29 AUGUST 2015 CURRENT AFFAIRS

National sports day to be celebrated across India on Aug 29

• National Sports Day will be celebrated across the country on Aug 29 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Indian hockey legend Dhyan Chand
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand on his 110th birth anniversary and extended best wishes to all sports enthusiasts across the country on the occasion of the National Sports Day
• A few sportspersons and coaches will be honoured with the National Sports Awards at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi
• Various sporting events such as walkathon and football tournaments will be held across the country for the first time as a part of the celebrations, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)

Dhyan Chand : 
Born on August 29, 1905 was an Indian field hockey player, who is widely considered the greatest hockey player of all time. He won gold medals for India at the 1928, 1932 and 1936 Olympics. Dhyan Chand is known as “The Wizard” and played his final international match in 1948. He scored over 400 goals during his international career.

Indian Women Hockey Team qualified for Olympics

• After Thirty-six years the Indian women’s hockey team will return to the Olympics (Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) will host the Games of the XXXI Olympiad)  next year after their qualification was confirmed by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Saturday
• The fifth-place finish at the Hockey World League semi-finals earlier in July this year was enough for India to clinch an Olympic berth as a place opened up after the Netherlands and England reached the final of the EuroHockey Championships in London
• India’s only previous appearance for the Games was in 1980, when they finished fourth. 
• The Indian women’s team, which had been waiting for the confirmation since the World League semifinal concluded, required two of the already-qualified teams to reach the final of the European Championships in order to confirm their place

India loses solar case against US at WTO

• India has lost  case against the US at as the body ruled that India's domestic content requirements under its solar power programme were inconsistent with the international norms
• The US alleged that India's programme appears to discriminate against the US solar equipment by requiring solar energy producers to use locally manufactured cells and by offering subsidies to those developers who use domestic equipment
• This was the second case where India has lost against the US in WTO. 
• In June this year, India lost a case when the WTO ruled that the Indian ban on import of poultry meat, eggs and live pigs from the US was inconsistent with the global norms

Sania Mirza gets Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award

• Tennis star Sania Mirza, who won the Wimbledon women's doubles title recently, was on Saturday conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award
• Mirza became the second tennis player to receive the country's highest sporting honour after Leander Paes
• President Pranab Mukherjee presented the National Sports Awards for 2014-15 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan
• The World No. 1 also extended her gratitude to the Indian government and the sports ministry for nominating her for the award