Current Affairs on 01/08/2020

International

SIDBI & TransUnion CIBIL launches portal "MSMESaksham"

• The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has launched a one-stop knowledge portal named "MSMESaksham" in association with TransUnion CIBIL.
• MSMESaksham is a comprehensive financial education and knowledge platform for MSMEs and will support them in managing their credit obligations.

NASA & ULA launched Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has launched the "Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission" with United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket to the Red Planet "Mars".
• The mission was launched from Space Launch Complex 41, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
• The Perseverance rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program which is a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet.

Hamed Bakayoko named as Prime Minister of Ivory Coast

• Ivory Coast's Defence Minister, Hamed Bakayoko has been named as the Prime Minister of the country.
• Bakayoko was presently serving as the interim PM of the country since the sudden death of former Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly.

RPower & JERA inks loan agreement for Bangladesh's power plant

• Reliance Power and Japanese energy major JERA have signed an agreement with a group of banks for their new gas-fired thermal power generation project in Bangladesh.
• The signed agreement will provide full finance of about $642 million (approx Rs 4,798 crore) for a new 745 MW natural gas combined-cycle power project in Meghnaghat in Bangladesh. This is one of the largest funding tie-ups for a project in Bangladesh's power sector.
• With this agreement, Reliance Power and JERA will focus on full-scale construction and aims to work steadily towards achieving commercial operation in 2022.

Russia chaired 6th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting

• The 6th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting was held under the presidency of Russia.
• The Environment Ministers of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa participated in the meeting held via the video conference.
• India will host the next meeting in 2021.
• Union Environment Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar represented India in the BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meet.
• During the meet, the minister highlighted the efforts made by India in controlling Air pollution such as the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) which was launched in 2019.

Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui passes away

• Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui passed away. He served as president of Taiwan from 1988 to 2000.
• He was also considered as the "father of Taiwan's democracy".

National

August 1 to be as “Muslim Women Rights Day”:

• Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on July 31, 2020, said that August 1 will be celebrated as “Muslim Women Rights Day” as it was the day from which the social evil of Triple Talaq was made a criminal offence.

Bureaucrat Hardik Shah appointed PM’s new Private Secretary

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has picked a Gujarat cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Hardik Shah to be his new Private Secretary (PS) in place of Rajiv Topno, who has earlier been appointed as Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of the World Bank in Washington DC.

Gadkari opens refurbished upstream carriageway of Mahatma Gandhi Setu in Bihar

• Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and MSMEs Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the refurbished upstream carriageway of Mahatma Gandhi bridge over river Ganga through video conference in Bihar on July 30, 2020.