Current Affairs- Today’s Headlines: August 15, 2021

– President approves 144 Gallantry Awards to Armed Forces, police & paramilitary personnel

– Awardees comprise one Ashok Chakra, one Kirti Chakra, 15 Shaurya Chakras, four Bar to Sena Medals (Gallantry), 116 Sena Medals (Gallantry), five Nao Sena Medals (Gallantry) and two Vayu Sena Medals (Gallantry)

– Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Babu Ram and Constable Altaf Hussain Bhat of Jammu and Kashmir Police posthumously awarded Ashoka Chakra and Kirti Chakra respectively.

– Four more wetlands from India get recognition from the Ramsar Secretariat as Ramsar sites: Thol Lake Wildlife Sanctuary and Wadhvana Wetland from Gujarat and Sultanpur National Park and Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary from Haryana

– 1,380 Police personnel awarded Medals on Independence Day, 2021 by the Ministry of Home Affairs

– PM declares August 14 to be observed as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’

– Tamil Nadu government appoints trained aspirants of all castes as priests in temples

– Tamil Nadu: Separate budget for agriculture presented for the first time in the state

– Tamil Nadu becomes first state to cut petrol price in 2021-22; by Rs. 3/litre

– Assam passes Cattle Preservation Bill; beef consumption banned in areas predominantly inhabited by the Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and other non-beef eating communities, or within a radius of 5 km of a temple or a monastery

– Assam: Kaziranga becomes country’s first national park to give satellite phones to forest guards

– Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher House in Mumbai sold for Rs 52.25 crore

– Bharat Petroleum launches door-to-door delivery of ‘High-Speed Diesel’

– Meeting of the BRICS Working Group on Agriculture held