25th August 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• South and North Korea have come to an agreement in talks to ease tensions in the latest crisis on the peninsula.
• The deal comes after North Korea expressed regret over a landmine incident that wounded two South Korean soldiers this month.
• In return, South Korea will stop anti-North propaganda broadcasts at noon on Wednesday.
• The two countries also agreed to work towards a resumption next month of reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

National Affairs

• To provide healthcare facilities in rural areas, the government today launched "Sehat", a telemedicine initiative in collaboration with Apollo Hospitals.
• As part of this scheme, people in rural areas can consult doctors online and also order generic drugs.
• This service was launched by Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
• Government will soon extend the benefit of the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) through Post Offices across the country to bring more people under its ambit. 
• Note : Currently the scheme is being implemented through banks.
• NITI Aayog is going to set up an experts group to prepare a model 'land leasing law' which can be adopted by states as per their local needs.
• NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman : Arvind Panagariya
• The Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India (RGI) released Census 2011 data
  
  on Population by Religious Communities.
• Hindus accounted for 96.63 crore or 79.8 percent of India's total population of 121.09 crore in the 2011 Census, followed by Muslims and Christians.
• Population Of religious communities: Total Population in 2011 is 121.09 crores
• Hindu 96.63 crores (79.8%)
• Muslim 17.22 crores (14.2%)
• Christian 2.78 crores (2.3%)
• Sikh 2.08 crores (1.7%)
• Buddhist 0.84 crores (0.7%)
• Jain 0.45 crores (0.4%)
• Other Religions & Persuasions (ORP) 0.79 crores (0.7%)
• Religion Not Stated 0.29 crores (0.2%) 
• The growth rate of population in the decade 2001-2011 was 17.7 %. 
• The growth rate of population of the different religious communities in the same period was :
• Hindus-- 16.8%
• Muslim-- 24.6%
• Christian-- 15.5%
• Sikh- 8.4%
• Buddhist-- 6.1%
• Jain-- 5.4%
• Important Points to Note
• According to the release, the proportion of Hindu population to total population in 2011 has declined by 0.7 percentage points (PP)
• The proportion of Sikh population has declined by 0.2 PP and the Buddhist population has declined by 0.1 PP during the decade 2001-2011.
• The proportion of Muslim population to total population has increased by 0.8 PP during this period.
• There has been no significant change in the proportion of Christians and Jains.

New Appointments

• Veteran actor-director Amol Palekar has been appointed as chairman of India's Oscar jury, which will select the country's official entry in the best foreign film category of the 88th Academy Awards.
• Justice Madanlal Laxmandas Tahaliyani, a retired judge of Bombay High Court, was today sworn in as the new Maharashtra Lokayukta. 

People in News

• Former Chief Minister of Bihar Jiten Ram Manjhi today resigned from membership of Bihar Legislative Assembly.
• He has also resigned from the primary membership of JD(U).
• After resignation of Chief Ministership, he floated Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) which was recently recognized as a political party by the Election Commission.

Business & Economy

• The Centre is going to organize Mega Credit Camps from 25th September 2015 to 2nd October 2015 to distribute loans to small entrepreneurs under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana,  so that maximum number of borrowers could get credit as per their requirement under the three categories of loans.
• Important Note : Banks will disburse about Rs 1.22 lakh crore loan to small business units under Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) during the current fiscal.
• Important Points to Note about PMMY :
• The scheme was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April. 
• Three products available under the PMMY are Shishu, Kishor and Tarun to signify the stage of growth and funding needs of the beneficiary micro unit or entrepreneur.

Sports / Awards & Honors

• Government announces Dronacharya Awards, Dhyan Chand Awards and Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar for this year.
• Dronacharya Award 2015 
• Anoop Singh – Wrestling coach
• Harbans Singh - Athletics coach
• Naval Singh - Athletics Para-sports coach 
• Nihar Ameen - Swimming coach
• Swatantar Raj Singh - Boxing coach
• Dhyan Chand Award 2015 
• T P.P Nair – Volleyball
• Shiv Prakash Mishra - Tennis
• Romeo James – Hockey 
• Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2015 
• Directorate General of Military Training (DGMT) 
• Coal India Limited (CIL) 
• Haryana State Police
• Sports Coaching Foundation (SCF)  

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