Top Current Affairs 01 and 02 August 2020

Top Current Affairs 01 and 02 August 2020

Top Current Affairs 01 and 02 August 2020: We have collected the latest current affairs for 01 & 02 August 2020 that are important for all competitive exams like Bank, SSC, IBPS, SBI exams. The GK current affairs will help you score more in these competitive exams. Improve your general knowledge with our daily online current affairs. You can also read the daily current affairs on our mobile app.

National News

‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ scheme extended to 4 more states, taking total states to 24

• Four additional states, namely Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttarakhand have been  to the One Nation One Ration Card scheme have been integrated with the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ plan of the Central government.
• With this, now a total of 24 States/UTs are connected under One Nation One Ration Card effective from 01 August 2020.
• These 24 States/UTs includes: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
• Now the beneficiaries will be eligible to receive foodgrains anywhere in these States/UTs through national portability of their ration cards.
• The remaining States/UTs are targeted to be integrated into national portability by March 2021.

Prakash Javadekar represents India in 6th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting chaired by Russia

• The 6th edition of the BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting was held on 30 July 2020 through a video conference.
• The conference was held under the presidency of Russia.
• The Environment Ministers of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) participated in the event.
• The Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar represented India, in the meeting.
• The meeting saw the adoption of BRICS Environment Ministers’ Statement.
• Now India will take over the BRICS Presidency in 2021.

Andhra Pradesh Governor gives nod to two Bills to have three capitals for AP

• Andhra Pradesh is going to become the first state in India, to have three capitals.
• Two Bills: On 31st July 2020, Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan approved the ‘The AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of all Regions Bill-2020’ and ‘APCRDA (Repeal) Bill -2020’, to make them law.
  • The AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020 seeks to create the three capital cities for the state.
  • The AP Capital Region Development Authority (Repeal) Bill, 2020, seeks to abolish the APCRDA formed in December 2014 to develop Amaravati as the state capital.
• Three Capitals: Now as per the new law, Andhra Pradesh will have the Legislative Capital in Amaravati, Executive Capital in Visakhapatnam and, Judicial capital in Kurnool.
  • The offices of the Chief Minister and Governor will be Visakhapatnam
  • The state assembly proceedings will take place in Amaravati
  • The high court will be located in Kurnool

Business News

Apple dethrones Saudi Aramco to become world’s most valuable company

• Technology giant Apple Inc. has become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company in the world on 31st July 2020, surpassing the state oil giant Saudi Aramco.
• The shares of Apple closed up 10.47% on 31 July, giving it a market valuation of $1.84 trillion.
• Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco, which had been the most valuable publicly listed company since its market debut in 2019, now trails at $1.76 trillion as of its last close.

Reliance Power & JERA inks loan agreement with group of banks to set up power plant in Bangladesh

• Reliance Power and Japanese energy major JERA are jointly developing a new 745 MW natural gas-fired thermal power generation project in Meghnaghat in Bangladesh.
• The project will be undertaken by their project company, Reliance Bangladesh LNG & Power, a 51:49 joint venture between Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s Reliance Power and Japan’s JERA Co Inc.
• For this purpose, a loan agreement has been signed by the project company with a group of lenders to avail full financing, totalling to $642 million (approx Rs 4,798 crore), for funding the project.
• The electricity generated from this project will be sold to the Bangladesh Power Development Board for 22 years from the start of commercial operation.

MobiKwik launches personal UPI payment link mpay.me

• Digital wallet company MobiKwik has launched ‘mpay.me’, a UPI-powered payment link service, that will enable users to send and receive money from any UPI payment app.
• Through mpay.me, users and merchants can set up their own mini personal payment link using their mobile number.
• This single link can then be shared anywhere with anyone over chat, SMS, email, etc to collect or send payments instantly.
• This means that using this link, payments can be made through any UPI app like MobiKwik, GooglePay, PhonePe, Paytm.
• This will simplify the payment process in case where a sender and a receiver are on different UPI apps.

Appointments

Hardik Satishchandra Shah Appointed as Personal Secretary to PM Modi

• Hardik Satishchandra Shah, a 2010 batch IAS officer from Gujarat cadre has been appointed as the Private Secretary (PS) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• Shah has been appointed on co-terminus basis.
• He will take over from Rajeev Topno.
• Topno, a 1996 batch IAS officer, has been appointed as senior advisor to the World Bank Executive Director in June, 2020 and is expected to assume his new assignment after 15 August, 2020..
• Currently, Hardik Satishchandra Shah is serving as deputy secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Ivory Coast Defence Minister Hamed Bakayoko becomes new Prime Minister

• Hamed Bakayoko, the Defence Minister of Ivory Coast, has been appointed as the Prime Minister of the country on 30 July 2020. However, he will continue to serve his defence role also.
• The 55-year-old Bakayoko had been acting as the interim prime minister of the country since the sudden death of Amadou Gon Coulibaly on July 8
• He has been holding the defence portfolio since 2017, after serving as interior minister from 2011.

Sports

Indian GM Harikrishna Finishes second in Biel Chess festival

• Indian Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna lost to Poland”s Radoslaw Wojtaszek to settle for silver in the 2020 Biel International Chess Festival..
• 2020 Biel International Chess Festival was the 53rd edition of the annual chess tournament, held in Switzerland.
• Wojtaszek claimed the title with 37 points, just half-a-point more than Harikrishna, who scored 36.5 points.
• It was the first major chess tournament in the world to be played with games on site again since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic!

Veteran Domestic All-rounder Rajat Bhatia Announces Retirement From All Forms Of Cricket

• Domestic all-rounder Rajat Bhatia has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
• Also, he was the part of the Delhi squad which won the Ranji Trophy in the 2007-2008 season in the final against Uttar Pradesh.
• Overall Bhatia played 112 first-class games and 146 T20 matches.

Important Days

Inaugural Muslim Women’s Rights Day observed on 31 July 2020

• In India, the first ever “Muslim Women’s Rights Day” was celebrated across the nation on 31 July 2020, to commemorate the first anniversary of the law against instant triple talaq.
• It was on 31 July 2019, that the triple talaq bill got the Presidential nod.
• The law is formally called the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019.
• It prohibits the practice of instant divorce by Muslim men and any violation of the law is punishable by jail term of up to three years.

World Breastfeeding Week 2020: 1-7 August

• The World Breastfeeding Week is marked every year in the first week of August, between 1 to 7 August to raise awareness on the importance of breastfeeding for mothers and infants
• The theme of World Breastfeeding Week 2020 is “Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet”
• The annual week is organized by WABA, WHO and UNICEF since 1991.

Obituaries

Former Samajwadi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh passes away at 64

• Former Samajwadi Party leader and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh has passed away in Singapore, where he was undergoing kidney transplant treatment.  He was 64.
• Amar Singh, who hailed from Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh, was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time from Uttar Pradesh in 1996 and got re-elected in 2003.
• Singh was a key leader in the Samajwadi Party in 2008, however, was expelled from the Samajwadi Party in February 2010 for alleged anti-party activities.

Padma Shri winning Folk musician Sonam Tshering Lepcha passes away at 92

• Folk musician and Padma Shri awardee Sonam Tshering Lepcha passed away due to old age ailments. He was 92.
• Sonam Tshering Lepcha was born in Kalimpong, West Bengal.
• He had spent much of his time in Sikkim where he played pivot role in the revival of Lepcha culture, which is an indigenous one in Sikkim.
• He was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution in the field of folk music.

Former Taiwan President Lee Teng passes away at 97

• Lee Teng-hui, the former president of Taiwan, has passed away. He was 97.
• He had served as the fourth President of the country, from 1988 to 2000.
• Lee was nicknamed “Mr. Democracy” because, as the president of Taiwan, Lee Teng-hui led its transformation from an island in the grip of authoritarian rule to one of Asia’s most vibrant and prosperous democracies.