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Current Affairs August 16 - Persons in NEWS
News 1 - Skydiver Luke Aikins Sets Record for Highest Jump without Parachute
Daredevil skydiver Luke Aikins (USA) set a Guinness World Records after he leaped 25,000 ft (7,600 m) from a plane without wearing a wingsuit or a parachute. The extremely dangerous stunt – named ‘Heaven Sent’ is officially the Highest skydive without a parachute ever.
During the freefall, the 42-year-old American had only his body and a GPS unit to direct his movements towards the 10,000-square-foot net he needed to land in, in order to survive the jump.
News 2 - Narsingh Yadav got NADA's clean chit; to participate in Rio Olympics
National Anti Doping Agency, NADA has given clean chit to wrestler Narsingh Yadav to participate in Rio Olympics. The NADA disciplinary panel has exonerated Yadav from charges of violating anti-doping rules of NADA citing he was a victim of sabotage done by a competitor.
Narsingh was tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid methandienone in tests conducted on June 25. He had been replaced by Parveen Rana when the scandal broke out to save India's quota place in the 74kg category.
News 3 - Swaroop Gowda, 6 years old Indian boy creates Guinness World Record
Swaroop Gowda, a six-year-old boy from Karnataka created historical Guinness World records title for covering longest distance of 65.283 metre by limbo-skating under 36 cars with the gap between the parked vehicles can be no more than 20 cm and the gap underneath each car can be no more than 35 cm.
This could be successfully completed by his technique of holding his body just above ground and maintaining a splits position throughout. The challenge took place at Orion Mall in Bangalore in the presence of Guinness World Records adjudicator Rishi Nath, to ensure that all the rules for were followed correctly.
News 4 - IOC for the first time selects Indian woman Nita Ambani as its member
Owner of Mumbai Indians cricket team and founder chairperson of Reliance Foundation, Nita Ambani has been selected as an individual member of International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was announced at the 129th Session of the world body in Rio de Janeiro. With this announcement, she becomes the first Indian woman to join International Olympics Committee and will serve till the age of 70.
She is regarded as the chief architect of the Hero Indian Super League and also an inspirational figure of the IPL team Mumbai Indians.
News 5 - Former RBI Deputy Governor Anand Sinha joins IDFC Bank board
IDFC Bank appointed former Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Anand Sinha to the bank's board. He would be joining as an Additional Director in the category of Independent Director on the board.
His appointment comes into effect from August 1. He was appointed after Vinod Rai, the former Comptroller and Auditor General of India, stepped down after serving on the board for a year. Sinha joined the RBI in 1976, and was incharge of regulation of commercial banks, NonBanking Financial Companies, Urban Cooperative Banks and Information Technology.
News 6 - Saina Nehwal appointed as brand ambassador for ITC's Savlon
Saina Nehwal has been appointed as ITC’s hygiene brand, Savlon. In its new campaign, Savlon seeks to inspire parents to let go of their fears and encourage children to push their limits and maximize their potential to succeed in life.
Savlon antiseptic has a rich heritage of more than 50 years in India and is trusted by 90% doctors and offers 8 times better germ protection.
News 7 - Sehwag becomes MCC's honorary life member
Former India opening batsman, Virender Sehwag, has been awarded the honorary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club. He joins fellow India icons Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly on the list of Honorary Life Members.
During his illustrious career, Sehwag scored 8,586 Test runs at an average of 49.34, and 8273 One-Day International runs at an average of 35.05. The membership is extended by MCC Committee to acknowledge the contributions of players to the game.
News 8 - Sachin Tendulkar selects Maharashtra village for development under SAGY
Cricket icon and Rajya Sabha MP Sachin Tendulkar has selected Donja village in Osmanabad district in Maharashtra for development under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is a rural development programme focusing on development of villages which include social and cultural development, and spread motivation among the people on social mobilization of the village community. It was launched in October 2014.
News 9 - Vistara airlines appoints Deepika Padukone as brand ambassador
Vistara has appointed Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone as its brand ambassador. The contact period and the fee was undisclosed. The airline will launch a new campaign featuring Deepika scheduled to be broadcast on TV channels across India starting August 22, 2016.
Vistara is an Indian domestic airline based in Gurgaon whose 51 per cent stake is owned by Tata Sons and the rest 49 per cent by Singapore Airlines. Vistara had commenced operations in January 2015.
News 10 - Sakshi Malik to be the brand ambassador for Beti Bachao, Beti Padao campaign in Haryana
Bronze medal winner from Rio Olympics, Sakshi Malik has been named as the brand ambassador for Beti Bachao, Beti Padao campaign in Haryana after she was awarded with 2.5 crore rupees and Commendation Certificate by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal. She was also offered a class two level job in the state government.
The programme aims to empower the girl child and reduce rates of female foeticide in districts with low child sex ratio. Malik is the first-ever Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in the sport of wrestling.
News 11 - India captain MS Dhoni sets world record in USA
Captain of Indian National Cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, set a world record after he captained India in a record 325th international game (most by a player in history), across all three formats. He broke Australian skipper Ricky Ponting's record.
Dhoni was leading India in 71st T20I. He has already captained the side in 60 Tests and 194 One Day Internationals from 2007 till 2016. He is the only captain in history to have won all 3 ICC trophies (World T20 2007, World Cup 2011 and Champions Trophy 2013).
News 12 - Bibhuti Lahkar becomes first Asian to nominated for ‘Heritage Heroes Award' of IUCN
Ecologist and conservation activist, Dr Bibhuti Lahkar, became the first Asian to be nominated for the prestigious ‘Heritage Heroes Award' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
He is among five conservationists from across the globe to be nominated for this year's Heritage Heroes Award. Dr Bibhuti Lahkar has been working to save the grasslands, flora and fauna of Manas National Park area for the past two decades and is currently engaged as Manas Landscape Administrator for Aaranyak, an NGO working for biodiversity conservation in North East India.
News 13 - PV Sindhu to be Commandant in CRPF
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has decided to appoint Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu as it’s brand ambassador and bestow the honorary rank of Commandant on her. A Commandant rank officer in CRPF commands a battalion of about 1,000 personnel.
Country’s largest paramilitary force has moved a formal proposal in this regard to the Union Home Ministry and after getting required sanctions, Sindhu will be honoured and presented the rank badges. The CRPF also has the credit of raising the first all-women battalion in a central paramilitary or a police force way back in 1987.
News 14 - Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt’s London Olympics bronze medal upgraded to silver
Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt's bronze medal from the London Olympics has been upgraded to silver after second-place finisher late Besik Kudukhov of Russia was stripped off his medal for failing a dope test.
Kudukhov, who had died in a car crash in 2013, was found to have used a banned substance in a test conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). As a result, Yogeshwar has now joined Sushil Kumar as the other silver medallist wrestler from the 2012 Olympics. Following the upgrade, India now has eight Olympic silver medals.
News 15 - 100-Year-Old Runner from India Gets Gold Medal
Man Kaur from India picked up a gold medal at the American Masters 100 metres dash. 100year-old Kaur was the only female competitor in her age category at the competition for older athletes. Earlier, she won gold medals in the javelin and shot put. Kaur has now won more than 20 medals in Masters Games across the globe.
The World Masters Games take place every four years, with regional games in between. The average age of the athletes is 49.