Daily Current Affairs and GK | 8 August 2023

Topic: International Appointments

1. Vaibhav Taneja has been appointed by Tesla as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

• Indian-origin Vaibhav Taneja will take the CFO position in addition to his present duties as the Chief Accounting Officer.
• Tesla plans to make India its next key source of a new supplier ecosystem.
• Tesla’s previous finance chief Zachary Kirkhorn declared his decision to step down.
• Tesla is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas, US. Elon Musk is its CEO.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Indian Polity

2. Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Bill 2023 passed by Lok Sabha on 07 August 2023.

• The Bill amends the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005.
• It decriminalises certain offences under it to promote the ease of doing business.
• It seeks to remove the jail term of up to 3 years. It seeks to impose only a penalty of up to ₹1 lakh.
• It seeks to promote newer forms of coastal aquaculture like cage culture and seaweed culture.
• It also aims to improve the Coastal Aquaculture Authority's operational procedures in order to make it more responsive to the needs of stakeholders.
• Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala said the Fisheries department got a total allocation of 3,680 crore rupees from 1947 to 2014.
• Minister said that production of shrimp in the country has increased from 3.22 lakh tons at the end of 2013-14 to 11.84 lakh tons at the end of 2022-23.
• He said the shrimp exports were 19,368 crore rupees at the end of 2013-14 and at the end of 2022-23 it was 43,135 crore rupees.
• The Bill was brought in the lower house in April 2023. It was later sent to the Standing Committee.

Topic: National News

3. CBSE made Health and Physical Education compulsory from I to XII classes.

• Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has now made health and physical education programmes compulsory for class I to XII students.
• The board has directed schools to keep one period of Health and Physical Education each day.
• The government has included Yoga training in the Study in India program. It will encourage yoga seekers from abroad to obtain authentic yoga training in India.
• The health of children is a major concern worldwide. Their health is very important as they constitute a large percentage of our population.
• Many factors like physical, psychological, socioeconomic and cultural influences affect the health of children.
• The involvement of all children in physical activities, games and sports, and yoga is essential for their physical, emotional, social and mental development.

Topic: Committees/ Commissions/Taskforces

4. Government has formed an expert panel to revise anti-discrimination norms in higher universities.

• The Union Education Ministry has constituted an expert committee to revise regulations and guidelines on anti-discrimination.
• It includes discrimination against Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Persons with Disabilities, and other minorities in higher educational institutions.
• The committee will revisit the UGC regulations/schemes concerning the SC/ST/OBC/PwD and minority communities in Higher Educational Institutions.
• It will also suggest measures to make a non-discriminatory environment for SC/ST students in Higher Educational Institutions.
• In 2012, UGC had issued the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutes) Regulations, 2012.
• It will cover all forms of discrimination and gives a mandate for strict grievance redressal cells to solve cases of discrimination.
• The IIT-Delhi has got the mandate to form SC/ST Cell in 2023.
• In the last six months, about half a dozen students from marginalised society have died of suicide on campuses of IIT-Madras, IIT-Bombay, and IIT-Delhi.

Topic: National Appointments

5. Government appointed Sanjay Kumar Agarwal as the new chairman of CBIC.

• Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, a 1988 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, has been appointed as the Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).
• Surjit Bhujabal has been also appointed as a member of CBIC.
• Sanjay Kumar Agarwal will take the place of Vivek Johri as the Chairman of the CBIC.
• Sanjay Kumar Agarwal's appointment will become effective from the date of his assumption of charge.
• Bhujabal is currently Principal Director General at the Directorate of GST Intelligence (DGGI) in New Delhi.
• Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC):
  • It is involved with the formulation of policy related to the collection of customs, Central Excise, Central Goods and Service Tax and IGST.
  • It is a part of the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

6. BIS inked MoU with 35 institutions for collaboration in standardization.

• The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has signed MoUs with 35 institutions for fostering collaboration in standardisation and conformity assessment.
• BIS is also planning to set up a Centre of Excellence for Standardisation in partnership with these institutions for Standardization, testing, and Conformity Assessment, and sharing laboratory facilities.
• The institutions included some prominent NITs, Government and Private Engineering colleges from different states across the country.
• It will pave the way for partner institutions to participate in standardization activities by associating with the technical committees of the Bureau at the national and international levels.
• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS):
  • It is a statutory body functioning under the aegis of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India.
  • It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, of 2016.
  • It was formerly known as the Indian Standards Institution (ISI).
  • It implements different schemes like Product Certification (ISI mark), Management Systems Certification, Hall Marking of Gold and Silver Jewellery/Artefacts and Laboratory Services.

Topic: Indian Economy

7. The anti-dumping duty imposed by India on optical fiber imports from China, Korea and Indonesia.

• The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), a branch of India's Ministry of Commerce, has imposed an anti-dumping duty to protect the domestic industry from cheap rates that capture the market.
• On August 3, the gazette notification issued also mentioned that the imports were adding "injury to the domestic markets."
• Local manufacturers have been complaining that cheap imports, especially from China, are hurting their business.
• The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of five years from the date of publication (unless revoked, substituted, or amended earlier).
• Under the ambitious Bharat Net rural outreach plan, India is undergoing a digitization drive, with commercial operators adding optical fibre to their networks to support 4G and 5G services.
• The anti-dumping duty is likely to provide major relief to both domestic businesses and international companies manufacturing locally.
• Sterlite Industries, Birla Cable, Birla Furukawa Fiber Optics, HFCL, and American Corning are among the big names in the optical fiber business.

Topic: Sports

8. Sports Authority of India (SAI) has launched a short film series 'Halla Bol' under the Umbrella Campaign 'Cheer4India'.

• Its purpose is to encourage athletes going to Hangzhou Asian Games and to spread awareness for these games.
• Twelve such short films will be screened in the coming weeks.
• This will not only encourage the athletes going for the Asian Games but also encourage the youth to join the sports world.
• Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur has said that the Indian contingent is preparing for the 19th Asian Games.
• A series of such films 'Olympic Ki Asha' was launched before the Tokyo Olympics.
• The 19th Asian Games are scheduled to be held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
• The Games were originally scheduled to take place from 10 to 25 September 2022, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Games were postponed to 2023.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Defence

9. The latest edition of the 10-day Malabar exercise will be hosted by Australia for the first time.

• The Malabar exercise is scheduled to begin in Australian waters from August 11-21 with participation from the United States, Japan, India, and Australia.
• The aim of the exercise is to deepen interoperability among key partners, Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, who are also members of the Quad security dialogue.
• The exercise is also designed to deepen the partnership for the Indo-Pacific, for the shared aspiration, for a free, open, and resilient Indo-Pacific.
• Soon after this exercise, the bi-annual naval exercise AUSINDEX will also be conducted between India and Australia.
• The Indian Navy will be represented by its multi-role stealth frigate, INS Sahyadri, and indigenous destroyer INS Kolkata.
• Malabar began as a bilateral exercise between the US and Indian navies in 1992, Japan and Australia joined it in 2007 and 2020 respectively.

Topic: Summits/Conferences/Meetings

10. Digital India RISC-V’ Symposium was organised by IIT Madras.

• On 6 August, MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar participated in the 'Digital India RISC-V' symposium organized by IIT Madras and IIT-M Innovative Technologies Foundation in Chennai.
• Students, industry professionals, researchers, and all those keen to gain insights about the growing RISC-V ecosystem in India attended the event showcasing ‘The future of Electronics in India through the RISC-V pathway’.
• 'RISC' stands for 'Reduced Instruction Set Computer' and 'V' stands for fifth generation.
• The RISC-V project was started in the year 2010.
• RISC-V ISA enables a new era of processor innovation through liberal standards interoperability.
• Its purpose is to provide new open-layer, extensible software, and hardware for the framework that will support computer design and innovation for the next 50 years.
• Professor Kamakoti developed India's first indigenously designed microprocessor 'Shakti' based on RISC-V ISA.
• RISC-V Foundation was established in the year 2015 and IIT Madras was one of its founding members.
• The Government of India had started the DIR-V (Digital India RISC-V) microprocessor program in the year 2022.
• Its basic objective is to prepare microprocessors for the future worldwide by the month of December 2023 and to achieve the goal of silicon and design useful for industries.
• The RISC-V ISA-based design is used by various companies and start-ups. It is open source and free.

Topic: State News/ Uttar Pradesh

11. ‘Prayagraj’ and ‘Naimisharanya’ in UP identified by the Ministry of Tourism as destinations for development under ‘Swadesh Darshan 2.0 (SD2.0).

• These have been identified with the objective of developing sustainable and responsible tourism destinations.
• There are 08 projects of identified thematic circuits in Uttar Pradesh.
• The government launched 'Swadesh Darshan Yojana' (SDS) in the year 2014-15 for the integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits in the country.
• Swadesh Darshan 2.0 aims at holistic development with a view to developing sustainable and responsible tourist destinations.
• The scheme has been revamped with the mantra of “vocal for local”.

Topic: National News

12. G-20, an art exhibition dedicated to the member countries began on 7th August at Bihar Museum, Patna.

• The two-month-long exhibition is titled Together We Art.
• The exhibition will be concluded on October 7.
• The exhibition was inaugurated by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
• 29 countries including India are participating in this exhibition organized by the Union Ministry of Art and Culture.
• Along with this, the Bihar Museum Biennale 2023 has also been started, which will last for five months.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Environment and Ecology

13. As per the Zoological Survey of India publication, 5% of birds in India are endemic.

• The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) recent publication points out that 5% of birds found in India are endemic.
• The publication titled ‘75 Endemic Birds of India’ has been released on the 108th foundation day of the ZSI.
• 1,353 bird species are found in India, which is approximately 12.40% of global bird diversity.
• Out of the 1,353 bird species, 78 (5%) are endemic to India.
• ZSI Director Dhriti Banerjee pointed out that the publication highlights the importance of endemic bird species in the country.
• The publication points out that the 75 bird species belong to 11 different orders, 31 families, and 55 genera.
• The highest number of endemic species (28 bird species) have been recorded in the Western Ghats.
• 25 bird species are endemic to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Five of the endemic birds in India are categorized as ‘Endangered’,17 as ‘Vulnerable’ and 11 are categorized as ‘Near Threatened’ on the IUCN Red List.

Topic: State News/ Telangana

14. Telangana State Legislative Assembly passed Telangana State Road Transport Corporation.

• Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill 2023 has been passed by Telangana State Legislative Assembly.
• It will pave the way for the merger of the TSRTC in the State government.
• Transport Minister P Ajay Kumar introduced the bill in the Assembly after Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan gave her approval.
• The State government will incur an additional burden of around 3000 crore rupees per annum due to this decision.
• Transport Minister P Ajay Kumar said that TSRTC will continue to operate under the administrative control of the Transport, Roads and Buildings Department.
• The existing service rules of the TSRTC will remain in force until fresh rules are framed.