General

1. Ayushman Bharath to be launched
   
   
   

• Ayushman Bharat is National Health Protection Scheme, which will cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage upto 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.
• Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission will subsume the on-going centrally sponsored schemes - Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).

2. Turkey * USA trade wars goes on
   
   
   

• Turkey placed a 140 % tariff on U.S. alcohol, 120 percent on passenger vehicles and 60 % on tobacco. Other products subject to new tariffs include rice and nuts, cosmetics, uncoated paper and machines and mechanical appliances.
• The escalating trade dispute comes amid an argument between Washington and Ankara about imprisoned American pastor Andrew Brunson, who was arrested in 2016. Turkey accuses Brunson of being a spy and says he was involved in an attempted coup. The U.S. says he has been falsely charged.
• In addition to the tariffs, the Trump administration has placed sanctions on Turkey’s Minister of Justice, Abdulhamit Gul, and Minister of Interior, Suleyman Soylu. Although narrowly tailored, those penalties have contributed to a slide in the value of the Turkey's currency, the lira, amid fears of a broad economic crisis.
• US. exports and imports to Turkey totaled around $5 billion in 2016

3. Russian aid for Chinese farmers
   
   
   

• As the trade war between China and the U.S. escalates, Russia is coming to Beijing’s rescue by offering a million hectares of land suitable for cultivating soybeans and other agri-products.
• China has curbed soybean imports from the U.S. by raising tariffs by 25% on a range of products, including the legume, in retaliation against a similar move by Washington in early July.
• Despite Russia broadening its footprint in Beijing’s food-security equation, analysts have pointed out that China may not be getting the best cultivable land in the Far East, which has already been parcelled to domestic farmers.
• Besides, a large influx may trigger local frictions, in view of the perception that Chinese farmers are using excessive fertiliser and pesticides for cultivation.

4. Rythu Bima project launched :Telengana
   
   
   

• The farmers in the age group of 18 to 59 years will get an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh each. The premium per head has been pegged at Rs 2,271.
• The State Government has tied up with the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to roll out the scheme. The Government is spending Rs 1,000 crore towards premium payment on behalf of the farmers.

5. Assam rejected center moves to shrink area under AFSPA
   
   
   

• According to a parliamentary standing committee report tabled in Parliament last month, the Centre wanted to reduce the areas under the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) in Assam but the State government did not concur.
• Over the past two years, the Union Home Ministry has proposed reducing the areas under AFSPA in the northeast, only to face stiff resistance from the Army and the Defence Ministry.
• Over 300 Army officers moved the Supreme Court challenging registration of FIRs against them for operations in areas where AFSPA is in force.
• AFSPA empowers Army and Central forces personnel deployed in “disturbed areas” to kill anyone acting in contravention of the law, arrest and search any premises without a warrant and provide cover to forces from prosecution and legal suits without the Centre’s sanction.

Karnataka

6. Kannada made compulsory for Engineering Students
   
   
   

• Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has decided to introduce Kannada as a compulsory subject for all the first-year students.
• This means that engineering students will now have to mandatorily pass the Kannada language test to move into the next semester.
• Up until now, Kannada had been an add-on subject (in which attendance was compulsory, but taking the exam wasn’t); but it will henceforth be included as a credit course.
• Also, the university will ensure that the results make it into the final marksheet

7. Kalasa Banduri Nala Project
   
   
   

• The Kalasa-Banduri water dispute is between the Governments of Karnataka and Goa. It is concerned with sharing of water from the Mahadayi River
• Karnataka proposed to divert 7.6 tmc of water to Malaprabha from Mahadayi by implementing the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project.
• The Karnataka Governments’s Kalasa-Banduri Nala project involved building barrages across Kalasa and Banduri, two tributaries of the Mahadayi river to divert water to the Malaprabha river in order to supply drinking water to Hubli, Dharwad, Begaum and Gadag.
• The dispute aggravated after the Kalasa-Bandura Nala project was proposed.
• Amid an ongoing political controversy over the sharing of the Mahadayi waters, a delegation from Goa, led by its Speaker Pramod Savant, visited Kanakumbi, the birthplace of the river and the site of the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project in Karnataka.