Daily Current Affairs for SSC, Postal: August 31, 2016

PV Sindhu to be appointed as brand ambassador of CRPFThe Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has decided to appoint Olympic silver medallist P. V. Sindhu as its honorary commandant and brand ambassador. It was announced by CRPF’s Director General K.Durga Prasad after she had agreed to become the India’s largest paramilitary force’s brand ambassador. In this regard, CRPF also has moved the proposal before the Home Ministry. She will be given honorary Commandant rank in the CRPF which is equivalent to the position of a Superintendent of Police (SP) and such an officer who commands a battalion of about 1,000 personnel.

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Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt’s London Olympics bronze medal upgraded to silver medal

Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt’s bronze medal from the 2012 London Summer Olympics has been upgraded to silver. This up gradation comes after second-place finisher and silver medalist late Besik Kudukhov from Russia was stripped off his medal for failing a dope test. Kudukhov was found to have used a banned substance in a test conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He had died in a car crash in 2013 in southern Russia. As a result, Yogeshwar, who had bagged a bronze medal in men’s 60kg freestyle category in the London Games, has now joined Sushil Kumar as the other silver medalist wrestler from the 2012 Olympics. With this upgradation, India’s silver medal tally in Olympics has gone to five. Silver medallists are wrestler Sushil Kumar (2012 London Olympics) and shooters Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004 Athens Olympics) and Vijay Kumar (2012 London Olympics) and Shuttle PV Sindu (2016 Rio Olympics).

Gujarat becomes first state to distribute 2 crore LED bulbs under UJALA scheme

Gujarat has become the first state in the country to distribute two crore LED bulbs under the Centre’s UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) scheme. The state has reached the milestone in just 96 days and over 42 lakh households have already benefited from the scheme.

State-run Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under the administration of the Union Power Ministry had distributed about 2 lakh bulbs in Gujarat. The distribution of 2 crore LED bulbs has led to an annual energy savings of 259 crore kwh, (Kilowatt Hour). It is equivalent to lighting up 5 lakh Indian homes for an entire year. Besides energy savings, the state has also gained from daily CO2 emission reduction of 5,000 tonnes.

•  The UJALA scheme was launched on 1 May 2015 replacing the “Bachat Lamp Yojana”. It was launched as LED based “Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP).
• It was launched as part of Union Government’s efforts to spread the message of energy efficiency in the country.
• The scheme’s objective is to reduce electricity bills of consumers, contribute to the energy security of India and also help in environment protection. Under it, Government has set ambitious target to replace 77 crore incandescent bulbs across the country with LEDs by 2019. LED bulbs have a very long life, almost 50 times more than ordinary bulbs, and 8 to 10 times that of CFLs, and therefore provide both energy and cost savings in the medium term.

Union Cabinet approves creation of PDF to catalyse Indian economic presence in CLMV countries

The Union Cabinet has given its nod to create a Project Development Fund (PDF) for catalysing Indian economic presence in the CLMV countries viz. Cambodia, Laos Myanmar and Vietnam. The PDF will have corpus of Rs 500 Crore and shall be housed in Department of Commerce. It will be operated through the EXIM Bank.

• The PDF will be governed by an Inter-Ministerial Committee under the chairpersonship of the Commerce Secretary. It will benefit India’s industrial community for business expansion in the CLMV countries. Besides it will also help to maintain cost competitive supply chains, besides integrating with global production networks.
•  CLMV countries namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam have a unique position in the regional value chains in Southeast Asia region. These countries offer a gateway for market access to China, European Union and other markets due to various trade agreements.

Union Cabinet apprises MoU between CERT-In and CERT-UKThe Union Cabinet has apprised the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and CERT-UK. The MoU was signed between CERT-In and Ministry of Cabinet Office, UK (United Kingdom) represented by CERT-UK, a unit of the Cabinet Office on Cyber Security in May 2016.

• The MoU intends to promote closer cooperation between India and UK for exchange of knowledge and experience in detection, resolution and prevention of security-related incidents. It will facilitate both countries to exchange technical information on Cyber-attacks, response to cyber security incidents and find solutions to counter the cyber-attacks.
• They can also exchange information on prevalent cyber security policies and best practices.
• This MoU will help to strengthen cyber space of both countries in terms of capacity building and improving relationship between them.