The Daily Brief – 16th August 2018

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IAS officer K S Srinivas has been appointed as Chairman of Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA). Prior to this appointment, he had served as Joint Secretary in Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare in Ministry of Agriculture. MPEDA, established in 1972 under Marine Products Export Development Authority Act (MPEDA), 1972, is a nodal coordinating state owned agency engaged in fishery production and allied activities.
Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had appointed Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar as brand ambassador of its Road Safety campaigns. As part of this campaign, three short films featuring Akshay Kumar released were to call upon people to adopt good practices in road safety to build accident-free society. The subject of road safety is of supreme importance in India as approximately around 1, 46,000 people had died in road accidents across the country in 2017 over 65% of deaths on roads were of people in employable age.
Indian rupee for first time in history plunged to record low of Rs. 70.07 against US dollar on 14 August 2018. However, it recovered later at around Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This sudden deprecation of rupee is similar to fall of other currencies of emerging markets triggered by crash in Turkish currency lira. Rupee has been on downslide in 2018 and has slipped 9% in 2018 as foreign investors sold $6.8 million and $5.15 billion in equity and debt markets respectively.
NITI Aayog in collaboration with Invest India and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has launched mobility pitch competition Pitch to MOVE to provide budding entrepreneurs of India unique opportunity to pitch their business ideas to distinguished jury. Using this platform, startups working in various fields of mobility can pitch their ideas to industry leaders and venture capitalists for raising investments.
West Bengal Government has announced to remove annual family income ceiling in eligibility criteria to be beneficiary under state’s UN award winning Kanyashree Prakalpa scheme. This will help more girls to chase their dreams with Government support. Currently only girls belonging to families with annual family income not more than Rs 1.20 lakh were entitled to get the benefits of this scheme. State government is also planning to set up “Kanyashree University” under this scheme for girls soon. Kanyashree Prakalpa scheme was launched by Mamata Banerjee led West Bengal Government (Women Development and Social Welfare department) in October 2013.
According to Global Liveability Index released by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Austrian capital Vienna was ranked as world’s most liveable city among 140 major cities in 2018. It is first time that European city has topped rankings of EIU annual survey. Global Liveability Index released by EIU compares world cities with each other in terms of security, affordability, education, health care, urban lifestyle and infrastructure and scores each of them on a scale ranging from 0 to 100. New Delhi had figured at 112th and Mumbai 117th position in list.
Former India spinner Ramesh Powar was appointed as head coach of the Indian women’s national cricket team till the ICC World T20, which is scheduled to be held in November 2018. Powar was brought in as the interim coach of the team in July by the BCCI until they found a replacement for Tushar Arothe, who resigned as the coach of the women’s team five months after being appointed. As per the Supreme Court directive, only a functional Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) can appoint a full-time coach on a long-term basis.
Chhattisgarh Governor Balramji Das Tandon passed away on August 14, 2018 following a cardiac arrest at Dr B R Ambedkar Memorial Hospital in Raipur. He was very active socially and was an excellent sportperson in Volleyball, swimming, kabaddi and other sports. Tandon was one of the founder members of the Jan Sangh, founded in 1951 and later became the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has served as Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab in the Justice (retd) Gurnam Singh-led Cabinet in 1969-70. In 2014, he became the Governor of Chhattisgarh. As a Governor, Tandon succeeded Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav who was appointed as acting governor of Chhattisgarh after the resignation of Shekhar Dutt.