Daily Current Affairs: 19 August 2014

1) Speaker rules out leader of opposition post for Congress in Lok Sabha: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Tuesday closed the chapter on a designated leader of opposition in the lower House of Parliament by rejecting Congress's demand for the post, writing back to the largest opposition party in reply to a letter from Sonia Gandhi. LoPs in bothHouses of Parliament are posts that are at par with Cabinet ministers. "I have gone by rules and tradition," Mahajan told reporters on her decision not to recognize the Congress leader in Lok Sabha as the leader of opposition. Congress reacted strongly to the decision which was pretty much along expected lines.

2) Ravi Shastri appointed Director of Cricket for ODI series against England: n a damage-control move, the BCCI has appointed former Test all-rounder Ravi Shastri Director of Cricket in the Indian team for the five-match ODI series against England, beginning August 25. The Board’s dramatic action on Tuesday was a response to India’s disastrous 3-1 Test series defeat against England. The BCCI told India’s bowling and fielding coaches, Joe Dawes and Trevor Penny, to go on ‘leave.’ Bharat Arun and Sanjay Bangar, former India all-rounders, will be the assistant coaches for the period. Former Hyderabad left-arm spinner R. Sridhar is the fielding coach.

3) PM invites ideas from people on new plan body: Taking a step further towards scrapping the Planning Commission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday invited ideas from the people on the new institution to replace the plan body. The government also announced creation of a special open forum on the website mygov.Nic.In for suggestions on the new institution. "We envision the proposed Institution as one that caters to the aspirations of 21st century India and strengthens participation of the States.... Let the ideas flow," the Prime Minister said in a statement.

4) Google buys travel guide app startup Jetpac:  Google confirmed it has bought the startup behind a Jetpac mobile application that creates insightful travel guides by analyzing pictures from social networks such as Instagram. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Jetpac said that its application would be removed from Apple's online App Store in the days ahead and that it would stop supporting the software in the middle of September.

5) 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games opens in Nanjing: The cauldron is lit up during the Opening Ceremony of the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. The 2ndSummer Youth Olympic Games opened in east China's Nanjing on Saturday evening with more than 3,700 athletes from around the world taking part in. During the 13-day-competition sports gala, the young athletes aged between 15-18 will compete in 28 sports in arenas and stadiums in Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province. Chinese President Xi Jinping declared open of the Games at the ceremony in the modern Olympic Sports Complex, where flags representing 203 National Olympic Committees paraded.