• Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu launched the Jharkhand government’s ‘Mukhya Mantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana’. Under this scheme, money would be directly transferred into the bank accounts of farmers in the state. Rs.5,000 will be given to those farmers having 1 acre or less agricultural land. Rs.10,000 will be given to those farmers having 2 acres of agricultural land. Rs.15,000 will be given to those farmers having 3 acres of agricultural land. Rs.20,000 will be given to those farmers having 4 acres of agricultural land. Rs.25,000 will be given to those farmers having 5 acres of agricultural land.

• In Chhattisgarh, a 15-km long national flag was unfurled by forming a human chain in Raipur ahead of the Independence Day. This event was organised by Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam Foundation to enter the Champions Book of World Records (for the longest tricolour). Note: CM of Chhattisgarh: Bhupesh Baghel; Governor of Chhattisgarh: Anusuiya Uikey.

• Private sector bank,RBL Bank and digital healthcare platform Practo have partnered to launch an industry-first co-branded health credit card.This credit card is powered by Mastercard.

• Reliance Jio and Microsoft announced a partnership to accelerate the digital transformation in India. Under this deal, Microsoft will bring in the Azure Cloud on Jio Network. Note: Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft: Satya Nadella.

• Barcelona’s Lionel Messi has been awarded UEFA’s Goal of the Season award 2018-19 for his free-kick against Liverpool.

• Home Minister Amit Shah released Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu’s book titled “Listening, Learning & Leading”.

• Chennai Lions wins the Ultimate Table Tennis league.They defeated Dabang Delhi in the finals by 8-1.

• Indian Badminton star Sourabh Verma clinched the Men’s Singles title in the Hyderabad Open.

• World Biofuel Day was observed on 10th of August. The theme for the year 2019: Production of Bio-diesel from Used Cooking Oil.

• The International Youth Day 2019 was observed across the world on 12 August with the theme “Transforming education”.

• The country celebrated the 100th birth anniversary of scientist and innovator Dr Vikram A Sarabhai.The lander of Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the moon, is named ‘Vikram’ to honour the late Dr Vikram Sarabhai. Note: ISRO Director: K. Sivan; Headquarters: Bengaluru; Established: 1969.

• Air India became the 1st Indian airline to fly over the North Pole while connecting New Delhi and North America.

• Central government has made “Headgear”mandatory for children above 4 years while travelling on a motorcycle.

• Alejandro Giammattei has been elected as new president of Guatemala.

• Chinese telecom giant Huawei unveiled its own operating system which will be called the HongmengOS, known in English as the the HarmonyOS.

• Aishwarya Pissaymade history by becoming the first Indian to win a world title in motorsports as she won the FIM World Cup in women’s category after the final round of the championship in Varpalota, Hungary.

• President Ram Nath Kovind gave assent to legislation for bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir; and two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will come into existence on October 31.

• The Panchamirtham, an ‘abhishega prasadam’ of the Murugan temple,has been bestowed with the Geographical Indication tag.The Murugan temple is situated in Tamil Nadu.

• Legendary Indian sprinterT. Usha,one of India’s greatest athletes, has been appointed as a member of the Asian Athletics Association’s (AAA) Athletes Commission.

• Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was honoured with the Vir Chakraon Independence Day. Wg Cdr Abhinandan’s MiG-21 was shot down during the aerial combat between Indian and Pakistani air forces on February 27 after the February 26 Balakot airstrike. Before his jet was hit, he downed an F-16 fighter of Pakistan.

• Priyam Chatterjee became the 1st Indian chef to be awarded the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricoleto’ by the government of France.

• Rajasthan won the “best innovation and initiative leadership award”for its achievements in higher education in the World Education Summit-2019 held in New Delhi.

• Cricket will come back to the Commonwealth Games (CWG)roster for the 1st time since 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, with the inclusion of women’s T20 for the 2022 edition in Birmingham.

• The Reserve Bank of India has clarified rules on ‘free ATM transactions’ provided by banks to its customers. According to the Reserve Bank of India, the following transactions should not be counted as valid ATM transactions for the customer as the ‘free ATM transactions’:
  • Transactions failed at ATMs due to technical reasons like hardware and software issues.
  • Transactions failed due to non-availability of currency in ATMs.
  • Use of ATMs for non-cash withdrawal transactions such as balance enquiry, cheque book request, payment of taxes, funds transfer.

• Tamil Nadu government has awarded  Sivan with its Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Award. K. Sivan is currently serving as the chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation.

• Liverpool defeated Chelsea in the finals to win UEFA Super Cup held in Istanbul.

• Deepak Punia won the gold medal at the Junior World Championships held in Talinn, Estonia. With the victory, he has become the 1st Indian in 18 years to win a Junior World Championship title.

• National Tribal Festival “Aadi Mahotsav” was celebrated in Leh-Ladakh.The theme of the festival was “A celebration of the spirit of Tribal Craft, Culture and Commerce”.

• Tawlhlohpuan & Mizo Puanchei from Mizoram, and Tirur betel vine from Kerala has received the Geographical Indication tag.  GI is an indication used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. The Geographical Indication comes under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.

• Former all-rounder Ravi Shashtri has been appointed as the head coach of Indian cricket team for another two years.

• India has won the inaugural T20 Physical Disability World Cricket Series 2019 held in England. India defeated England by 36 runs in the finals to win the title.

• Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh launched the “School Fagadaba”(Make education better) scheme to improve the infrastructure of government schools in the state.

• The United Arab Emirates honoured the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the “Order of Zayed“, the highest civilian award of the country. Note: Capital of the UAE: Abu Dhabi; Currency: Dirham.

• A biographical documentary “100 Years of Chrysostum” will receive Guinness Award in the category of longest documentary. The “100 Years of Chrysostum” is based on the life of Philipose Mar Chrysostum, scripted and directed by filmmaker Blessy. The 48-hour and 8 minutes documentary has broken the record of the 21-hour Saudi Arabian documentary “World of Snakes”.

• World Humanitarian Day was observed across the world on August 19. The day was designated by the UN General Assembly to commemorate the 19 August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq. WHD 2019 campaign: #WomenHumanitarians.

• Australian player Marnus Labuschagne has become the 1st Concussion Substitute player in the history of International cricket. A Concussion Replacement is a player who takes the place of a player who has been replaced for the remainder of the match. In Ashes Series 2019, Steve Smith was ruled out of the last day of the 2nd Ashes Test match at Lord’s due to concussion. Marnus Labuschagne replaced Smith on the last day of the Lord’s Test. 

• Pakistan Prime Minister Office has announced a 3-year extension of General Qamar Javed Bajwa‘s tenure as Chief of Army Staff.

• The Karnataka government has amended the Karnataka Poisons (Possession and Sale) Rules 2015 and notified Nicotine as “Class A poison”. The step has been taken to strengthen the enforcement of the ban on production and sale of electronic cigarettes.  Class A poison are “Highly toxic chemicals”, which even in very small quantities as gas or vapour in the air are dangerous to life (such as cyanogen, hydrocyanic acid, nitrogen peroxide, and phosgene).

• Digital payments player Paytm announced the promotion of its Chief Financial Officer Madhur Deora as the company’s President. Note: Paytm Founder: Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Parent Organization: One97 Communications.

• Ravinder Takkar has been appointed as the MD and CEO of Idea-Vodafone.

• The Union Home Ministry has fixed the retirement age of all Central Armed Police Force personnel at 60 years.

• Sadbhavana Diwas was celebrated on 20 August to commemorate the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. At 40, Mr Rajiv Gandhi was the youngest Prime Minister of India.

• India is the world’s largest emitter of anthropogenic sulphur dioxide,which is produced from coal burning, and greatly contributes to air pollution. India has more than 15% of all anthropogenic sulphur dioxide (SO2) hotspots in the world detected by the OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) satellite.