• S Krishnan has been appointed as Managing Director and CEO of Punjab & Sind Bank.

• Prior to this appointment, he was an Executive Director at Canara Bank.

• He will replace S Harishankar, the current MD and CEO of Punjab & Sind Bank.

• Punjab & Sind Bank is among the few state-owned banks that had not been brought into the bank consolidation efforts of the Central Government.

• Headquarter: Delhi

• Tagline: Where Service is a Way of Life

• The Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) organised 2-days long “National Tribal Research Conclave”.

• The inaugural session of conclave was addressed by the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Shri Arjun Munda.

• The National Tribal Research Conclave was organised to review the progress on the results of projects launched by Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

• 10 research partners shared their projects in the 2-days long conclave.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Murali Ramakrishnan as Managing Director and CEO of the South Indian Bank for a period of three years with effect from October 1, 2020.

• Ramakrishnan had retired from ICICI Bank as Senior General Manager at Strategic Project Group on May 30, 2020, and joined the South Indian Bank as an advisor on July 1, 2020.

• He represented the bank in the board of CIBIL and the risk advisory board of VISA for the Asia Pacific.

• Pope Francis is set to release the book “Let Us Dream” in December 2020.

• In the book, Pope Francis explains how a crisis can teach an individual to deal with problems they face in their lives.

• He cites three major crises from his own personal life.

• The book will be an outcome of numerous exchanges between Pope Francis and his Biographer Austen Ivereigh in the weeks following the Coronavirus outbreak around the world.

• Austen Ivereigh is a Roman Catholic Journalist, Commentator, the author based out of Britain.

• The book is being published by Simon & Schuster and will be released in English and Spanish Editions simultaneously.

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of the current chairman of the Railway Board VK Yadav as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

• The chairman and CEO will be the cadre controlling officer responsible for human resources (HR) with assistance from a DG (HR).

• The Cabinet had earlier approved the restructuring of the Railway Board, whose strength has been cut from eight to five, as part of large scale reforms initiated by the national transporter.

• The process to merge eight railway-related wings into a single central service called the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) is underway.

• Under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat, Goa is paired with Jharkhand.

• Lot of exchange activities are happening on this front.

• The intensity of programmes is less due to lockdown and so the focus is laid on virtual events.

• Lokotsav programmes held earlier in Goa in Panaji evoked good response.

• Stalls of Jharkhand displayed delicacies from that state and Goans enjoyed savouring the same.

• Folk dances presented by Jharkhand artistes also were appreciated by Goan artistes.

• Later Goan artistes also visited Jharkhand and presented Goan folk dances.

• Bangle making workshops were held in Goa wherein experts from handicraft arena of Jharkhand guided Goan artistes.

• Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank launched EnglishPro, a free mobile app.

• The app is developed by the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.

• The app will help learners develop Indian English Pronunciation in the unique “Indian” way.

• This app will be “a useful digital tool” and will act as an educational resource for the teachers, students and for people from varied backgrounds.

• To preserve and maintain the environment in Punjab and make people stakeholders in the process, the State Government launched 'I Rakhwali' app.

• This will help netizens to become 'Greenery Saviours'.

• With this new initiative, the state govt aims to safeguard the state forest area by making people a stakeholder in this process.

• The state govt came up with the concept of the app to encourage people to come forward and contribute to the protection of the environment.

• The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) launched a new publication, “The Little Book of Green Nudges”.

• The books aimed to inspire up to 200 million students around the globe to adopt environmentally friendly habits and greener lifestyles.

• The book is UNEP’s first on behavioural science and nudge theory, which focuses on human actions and how to change them, and was drafted with The Behavioural Insights Team and GRID-Arendal.

• National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee for collaboration in areas of universal design principles and inclusive development in the backdrop of 'Building Accessible Safe Inclusive Indian Cities' (BASIIC) program.

• The MoU facilitates cooperation in the field policy research, technical support, knowledge creation, and dissemination.

• It is envisaged that the association will benefit Indian cities through a range of activities and partnership projects that can be scaled up and replicated for several Indian cities.

• WhatsApp announced a strategic partnership with CyberPeace Foundation with the aim to create awareness on cyber safety among students.

• The facebook-owned messaging platform noted in a press release that “this is an effort to build on their earlier partnership with WhatsApp under the “e-Raksha” program that reached thousands of students.

• With the collaboration, the platforms aim to reach nearly 15,000 students across five states including Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra by the end of 2020.

• Pierre Gasly (Scuderia AlphaTauri, France) has won the Formula One Italian Grand Prix 2020 held at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy.

• This is his first Grand Prix win. Carlos Sainz Jr. (McLaren, Spain) came second followed by Lance Stroll (Racing Point, Canada) in third place.

• Lewis Hamilton ended at 7th place after he earned a 10-second stop and go penalty.

* Bengaluru tops the list of destinations for a career in AI, followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai.

* Job searches in the field have risen 106 per cent in the past year (June 2019 to June 2020), and this has increased further by 20 per cent from March to July 2020, in line with the onset of the pandemic.

* AI-related job postings have also seen a steady rise in the last two years, with a 51 per cent jump between June 2019 and June 2020.

* World Bank and the government of Himachal Pradesh signed $82 million loan for the implementation of Himachal Pradesh State Roads Transformation Project.

* The project will strengthen the transport and road safety institutions of Himachal Pradesh.

* It aims at improving the condition, safety, resilience, and engineering standards of state road network.

* The Tamil Nadu government has constituted a seven-member high-level committee to study the National Education Policy of the Centre and to make recommendations.

* Vice-Chancellors of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University K. Pitchumani; Alagappa University N. Rajendran; Madurai Kamaraj University M. Krishnan; and Thiruvalluvar University S. Thamarai Selvi are amomg the members in the panel.

* Former Vice-Chancellors of the University of Madras S.P. Thyagarajan, who has served in national academic panels, and P. Duraisamy, are the other members.

* SBI Mutual Fund has unveiled Magnum Children’s Benefit Fund - Investment Plan, an open-ended fund for parents to invest for their children.

* The scheme, open for subscription from September 8, is a part of SBI Magnum Children’s Benefit Fund that currently has Savings Plan, a predominantly debt-oriented offering.

* The scheme will predominantly invest in equity and equity-related instruments, said SBI MF, including Equity ETFs with a minimum of 65% going up to 100%, debt including Debt ETFs and money market instruments upto a maximum of 35% in REITS and InvITs up to 10% and up to 20 % in Gold ETFs.

* The new plan for children aged 1 year going up to when he/she is 14 years old.

* There would be a lock-in period for at least 5 years or till the child attains age of majority, whichever is earlier.

* Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry have launched a toll-free mental health rehabilitation helpline “KIRAN”.

* The helpline was launched in view of the growing incidence of Mental Illness, particularly in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

* The helpline – 1800-500-0019 will provide relief and support to persons with mental illness.

* The helpline will resolve mental health issues that are related to the following namely, anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), depression, Panic Attack(s) Adjustment Disorders, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, Post Traumatic Stress Disorders and the psychological issues & mental health emergencies induced by the pandemic.

* It will offer mental health rehabilitation services. It functions as a lifeline to provide 1st stage advice, counselling. It is available 24*7 with the Technical Coordination of BSNL.

* International Literacy Day is observed globally on 8th September every year.

* The day spread awareness about the importance of literacy for individuals, communities, and societies and the need for intensified efforts towards more literate societies.

* International Literacy Day 2020 focuses on “Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond,” especially on the role of educators and changing pedagogies.

* The theme highlights literacy learning in a lifelong learning perspective, and therefore, mainly focuses on youth and adults.

* The Social Welfare Department of Assam has taken steps to promote nutritious food through Kitchen Garden, as part of the Poshan Maah.

* The idea of the Kitchen Garden is to plant locally available nutritional food and vegetables.

* Kitchen Garden or Nutri garden will be set up at Anganwadi Centres and Government Primary Schools across the state.

* Poshan Maah is India’s flagship programme, launched in March 2018 to improve the nutritional status of children up to 6 years, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

* The programme aims to achieve specific targets for reduction in low birth weight babies, stunting growth, undernutrition and prevalence of anaemia over the next three years.

* National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and LinkedIn announced a partnership to provide access to free learning resources for imparting digital skills to youth for enhancing employability.

* According to LinkedIn, Indian professionals with digital skills are 20 percent more in demand than professionals without digital skills in 2020.

* Under the partnership, 10 free LinkedIn learning paths, consisting of 140 courses for a range of in-demand tech jobs will be made available for free on eSkill India digital platform till March 31, 2021. It will help India’s youth to develop skills needed for jobs.

* LinkedIn will provide insights on the Labour market based on an economic graph of more than 69 million members in India.

* It will also share in-demand skills, emerging jobs, and global hiring rates with NSDC to better understand the skilling ecosystem.