current affairs 08 August 2022

Indian Army conducts Exercise "Skylight" to test resilience of its satellite communications.

• The Indian Army conducted a pan-India exercise to test and validate its entire satellite-based communication network to ensure operational readiness in case of a conflict in the future.
• The exercise named Skylight was conducted from July 25 to July 29.
• Exercise involved all kinds of satellite communication, from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to Ladakh, where India and China have engaged in a military stand-off for the past two years.

ISRO launched "AzadiSAT" satellite built by 750 school girls with the help of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).

• To mark India's historic 75th year of independence, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch a satellite dubbed AzadiSAT developed by 750 girl students from 75 schools across India.
• The project is part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations.
• The satellite will be launched using the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) on its maiden mission on August 7.
• The AzadiSat, apart from celebrating India's 75th year of Independence, is a symbol of women's empowerment.
• The AzadiSAT will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9:18am on Sunday. The satellite weighs 8kg and will have 75 payloads weighing 50g each.
• The AzadiSAT will be launched alongside the 145kg Earth Observation 2 satellite by the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) on its maiden trip.

Kerala-based Federal Bank becomes the 1st bank to list its payment gateway platform on Income Tax Department's TIN 2.0 platform.

• Kerala-based Federal Bank has become the first bank to list its Payment Gateway platform on the TIN 2.0 platform of the Income Tax Department.
• The TIN 2.0 platform went live on July 1 this year and the Payment Gateway has been enabled, providing one more payment option to taxpayers, who can now make their payments with ease, using modes such as Credit/Debit Card, UPI, NEFT/RTGS and Internet Banking.
• Federal Bank in July partnered with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to assist taxpayers in making their payments through the e-pay tax facility in the e-filing portal of the income tax.
• The bank also received the government’s approval to collect direct tax during the past financial year and has been made effective since July 1, 2022.

Unity Small Finance Bank appoints senior banker Inderjit Kaimotra as its Managing Director and Chief Executive.

• Unity Small Finance Bank has appointed senior banker Inderjit Camotra as its managing director and chief executive.
• Camotra has over 25 years of experience across the country in leadership positions at Standard Chartered Bank, ANZ and Citigroup.
• The Reserve Bank recently elevated Unity Bank to a scheduled bank.
• In January 2022, the bank appointed Vinod Rai, former CAG, as its chairman.

NPCI signed an MoU with and IIT Kanpur for research collaboration.

• IIT Kanpur has signed an MoU with and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) sharing knowledge on innovative ideas and to collaborate on the development of indigenous digital payments.
• The collaboration will help in the augmentation of cybersecurity controls for NPCI and its subsidiaries’ products and services.
• With this collaboration, eminent faculty members from the institute will conduct informative sessions and deliver lectures for NPCI personnel on Cybersecurity and the new trends in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Security Product Roadmaps, and Distributed ledger technologies (DLT).
• NPCI, on the other hand, will offer internship opportunities to IIT-Kanpur students, providing them an invaluable experience of working on live projects of NPCI.