current affairs 14 August 2021 (In English)

Delhi airport was adjudged the best airport in India and Central Asia.

• The airport was declared so by Skytrax World Airport Awards.
• With this the airport has been adjudged the best airport for the third year in a row.
• Skytrax is known for assessing customer service and facilities at over 550 airports worldwide.
• Doha's Hamad International Airport won the title of Best Airport in the World.

Kolkata will host the 130th edition of the Durand Cup from September 5 to October 3.

• Durand Cup, the oldest football tournament in the country, will return for its 130th edition in Kolkata.
• The prestigious tournament was first held in Dagshai (Himachal Pradesh) in 1888.
• And was named after Mortimer Durand, who was the foreign secretary in charge of India at the time.
• Mohun Bagan and East Bengal are the most successful teams in the history of Durand Cup having won it sixteen times.
• The winning team is presented with three trophies ie the President's Cup (first presented by Dr Rajendra Prasad),
• The Durand Cup (the original challenge prize - a rolling trophy)
• And the Shimla Trophy (first presented by citizens of Shimla in 1903 and since 1965, a rolling trophy).

Kamlesh Kumar Pant has been appointed as the chairman of the new National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).

• NPPA is the agency to oversee pharmaceutical pricing.
• The pharmaceutical pricing agency was currently headed by IAS officer Shubhra Singh from 2018.
• Senior bureaucrat Kamlesh Kumar Pant is a 1993 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre.
• Pant has to deal with several challenges like ensuring availability of essential medicines, vaccines and other medical supplies at affordable prices amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

SBI Bank has signed an MoU with NABARD and Jammu & Kashmir Gramin Bank for joint liability group financing.

• The main objective of signing of MoUs is to increase the flow of credit to tenant farmers/oral lessees/shareholders, SF/MFs etc., who may not have proper ownership of their land at times.
• The JLG formation will also meet the credit requirements of people suffering from reverse migration in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic.
• The formation and credit linkage of 1000 JLGs will benefit about 5000 families in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

India's National Institute of Ocean Technology has signed an agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

• To develop a Research Murdered Array for Afro-Asian-Australian monsoon analysis and prediction.
• Indian and US bodies have signed an agreement on monsoon data analysis and collaboration to improve weather forecasting in the region.
• The two bodies will enhance technical cooperation in the development of the Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA)
• And the Ocean Moored buoy Network in the northern Indian ocean (OMNI) for improving weather and monsoon forecasts between NOAA of US and India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences.