Current Affairs, News & Facts of 26 Aug 2015

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• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 August 2015 recalled the contribution of Naga leader Rani Gaidinliu to India's freedom struggle and inaugurated birth centenary celebrations of freedom fighter Rani Gaidinliu.
• The event was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, in the presence of Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma, DONER Minister Jitendra Singh, Nagaland and Assam Governor PB Acharya, Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and Nagaland CM TR Zeliang. 
• On this occasion he launched commemorative coin of 100 rupees and circulation coin of 5 rupees of Rani Gaidinliu to mark her birth centenary celebrations.
• Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER)  Minister Jitendra Singh said that as a tribute to Rani Gaidinliu, his ministry has allocated Rs 983 lakh for setting up a Library-cum-Museum in Kohima dedicated to her. 
• Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) has recently introduced DoNER At Door-step experiment, wherein a Camp Secretariat of DoNER Ministry is held by rotation in each of the eight States of Northeast for the redressal of problems of the people.

About Rani Gaidinliu :-

• Rani Gaidinliu was a Naga spiritual leader of the Heraka faith who led a revolt against British colonial rule in India. She was born on 26 January 1915 at a small village in Manipur.
• In 1927, when she was just 13, Gaidinliu joined the Heraka movement, to uproot the British from Manipur and the nearby Naga-inhabited area. 
• She was arrested in 1932 by the British authorities, and was released from jail after 14 years when India won independence in 1947 . She passed away in 1993.

Awards and honours :- She was honoured as a freedom fighter and was awarded a Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.

'Image source :indianexpress

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• Quality and affordable health care is one of the emerging needs for citizen in Rural Areas so the Union government on 25 August 2015 launched a telemedicine initiative 'Sehat' in collaboration with Apollo Hospitals and Medanta to provide healthcare facilities in rural areas
• "Sehat" was launched by The Union Minister for Information Technology and Telecom, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad with an aim to build inclusive and enlightened India.
• The Common Service Centres (CSCs) will also provide diagnostic services and promote sale of generic drugs through collaboration with Ministry of Health  by setting up of the Jan Aasudhi Stores.
• Under the initiative people will be able to consult doctors through video link and also order generic drugs . With the help of CSCs  the tele consultation services are being extended to 60,000 CSCs across the country.

Image source :Ndtv

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• India and Australia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of one million dollars to strengthen existing partnerships in the field of  education, Training and Research
• The MoU was signed by Smriti Irani, Union Minister of Human Resource Development and Christopher Pyne MP, Minister of Education and Training, Government of Australia after the third meeting of the Australia-India Education Council (AIEC) held in New Delhi.
• The MoU will strengthen the partnership between Australia and India in higher education and research, including technical and professional educations, schools, vocational education and training and will open up new and innovative areas of cooperation.
• The MoU focuses on encouraging research collaboration between institutions of higher learning to enlarge the scope for joint research, joint Ph. D. programmes and joint degrees.
• The MoU is is further aimed at the development of bilateral programmes between institutions of educational excellence in technical, vocational, schools and higher education, subject to availability of funds.

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• According to data released by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner on Population by Religious Communities of Census 2011 growth of 0.8 percent has been registered in the Muslim community while a 0.7 percent decline in the Hindu population has been observed.
• The census has distributed the total population amongst six religions namely Hindu, Muslim, Christians, Sikh, Buddhist and Jains.
• India now has 966.3 million Hindus, who make up 79.8 per cent of its population, and 172.2 million Muslims, who make up 14.23 per cent. Among the other minorities, Christians make up 2.3 per cent of the population and Sikhs 2.16 per cent.
• The data on Population by Religious Communities of Census 2011 show that between 2001 and 2011, Hindu population grew by 16.76 per cent, while that of Muslims by 24.6 per cent
• The sex ratio among Muslims now stands at 951 females for every 1,000 males, substantially better than 936 in 2001, while among Hindus, it is 939 females for every 1,000 males, a slight improvement over the 2001 value of 931
• Assam remains the State with the largest Muslim population as a proportion (34.22 per cent) and saw the largest increase in the Muslim proportion between 2001 and 2011, followed by Uttarakhand and Kerala.

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• 37-year-old former Formula One driver Justin Wilson who  had been in a coma since sustaining a head injury when he was hit by a large piece of debris that broke off a car in a crash-filled race at Pocono Raceway died at the hospital.
• On 23 August 2015, Wilson suffered a traumatic brain injury in an accident at the Pocono Raceway  which caused his death the following day

What happened exactly ?

• Justin Wilson was hit in the head during Sunday’s race by piece of debris that had broken off a car driven by Sage Karam. Wilson’s car entered into an interior wall at the track, and he was swiftly taken by helicopter to an Allentown, Pennsylvania, hospital. Wilson suffered a traumatic brain injury in the accident which caused his death the following day

Image sourvce :edition.cnn

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• To tap the sporting talent at the school level, Sports Authority of India, announced the launch of the School Sports Promotion Foundation. The foundation will organise sports tournaments across the country to identify talent, arrange to nurture it and take them through the city, district, state, zonal and national level of competitive sport. 
• At the next level, it will arrange to provide sports coaching to those talented youth who are identified through these tournaments at all levels.School Sports Promotion Foundation will roll out Football and Cricket in the first year of its operations and other sports like Tennis, Basketball and Athletics will be introduced from the second year onwards
• The target of School Sports Promotion Foundation is to reach 300,000 middle and secondary schools across all sports, the foundation will concentrate on cricket and football for the first year with a target of 5000 schools in 200 districts.

Image source :The Hindu

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A war museum and a war memorial were separately inaugurated by the Army to display inspiring contribution of the Army, especially in the 1965 Indo-Pak war and 1971 Laungewala battle. 

War museum :-

• The war museum inaugurated by Southern Army Commander Lt Gen Ashok Singh has been established in the Jaisalmer Military Station, located 10 km short of Jaisalmer on the Jaisalmer-Jodhpur highway. The museum  displays combat aircrafts like a Hunter aircraft, which was used by the Indian Air Force during the Laungewala battle.

War Memorial:-

• The Army Commander also inaugurated a war memorial at Laungewala to commemorate the heroic battle fought by the Indian soldiers on the night of December 4-5 in 1971. The war memorial, located nearly two hours away from Jaisalmer, is at the very site of Laungewala where the battle was fought with Pakistan, resulting in its defeat. 
• Two of the Pakistani tanks (T-59 and Sherman) destroyed in that battle remain at Laungewala and recount the tale of the heroic battle. Murals of soldiers, 106 mm Recoilless Gun (main anti-tank weapon) used in the Laungewala war occupies a place in the memorial which also has a audio-visual theatre for screening the movie on the battle of Laungewala.  

Image source :economic times

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• Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad  released a postal stamp on emperor Ashoka on Monday and announced that stamps would also be released soon to honour former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Bihar's mountain man Dashrath Manjhi.
• This postal stamp in honour of Ashoka would be available for sale in the post offices at Rs.5 per stamp. Ravi Shankar Prasad  released the postal stamp during a BJP function to celebrate the birth anniversary of Ashoka.