• "The date I chose came out of the blue. I hadn't worked it out exactly then - I thought it had to be about August or September and I then went out to the 15th August. Why? Because it was the second anniversary of Japan's surrender," Lord Mountbatten had said then.
• In 1929, when Jawaharlal Nehru as Congress President gave the call for ‘Poorna Swaraj' or total independence from British colonial rule, January 26 was chosen as the Independence Day.
• In fact, Congress party continued to celebrate it 1930 onwards, till India attained independence and January 26, 1950, was chosen as the Republic Day - the day India formally became a sovereign country and was no longer a British Dominion.

• Lord Mountbatten had been given a mandate by the British parliament to transfer the power by June 30, 1948. If he had waited till June 1948, in C Rajagopalachari's memorable words, there would have been no power left to transfer. Mountbatten thus advanced the date to August 1947.
• The Indian Independence Bill was introduced in the British House of Commons on July 4, 1947, and passed within a fortnight. It provided for the end of the British rule in India, on August 15, 1947, and the establishment of the Dominions of India and Pakistan, which were allowed to secede from the British Commonwealth.
• The Indian Independence Bill gave August 15 as the date of independence for both the countries. The first stamp issued by Pakistan mentioned August 15 as its independence day but in 1948, Pakistan started marking August 14 as its independence day, either because the ceremony for the transfer of power in Karachi was held on August 14, 1947, or because August 14, 1947, was the 27th of Ramadan, a very sacred date to the Muslims.

What's the NEWS

• An app that will allow users to have waste - solid, wet or construction and demolition (C&D) - collected by their urban local bodies was launched by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry on ,along with a new protocol on wastewater treatment that would become a part of cleanliness rankings of cities.
• SBM Water PLUS Protocol, Swachh Nagar app, Swachh Survekshan 2020 Toolkit and AI-enabled mSBM App were also launched.

• The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry launched the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey which will culminate in January 2020, Swachh Survekshan 2020 the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey

• The app would let users place a request to have waste picked up from their homes and make the payment for the same.
• It was already functional in Agra, Palwal and Port Blair and would now be extended to the whole country.
• This app features tracking of waste collection by ULBs through route and vehicle monitoring, notification to citizens, online collection of user fee for waste collection and an effective grievance redressal mechanism, will be the answer to several issues that hinder effective waste management such as lack of monitoring, collection of segregated waste, and tracking the movement of waste vehicles and waste pickers, amongst others.

Swachh Survekshan League 2020

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• The government launched Swachh Survekshan League 2020 with the objective of sustaining the on-ground performance of cities along with continuous monitoring of service level performance on cleanliness.

Know! about Water+ protocol

• The Minister also launched the Water+ protocol for cities. A city could be given the tag of Water+ if it ensures 100% treatment of wastewater and 10% use of treated wastewater, among other things.

Launch of another app - mSBM

• The government also launched another app - mSBM - through which the government would be able to check whether funds given to beneficiaries of the Swachh Bharat Mission for constructing toilets are used for the work before releasing the second instalment.

Know! the Key Focus areas for Swachh Survekshan 2020 are:

• Collect segregate waste and maintain till processing site
• Utilize capacity of wet processing facilities
• Treat and re-use waste water
• Curtain solid waste based Air Pollution
• Follow three principles - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
• Uplift social condition of informal Waste Pickers
• Promote procurement through GeM
• Assess Ganga Towns separately to accelerate action
• Engage Technology-driven Monitoring

Know! more about Swachh Survekshan 2020

• Swachh Survekshan 2020 will be conducted in January 2020. It will be organised through citizen engagement that means citizen feedback or indicators involving citizen participation.
• Swachh Survekshan is an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and towns across India. It was launched as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which aims to make India clean and free of open defecation by 2 October 2019.

Space Awareness ( Chandrayaan -2 updates)
Chandrayaan-2 successfully enters Lunar Transfer Trajectory
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about chandrayaan -2) + Mains ( GS III space awareness)

What's the NEWS

• Chandrayaan-2 headed onwards on its path to the moon after the Indian Space Research Organisation, successfully carried out a crucial process to manoeuvre India's second lunar probe out of the earth's orbit.
• ISRO said that it carried out the manoeuvre called Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI) at 2.21 am today as it was planned.

Know! more about it

• The final orbit raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was successfully carried out today at 02:21 am IST. During this manoeuvre, the spacecraft's liquid engine was fired for about 1203 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory
• After Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22, the spacecraft's orbit was progressively increased five times from July 23 to August 6.The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft is expected to reach the moon's orbit on August 20. The spacecraft's liquid engine will be fired again to insert the spacecraft into a lunar orbit.
• Following this, there will be further four orbit manoeuvres to make the spacecraft enter into its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the moon's surface
• On September 7, the spacecraft's lander, Vikram, is expected to soft-land on the south pole of the moon and unleash the rover to explore the surface.
• The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Byalalu, near Bengaluru

Chandrayaan -2 (Objective)

• Chandrayaan-2 will find out where and in what form water is available on the surface of the Moon. Additionally, Chandrayaan-2 will detect the weather and radiation there. Chandrayaan-2 will also try to find out that which part of the moon always remain in the dark and which part comes into the contact of light.

International Issues
Hong Kong Protest
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about one country two systems + about Hong Kong autonomous status + Mains ( GS II international relations)

Know! all about the protest

• The protests had begun in Hong Kong in early June over concerns regarding a bill that would allow individuals to be extradited to mainland China. The proposed law has been suspended.
• Know! about the inception of Hong Kong
• Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997, after which it was handed back to China under a policy called "one country, two systems".

Know! the policy of one country, two systems

• The policy offers the residents of Hong Kong a greater degree of independence than they would have in China.
• The policy though made Hong Kong a part of China but it let it keep many of liberties that are denied to the Chinese citizens including freedom of speech, unrestricted internet access and the right to free assembly.
• Hong Kong has its own set of laws, police, system of governance and currency under a mini-constitution called the Basic Law.
• Although China agreed to keep the policy intact at least till 2047, many residents of Hong Kong feel that China is slowly taking away its autonomy and that the local government is in its favour.
• The protests had initially begun in June after residents of Hong Kong felt that the newly proposed law will jeopardize Hong Kong's autonomy from China and would endanger Hong Kong-based critics of China.

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