• National

PM Modi releases book on former PM Chandra Shekhar

• PM Modi has released the book on former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar in New Delhi.
• The book titled ‘Chandra Shekhar- The Last Icon of Ideological Politics’ is written by Deputy Chairman in the Rajya Sabha, Harivansh and Ravi Dutt Bajpai.
• The Prime Minister presented the first copy of the book to the Vice President of India, Shri Venkaiah Naidu.

Note:

About Vice President

Term length: 5 years

Residence: Vice President House

Salary: ₹400,000 (US$5,800) per month

Styles: The Honourable (formal), Mr. (informal)

• International

Indian origin Priti Patel appointed as Britain's Home Secretary

• British PM Boris Johnson has appointed Indian origin Priti Patel as Home Secretary.
• She had been a member of the ‘Back Boris’ campaign for the Conservative Party leadership.
• Former Home Secretary Sajid Javid appointed as the Finance Secretary/Chancellor.
• She went on to be appointed to junior ministerial posts, Treasury minister in 2014 and then Employment Minister after the 2015 General Election, before Theresa May promoted her to Secretary of State in the Department for International Development (DfID) in 2016 until she was forced to resign the post in 2017.

Note:

About Britain

Prime minister: Boris Johnson

Capital: London

Currency: Pound sterling

• International

India jumps 5 places to 52nd rank in global innovation index 2019

• India improved its ranking in the global innovation index by five places to 52nd in 2019.
• The GII rankings are published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the WIPO and GII Knowledge Partners.
• Switzerland retained its number-one spot on the index.

• International

International shark meet to be held in Kochi, Kerala at CMFRI

• Representatives from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as well as researchers on shark trade, are to attend the 4-day organised International Shark Meet at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CFRMI).
• A CMFRI release said the global event is jointly organized by the institute and the FAO under the collaborative research project of the two entities on sharks and rays non-fin commodities.
• The meet, which is a first-of-its-kind event in India, would set up a platform for researchers from across the globe working on shark and ray trade to share their experience in the field.
• The meeting would play a major role in refining strategies to promote sustainable fishing and trade on this vulnerable marine resource group.

Note:

About CMFRI

CMFRI: Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute

Headquarters: Kochi

Director: Dr. A. Gopalakrishnan

Founded: 1947

• Economy and Business

Chetak helicopters by HAL delivered to the Indian Navy ahead of schedule.

• The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) delivered one Chetak helicopter to the Indian Navy ahead of its scheduled month of august.
• The documents of the Chopper were handed over to Commodore Vikram
• The Navy signed a contract with HAL in August 2017 for 8 Chetaks to be delivered by August 2020, with the first two by August 2019.
• “The helicopters are fitted with the systems developed indigenously.
• We will also provide support to the copter fleet,” said HAL Chairman R. Madhavan on the occasion.

Note:

About HAL

Headquarters: Bengaluru

Chairperson: Shri R Madhavan

Founder: Walchand Hirachand

Founded: 1940, Bengaluru

• Appointments

Bandhan Bank Appoints SBI’s Sanjeev Naryani As Head of Business

• Bandhan Bank Ltd has appointed State Bank of India’s Sanjeev Naryani as its head of the business.
• He will lead the private lender’s branch banking, wholesale banking, agri-business, retail lending, third-party products and digital banking verticals.
• At SBI, where he worked for 32 years, Naryani was handling the lender’s real estate and housing business as a general manager.

Note:

About Bandhan Bank

Headquarters: Kolkata

CEO: Chandra Shekhar Ghosh

Chairperson: Anup Kumar Sinha

Founder: Chandra Shekhar Ghosh

Founded: 2001

• Appointments

IAS Ajay Kumar Bhalla appointed as Officer on Special Duty in MHA

• Ajay Kumar Bhalla has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• Subhash Chandra Garg will be the Power Secretary.
• Atanu Chakraborty has been appointed as Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs.

Note:

About MHA

Minister Responsible‎: ‎Amit Shah‎    

Formed‎: ‎15 August 1947

Ministry executive‎: ‎Rajiv Gauba‎     

Annual budget‎: ‎₹97,187 crore (US$14 billion)

• Appointments

Former All-India University champion boxer, Kishen Narsi appointed as ASBC chairman

• On July 18, 2019, India’s Kishen Mangaldas Narsi (Mumbai) has been appointed as the Chairman of Asian Boxing Confederation’s (ASBC) competitions commission.
• The ASBC President Anas Naser Al Otaiba confirmed the development through a letter addressed to Narsi.
• Narsi, a former All-India University champion boxer, is a veteran administrator.
• Narsi was an International Referee and Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

Note:

About AIBA

AIBA: International Boxing Association

President: Gafur Rakhimov

Headquarters: Lausanne, Switzerland

Founded: 1946

Main organ: Congress

• Science and Tech

“JATAN”, Virtual Museum software for Digitization of Archaeological Museum

• The National Portal and Digital Repository for Indian Museums is developed and hosted by Human Centres Design and Computing Group, C-DAC, Pune, as per the agreement with Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
• Human Centres Design and Computing Group, being a technical expertise, developed JATAN: Virtual Museum software which is used for creating the digital collections in various museums and digital archival tools that are used in background for managing the National Portal and Digital Repository for Indian Museums.

Note:

About Maharashtra

Capital: Mumbai

Sex ratio (2011): 929 ♀/1000 ♂

Chief minister: Devendra Fadnavis

• Science and Tech

ISRO to launch India’s 1st solar mission Aditya-L1 in the first half of 2020

• On July 23, 2019, The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced that it will launch its first solar mission Aditya-L1 in the first half of 2020.
• It will be the first dedicated scientific mission to study Sun’s corona.
• This is the outer layer of the Sun, extending hundreds of thousands of kilometres.

Note:

About ISRO

Director: Kailasavadivoo Sivan

Headquarters: Bengaluru

Founder: Vikram Sarabhai

Founded: 15 August 1969

• Defence

The Indian Army appointed Naravane as its new vice chief

• Current General Officer Commanding in-Chief, Eastern Army Command, Lieutenant General Manoj Mukund Naravane has been appointed as the next vice chief of the army staff in the Indian Army.
• He succeeds Lieutenant General D. Anbu who is retiring next month.
• Naravane will be the senior most army officer when the incumbent Army Chief General Bipin Rawat retires on December 31.
• Naravane was commissioned into the 7th Sikh Light Infantry in June 1980.
• He has handled several appointments in peace, field and active counter-insurgency environments in the North-East, Jammu and Kashmir and as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka.

Note:

About Indian Army

Motto: “Service before Self”

Founded: 1 April 1895, India

Headquarters: New Delhi

Commander-in-Chief: President Ram Nath Kovind

• Obituaries

Former Chinese premier known as 'Butcher of Beijing' dies aged 90

• Former Chinese Premier Li Peng has died at the age of 90.
• He was best known as the ‘Butcher of Beijing’ for his role in the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989.
• He was the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China.

Note:

About China

President: Xi Jinping

Capital: Beijing

Currency: Renminbi

• States

Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy submits resignation to the Governor

• The Chief Minister (CM) of Karnataka H D Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal (Secular) submitted the resignation to the Governor Vajubhai Vala after the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government lost majority in Karnataka Assembly.
• The resignation was accepted with immediate effect but Kumaraswamy was asked to continue as caretaker CM till alternative arrangements were made.
• He served as the CM for 14 months.

Note:

About Karnataka

Chief minister: H. D. Kumaraswamy

Capital: Bengaluru (Executive Branch)

Governor: Vajubhai Vala

• States

Monkeys declared as ‘vermin’ in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

• Monkeys have again been declared vermin for the next one year in 11 districts’ 91 tehsils and sub-tehsils of Himachal Pradesh.
• The Centre has issued a notification on February 14, 2019, and declared monkeys as a vermin in 91 tehsils and sub-tehsils, which was published in the Gazette of India on February 21, the minister said adding this notification would be applicable for a period of one year.

Note:

About Himachal Pradesh

State Bird‎: ‎Western Tragopan        

State Tree‎: ‎Deodar

State Animal‎: ‎Snow Leopard           

State Flower‎: ‎Pink Rhododendron

• समझौते

NTPC, BHEL ink pact for environment friendly power plant in Chhattisgarh

• NTPC has signed a pact with BHEL to set up an 800 MW technology demonstration plant (TDP) at its power plant in Chhattisgarh.
• TDP shall be based on the advanced ultra- super critical technology.
• The plant can reduce the CO2 emission by 20%.
• The demonstration plant shall be based on the advanced ultra-super critical (AUSC) technology which marks a significant improvement in operational parameters over contemporary super-critical technology.

Note:

About Chhattisgarh

Chief minister: Bhupesh Baghel

Population: 2.55 crores (2013)

Governor: Balram Das Tandon