1. Census 2011 data on population of religious communities released 

(i) On August 25, the  Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India released the data on Population by Religious Communities of Census 2011. 

(ii) The data reveals information of the total population by six major religions, namely, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain besides “Other Religions and Persuasions” and “Religions not stated”. 

(iii) The data revealed that the rate of growth of population from 2001 – 2011 was 17.7%.   

Population of religious communities: Total Population in 2011 stood at 121.09 crores with

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%) 

2. NITI Aayog to set up expert group to develop an ideal framework for land leasing laws

(i) NITI Aayog’s Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, on August 24 announced that a committee
of experts will be formed to develop a model ‘land leasing law’ that can be adopted by states
as per their needs.

(ii)

The Aayog said that most states enacted land leasing laws post-independence.
However, these laws discouraged leasing or subleasing of land, thereby adversely
impacting both land owners and tenants.

(iii) The NITI Aayog in consultation with the Department of Land Resources will also assist interested states with updating and digitising land records in accordance with the best practices. 

3. India to host World Hindi Conference in September 2015

(i) India will host the 10th edition of World Hindi Conference in Bhopal after 32 years. The event will be organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and will be held from September 10-12.

(ii) The conference will feature a dozen sessions. The main theme this year is ‘Hindi Jagat: Vistar avm sambhavnai (the world of Hindi: expansion and possibilities), indicating a variation from the past editions that centered on literature.

(iii) Mridul Kumar, Joint Secretary (Hindi) at MoEA said, “The idea is to now change the approach and promote use of Hindi in science and technology, administration, foreign policy, judiciary, and information and technology, among other sectors, to help job creation.”

4. Health exchange portal Zigy.com launched in Bengaluru 

(i) Former iGATE CEO Phaneesh Murthy today announced the launch of website Zigy.com, which will serve as a patient controlled electronic health record system.

(ii) According to Murthy, Zigy.com aims at connecting Indian consumers needing health care products with doctors, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, diagnostic labs, and providers of wellness products and services, insurance, home-care services among others. Initially the online services will be launched in five metropolitan cities-Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi.

(iii) Murthy, who is the co-founder and executive chairman of PM Health and Life Care (PMHLC) said, ” This is our first step towards realising our dream of a Swastha (healthy) Bharat.”

5. Google – Twitter announce a partnership 

(i) Recently, Google and Twitter, announced of a partnership— whereby tweets in online google search results has been extended to desktop. 

(ii) In May 2015, the two firms agreed to place tweets in Google mobile search results, and said that the same would apply to desktop at a later time. 

(iii) This situation serves as a win situation for both the companies it is expected to boost engagement on twitter and in-turn bring fresh content in terms of tweets and comments on Google.

6. Typhoon Goni strikes Japan after Philippines

(i) After Philippines was struck with typhoon Goni, killing 10 people and heavy rain resulting in landslides and floods in the northern region of the country. 

(ii) On Monday, Typhoon Goni lashed the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa and record wind-gusts of 256 kph (159 mph) flipped over cars and knocked down utility polls on the remote Japanese island of Ishigaki, near Taiwan, Japanese media reported.

(iii) Typhoon Goni, is one of the major 20 typhoons and storms which are expected to strike Philippines and areas around this year. 

7. Sports Authority of India launches School  Sports Promotion Foundation

(i) The Sporting Authority of India with a view to attract sporting talent at the school level launched the School  Sports Promotion Foundation on Monday.

(ii) The objective of the foundation is to organise sports tournaments across the country to identify talent, arrange to nurture it and take them through the city, district, state, zonal and national level of competitive sport after which the  talent youth will be provided with sports coaching.

(iii) Initially it has decided to roll out Football and Cricket in the first year of its operations and other sports like Tennis, Basketball and Athletics will be introduced from the second year onwards. 

8. Sports Ministry approves names for the Dronacharya Award 

(i) The Sports Ministry has announced Dronacharya Awards, Dhyan Chand Awards and Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar for the year 2015 . 

(ii) The Sports Ministry has officially approved five names of candidates who will receive the Prestigious Dronacharya Award this year namely, Wrestling coach Anoop Singh and  Paralympics coach Naval Singh. Also, Nihar Amin (swimming), S. R. Singh (boxing) and Harbans Singh (athletics)were selected in the category of ‘Lifetime Achievement Category’.

(iii) The Dronacharya Award, which was constituted in 1985 recognises and honours eminent coaches who have successfully trained sportspersons or teams and helped them achieve outstanding results in international competitions or games.The award will be given by the President of India on August 29th which is the National Sports day.

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