Current Affairs is the most important area in all competitive exams. But the difficulty level is very high. That’s why; many aspirants get confused, how to select Current Affairs for Preparation of Competitive Examination? In this Post, Daily Current Affairs 14 August 2021, we have tried to cover each and every point and also included all important facts from National/ International news that are useful for upcoming competitive examinations such as UPSC, SSC, Railway, State Govt. etc.
Daily Current Affairs 14 August 2021
Assam Assembly passed Cattle Preservation Bill, 2021
The Assam Assembly recently passed the Cattle Preservation Bill, 2021 aimed at regulating slaughter, consumption and transportation of cattle in the state.
The legislation seeks to ensure that permission wasn’t granted to areas that are predominantly inhabited by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and other non-beef eating communities or places that fall within five- kilometre radius of a temple, satra or any other institution as maybe prescribed by the authorities.
Cattle slaughter, especially cow slaughter is a controversial topic in India because of the cattle’s traditional status as an endeared and respected living being to some sects of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism while being considered an acceptable source of meat by Muslims as well as adherents of other non-Dharmic Religions in India, such as Zoroastrianism (although some Zoroastrians do not eat beef), and the Animistic and Abrahamic religions etc.
More specifically, the cow’s slaughter has been shunned because of a number of reasons such as being associated with god Krishna in Hinduism, cattle being respected as an integral part of rural livelihoods and an economic necessity.
Legislation against cattle slaughter is in place throughout most states of India except Kerala, Goa, West Bengal, and states of Northeast India.
India’s renewable energy capacity crosses 100 gigawatts
India’s renewable energy capacity has crossed the milestone of 100 gigawatts (GW).
Today India stands at 4th position in the world in terms of installed RE capacity, 5th in solar and 4th in wind in terms of installed capacity.
If large hydro is included the installed RE capacity increases to 146 GW.
While 100 GW has been installed, 50 GW is under installation and 27 GW is under tendering.
India has also enhanced its ambition to install 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
Anurag Singh Thakur launched nationwide Fit India Freedom Run 2.0
Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports Anurag Singh Thakur launched nationwide Fit India Freedom Run 2.0 to celebrate 75 years of Independence.
Along with Delhi Fit India Freedom Runs 2.0, programme will be organised in 9 other iconic locations across the country.
Each week programmes will be held in 75 districts and at 75 villages in each district till 2nd October 2021. Thus, Fit India Freedom Runs will be organized in 744 Districts, 75 villages in each of the 744 Districts and 30,000 Educational Institutions across the country.
The aim of the campaign is to encourage people to take up fitness activities such as running and sports in their daily lives and get freedom from obesity, laziness, stress, anxiety, diseases etc.
Through this campaign, citizens will be given call to make a resolve to include physical activity of at least 30 minutes daily in their lives “FITNESS KI DOSE AADHA GHANTA ROZ”.
The key activities of Fit India Freedom Run 2.0 include pledge, rendering of National Anthem, Freedom Run, cultural functions at venues, awareness among Youth Volunteers to participate and also organize similar Freedom Runs in their villages.
The first-ever joint naval exercise between India & Saudi Arabia
India is conducting its first-ever naval exercise with Saudi Arabia called “Al-Mohed Al-Hind”.
Indian Navy’s guided-missile destroyer INS Kochi reached the Jubail port in Saudi Arabia for the “Al-Mohed Al-Hindi 2021” exercise.
The harbour phase of the “Al-Mohed Al-Hindi 2021” exercise began with the sea-based drills taking place subsequently.
The exercise is taking place amid rising tension in the Gulf region after a drone attack on a merchant tanker off Oman killed a British national and a Romanian citizen over a week back.
All India Elephant and Tiger population estimation exercise
All India Elephant and Tiger population estimation exercise to be done in convergence for the first time in 2022.
Minister for Environment released the population estimation protocol to be adopted in the exercise to be taken up for the All India elephant and tiger population estimation in 2022.
The protocol was released on the occasion of World Elephant Day.
The programme also witnessed release of the fourth edition of the quarterly newsletter “Trumpet” of the Elephant Division of the Ministry.
Asian elephants are listed as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.
Indian Elephant has also been listed in the Appendix I of the Convention of the Migratory species in the recently concluded Conference of Parties of CMS 13 at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat in February 2020.
Tata Group to foray into semi-conductor manufacturing
Tata Group is looking to enter semiconductor manufacturing as part of its plans to ramp up its presence in the electronics space.
Currently, the world is experiencing a shortage of chips and semiconductors that have become essential not only for new-age technological products like smartphones and computers, but also for traditional sectors like automobiles.
Several carmakers in the world have delayed deliveries of their vehicles and even pushed the launch of new vehicles because of the chip shortage. Tata Motors’ UK-based unit Jaguar-Land Rover has also done so.
For the Tata Group, while a foray into chip making would mean entering a lucrative business that can find customers not only in India but across the world, it would also be significant for captive use with Tata Motors, Tata Power, etc.
Indonesian army ends “virginity tests” on female cadets
The Indonesian Army ended the “virginity tests” on female cadets which the World Health Organization determined has “no scientific merit or clinical indication,” involves someone placing their fingers into a cadet’s vagina to supposedly assess whether they have had sex.
The use of virginity tests by Indonesian security forces was first exposed by Human Rights Watch in 2014.
According to its investigation, virginity tests have been imposed on thousands of female applicants since 1965, despite the National Police principles that recruitment must be both “nondiscriminatory” and “humane.”
Virginity testing–also known as hymen, “two-finger” or vaginal examination–is an inspection of the female genitalia to ascertain whether a woman or girl has engaged in vaginal intercourse.
A group of United Nations agencies, in a joint statement issued in 2018, called for scrapping of tests meant to assess the virginity of a girl or a woman, describing the practice as a form of gender-based violence and a human rights violation with no scientific basis.
There is no known examination that can prove a person’s history of vaginal intercourse. The practice can cause both immediate and long-term consequences that may be harmful to the physical and psychological well-being of a woman subjected to it.
The sovereign right to taxation
The government of India recently decided to withdraw the retrospective taxation amendment in the I-T Act introduced in March 2012.
In India, the Constitution gives the government the right to levy taxes on individuals and organisations, but makes it clear that no one has the right to levy or charge taxes except by the authority of law.
Any tax being charged has to be backed by a law passed by the legislature or Parliament. A tax “is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution, exacted pursuant to legislative authority”.
Taxes in India come under a three-tier system based on the Central, State and local governments, and the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution puts separate heads of taxation under the Union and State list.
There is no separate head under the Concurrent list, meaning Union and the States have no concurrent power of taxation.
Delhi government launched ‘faceless’ transport services
The Delhi government recently launched an ambitious “faceless” initiative by locking down four Regional Transport Offices (RTO), the one-stop destination for all transport department services ranging from driving licences to transfer of ownership of vehicles.
The RTO offices, where crucial transport-related services are offered, had over the years turned into dens of corruption as the nexus of middlemen and officials covered everything, ranging from issuance of learner’s licenses to change of address in registration certificates (RC).
The “faceless services” scheme seeks to eliminate any scope of corruption by ending the need for people to visit the RTOs.
Aadhaar-based verification will be relied upon in dispensing the services online. A separate provision for those not having or willing to share their Aadhaar details has also been kept.
Upon entering the Aadhaar number, an OTP will be sent to the Aadhaar-linked mobile number of the applicant. The verification of the documents will be done automatically as the application developed by the government will draw details from the central Aadhaar database.
There will be separate provisions for making payments and making digital signatures. In case of learner’s license, e-licenses will be issued instantly after taking the test online.
Hackers Stole $613 Million in Digital Tokens from Poly Network
Hackers recently pulled off the biggest ever cryptocurrency heist, stealing $613 million in digital coins from token-swapping platform Poly Network, only to return $342 million worth of tokens less than 24 hours later.
Poly Network is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions with a focus on allowing users to transfer or swap tokens across different blockchains.
For example, a customer could use Poly Network to transfer tokens such as bitcoin from the Ethereum blockchain to the Binance Smart Chain, perhaps looking to access a specific application.
Poly Network was launched by the founders of Chinese blockchain project Neo.
Poly Network operates on the Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. Tokens are swapped between the blockchains using a smart contract which contains instructions on when to release the assets to the counterparties.
Messi joined crypto craze as gets part of PSG fee in fan tokens
Lionel Messi’s signing on fee at Paris St Germain includes some of the French club’s cryptocurrency fan tokens, in the latest big name endorsement of new digital assets.
Fan Tokens are a type of NFT (non-fungible token) which is a digital-only asset. Like Bitcoin and similar digital currencies, fan tokens are volatile assets and their value can drastically change overnight.
These fan tokens are created by a crypto platform called Socios.
Fans can purchase said crypto tokens with real-world money to gain access to exclusive content and augmented-reality games. Among other rewards and perks, the fan token holders also get to vote on mostly minor decisions related to their clubs.
Govt to ban manufacture, sale and use of single-use plastic items
The Government has notified the plastic waste management amendment rules 2021 prohibiting identified single-use plastic items by 2022.
The manufacturing, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of several single-use plastics will be prohibited with effect from the 1st of July of next year.
The thickness of plastic carry bags will be increased from fifty microns to seventy-five microns with effect from the 30th of September of next month and to 120 microns with effect from the 31st of December this year.
India is committed to taking action for the mitigation of pollution caused by littered single-use plastics.
The waste management infrastructure in the States and Union Territories is being strengthened through the Swachh Bharat Mission.
The Government has taken measures for awareness generation towards the elimination of single-use plastics and effective implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules.
RBI cancelled license of Raigad based Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank
The Reserve Bank has cancelled the license of Raigad based Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank Limited in Maharashtra.
As informed by the Reserve Bank of India, the license of Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank was cancelled due to insufficient capital and earning prospects and its continuance would have adversely affected depositors.
RBI has added that the Commissioner for Cooperation and Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Maharashtra has also been requested to issue an order for winding up the bank and appoint a liquidator for the bank.
RBI has informed that 95 percent of the depositors will receive full amounts of their deposits from Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation.
On liquidation, every depositor would be entitled to receive deposit insurance claim amount of his/her deposits up to a monetary ceiling of Five lakh rupees.
100th birthday of Babasaheb Purandare
Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed best wishes to writer and historian Baba Saheb Purandare on entering the 100th year of his life.
Balwant Moreshwar Purandare, popularly known as Babasaheb Purandare is a writer and theatre personality from Maharashtra, India.
He was awarded with Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award on 25 January 2019.
He is mostly known for his popular play on Shivaji Jaanta Raja which was popular not only in Maharashtra but also in Andhra Pradesh and Goa.
Purandare has also studied the history of the Peshwas of Pune. He is also known for his significant contribution along with Madhav Deshpande & Madhav Mehere as senior party leaders in the early-1970s of Shiv Sena along with Balasaheb Thackeray.
India terms Pakistan Foreign Minister’s comments on Dasu blast as absurd
India has termed Pakistan Foreign Minister’s comments on the recent Dasu blast in which some Chinese workers and others were killed as absurd.
The Dasu Dam is a large hydroelectric gravity dam currently under construction on the Indus River near Dasu in Kohistan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan.
It is developed by Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority, as a key component of the company’s Water Vision 2025.
The project was started in 2017 but faced a delay due to funds and land acquisition disputes.
Work resumed in 2019 after land acquisition and arrangements of funding facility, the World Bank agreed to contributed $700 million of the $4.2 billion as the government of Imran Khan decided to proceed ahead with the construction of the project, as part of his vision of reducing Pakistan’s reliance on non-renewable energy.
