Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 17 August 2021

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The Vice President of India Shri M Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone of Innovation and Development Centre of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru on August 16, 2021.
The JNCASR Innovation and Development Centre will be developed into a facility where laboratory inventions will be taken forward for scale-up and technology transfer, and in turn help in meeting the missions of “Make in India” and “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”
Scientists will be provided with state-of-the-art processing and prototyping tools to enable translation of inventions.
JNCASR is established by the Department of Science and Technology at Jakkur, Bangalore.

Prime Minister NarendraModi announced an ambitious ₹ 100 lakh crore holistic infrastructure development programme ''Gatishakti'', which is aimed at boosting employment opportunities and productivity of industries.
"India needs a holistic and integrated approach in infrastructure construction along with modern infrastructure. In the near future, India is going to come out with PradhanMantriGatishakti National Plan and launch it," he said in his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on India's 75th Independence Day.
PM Modi said the over ₹ 100 lakh crore scheme will bring new employment opportunities for lakhs of youth.
Gatishakti, he said, will be a national master plan which will lay the foundation of the overall infrastructure in the country and give an integrated and holistic path to the economy.
PM Modi said as of now there is no harmony in modes of transport in the country.
Gatishakti, he said, will break the silos and bottlenecks.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday introduced the financial inclusion index (FI-Index) to capture the extent of financial inclusion in the country. This was among the announcements made in the first bimonthly monetary policy in April this year.
The annual FI-Index for the period ending March 2021 is 53.9 as against 43.4 for the period ending March 2017.
The FI-Index has been conceptualized as a comprehensive index incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal, and the pension sector in consultation with government and respective sectoral regulators, RBI said.
The index captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has conducted a ground run and low-speed taxi test for its developmental Hindustan-228 commuter aircraft.
The tests took place at the company’s Kanpur facility, where it builds the Do-228 for India’s military, coast guard, and other customers, says the company.
HAL aims to secure a domestic type certification from India’s Directorate General of Civil Agency (DGCA) for the aircraft, which is intended to support New Delhi’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS). It also hopes to attain international certification.
“This aircraft could be utilised successfully by civil operators and State Governments for their intra and inter-state connectivity with seamless support towards training, maintenance and logistics,” says HAL.
It says that the 19-seater can serve in missions including the transport of passengers and cargo, as well as flight inspection, cloud seeding, and various recreational roles.
In late 2016, HAL announced plans for a civil variant of the Do-228 turboprop.
The type, based on the Do-228-201, falls under the auspices of two Indian government initiatives, “Make in India” and RCS. Launched in 2017, the RCS is intended to provide affordable air transport to small airports.

Every chess player works towards achieving the Grandmaster (GM) title. On August 3, Harshit Raja turned GM after he drew his game against Dennis Wagner at the Biel Masters Open 2021. Raja, who achieved his final GM norm with one round to spare, is India’s 69th Grandmaster.
The 20-year-old from Pune has several notable achievements spanning over his professional years. He won silver in U-13 National Chess Championship in Jamshedpur in 2014 and gold in the SGFI Nationals held in Tamil Nadu the same year. He represented India in World Youth Chess Championship U-14 in Greece in 2015.