The document provides a summary of current affairs from August 2nd. Key points include: - The drug price regulator NPPA has capped prices of orthopaedic knee implants up to 70% lower than current market rates. - The long stalled North Koel Reservoir Project in Jharkhand has been approved, aiming to protect nearby forests. - An all-woman Indian crew embarked on a historic circumnavigation of the earth aboard INSV Tarini. - India inaugurated its first Peace University in Pune and launched three fast-track courts in Mumbai and Thane to expedite rape and murder cases.

1. Current Affairs
August 2
Anirudh Reddy

2. India

3. orthopaedic knee implants
 The drug price regulator National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA)
 has capped the prices of orthopaedic knee implants upto 70% lower than current
market rates

4. North Koel Reservoir Project
 stalled since 1993 has been approved by the Union Cabinet.
 environmental concerns.
 Mandal dam constructed will be at lower level than
 to protect Betla National Park and Palamau Tiger Reserve

5. Hizbul Mujahideen - Syed Salahuddin
 Pakistan based Kashmiri terrorist
 “Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO)” by the United States.
 sanctions against the organisation
 Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad(JeM) also contains two other anti-
India
 groups, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (2016) and Indian Mujahideen (2011).

6. INSV Tarini
 A six-member all-woman team
 circumnavigate the earth
 This is the first-ever circumnavigation of the globe by an
 Indian all-woman crew.
 The expedition has been named ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama’.

7. FASTags
 The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) launched two mobile Apps –
MyFASTag and FASTag Partner
 For the availability of FASTags for Electronic Toll Collection

8. 50 rs note
 a part of Mahatma Gandhi(New) series
 motif of Hampi the Chariot on the reverse, Swacch Bharat logo, numeral 50 in
Devnagiri,
 year of printing and the language panel

9. India’s first Peace University
 India’s first Peace University was inaugurated recently by Maharashtra Chief
Minister, Devendra Fadnavis at MIT, Pune.

10. fast track courts for the State
 The first three of 24 fast track courts for the State, Mumbai(1) and Thane(2)
 which will deal with heinous crimes like rape and murder
 recommended by the 14th Finance Commission to strengthen judicial systems in
the States,
 and the Centre accordingly ordered the setting up of 1,800 such courts across the
country
 within five years.

11. Financial Stability and Development
Council
 Chairmanship of the Union Minister of Finance, Arun Jaitley.
 It was attended by RBI governor Dr. Urjit R. Patel, and Chairmen of SEBI, IRDAI and
other financial sector authorities.

12. Varshadhari
 Karnataka Government
 clouding seeding Project
 aircraft will spray chemicals to induce rainfall.
 It will cover Bengaluru,Gadag and Yadgir districts of the state

13. Bharat Wagon and Engineering Company
Limited (BWEL
 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)
 Approved closure of (BWEL)

14. India and Nepal – mou on drugs
 India and Nepal on
 Drug Demand Reduction and Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic substances
 It lists areas of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances,
 their precursor chemicals and related
 It also indicates mechanism for information exchange and competent authorities
for implementation.

15. Mentor India Campaign
 (NITI) Aayog
 leaders to guide and mentor at Atal Tinkering Labs
 Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) including Self-Employment and Talent Utilization
(SETU
 to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.

16. Triple talaq
 The Supreme Court of India recently declared it unconstitutional, illegal, void
 and not protected under Article 25 of the Constitution which protects freedom of religion. The
verdict was given by the 5 member
 multi-religion constitutional bench of the SC. Justice Kurian Joseph (Christian), Justice
 U.U Lalit (Hindu) and Justice Rohington F, Nariman (Parsi) gave majority judgment. Chief
 Justice J.S. Khehar (Sikh) and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer (Muslim) dissented against the
 judgment. Two judges in the majority judgment(Justice Nariman and U.U. Lalit) held the
 practice of instant triple talaq to be unconstitutional while one judge(Justice Joseph) held
 instant triple talaq as being against the teachings in Quran.

17. right to privacy
 The nine-judge Constitution Bench
 headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar
 overruled its own previous eight judge Bench and six-judge Bench judge Bench
judgments of M.P. Sharma (1954) and Kharak Singh (1961).

18. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana
(PMKSY)
 SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-
Processing Clusters) to
 Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY).
 PMKSY is an umbrella scheme which incorporates all ongoing schemes of the
Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

19. Ude Desh Ke Aam Nagrik(UDAN),
 Several norms of a flagship regional flying scheme have been eased
 regional connectivity scheme.

20. gold and silver items from South Korea
 The Directorate General of Foreign Trade in the Union Commerce Ministry
 has banned duty free imports of gold and silver items from South Korea,
 because of the sudden surge in imports of these precious metals from South Korea
 with which India has a free trade agreement (FTA) since January 2010.

21. artificial intelligence
 A task force on artificial intelligence for India’s Economic Transformation
 18-member panel
 headed by Dr. V. Kamakoti
 and will comprise of industry leaders, academics, researches and experts.

22. anti-dumping duty on Sodium Nitrate
 The Revenue Department of the Finance Ministry has imposed a
 imports from China,
 based on recommendations of Directorate General of Antidumping and Allied
Duties

23. Videsh Bhavan - Mumbai
 The country’s first Videsh Bhavan was launched by the Union Ministry of External
Affairs
 at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
 All Regional Passport offices and allied departments under a single roof.

24. world’s first diamond futures contracts
 The Indian Commodity Exchange
 has launched the world’s first diamond futures contracts to provide exporters with
a hedging tool

25. Gobindobhog rice
 Gobindobhog rice, a specialty from Burdwan district of West Bengal
 geographical indication status by the Geographical Indications Registry.

26. Amazon + Akshaya Patra = Ksheera
Bhagya
 Amazon announced that it has partnered with the Akshaya Patra Foundation to
implement
 the Ksheera Bhagya Scheme of the Karnataka Government.
 Under this scheme, school children of the city would be provided with a glass of
milk five days a week.

27. World

28. TurkmenistanAfghanistan-Pakistan-India
pipeline
 India will be hosting the next steering committee meeting of the proposed
TurkmenistanAfghanistan-Pakistan-India
 pipeline as decided in the sixth joint Inter Governmental
 Committee(IGC) Meeting

29. Melbourne
 2017 Global Livability Report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)ranking
 Melbourne is the most liveable city in the world.

30. first cyber (internet) court- china
 China launched its first cyber (internet) court specialising in handling internet-
related cases
 in the e-commerce hub of Hangzhou, amidst an increase in the number of online
disputes

31. International Seabed Authority
 The International Seabed Authority (ISA) in its 23rd session recently held at
Kingston, Jamaica
 extended India’s exclusive rights to explore polymetallic nodules from seabed in
Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB).

32. Spasskaya Tower
 The International Military Music Festival “Spasskaya Tower”
 is the parade of the military music bands
 every year at Red Square
 Indian Navy Band is participating in the festival

33. India and Myanmar – mou
 India and Myanmar
 for the conservation of earthquake-damaged pagodas at Bagan, Myanmar.
 These are Buddhist temples, typically in the form of a many-tiered towers, built in
traditions originating as stupa in historic South Asia

34. Technology & science

35. artificial womb
 can be used to save lives of extremely premature human babies.
 It was successfully used to incubate baby lambs for a
 week using ex-vivo uterine environment (EVE) therapy

36. Surrogate calf – vijay
 India’s first calf delivered by a surrogate or recipient cow through
 In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)
 Indapur, Pune (Maharashtra).
 It has been named as Vijay

37. Versius
 United Kingdom (UK)
 world’s smallest surgical robot- Versius.
 It can mimic human and can be utilized in surgical procedures.

38. farm price forecasting model
 Karnataka Government + Microsoft
 help farmers, administrators and other stakeholders to understand the market
behaviour in advance

39. Project Brainwave
 Microsoft
 a deep learning acceleration platform for real-time artificial intelligence (AI).
 real-time AI for processing live data streams
 they be videos, sensor streams, search queries or interactions with users.

40. IRNSS-1H
 The launch was unsuccessful
 the eight navigation satellite of ISRO
 On the PSLV-C39, the satellite could not complete the 4th stage as the heat shield
did not separate

41. Environment

42. Malpelo plate
 US-based Rice University
 new tectonic mircoplate
 Ecuador’s coast in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
 It is overall 57th tectonic mircoplate to be
 discovered so far and the first in nearly a decade.
 Microplates are tectonic plates with an area
 less than 1 million km square.

43. Nasikabatrachus bhupathi
 a new frog with a pig face
 West Ghats
 named after the Indian herpetologist S. Bhupathy.
 It shows similarity to a Purple Frog discovered in Seychelles.

44. mosses found in rocks and trees
 Japanese scientists
 can be used as low-cost bioindicator to monitor urban pollution
 mosses respond to pollution or drought-stress by changing its shape, density or
disappearing.
 This characteristic will allow scientists to calculate atmospheric alterations and air
pollution

45. Indo-German Energy Programme – Green
Energy Corridors
 grid integration of renewable energies with conventional power grids.

46. PEOPLE IN NEWS

47. Milkha Singh
 Milkha Singh has been appointed as the
 WHO Goodwill ambassador for Physical activity in the South East Asia region.

48. Rishang Keishing
 Former Manipur Chief Minister and Veteran Congress
 He was freedom fighter and member of India’s first parliament (1952-57.
 He was the last surviving member of India’s first post-1947 Parliament.

49. Ashwini Lohani
 chairman of Railway Board after A.K. Mital resigned from the post

50. Nandan Nilekani
 Chairman of the software giant Infosys.
 Nilekani has replaced R Seshasayee, who resigned as chairman of the board.
 Vishal Sikka stepped down as CEO of the company recently.

51. I Do What I Do: On Reform, Rhetoric &
Resolve
 Raghuram Rajan

52. Justice Dipak Misra
 45th Chief Justice of India and will have a tenure of 14 months

53. Dara Khosrowshahi
 Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Uber Technologies Inc.
 succeeding Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of Uber who was expelled as CEO.

54. Mahabaleshwar Sail - Saraswati Samman
2016
 Konkani writer
 novel Hawthan - that captures cultural lives of traditional potter community in
Goa

55. SPORTS

56. Arjuna Award
 Oinam Bembem Devi, and Indian woman footballer, has been awarded the Arjuna
Award.
 She has been nicknamed the ‘Durga of Indian football’
 Cheteshwar Pujara (Cricket), Harmanpreet Kaur (Cricket)
 Mariyappan (Para-Athletics) and Varun Singh Bhati (Para-Athletics).

57. first National Sports Museum
 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi

58. National Sports Day - 29th August
 birth anniversary Dhyan Chand. On this occasion,
 National sports awards were conferred on 29 players.
 Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia and hockey player Sardara Singh were awarded
the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.

59. DEFENCE

60. DRDO+Israel Aerospace Industries =
MRSAM
 medium range surface to air missile (MRSAM) system for the Indian Army by 2020.
 It is a land-based version of long range surface to air missile (LRSAM)
 of the Indian Navy and will have a strike range of up to 70 km

61. Lt. Gen. Shekatkar Committee
 reforms to be made in the Indian Army
 aim of enhancing combat capability
 optimising and rebalancing defence expenditure
 It is also the first ever reform exercise
 being undertaken in the Indian Army since 1947.