The Daily Brief – 19th August 2018

The Daily Briefs are a comprehensive update of current affairs for the day. If you’d like to receive updates for current affairs every day, you’ll need to subscribe by entering your email address at the right side of this page. The previous Briefs can be accessed at the archives here.

11th World Hindi Conference with the theme “Vaishvik Hindi Aur Bharatiy Sanskrit” was held in Mauritius in its capital city Port Lois from August 18-20, 2018. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister of Mauritius Praveen Kumar Jagannath and was attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and some other ministers. World Hindi Conference was started in 1975 to make Hindi language a medium of service and knowledge and enable it to move forward with time. The 1st World Hindi Conference was held from 10 to 12 January 1975 in Nagpur, Maharashtra and was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
International Conference on Recent Advances in Food Processing Technology (iCRAFPT) was held at Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT), Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu with the theme of “Doubling farmers’ income through food processing”. IIFPT, headquartered in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, is premier national institute working under administrative control of Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI).
United States (US) State Department has announced creation of Iran Action Group (IAG) to execute President Donald Trump administration’s Iran strategy and pressure country to change its behaviors. Its creation comes in wake of US withdrawal (unilaterally) from Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (also known nuclear deal) signed between Iran and P5+1 countries (P5: China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States and +1: Germany,) and European Union in Vienna (Austria) in July 2015. IAG will be responsible for directing, reviewing, and coordinating all aspects of State Department’s Iran-related activity, and it will report directly to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Esow Alben
Indian cyclist Esow Alben (17) created history by winning the country’s maiden medal in track cycling at the world level. He achieved this feat by winning silver medal in Men’s Keirin event of UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships held in Aigle, Switzerland. In the final sprint of this event Esow finished just 0.017 seconds behind gold medallist Jakub Stastny (Czech Republic). Esow, from Andaman and Nicobar, is currently ranked world No. 1 in junior sprint category of cycling.
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has constituted three-member committee to look into draft food labelling and display regulations- Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations 2018. The committee will be headed by B Sesikeran, former director of National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and comprises of current NIN director Hemalatha and AIIMS’ endocrinologist Nikhil Tandon. FSSAI had released draft Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations 2018 in April 2018. It had proposed mandatory red-label marking on packaged food products which are high in fat, sugar and salt contents.
Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under Ministry of Commerce and Industry has banned import of petcoke for use as fuel. But it has allowed its import of only for use as feedstock in some select industries such as cement, lime kiln, calcium carbide and gasification industries. India is the world’s biggest consumer of petcoke. It gets over half its annual petcoke imports of around 27 million tonnes from United States.
Former cricketer Imran Khan has been sworn-in as the 22nd prime minister of Pakistan, more than two decades after he entered politics. He was elected prime minister in a vote at the country’s National Assembly on Friday. His Tehreek-e-Insaf party won the most seats in the 25 July national elections. Pakistan has won cricket World cup 1992 in his captaincy.
Israeli Navy has announced to procure multi-purpose Barak 8 missile defence system, jointly developed by India and Israel. It will be used by Israeli Navy’s Sa’ar-6 corvettes to expand its operational capabilities of Israeli navy, including defence of Israel’s territorial and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and strategic facilities from diversified threats. Barak-8 (Lightning 8 in Hebrew), also known as also known as LR-SAM or as MR-SAM is an operational air and missile defence system used by Israeli Navy as well as by Indian Navy and air forces.