RAJASTHAN

• Govt to launch women empowerment schemes

• The women and child development department is set to launch several schemes for women empowerment after chief minister Ashok Gehlot announced a special fund of Rs1000 crore in 2019-20 Rajasthan budget.

• CM in his budget speech had announced the ~1000 crore ‘Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi Mahila Shakti Nidhi’ for multipronged empowerment of women.

• Under the skill development scheme, women will be given training in making equipment such as torches and lanterns that run on solar energy.

• The department will also financially help marginalised women who do not own property to acquire some skill so that they can earn their livelihood.

• The department also plans to help give financial aid to women victims, either of violence or exploitation and would set aside some fund for that.

INTERNATIONAL

·         Papua New Guinea has highest number of living indigenous languages

ð   United Nations report said that the Papua New Guinea has the highest number of living indigenous languages in the world with 840. India stands fourth with 453.

ð  UN observes the year 2019 as its International Year of Indigenous Languages. UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues reported that nearly 40% of the estimated 6,700 languages spoken around the world were in danger of disappearing and endangered.

ð  Totally 7,111 living languages worldwide has been listed so far. The most widely spoken languages worldwide are Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi and Arabic. These 5 languages covers around 40% of the total worldwide languages.

• World Biofuel Day: 10th August

• World Biofuel Day is observed every year on the 10th of August to create awareness about the importance of non-fossil fuels as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels.

• Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas is organising World Biofuel Day on 10th August 2019 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

• This year the theme of the World Biofuel Day is “Production of Biodiesel from Used Cooking Oil (UCO)”.

• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is implementing a strategy to divert UCO from the food value chain and curb current illegal usage.

NATIONAL

·         Central government approved the project to link Kosi and Mechi rivers

• Union Cabinet approved  4,900 crore for Kosi-Mechi interlinking project in Bihar. The second river interlinking project the Ken-Betwa project in Madhya Pradesh. The flood issue became a major reason for destruction and interlinking of Kosi and Mechi provide a little relief to the Seemanchal region of the state.

• The project is beneficial and they provide relief to the region of recurring floods.
  They provide irrigation facility to more than 2.14 lakh hectares of command areas. The spread made across the districts of Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar and Purnia in north Bihar.

• Two powerhouses of 2×30 MW and 3×6 MW 221 km long Ken-Betwa link canal and two of 1.9 km long upper level are other attractions of the project.
  It is the country’s first river interlinking project connect two rivers in Madhya Pradesh.

• Kosi-Mechi Interlinking project got qualified for a ‘National Project’ status due to number flood management and irrigation potential. The status for this project will mean that the majority of funding support borne by Central Government instead of State Government.

·         President gives assent to the AERA Amendment Bill

• President Ram Nath Kovindapproved the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA) (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha on 2nd August and by the Lok Sabha on 16th July 2019.

• The Bill sought to raise the threshold for major airport and inturn to reduce the tariff-fixing power of airport regulator to fewer airports.

• The Bill increased thethreshold of annual passenger traffic for major airports to over 35 lakh. 

·         IIT Madras introduced a method to recycle urine

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M)introduced the Project Water Chakra to recycle urine. The project was done by an IIT-M student with 3 project staff.
• The Project Water Chakra won the Indian Innovation Growth Programme 2.0

award in July 2019. The project has developed a prototype for the Carbon Zero Challenge.

• Initially, they retrofitted urinals on the campus to collect urine. The concentrated urine was stored for3 days until the urea was converted into ammonia. The ammonia is segregated by a process calledSteam distillation. This commercial grade liquid can be used to make cleaning products, such as detergents or in rubber manufacturing. Also, 90% of the water can be recovered and it can be used for gardening purposes and flushing.

• 66th National Film Awards for 2018 announced

• Gujarati film ‘Hellaro’ was declared Best Feature Film winner while ‘Badhai Ho’ bagged the award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.

• Hindi movie ‘Padman’ was declared Best Film on Social Issues, while Kannada film ‘Ondalla Eradalla’ got Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.

• Ayushman Khurana and Vicky Kaushal jointly won Best Actor Award for their performances in ‘Andhadhun’ and ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’, while Keerthy Suresh was declared the winner of Best Actress trophy for her performance in Telugu movie ‘Mahanati’.

• Aditya Dhar won Best Director Award for ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’.

• Marathi movie Naal got the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director.

• Uttarakhand was declared the Most Film Friendly State.

• Gully Boy’, ‘Andhadhun’ bag awards at Indian Film Festival, Melbourne

• ‘Gully Boy’ and ‘AndhaDhun’ managed to bag top honours at The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.

• ‘Gully Boy’ was awarded best film at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and Tabu was awarded best actress in ‘Andhadhun.’

• Meanwhile, Sriram Raghavan was awarded best director for the movie ‘Andhadhun.’