017.

Important Details

• Sardar Singh (Hockey) and Devendra (Para Athelete) were awarded with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna 2017.
• Late Dr. R Gandhi (Athletics), GSSV Prasad(Badminton - Lifetime), Brij Bhushan Mohanty(Boxing - Lifetime), PA Raphel(Hockey - Lifetime), Sanjoy Chakraverthy (Shooting - Lifetime), and Roshan Lal (Wrestling - Lifetime) were awarded with Dronacharya Awards 2017.
• Bhupender Singh (Athletics), Syed Shahid Hakim (Football) and Sumrai Tete (Hockey) awarded with Dhyan Chand Award 2017.
• Premlata Agrawal (Land Adventure), More Rohan Dattatrey (Water Adventure), Ashok Abbey (Life Time Achievement) and Ved Prakash Sharma (Life Time Achievement) awarded with Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2017

IAS officer Rajiv Gauba takes charge as Union Home Secretary on - 31st August 2017

Senior IAS officer Rajiv Gauba took charge as the new Union Home Secretary on 31st August 2017.
The 1982 batch officer of Jharkhand cadre will be serving at the position for two years only. He succeeded Rajiv Mehrishi, a 1978 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer who retired from the service on 30th August.
More about Rajiv Gauba

• Rajiv Gauba joined the Ministry of Home Affairs on 27th June as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) after his appointment as the new Home Secretary.
• The Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared Gauba's appointment as the new Union Home Secretary on 21st June.
• The 58-year-old was serving as Secretary in the Urban Development Ministry before this.
• This is Gauba’s second stint in the Home Ministry, as he has earlier served as the Additional Secretary where he looked after the Left Wing Extremism division of the Ministry.
• He was later appointed as Chief Secretary of Jharkhand for the period of 15 months.
• Gauba has also served at the Center in the Ministries of Defence, Environment and Forests and Department of Electronics and Information Technology in various roles.

Rajiv Mehrishi appointed as Comptroller and Auditor General on - 31st August 2017

Rajiv Mehrishi was appointed as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on 31st August 2017. Mehrishi retired as Union Home Secretary on 30th August 2017. Mehrishi will be succeeding incumbent Shashi Kant Sharma who will goin to complete his tenure on 23rd September 2017.

Mehrishi  will going to be  the first Home Secretary who has completed his two-year tenure after the NDA government has come to power.

More about Rajiv Mehrishi

• Mehrishi is a 1978-batch IAS(Indian Administrative Service) officer of Rajasthan cadre.
  In 2015, He was appointed as Home Secretary.
• He served as the Finance Secretary prior to his appointment as home secretary.
• In December 2013, He also held the post of Chief Secretary of Rajasthan.
• He has also done his business administration from Strathclyde Business School, Glasgow.
  and BA and MA (History) from the St Stephen’s College in Delhi.

Sunil Arora appointed Election Commissioner on - 31st August 2017

Former bureaucrat Sunil Arora was appointed the Election Commissioner of India on 31st August 2017.
Achal Kumar Joti is the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Om Prakash Rawat is the other Election Commissioner.
Before being appointed as the Election Commissioner, Arora was servicing the Information and Broadcasting Secretary, and Secretary in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship before being appointed as EC.
A 1980-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, Arora has worked in various ministries such as Textiles, Finance, and Planning Commission. He also served as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation between 1999 and 2002 and CMD, Indian Airlines for five years.
More about Election Commission of India

• It is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering election processes in India.
• The body administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, state Legislative Assemblies in India, and the offices of the Vice President and President in the country.
• The body works under the authority of Constitution per Article 324, and subsequently enacted Representation of the People Act.
• Under the Constitution, The commission has the powers to act in an appropriate manner when the enacted laws make insufficient provisions to deal with a given situation in the conduct of an election.

Annual conference ‘Rajaswa Gyan Sangam’ in Delhi inaugurated by - PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the annual conference, Rajaswa Gyan Sangam, 2017 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 1st September 2017.
The conference, jointly organised by the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Central Board of Excise and Customs, will be held from 1st to 2nd September 2017.
Modi inaugurated the function in the presence of Union Finance Minister and Ministers of State (Finance).
The closing function would be conducted on 2nd September 2017.
Important Highlights

• The conference would host several Joint Sessions of the officers of both the Boards.
• One of the plenary sessions was addressed by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev on the first day. He spoke on ‘Inner Engineering – Technologies for Well Being’.
• Central Vigilance Commissioner K V Chowdary will going to address the joint session on the second day.
• Other than this, separate technical sessions of each Board will also be held.
• Discussions will also be held on issues arising in the implementation of policies and strategies in order to achieve targets in core functional areas.
• Crucial issues including Tax Evasion, GST, Customs Reforms, Litigation Management, HR issues and Modernisation are also in the list of discussion.
• For the first time ever, senior officers of the Finance Department of the States and Union Territories will attend the two day event.

ISRO's launch of IRNSS-1H satellite gone - Unsuccessful

ISRO's attempt to launch its eighth regional navigation satellite IRNSS-1H turned out to be unsuccessful on 31st August 2017 after the satellite failed to come out of the heat shield as it was supposed to be. This 1425-kg satellite was launched on board PSLV-C39 into a Sub-GTO (Sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit).
Similar to the previous six launches of IRNSS satellites, PSLV-C39 had used the ‘XL’ version of the PSLV equipped with six strap-ons where each one was carrying 12 tonnes of propellant.

The IRNSS-1H has the ability to deliver accurate information services within Indian territory, and up to a distance of 1500 kms around the borders of India.

This new satellite was being sent to space to replace the India's first navigation satellite IRNSS-1A functions and back up it. IRNSS-1A was launched in 2013.  All three rubidium atomic clocks of IRNSS-1A on board had stopped functioning in mid 2016. These atomic clocks give accurate location data. ISRO has put up seven IRNSS satellites to form the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NavIC) or Navigation with Indian Constellation between 2013 to 2016.
NavIC is the Indian regional version which is similar to the US Global Positioning System (GPS).

Anita Karwal replaces RK Chaturvedi as CBSE chairperson on - 31st August 2017

IAS officer Anita Karwal was appointed as the new Chairperson of CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) on 31st August 2017.
The 1988-batch officer from Gujarat cadre is serving as an additional secretary in HRD Ministry currently.
She was the Gujarat Chief Electoral officer during the Lok Sabha election back in 2014.
She will be taking place of Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi, who has been appointed as Director General of the National Skill Development Agency.
Key Highlights
Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi had been appointed as CBSE chief in July 2016 for the duration of 5 years.
He was 1987 batch IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh cadre.
He could only serve the board for little over an year.
His one-year stint had a series of controversies like:
Errors in Class XII board exam papers evaluation.
The alleged setting of tough questions in the NEET in different languages to select students for medical courses.
(MPs from Bengal and Tamil Nadu had complained about tough questions being asked to students who were taking the NEET in their mother tongue.)
Asking affiliated schools to follow only NCERT published textbooks.

Rajiv Kumar appointed as new DFS Secretary on - 31st August 2017

Senior bureaucrat Rajiv Kumar was appointed as the Secretary in the Department of Financial Services (DFS), as part of a major reshuffle that was brought into effect on 31st August 2017.
In his new position, Kumar is going to succeed Anjuly Chib Duggal, who retired from the post on the same day. The development was announced by an order issued by the DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training).
The authority of the Department of Financial Services covers the financial institutions,functioning of banks, insurance companies and the national pension system
More about Rajiv Kumar

• He is the 1984 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre.
• He was serving as the Special Secretary and Establishment Officer in the Ministry of Personnel.
• He has previously lead several reforms in the Indian bureaucracy.
• He has brought an online system to record the bureaucrat’s annual performance appraisal report and 360 degree system to assess suitability of officers for senior-level jobs among other initiatives.
• He was also an inherent part of the team which implemented assessment of non-performing officers.
• Few IAS, IPS and other civil services officers were sacked on the basis of their performance review done by his team.
• Kumar has also been credited with reforms in senior-level appointments in the government of India by putting an end to the scope of lobby and speculation.

Konkani writer Mahabaleshwar Sail receives 2016 Saraswati Samman on - 31st August 2017

Renowned Konkani writer Mahabaleshwar Sail has been awarded with the Saraswati Samman 2016 for his novel 'Hawthan' on 31st August 2017. The novel 'Hawthan' was published back in 2009. It captured cultural lives of traditional potter community in Goa. A jury presided by the 29th Chief Justice of India (CJI) AS Anand selected Mahabaleshwar for the award.

More about Mahabaleshwar Sail

• He is a bilingual writer lives in Goa and has written four Marathi dramas, 7 Konkani novels, 5 short stories and novels in Marathi.
• He was awarded with the Sahitya Akadami Award in Konkani language for his short story collection ‘Taranga’ back in 1993.
• He had served the Indian Army and participated in 1965 Indo-Pakistani War during his early days.
• He also served as UN peacekeeper at Israel and Egypt border in 1964-1965.