P.V. Sindhu becomes first Indian to win Badminton World Championships gold

NATIONAL NEWS

MoU between AWHO and Tata Realty

• A historic milestone was reached with the signing of an MoU between Indian Army and Tata Realty & Housing on 22 Aug 2019.         
• The MoU enables the personnel of Indian Army to immediately take over dwelling units in 13 ‘Ready to Move in’ projects of Tata Realty pan India spread over 10 cities including Gurugram, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune among others at a discount ranging from 11% to 27%.
• This also heralds a new era for Army Welfare Housing Organization (AWHO), which has always endeavored to provide quality housing for Army personnel who are deployed in remote locations across the country. AWHO will now facilitate acquisition of homes from reputed private builders at discounted rather than building them for the soldiers.

Discovery, WWF tie up to preserve Sundarbans

• To help save the world’s only mangrove tiger habitat, Discovery India and WWF India have partnered with the Forest Directorate, the government of West Bengal and local communities in the Sundarbans.
• With a vision to create climate-smart villages in the Sundarbans, WWF India and Discovery India are working with government agencies, civil society partners and scientific institutions to build the capacity of village panchayats and local communities to incorporate climate resilience into development planning, thereby helping secure livelihoods, biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• Through this project, in partnership with the West Bengal Forest Directorate and IISER Kolkata, two Sundarbans Ecological Observatories will be set up, each featuring data loggers, monitoring buoys and an onsite laboratory.

SEBI announces reward of Rs 1 crore to insider trading informants

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has announced a reward of up to one crore rupees for informants willing to provide credible information regarding insider trading cases.
• This will be a part of the detailed set of rules for the new 'Informant Mechanism' under Prohibition of Insider Trading Regulations that was approved by the SEBI board. The norms also propose a possible amnesty or settlement for minor wrongdoings in return for cooperation in the probe.
• SEBI will establish an Office of Informant Protection, which will be responsible for the receipt, registration and processing of the disclosure form and also for ascertaining its authenticity.
• Other major decisions include relaxation in 'Muni Bonds' to enable smart city developers and municipalities to raise funds through issuance and listing of their debt securities.

BANKING

Acko partners with ZestMoney to offer credit insurance

• Acko General Insurance, an insurtech company, has partnered with ZestMoney, a consumer lending fintech, to offer credit insurance.
• This insurance will help ZestMoney customers cover their monthly EMI payments during times of crisis. ZestMoney offers instant financing to consumers across 1000+ online portals and provides them the option of paying through EMIs even if the consumers don’t own a credit card.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Iran unveils new missile defense system

• Bavar-373 is a mobile missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy incoming hostile targets. The system employs missiles that have a maximum range of 300 kilometers.
• The system is capable of simultaneously detecting up to 300 targets, tracking 60 targets at once and engaging six targets at a time.
• The system is a competitor to Russia’s S-300 missile system and brings quite a few substantial upgrades over its Russian equivalent.

FATF Asia-Pacific Group puts Pakistan in 'enhanced blacklist'

• In a huge victory for India, the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering and Terror Financing has put Pakistan in the Enhanced Expedited Follow Up List (Blacklist) for its failure to meet its standards.
• The Asia Pacific Group (APG) of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has also found that Pakistan was non-compliant on 32 of the 40 compliance parameters of terror financing and money laundering.

OBITUARY

Arun Jaitley dies at 66

• Arun Jaitley, the former finance minister and a stalwart of the Bharatiya Janata Party, passed away at AIIMS hospital in New Delhi. He was 66 years old.
• Jaitley, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stepped down as finance minister in January due to ill health, just months before elections that returned Modi's Hindu nationalists to power.

APPOINTMENT

Vikram Rathor is new batting coach of Team India

• While R Sridhar and Bharat Arun have retained their jobs, batting coach Sanjay Bangar will be replaced by former batsman Vikram Rathour who was among the 3 shortlisted candidates for the role.
• Vikram Rathore, India's opening batsman of the mid-90s, who has been in the coaching circuit in the last few years, will be the new batting coach of the India cricket team.

RESIGN

NDTV interim CEO Suparna Singh resigns

• Media company NDTV Interim CEO Suparna Singh has resigned from her role with immediate effect. Singh who was the former head of NDTV Convergence was named as its CEO in December 2017.

SPORTS

P.V. Sindhu becomes first Indian to win Badminton World Championships gold

• P.V. Sindhu became the first Indian to win a Badminton World Championships gold by beating familiar rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a lop-sided final.
• The Indian won 21-7 21-7 in the summit clash that lasted just 38 minutes.