Current Affairs Updates: 23 August

Current Affairs Updates: 23 August

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Do You Know?

Need only 5 days to make nuclear weapon-grade uranium: Iran

• Iran needs only five days to increase uranium enrichment to a level sufficient to make a nuclear weapon, the country's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi has claimed. This comes after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threatened to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers within "hours" after the US imposed fresh sanctions against the country over its missile tests.

National Affairs

Dogged by delays, but cloud seeding project Varshadhari is finally up and cruising

• While the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime and Central clearances delayed Project Varshadhari, a cloud seeding initiative, by at least 10 days, a government ceremony and the frills accompanying it saw a weather modification aircraft miss its date with the clouds.
• On Monday, the 60-day, 35-crore programme was launched at Jakkur Aerodrome with the hope of seeding clouds in a 20-sq. km area at Magadi. Though the modified flight was scheduled to take off at 2.45 p.m., by the time the photo-ops were done and the last-minute decision to flag off with the ‘Kannada’ flag fulfilled, the aircraft — carrying three State Ministers — had lost its clearance window for take-off.

Indian Navy inducts landing craft utility ship LCU L52

• The Navy said the ship would be based in the Andaman and Nicobar command and can be deployed for multirole activities like search and rescue as well as disaster relief operations.
• The LCU L52 is the second Landing Craft Utility (LCU) Mk-IV class to be inducted into the Indian Navy. The ship has been indigenously designed and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata
• It said the primary role of LCU MK-IV ship is to transport and deploy main battle tanks, armoured vehicles, troops and equipment from ship to shore.

FDI jumps 37% to $10.4 billion during April-June 2017

• Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country grew by 37 per cent to USD 10.4 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal, DIPP said today.
• According to the figures of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), India had received USD 7.59 billion FDI during April-June 2016-17.
• The main sectors which attracted the highest foreign inflows include services, telecom, trading, computer hardware and software and automobile.

ONGC board approval for acquiring HPCL props up shares of both oil PSUs

• Shares of PSU oil majors Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp jumped today after the giant exploration company’s board approved the acquisition of 51% equity stake in the refining and marketing firm from the government. ONGC shares rose as much as 1.6% to Rs 160.1 on BSE, while HPCL shares were trading up over 3.6% at Rs 450. 

Schemes / Programme

Swasth Bachche, Swasth Bharat': HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar Launches KVS Initiative

• 'Swasth Bachche, Swasth Bharat' Programme, an initiative of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan to prepare a physical Health and Fitness Profile Card for more than 12 lakhs of Kendriya Vidyalaya students was launched in Kochi. Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar unveiled the Profile Card in a function held at Kendriya Vidyalaya at KV NAD, Aluva.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh launches digital police portal 

• A digital police portal under the CCTNS project, which aims to create a national database of crimes and criminals, was today launched by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. 
• Singh said the digital police portal will provide the citizen, facility for online complaint registration and request for antecedent verification. 
• "The police portal will provide 11 searches and 46 reports from the national database for state police and central investigation agencies. 

Sports

Devendra Jhajharia, Sardar to get Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna

• The Sports Ministry on Tuesday confirmed that Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia, who clinched gold in men's F46 javelin throw at Rio Paralympics and former Indian hockey captain Sardar Singh will be honoured with the Khel Ratna award. Indian female footballer Oinam Bembem Devi has been named in the Arjuna awardees list, becoming only the second female footballer to bag the award.

10-yr-old Indian golfer has an unbeaten streak of 1,266 days

• Ten-year-old golfer Aryaman Singh won the first five events of the Indian Golf Union-West Zone, remaining undefeated at the zonal level for four seasons. Singh has won every tournament he has played since his foray into golf at the age of six. Singh's winning streak has extended to 1,266 days, the longest in junior golf history in India.

Viswanathan Anand among 7 Indians at Chess World Cup

• Seven Indian chess players including former World Champion Viswanathan Anand will be taking part in the Chess World Cup to be held in Tbilisi, Georgia, from September 2 to 27. The World Cup would feature 128 players in a knock-out system. Anand, who was tied for the second spot in the Sinquefield Cup recently, has previously won the tournament twice.