Today’s Current Affairs: 21st
August 2019
International Affairs:
The India-Maldives MoU on Training
and Capacity Building Programme for Maldivian civil services officers training
has been made operationalized in the ceremony held at the Civil Services
Commission of Maldives at Male.
Pakistan Prime Minister Office
got a 3-year extension of General Qamar Javed Bajwa‘s tenure as Chief of Army
Staff. Bajwa’s original term to end in November 2019.
Sri Lankan field commander
appointed the new Army Commander, the President’s office announced.Lt Gen
Shavendra Silva, 55 take charge as incumbent Army chief Lt Gen Mahesh
Senanayake’s service.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to
pay a 3-day visit to United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. The visit aims to
hold extensive talks with top leaders of the two countries on bilateral,
regional and global issues of mutual interest.
The 5th meeting of the
Nepal-India Joint Commission is to take place from August 21 to 22, 2019 in
Kathmandu, Nepal. The External Affairs Minister (EAM) S.Jaishankar is to
participate in the meeting.
Indian Affairs:
Sadbhavana Diwas is celebrated on
20 August every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of former Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi. This year will be the 75th Birth Anniversary of Rajiv
Gandhi.
The eminent composer Mohammed
Zahur Hashmi passed away on 19 August. He was 92 years old. He died because of
prolonged illnesses.
Economy:
State Bank of India bank debit
cards from the banking system as the bank plans to promote more digital payment
solutions and eliminate the plastic cards.
Science& Technology:
Indian’s first-ever mission aimed
for a soft landing on the Moon’s south polar region, Chandrayaan-2, was
inserted into Moon’s orbit on 20 August. The entry was confirmed by the Indian
Space Agency, ISRO.
The Indian railways enabled free
Wi-Fi at its 3000th station. The facility went live at Rajasthan’s Ellenabad on
Monday, with 1,000 stations connected.
India is the largest emitter of
anthropogenic sulphur dioxide in the world as per the data released by
environmental NGO Greenpeace 2019.
K Thangaraj, chief scientist at
the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology(CCMB), Hyderabad, Telangana, won
this year’s J C Bose Fellowship.