23-24 August 2015 Hindi

England won 2015 Ashes Test series 3-2

England cricket team on 23 August 2015 won 2015 Ashes Test series, 3-2 against Australia at England. In the fifth and final match of the series, Australia defeated England by an innings and 46 runs at Ovals.
England had already clinched the series with victories in three of the first four games.
Series report
1st Test: Played at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff between 8 July and 11 July 2015. England won the match by 169 runs.Joe Rootof England was declared Player of the match.

2nd Test:Played at Lord’s, London between 16 July and 19 July 2015. Australia won the match by 405 runs. Steven Smith of Australia was declared Player of the match. The match also saw debut of Australian cricketer Peter Nevill.

3rd Test: Played at Edgbaston, Birmingham between 29 July and 31 July 2015. England won the match by 8 wickets. Steven Finn of England was declared Player of the match.
4th Test:Played at Trent Bridge, Nottingham between 6 August and 8 August 2015. England won the match by an innings and 78 runs. Stuart Broad of England was declared Player of the match.
5th Test: Played at Kennington Oval, London between 20 August and 23 August 2015. Australia won the match by an innings and 46 runs. Steve Smithof Australia was declared Player of the match.
Chris Rogersof Australia andJoe Rootof England jointly shared the man of the series award.
End of the series also saw an end to the Test career of Australian SkipperMichael Clarke. He had announced his retirement after Australia's defeat in the fourth test which helped England retain the Ashes. Steven Smith was named the new captain.

Palmyra's temple of Baalshamin destroyed by ISIS militants

Palmyra's temple of Baalshamin: Baalshamin was one of the two supreme gods of pre-Islamic Palmyra in ancient Syria
Islamic State for Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants destroyed Palmyra's ancient temple of Baalshamin in Syria.
As per the reports, the militant group placed a large quantity of explosives in the temple of Baalshamin and then blew it up. The explosion caused much damage to the temple.
Syria's head of antiquities was quoted as saying the temple was blown up on 23 August 2015. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that it happened one month ago.

Baalshamin
Baalshamin is a Northwest Semitic god and a title applied to different gods at different places or times in ancient Middle Eastern inscriptions, especially in Canaan/Phoenicia and Syria. The title was most often applied to Hadad, who is also often titled just Ba‘al. Baalshamin was one of the two supreme gods and the sky god of pre-Islamic Palmyra in ancient Syria. His attributes were the eagle and the lightning bolt, and he perhaps formed a triad with the lunar god Aglibol and the sun god Malakbel. Bel was the other supreme god.
ISIS militants on 21 May 2015 seized full control of ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. It is an oasis in the Syrian Desert and is famed for its well-preserved Greco-Roman ruins.
Palmyra, also known as the Pearl of Desert and Tadmur, is located 215 km to the northeast of the Syrian capital Damascus and is a World Heritage Site because of its architecture.

Golfer Aditi Ashok became first Indian to win the Ladies British Amateur Golf championship

Aditi Ashok of Bengaluru on 22 August 2015 became the first Indian to win the Ladies British Amateur stroke play golf championship at the Moortown Golf Club at Leeds, United Kingdom.
17-year-old Aditi is not only the first Indian to take the title, but also the youngest-ever winner of the tournament.

Over the 4 days of the tournament, Aditi shot four days total of 11-under 285 (71, 73, 70, 71) at the par 74 club. She carded five birdies and four bogeys in halves of 37-34 and made one eagle on 16th on the final day.
Earlier in 2015, Aditi ranked 52nd in the world golf amateur rankings, also won 54-hole St Rule Trophy at St Andrews Links in Fife, Scotland and was the youngest female amateurs to do so.

Bandhan Financial Services started operations as Scheduled Commercial Bank

Bandhan Financial Services, a Micro Financial Institution (MFI), on 23 August 2015 started operations as a Scheduled Commercial Bank (SCB). Henceforth it will be called as Bandhan Bank.

The banking services were inaugurated by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Kolkata.

With this, Bandhan became the first micro finance company in the country to start operations as a full-fledged commercial bank. It is also the first commercial bank from Eastern India to get RBI clearance since independence.

Bandhan along with IDFC (Infrastructure Development Finance Company) were granted banking licenses in 2014 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The move was aimed at deepening financial services reach in the country by utilizing the services of the existing players in the market.

About Bandhan

Bandhan started as a Non Banking Finance Company in 2001 and focused on the lower strata of the especially unorganized sector workers.

On the inaugural day, the bank started operations with 501 branches in 24 states across the country with 1.43 crore accounts.
Chandra Sekhar Ghosh, the Managing Director and Founder of the Bank.

Serena Williams won Cincinnati Masters Women’s Singles title for second time

World number one ranking Serena Williams on 23 August 2015 won the Cincinnati Masters Women’s Singles title by defeating the third seeded Simona Halep of Romania.

Having won the 2014 title, it was the third appearance in the finals (2013, 2014 and 2015) and the second Cincinnati title win for the American player.

Also, it the 69th singles overall title for the American player.

In the Women’s category, the title is considered only next to the four Grand slam titles.

With Serena Williams and Roger Federer of Switzerland winning, it was the first time both the men and women champions have successfully defended their titles since Bobby Riggs and Virginia Hollinger in 1937 and 1938.

In early 2015, Serena won all the three Grand Slam titles in Australia, France and the UK and will take part in the upcoming US Open in September 2015.

About Cincinnati Masters

It started on 18 September 1899 is the oldest tennis tournament in the United States played in its original city. The tournament is also the second largest summer tennis event in the U.S. after the U.S. Open.

Roger Federer won Cincinnati Masters Men’s Singles tennis title for record seventh time

Roger Federer of Switzerland on 23 August 2015 won the Cincinnati Masters Men’s Singles title by defeating Novak Djokovic of Serbia. The final match was held at Cincinnati in Ohio State of the USA.

Federer defeated the reigning world champion 7-6 6-3 to win the title for record seventh time.

He won in all his appearances in the finals held in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015 out of which he defeated Djokovic in 2009 and 2012. For Djokovic, it is the fifth appearance in the finals and so far he did not win a single title.

The title is considered as one of nine elite Masters 1000 tournaments on the ATP World Tour and Federer won it most of the times till date.

Usain Bolt won 100 meter title at 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt on 23 August 2015 won the 100 meter title at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics held at Beijing in China.

The defending champion completed the race in 9.79 seconds surpassing his American rival Justin Gatlin who completed the race in 9.80 seconds.

With this win, Bolt joined the select league of Carl Lewis and Maurice Greene who won the title for three times.

Earlier in February 2015, the 28-year-old six-time Olympic gold medalist declared that he would retire after 2017 World Championships in London.

Usain Bolt and his records

He is widely regarded as the fastest person ever. He is the first man to hold both the 100 metres and 200 metres world records since fully automatic time measurements became mandatory in 1977. His records and titles include

• Six Olympic Gold medals: these medals were won at Beijing Olympic 2008 and London Olympics in 2012 in three events and they were 100 metres , 200 metres and 4x100 metres

• Nine World Championships Gold Medals: these medals were won at Berlin 2009 in events 100 metres , 200 metres and 4x100metres , Daegu 2011 in events 200 metres and 4x100 metres, Moscow 2013 in events 100 metres , 200metres and 4x100metres and in 100 metres event in Beijing.

• One Gold medal at Commonwealth Games: won at Glasgow 2014 in 4x100 metres event

• He also hold the world records of covering 100 metres s in 9.88 seconds and 200 metres in 19.19 seconds

Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara retired from International Cricket

Former Sri Lankan cricket captain and batsman Kumar Sangakkara on 24 August 2015 retired from International Cricket.

He played his last match against India as part of three match test series held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

In an event held on this occasion, he was offered the post of Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to the UK by the Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena.

Sangakkara had already taken retirement from One-Day International (ODI) and Twenty-20 cricket. He retired from Twenty-20 cricket format after Sri Lanka won the T20 World cup in 2014. He retired from ODI cricket format after the ICC World Cup 2015.

Kumar Sangakkara

• In his Test match career he scored 38 centuries and 52 half-centuries from 134 matches.

• In ICC World Cup 2015, Kumar Sangakkara created a record by becoming first batsman to score hundreds in three consecutive World Cup matches.

• In 2011, he was named as the ODI Cricketer of the Year at the ICC awards ceremony and in 2012, he was honoured as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

• On 29 January 2015, Sangakkara became Sri Lanka's highest ever ODI run scorer by surpassing the previous record of 13430 runs held by cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya.

• Sangakkara is fifth highest run scorer in Test cricket. He has scored 12400 runs in 134 Test matches at an average of 57.40.

DJB commissioned 1st ever Hydro-power plant at Chilla

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on 23 August 2015 commissioned the first ever Hydro-power plant in the city. The power plant set up at Chilla area of east Delhi will be run through the Hydraulic Turbine propelled by treated effluents coming out of a Sewerage Treatment Plant.

An official release said that the treated effluents will fall through the height of 4.8m and create pressure and velocity that will propel rotation of the turbine thereby generating power. It is a Pilot Project which has been set up free of cost and will produce 20000 KWH of electricity per year.
The release also termed the technology as pollution free, as no fossil fuel is being used in the generation of the power.

UNFCCC, MSSRF to work for conservation of coastal resources of Andhra Pradesh

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Chennai-based MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in third week of August 2015 agreed to work together for the conservation of coastal resources in Andhra Pradesh.
The UNFCCC has sanctioned 3.8 crore rupees for the potential adaptation strategy of MSSRF in Krishna district through an adaptation fund.

The objective of the adaptation initiative is to overcome the consequences of sea level rise and seawater inundation following cyclones.
Focus of the project
• Restoration of the Sorlagondi mangrove forest covers in Krishna district.
• A roadmap to improve the mangrove forest cover in 200 acres and fish cultivation in around 50 acres of mangrove forest has been prepared, and it will be executed by the end August 2015.
• The abandoned land will be brought under fish cultivation, while landless families will be involved in cage cultivation in three villages-Sorlagondi and Nali in Nagayalanka mandal and Basavanipalem in Koduru mandal.
• Cage cultivation would be encouraged in brackish water by setting up as many as 10 cages in the three villages adopted by Swaminathan Research Foundation.
The UNFCCC will release the adaptation fund through the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).