22nd August 2023 Daily Current Affairs

National Affairs

Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari launches the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat NCAP) to improve road safety through raising the safety standards of motor vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes in India.
Aim: To provide a tool to the car customers to make a comparative assessment of crash safety of motor vehicles available in the market.
Under Bharat NCAP, car manufacturers can voluntarily offer their cars for testing as per the Automotive Industry Standard (AIS) 197.

Important Dates

The World Mosquito Day is commemorated on August 20 globally.
Aim: To mark the importance of protecting ourselves and our communities from the potentially deadly diseases transmitted by the insects that are commonly seen in homes across the world.
Theme for World Mosquito Day 2023 is “Fighting the World’s Deadliest killer -the Mosquito. “
The mosquitoes are responsible for the spread of diseases like malaria, dengue fever, Zika virus, and West Nile virus.

Defense

Indian Navy’s fifth Kalvari class submarine, INS Vagir, will reach Fremantle, Australia on 20 Aug 2023.
INS Vagir will participate in various exercises with Royal Australian Navy (RAN) units on the West Coast of Australia.
On the East coast of Australia, Indian Naval ships and aircraft is involved in Exercise AUSINDEX 23 from 22-24 Aug 2023.
The RAN submarine and Indian Naval P8i aircraft are scheduled to exercise with INS Vagir.

Science & Technology

Russia’s first lunar mission in decades has ended in failure with its Luna 25 spacecraft crashing into the moon’s surface.
The incident, a blow to Russia’s space ambitions, happened after communication with the robotic spacecraft was interrupted.
The measures taken to search for the device and get in contact with it did not yield any results.
According to a “preliminary analysis,” Luna-25 “switched to an off-design orbit” before the collision

Sports

India has secured Second Rank at the 16th International Olympiad 2023 on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) in Poland With Four Gold and One Silver Medal.
The United Kingdom clinched the lead with five Golds.
A total of 236 students from 50 nations participated at the Olympiad
Rajdeep Mishra from Kota, Rajasthan, Koduru Tejeswar from Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, Md. Sahil Akhtar from Kolkata, West Bengal, Akarsh Raj Sahay from Nagpur, Maharashtra were awarded Gold medals.

Sports

R Praggnanandhaa, the first Indian after Viswanathan Anand to reach the semifinals of the FIDE World Cup 2023, defated his higher-ranked opponent, Fabiano Caruana, in Baku
Out of four Indians, who had made it to the quarterfinals, Praggnanandhaa remains the only Indian in the fray.
No Indian has reached the last four stage of the Chess World Cup, except Anand, who won the first two editions of the tournament in 2000 and 2002.

Sports

Indian shooter Mehuli Ghosh secured bronze medals behind the People’s Republic of China’s Jiayu Han and Zhilin Hang in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event at the ISSF World Championship 2023 in Baku.
This Championship 2023 was a qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
A total of 48 Olympic quotas are on offer with the top four finishers (one per country) in each of the 12 Olympic individual shooting events. This was India’s fourth Paris 2024 quota in shooting.

Defense

The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched joint air and sea patrols and military exercises of the navy and air force around Taiwan in August 2023.
Aim: To test seizing control of air and sea space, and to test combat capabilities.
The patrols and exercises are meant to train the coordination of military vessels and airplanes and their ability to seize control of air and sea spaces

State Affairs

Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Gujarat are among the top 5 states in India in terms of new investments in 2022-23.
According to RBI these two states together accounted for 57.2% of the total investment proposals made during the year.
In 2022-23, UP attracted the highest share of new investments, with a total project cost of Rs. 43,180 crore.
Followed by Gujarat (Rs. 37,317 crore), Odisha (Rs. 11,810 crore), Maharashtra (Rs. 7,900 crore) and Karnataka (Rs. 7,300 crore).

Banking & Finance

Axis Bank announced the launch of two lending products powered by the Public Tech Platform for Frictionless Credit, introduced by the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub.
Objective: To offer Kisan Credit Card (KCC) and unsecured MSME loans to customers powered by the platform.
KCC will be offered in Madhya Pradesh and will be available to customers for up to Rs 1.6 Lakh to start with.
MSME loans will be available across the country and will offer loans upto Rs. 10 Lakh