Current Affairs in English – August 15 2022

National Events:

75th Independence Anniversary Medal:

To commemorate India’s 75th year of Independence , the government has instituted the 75th Independence Anniversary Medal for all armed forces personnel .
The cost of the medal has to be borne by respective states / UTs / CAPFS / CPOs , which should be approximately for Rs 96 / – per medal .
The medal will be styled and designated ” 75017 Fasada adio 960 ” the ” 75th Anniversary of Independence Medal “.

PTM & TM:

President Droupadi Murmu has approved President’s Tatrakshak Medal ( PTM ) and Tatrakshak Medal ( TM ) to the Indian Coast Guard Personnel .
They were awarded for their act of conspicuous gallantry , exceptional devotion to duty and distinguished / meritorious service on the eve of the Independence Day 2022 .
PTM was conferred on IG Dinesh Rajaputhran and Commandant Kunal Chandrakant Naik .

Dornier 228:

India handed over a Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft to the Sri Lankan navy on 15 August 2022 in a ceremony attended by Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe .
Dornier 228 Maritime Patrol Aircraft is a Short Take – Off and Landing ( STOL ) , multirole light transport aircraft used by the Indian Navy for electronic warfare missions and has been in production since 1981 .

Village Defence Guard Scheme:

The Village Defence Guard Scheme – 2022 came into effect in Jammu and Kashmir from 15 August 2022 .
Earlier , this scheme was known as Village Defence Committe in which volunteers from villages were trained by Indian Army and Police .
Under this scheme , rifles were provided to VDC’s and they protected their villages from terrorist attacks and terror – related activities .

BBV154 intranasal covid vaccine:

Bharat Biotech has completed clinical development for phase III trials and booster doses for BBV154 intranasal covid vaccine .
It has proven to be safe , well – tolerated & immunogenic in subjects in controlled clinical trials .
The adenoviral intranasal vaccine BBV154 is the first of its kind Covid – 19 vaccine to undergo human trials in India .

Unique term deposit Programme:

State Bank of India ( SBI ) has introduced a unique term deposit programme called ” Utsav Deposit “.
This fixed deposit scheme has higher interest rates of 6.10 % per annum on fixed deposits with a tenure of 1000 days .
It has been launched on the occasion of the nation’s 75th year of Independence , celebrated as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav .

Police Medals:

A total of 1082 Police personnel have been awarded Police Medals on the occasion of Independence Day , 2022 .
347 personnel have been awarded for Gallantry while 87 have been awarded for Distinguished Service .
CRPF’s Charu Sinha bagged 40 gallantry medals , highest in the country among all the forces . The maximum gallantry medals have been received by the CRPF followed by the J & K Police.

Protection of its coasts:

The Odisha government has signed an MoU with National Institute of Ocean Technology ( NIOT ) for protection of its coasts .
According to the MoU , the NIOT will provide technical guidance , design , and drawing of climate resilient coastal protection measures to the state government .
Odisha has a vast coastline of about 480 km and the coastal areas are exposed to natural disasters . Odisha CM : Naveen Patnaik.

20% ethanol:

India will start supplying petrol with 20 % ethanol at select petrol pumps from April 2023 . Oil minister Hardeep Puri said a fifth of petrol will be made up of ethanol by 2025 .
India achieved the target of supplying petrol mixed with 10 % ethanol ( 10 % ethanol , 90 % petrol ) ahead of schedule in June 2022 .
India is the world’s fifth largest producer of ethanol after the US , Brazil , EU and China .

Partition Horrors Remembrance Day : 14 August:

Partition Horrors Remembrance Day ‘ is observed in India on 14 August . It commemorates the victims and sufferings of people during the Partition of India in 1947 .
In 2021 Independence day speech , PM Modi had declared August 14 to be observed as ” Partition Horrors Remembrance Day ” .
The partition had left 10 to 20 million people displaced and left 2 hundred thousand to 2 million dead .