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Q2. Where is the headquarter of Bodo Sahitya Sabha located?
Kokrajhar
Baksa
Udalguri
Chirang
A. Kokrajhar
Kokrajhar is a town in the Bodoland Territorial Region an autonomous territory in Assam. It is the headquarters of Kokrajhar district and the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). It is located along the bank of Gaurang River.
Q3. Bodo Sahitya Sabha was founded under the presidency of
Samar Brahama Choudhury
Padmashree Modaram Brahma
Joy Bhadra Hagjer
Kanakeswar Narzary
C. Joy Bhadra Hagjer
Q4. Who was the first General Secretary of Bodo Sahitya Sabha?
Dharanidhar Basumatary
Sonaram Thaosen
Upendra Nath Brahma
Karendra Basumatary
B. Sonaram Thaosen
Q5. Bodo language was introduced as a medium of instruction at primary level in the year
1961
1962
1963
1964
C. 1963
Bodo language was introduced in 1963 as a medium of instruction in the primary schools and at secondary level in the year 1968 in Boro dominated areas. It is official language of the Bodoland autonomous region and co-official language of of Assam.
Q6. Bodo language has been included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution under which Amendment?
73rd Amendment
82nd Amendment
89th Amendment
92nd Amendment
D. 92nd Amendment
The 92nd Constitutional amendment Act amended the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution so as to include Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santali languages.
The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists the official languages of the Republic of India.
Q7. Which among the following is/are correct about Bodo Sahitya Sabha?
The main aim of the Sabha was the preservation and promotion of the Bodo language and culture.
It consisted of representatives of Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Nepal in abroad.
In 1985, Bodo has been recognized as an associated state official language of Assam.
All of the above
D. All of the above
Q8. Who was selected for the Sahitya Akademi Annual Award- 2019 for his Poetry ‘Akhai Athumniphrai’?
Phukan Chandra Basumatary
Rituraj Basumatary
Guneswar Musahary
Brajendra Kumar Brahma
A. Phukan Chandra Basumatary
Q9. Bodo language has been recognised as an associate state official language of Assam in which year?
1968
1985
1874
1990
B. 1985
Q10. Who is the present President of Bodo Sahitya Sabha?
Q1. Which is the first city from Northeast to get a manhole cleaning robot ‘BANDICOOT’ to ensure minimal human involvement to clean the sewers?
Agartala
Guwahati
Itanagar
Aizawl
B. Guwahati
The automatic sewer cleaning device has been procured by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC). The device was developed by a Start-up India company called Genrobotics under the Make in India initiative, funded by CSR of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).
Q2. Which state government recently deployed drone and anti-depredation quick response vehicle to guard forest areas?
West Bengal
Assam
Bihar
Kerala
B. Assam
This drone would be able to narrow-cast any purported movement of the poachers and would delve a blow to poaching in the national parks, wild life sanctuaries and other reserve forests.
Q3. As per the National Education Policy 2020, the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education to be raised to what percent by 2035?
35%
25%
50%
60%
C. 50%
New Policy aims for universalization of education from pre-school to secondary level with 100 % Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in school education by 2030. Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education to be raised to 50% by 2035, with addition of 3.5 crore seats.
Q4. The book “The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World” authored by
Venkaiah Naidu
Rajdeep Sardesai
S Jaishankar
Amartya Sen
C. S Jaishankar
Q5. Name the mobile application launched by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) recently?
Weather
Climate
Megha
Mausam
D. Mausam
This app is designed to communicate the weather information and forecasts to the general public. The app will forecast weather conditions of around 450 cities, which will show the weather conditions of the past 24 hours and seven days. It will also help to show radar images
Q6. Government of India recently inaugurated ‘World Class State of Art Honey Testing Laboratory’ in which state?
Tripura
Gujarat
Nagaland
Andhra Pradesh
B. Gujarat
The testing lab was established by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in Anand, Gujarat with support of NBB (National Bee Board).
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has now notified new standards of Honey, Bee Wax and Royal Jelly.
Q7. Which institute has recently developed medical bed isolation system named ‘Aashray’?
Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT)
Christian Medical College (CMC)
Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL)
Madra Medical College (MMC)
A. Defence Institute of Advanced Techology (DIAT)
Medical bed isolation system is a low cost, reusable solution to maintain proper isolation of COVID-19 patients. The product is modular and portable in design and can be suitable for different requirements.
Q8. Green-Agriculture, a project funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF) was launched in which state recently?
Telangana
Mizoram
Odisha
Sikkim
B. Mizoram
Mizoram is first among the five states where the project is to be implemented. The other four states are Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
Q9. Who represents India in 6th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting through video conference?
Prakash Javadekar
Nirmala Sitharaman
Ramvilas Paswan
Harsimrat Kaur Badal
A. Prakash Jaadekar
BRICS is the acronym for the combined economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The first BRIC Summit took place in 2009 in the Russian Federation and focused on issues such as reform of the global financial architecture. South Africa was invited to join BRIC in December 2010, after which the group adopted the acronym BRICS.
Q10. Who has won the Lifetime Excellence Award 2020 in Earth System Science for his major contribution in the field of Biostratigraphy, Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology?
Anil Prakash Joshi
Usha Chaumar
Trinity Saioo
Professor Ashok Sahni
D. Professor Ashok Sahni
Earth system science (ESS) is the application of systems science to the Earth. It focuses on the operation of the whole Earth, including the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.
HRD Minister launches ‘India Report on Digital Education 2020’
Union Minister for HRD Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ virtually launched India Report on Digital Education, 2020, which elaborates on the innovative methods adopted by Ministry of HRD, Education Departments of States and Union Territories for ensuring accessible and inclusive education to children at home and reducing learning gaps.
Ministry of Human Resource Development has initiated many projects like DIKSHA platform, Swayam Prabha TV Channel, Online MOOC courses, On Air – Shiksha Vani, DAISY by NIOS for differently-abled, e-PathShala, National Repository of Open Educational Resources to develop e-content and energized books, telecast through TV channels, E-learning portals , webinars and other digital initiatives along with State/ UT Governments.
The report has been prepared by Digital Education Division of MHRD in consultation with Education Departments of States and UTs.
School Education is envisaged as a comprehensive and convergent programme committed to universalize digital education across the wide spectrum of schools from pre-nursery to higher secondary classes.
Various State and Union Territories Governments have also managed the critical task of providing digital education at the doorstep of the students, social media tools like WhatsApp Group, Online classes through YouTube channel and Google meet.
States and UTs have also distributed textbooks at children’s doorsteps.
India can be major agro products exporter with effective policy
A study conducted by MVIRDC World Trade Center Mumbai shows that India can emerge as top five exporters of agro commodities in the world, if governments take effective measures to handhold farmers.
Through focused intervention in capacity building, India can enhance its agro export to surpass Thailand and Indonesia and become the fifth largest exporter in the world.
The government should re-orient the role of its extension centres, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), to handhold farmers in growing those varieties of crops that are demanded in the global market.
KVKs should guide farmers on prudential use of pesticides and other agro chemicals so that they conform to the global quality standards, so that India’s export consignments are rejected because of presence of higher level of pesticides.
India has made remarkable progress in export of niche products such as capsicum chilly, castor oil, tobacco extracts; and also made considerable progress in export of basmati rice, meat and marine products.
As per latest WTO data, India ranks eighth with annual agro exports of $39 billion, after EU, USA, Brazil, China, Canada, Indonesia and Thailand.
As per FAO data, India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world but its share in world exports is 1.7-1.8 per cent.
IRCTC, SBI Card launch new Co-branded contactless Credit Card
IRCTC and SBI Card together launched their new Co-branded Contactless Credit Card on RuPay Platform.
The new RuPay credit card is equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC), with which, users can expedite their transactions at the POS machines by just tapping the card on the machines.
Hetero launches generic Covid-19 drug Favivir
Drug firm Hetero has launched genericoral antiviral drug Favipiravir used for treatment of patients with mild to moderate Covid-19, in India under the brand name ‘Favivir’ at Rs 59 per tablet.
The company has been granted the manufacturing and marketing approval for Favipiravir from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).
Favivir is the second drug developed by Hetero after Covifor (Remdesivir) used in the treatment of Covid-19.
This medication has demonstrated positive clinical outcomes, it improves treatment accessibility to a significant amount of Covid-19 patient population, which have mild to moderate symptoms.
July 30, 2020
Union Cabinet approves National Education Policy 2020
The Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020, with large scale, transformational reforms in both school and higher education sectors in the country.
This education policy will replace the thirty-four year old National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986.
Built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability, this policy is aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and aims to transform India into a vibrant knowledge society and global knowledge superpower by making both education more holistic, flexible, multidisciplinary, suited to present needs.
New Education Policy aims for Universalization of Education from pre-school to secondary level with 100 % Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) in school education by 2030, by bringing 2 crore out of school children back into the main stream.
It proposes new 5+3+3+4 school curriculum with 12 years of schooling and 3 years of Anganwadi/ Pre-schooling. It also emphasis on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, no rigid separation between academic streams, extracurricular, vocational streams in schools. And teaching upto at least Grade 5 to be in mother tongue/ regional language.
GER in higher education to be raised to 50 % by 2035 ; and additional 3.5 crore seats to be added in higher education. Higher Education curriculum is also to have more flexibility of Subjects, with multiple entry / exit to be allowed with appropriate certification.
Academic Bank of Credits to be established to facilitate Transfer of Credits.
National Research Foundation to be established to foster a strong research culture
Light but Tight Regulation of Higher Education, single regulator with four separate verticals for different functions
Affiliation System to be phased out with graded autonomy to colleges.
The new policy also advocates increased use of technology with equity; and for these purpose a National Educational Technology Forum to be created.
NEP 2020 promotes Multilingualism in both schools and HEs; National Institute for Pali, Persian and Prakrit , Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation to be set up.
Earth Sciences Ministry announces National Awards for excellence in Earth System Science
Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) announced National Awards for excellence in Earth System Science. The Life Time Excellence Award is being awarded to Professor Ashok Sahni for his significant contribution in the field of Geology, Vertebrate Paleontology and Biostratigraphy.
The National Award for Ocean Science and technology is being awarded to Dr. V. V. S. S. Sarma, Senior Principal Scientist, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Vishakapatnam and Dr. M. Ravichandran, Director, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Goa. Dr. S. Suresh Babu will be awarded the National Award for Atmospheric Science and Technology.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) provides the nation with the best possible services for weather, climate, ocean, coastal and natural hazards, for the Public Safety and socio-economic benefits. It also deals with exploration and sustainable harnessing of ocean resources – living and non-living.
MoES-Knowledge Resource Centre Network launched
Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has launched the “MoES-Knowledge Resource Centre Network (KRCNet)” under the Digital India initiative of Government of India.
The Ministry aims to develop a World-Class Knowledge Resource Centre Network (KRCNet). The traditional libraries of the MoES system will be upgraded into a top-notch Knowledge Resource Centres (KRC).
KRCs will be interconnected and integrated into the KRCNet portal. It will be a single point entry to the intellectual assets of the ministry.
Salient objectives of the MoES-Knowledge Resource Centre Network (KRCNet)
Establish a Total Quality Management (TQM) system by securing ISO certification for documenting MoESknowledge resources, its maintenance, easy retrieval and dissemination.
Collect, collate, analyze, index, store and disseminate the intellectual resources, products and project outputs available in MoES headquarter and its institutes.
Develop and maintain an up-to-date meta-data of the print & digital resources available in MoES headquarter and MoES institutes, including MoES services.
Provide 24X7 access to the subscribed knowledge contents through the KRCNet portal.
Application of information analytical tools & techniques like bibliometrics, scientometrics, big-data analytics, social media analytics etc., for policy formulation, report preparation and information dissemination.
Periodically organize training workshops to popularize usage of electronic journals, databases, digital products, data analytics etc.
Haryana engages Garuda Aerospace for drone-based anti-locust spraying
Drone-as-a-Service (DAAS) provider Garuda Aerospace has bagged a contract from the Haryana government for spraying anti-locust pesticide in the state.
Haryana is the third state after Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to have contracted Garuda Aerospace for drone-based anti-locust operations.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation gave conditional exemption to the Haryana government for use of remotely piloted systems for anti-locust operations.
Garuda Aerospace has been carrying out drone-based anti-coronavirus sanitation orders from several municipal corporations and smart cities like Varanasi, Rourkela, Raipur, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Guwahati Development Department (GDD) Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya inaugurated the first-ever manhole cleaning robot to end manual scavenging.
The robot named ‘BANDICOOT’ has been procured by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) along with six Skid Steer Loaders from JCB and six Backhoe Loaders from CASE and BOBCAT companies each.
The BANDICOOT robot is also the first of its kind in the world that was developed by a Start-up India company called Genrobotics under the Make in India initiative, funded by CSR of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).
Guwahati is the third city in the entire country to procure this innovative technology to clean manholes after Gurugram and Coimbatore.
Hardik Satishchandra Shah appointed Private Secretaryto PM Modi
IAS officer Hardik Satishchandra Shah has been appointed the Private Secretary (PS) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shah is a 2010-batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, is currently serving as a Deputy Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
FACTFILE – Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)
The Prime Minister’s Office consists of the immediate staff of the Prime Minister of India, as well as multiple levels of support staff reporting to the Prime Minister.
The PMO is headed by the Principal Secretary, currently PK Misra.
It was originally called the Prime Minister’s Secretariat until 1977, when it was renamed during the Prime Ministership of Morarji Desai ministry.
PM Modi inaugurated the Supreme Court building of Mauritius
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Supreme Court building of Mauritius with his counterpart Pravind K. Jugnauth via video conference, in presence of senior members of judiciary from Mauritius and other dignitaries from both the countries.
Prime Minister Modi said India and Mauritius jointly celebrated yet another landmark as a symbol of special friendship between the two countries.
The Supreme Court building of Mauritius has been constructed with Indian grant assistance and will be the first India-assisted infrastructure project within the capital city of Port Louis after Covid-19.
This project is one of the five projects being implemented under the ‘Special Economic Package’ of $353 million extended by the Government of India to Mauritius in 2016.
Union cabinet approval for remaining HRD Ministry as Ministry of Education
The Union Cabinet has approved the change of name of the Ministry of Human Resource Development as Ministry of Education.
The name change was done as per the recommendation of the draft New Education Policy 2020. The HRD ministry name was adopted in 1985, during the tenure of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, before that it was the Ministry of Education.
FACTFILE – Ministry of Education (MoE)
The Ministry of Education (MoE) is responsible for the implementation and formulation of the National Policy on Education approved by Union cabinet of India and to ensure that it is implemented in letter and spirit.
Planned development, including expanding access and improving quality of the educational institutions throughout the country, including in the regions where people do not have easy access to education.
The Ministry is divided into two departments – (1) Department of School Education and Literacy, which deals with primary, secondary and higher secondary education, adult education and literacy, and (2) Department of Higher Education, which deals with a university education, technical education, scholarship, etc.
Power Finance Corporationsigns agreement with IIT- Kanpur
Power Finance Corporation (PFC), a PSU under Ministry of Power and country’s leading NBFC, signed a MoA with Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K) for Training, Research, and Entrepreneurship Development in Smart Grid Technology.
As per the MoA, PFC will provide financial assistance of Rs. 2.38 Crore to IIT-K under its CSR initiative.
PFD will provide support to IIT-K in developing infrastructure for research and development on smart grid technology. And IIT-K will provide training on smart grid technology to 90 participants and provide fellowship to 9 selected candidates for development of ideas on Smart Grid Technology. The fellows will be assisted by Start-up Innovation and Incubation Centre (SIIC) of IIT-K and encouraged to take up entrepreneurial activities.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh launched a nutritional drink ‘Verka haldi’ or turmeric milk, produced by Milkfed to boost people’s immunity amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with the hope that this milk would soon emerge as a popular drink among consumers, to stay healthy and boost their immunity in the fight against coronavirus.
The Verka milk had been prepared by using a unique ‘haldi’ formulation, that had been developed and patented by Department of Biotechnology of Punjabi University in Patiala.
Verka Haldi Dudh has been launched, as part of Mission Fateh, at a price of Rs 25 for 200 ml which is within the reach of all sections of society and will be beneficial for health of young and old alike.
Centre to Provide Rs 346 croreto Assam to tackle flood fury
Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Sekhawat has announced to provide the first instalment of Rs 346 crore under the Flood Management Programme (FMP) in Assam.
The massive devastation caused by over a month long flood along with erosion in the state. The monsoon flood in Assam has killed at least 89 people, while around 26.32 lakh people in 26 of the 33 districts were affected.
The flood also badly damaged 115,515 hectares of crop area and infrastructures across the state.
The central minister requested the Chief Minister to send proposals for sanctioning money under Disaster Risk Management Fund which would facilitate the state government to get more funds from the Central Government for flood management, relief, erosion and other mitigation.
The Chief Minister also urged for funds to strengthen 5,000 km of embankments built since 1951 in the state, which also turned into road cum embankments.
Andhra Pradesh inks MoU with AMUL for dairy development
Andhra Pradesh government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with cooperative giant Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL).
The MoU is expected to give a boost to the empowerment of women self-help groups by encouraging the milk cooperatives in the government sector.
Joining hands with AMUL will help the women groups and dairy farming in the cooperative sector with an opportunity and exposure to world class infrastructure, technology and marketing opportunities which would improve their standard of living and self reliance of women.
Though the Andhra Pradesh stands fourth in milk production, only 24 per cent was going to the organised sector. The partnership with AMUL will help farmers to get good price and women groups.
Punjab signs pacts with IIT Ropar for skill development
Punjab state government has signed three Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the IIT Ropar to boost skill development.
The MoUs provide for IIT’s Technical Education Department to become academic mentor for engineering colleges in Gurdaspur and Ferozepur, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Skill Institute at Shri Chamkaur Sahib, five government polytechnics and 10 government ITIs.
IIT Ropar would help the state in developing one model ITI and one model polytechnic.
FACTFILE – Indian Institute of Technology Ropar
Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT Ropar) is an engineering, science and technology higher education institute located in Rupnagar, Punjab.
It is one of the eight newer Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India under The Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2011.
India’s first public Electric Vehicle charging plaza inaugurated at New Delhi
Union Minister for Power, New and Renewable Energy, RK Singh, inaugurated India’s first public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging plaza at Chelmsford Club in New Delhi.
The charging plaza has been set up with a focus on enhancing energy efficiency and promoting e-mobility. This plaza will host 5 EV chargers of different specifications.
The minister also launched retrofit of air-conditioning to improve indoor air quality for safety and efficiency (RAISE) – a joint initiative of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
This is a part of the initiative to “Retrofit of Air-conditioning to improve Indoor air quality for Safety and Efficiency” developed for healthy and energy-efficient buildings, in partnership with USAID’s MAITREE programme.
Ministry of Youth Affairspartners with UNICEF to promote volunteerism among youth
Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) has partnered with UNICEF to strengthen the resolve to mobilise 1 crore youth volunteers to achieve goals of Atmanirbhar Bharat
MYAS signed a memorandum of intent was signed with YuWaah (a multi-stakeholder platform formed by the UNICEF) to work in partnership to promote volunteerism among India’s youth.
The partnership will leverage both Indian ministry and UN efforts to work with young people to co-create and implement solutions at scale tackling education, skilling and unemployment challenges for the youth in India.
July 23, 2020
NITI Aayog recommends mandatory use of 25% recycled material in infra projects
Niti Aayog will recommend to the government to mandate the use of recycled materials up to 25 per cent in large infrastructure projects, in line with the global move to promote the use of secondary products.
Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer of Niti Aayog, said that Govt should make 25 per cent use of recycled products (metals, plastics and paper) in large infrastructure projects to promote secondary products across India
Using recycled products by up to 25 per cent may reduce the raw material cost of the project by at least 10-15 per cent.
PM Modi at India Ideas Summit
Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the keynote address at the India Ideas Summit, the Summit is being hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC). The theme for this year’s Summit is ‘Building a Better Future’.
PM Modi said India has what is needed to power the global economic recovery and there has never been a better time to invest in the country.
India’s rise means a rise in global integration with increasing openness, a rise in competitiveness with access to a market which offers scale, and a rise in returns on investment with the availability of skilled human resources.
USA and India partnership can play an important role in helping the world bounce back faster after the pandemic.
NSDC and Airtel Payments Bank joins hands to skill rural youth
Airtel Payments Bank and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) announced a partnership to skill the youth in rural India and enable them to find employment opportunities in the financial services sector.
The partnership will leverage NSDC’s experience, training infrastructure and wide network with Airtel Payment Bank’s industry insights, to design and conduct targeted skill development programmes for rural youth.
The skill development programme will be tailored for imparting knowledge and skills for entry-level jobs, such as business correspondent and field sales executive, in the financial services sector.
The programme will focus on the adoption of digital tools to drive online banking and digital financial services, given the growing penetration of affordable smartphones and 4G networks in the country.
This collaboration will also extend to e-Skill India, NSDC’s digital skilling initiative.
FACTFILE – Airtel Payments Bank
Airtel Payments Bank is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel.
It is the first company in India to receive a payments bank license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and it became the first live payments bank in the country.
It is a joint venture between Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd (holds 19.9% stake).
China launches first Mars mission Tianwen 1
China successfully launched its first Mars probe aiming to complete orbiting, landing and roving in a single mission.
A Long March-5 rocket, China’s largest and most powerful launch vehicle, carrying the spacecraft with a mass of about five tonnes, soared into the sky from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan province.
The Chinese Mars probe named Tianwen 1 or Quest for Heavenly Truth 1, will fulfil three scientific objectives (i) orbiting the red planet for comprehensive observation, (ii) landing on Martian soil and (iii) sending a rover to roam the landing site.
It will conduct scientific investigations into the planet’s soil, geological structure, environment, atmosphere and water.
The probe consists of three parts — the orbiter, the lander and the rover — and they will separate in Mars orbit. The orbiter will remain in the orbit for scientific operations and relay signals while the lander-rover combination makes an autonomous descent and landing.
Consumer Protection Act, 2019 comes into force from 20 July
The Consumer Protection Act,2019 comes in to force from 20 July, with its salient features including the establishment of central authority to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers.
This new Act will empower consumers and help them in protecting their rights through its various notified rules and provisions like Consumer Protection Councils, Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions, Mediation, Product Liability and punishment for manufacture or sale of products containing adulterant / spurious goods.
Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) will be empowered to conduct investigations into violations of consumer rights and institute complaints/prosecution, order recalls of unsafe goods and services, order discontinuance of unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements, impose penalties on manufacturers/endorsers/publishers of misleading advertisements.
The rules for the prevention of unfair trade practice by e-commerce platforms will also be covered under this Act. Every e-commerce entity is required to provide information relating to return, refund, exchange, warranty and guarantee, delivery and shipment, modes of payment, grievance redressal mechanism, payment methods, security of payment methods, charge-back options, etc. including country of origin.
E-Commerce platforms have to acknowledge the receipt of any consumer complaint within forty-eight hours and redress the complaint within one month.
India, Maldives sign agreement for establishment of ‘Emergency Medical Services’ in Malé
India and Maldives have signed an agreement for the establishment of ‘Emergency Medical Services’ in capital Male.
It is one of the several small and medium projects that are being financed by India under a grant assistance of around 20 million US dollars for the neighbouring country.
Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shaheed thanked the Indian government and said that the emergency medical service unit will enhance timely access to quality emergency care and will increase collaboration between healthcare facilities and disaster response agencies.
FACTIFLE – The Maldives
The Republic of Maldives is a small island nation in South Asia, situated in the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean.
It lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 700 kilometres from the Asian continent’s mainland.
The Maldives is one of the world’s most geographically dispersed sovereign states as well as the smallest Asian country by land area and population, with around 515,696 inhabitants.
It is the world’s lowest-lying country, with an average ground-level elevation of 1.5 metres above sea level.
Malé is the capital and the most populated city
The Maldives archipelago is located on the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge; this also forms a terrestrial ecoregion, together with the Chagos Archipelago and Lakshadweep.
The Maldives is a founding member of SAARC and also a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Non-Aligned Movement.
Tripura NGO’s scheme for well-off to help underprivileged people
An NGO from Tripura, Purvaudaya launched “Heart of Humanity”, a project to assist the poor and the needy people by connecting the well-off section of society with underprivileged people.
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, along with other ministers inaugurated three outlets of Purvaudaya in Agartala and outskirts areas in which clothes and food would be distributed to the poor free of cost.
At these outlets, the well-off citizens will donate unused and discarded items like clothes, mattresses, quilts, blankets, shoes, toys, books, artefacts, bags, etc which are still in good condition so that the needy people can take them for their use.
Funding of over Rs 8,700 croreapproved for 81 stressed housing projects under SWAMIH scheme
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said under the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH initiative Rs 8,767 crore has been approved for 81 projects, enabling the completion of almost 60,000 homes across India.
While reviewing the performance of the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH), Finance Minister underlined the need for speedy efforts to complete construction of projects for which last-mile funding has been sanctioned.
She also suggested that both private and public sector banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs) should see the special window as a stakeholder and increase support for early completion of stressed projects.
Sitharaman asked the Department of Economic Affairs to closely monitor the performance of SWAMIH to ensure that the capital raised is used for resolving stressed projects on urgent basis.
Greta Thunberg awarded €1-million Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity
Teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was awarded the 2020 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, worth €1-million (or $1.15 million) in prize money
Established in 2020, the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity aims to recognize individuals, groups or organizations whose contributions toward mitigating climate change stand out for “novelty, innovation and impact.”
FACTFILE – Gulbenkian Prize
Gulbenkian Prize is a series of prizes awarded annually by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
The main Gulbenkian Prize was established in 1976 as the Gulbenkian Science Prize awarded to Portuguese individuals and organizations.
The Gulbenkian Science Prize has now been restructured and is known as Gulbenkian Prizes on Cohesion, Knowledge and Sustainability and three prizes are awarded in each of the fields.
India successfully test-fires Dhruvastra
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducts flight trials of the anti-tank guided Nag Missile (HELINA), which has been named now as Dhruvastra.
The trials were carried out in direct and top attack mode, at Interim Test Range, Balasore, Odisha.
This is a third-generation, fire-and-forget, anti-tank guided missile. It will support both the airborne forces of the Indian Army as well as the Mechanised Infantry.
The land version of this missile is already available for integration the Nag missile carrier (NAMICA). The missile in the helicopter-launched configuration has been designated as Helicopter-launched NAG (HELINA).
After the completion of a successful trial, this can be fired from the indigenous `Dhruv’ Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), as well as Rudra (ALH WSI) attack helicopter.
July 25, 2020
Assam CM launches Drone for surveillance of forests
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal unveiled a surveillance quadcopter (drone) and an anti-depredation quick response vehicle, which will help intensify vigil and curb man-animal conflict.
An intensified 24X7 surveillance would become possible over the forest cover and check incidents of man-animal conflict.
The drone will narrow-cast any purported movement of poachers in the national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and other reserve forests.
The Odisha government has approved four investment proposals worth Rs 2,172.92 crore. The State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) approved the projects in metal and metal downstream sector, which will likely generate employment for 1,122 people.
Rungta Mines Limited proposed to set up 34 MTPA beneficiation plant in two phases with an investment of Rs 975 crore.
It also proposed to set up 20 MTPA underground slurry pipeline with an investment of Rs 951 crore.
Shyam Metalics and Energy Limited would expand its Pellet Plant from 0.3 MTPA to 1.2 MTPA capacity with a total investment of Rs 76.92 crore.
Rajesh Bhushan appointed as Health Secretary and Ajay Tirkey as Secretary of Department of Land Resources
Rajesh Bhushan, IAS officer of 1987 Batch, Bihar Cadre has been appointed as the new Health Secretary in the Union Health Ministry. He will succeed Preeti Sudan upon completion of her tenure.
Ajay Tirkey has been appointed as Secretary, Department of Land Resources in the Ministry of Rural Development.
Ram Mohan Mishra is appointed as Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Anil Kumar Jain has been given additional charge as Secretary, Mines along with his post of Secretary in the Coal Ministry.
IIT Kharagpur’s portable device to test Covid-19
Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur have developed a portable diagnostic device that can detect Covid-19 infection in 60 minutes at an estimated cost of Rs 400.
This entire non-invasive saliva-based test can be conducted in a very low-cost portable enclosure. The technology essentially uses a disposable simple paper-strip for chemical analysis and visualisation of results.
The device has been designed to be usable at locations with extremely poor resources. It can be operated by minimally trained personnel, precluding the needs for skilled technicians.
It is ready for commercialisation of the product and any corporate or start-up can approach the institute for technology licensing and commercial scale of production.
Turkmenistan granted observer status in the World Trade Organization (WTO)
Turkmenistan has been granted Observer status by the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council. Turkmenistan has become the last former Soviet republic to establish formal ties with the trade body.
Neighbouring Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Afghanistan — have acceded to the WTO, while Uzbekistan has been in on-and-off negotiations on WTO accession since 1994.
FACTFILE –World Trade Organization (WTO)
The World Trade Organization is an intergovernmental organization that is concerned with the regulation of international trade between nations and is the largest international economic organization.
Commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948.
The WTO has 164 members and 25 observer governments
Nicaragua to join International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement
Nicaragua has become the 87th country to join the International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement, an initiative led by India to promote sustainable energy.
Nicaragua’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Jaime Hermida Castillo signed the agreement at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations.
FACTFILE – International Solar Alliance
The International Solar Alliance is an alliance of 121 countries, most of them being sunshine countries which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
It was jointly launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former French President Francois Hollande at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015.
It is a major global initiative for the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, envisioning rapid deployment of solar energy units. Last year the ISA amended its Framework Agreement to enable membership for all member countries of the United Nations.
Inclusion of UN member countries to the alliance will put solar energy in global agenda and the expanding membership will lead to the initiative benefitting the world at large.
The ISA Framework Agreement was opened for signature during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Morocco in November 2016 and the ISA became a treaty-based intergovernmental body in December 2017.
The ISA’s first assembly was held in New Delhi in October 2018.
Assam-origin scientist Dr Hifzur R Siddiquemakes major discovery in liver cancer
Dr Hifzur R Siddique, Assam-origin scientist now working as an assistant professor with Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), has made a path-breaking discovery in determining a major cause of liver cancer.
The discovery has the potential to serve as a therapeutic target for drug design by providing direction to the management strategy for this terminal disease.
Together with Prof Keigo Machida of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and other collaborators, Dr Hifzur R Siddique has discovered that the central regulatory pathway of liver cancer is caused by alcohol and hepatitis infection.
The team found that the cancer cells and cancer stem cells accumulate TBC1D15, which promotes cancer in two ways– initially by interfering with the normal asymmetric cell division and then enhancing the cancer-causing NOTCH protein.
TRIFED signs MoU with IIT Delhi for Unnat Bharat Abhiyan
The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) has entered into a partnership with IIT Delhi for the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA), a flagship national programme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
A tripartite MOU was signed between TRIFED, IIT Delhi, on behalf of the UBA, as the National Coordinating Institute, and Vijnana Bharati, a Swadeshi Science Movement at IIT Delhi .
Tribal entrepreneurs under TRIFED’s Van Dhan programme will now be able to get access to the expertise of the entire network of 2600 + academic and research institutions under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA).
Together with IIT Delhi, the “National Coordinating Institute (NCI)” for Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA)” ,TRIFED envisages promoting Tribal Livelihoods and Income generating programmes through synergistic collaboration among the concerned Ministries, District Administration, local Panchayat Raj Institutes (PRIs), Voluntary Organisations, other stakeholders, as well as the other participating institutions.
TRIFED is implementing the Van Dhan Yojana a programme for value addition, branding and marketing of MFPs by establishing Van Dhan Kendras of around 300 tribal members each across the country to facilitate the creation of sustainable livelihoods for the forest-based tribal gatherers.
The partnership will benefit the tribal people and many more upcoming initiatives in the pipeline and will accelerate the transformation of tribal lives and livelihoods by reinvigorating their flagging economic condition.
Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar launches state-of-the-art honey testing lab at Anand
Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated a ‘World Class State-of-the-Art Honey Testing Laboratory’ established by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in Anand (Gujarat) with support of National Bee Board (NBB).
Based on the parameters notified by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI), NDDB has set-up this lab with all the facilities and developed the test methods and protocols, accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).
The ministry has taken up several activities to promote beekeeping under Mission on Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH). The National Mission for Beekeeping being implemented through the National Bee Board and the states.
The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare has approved the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission(NBHM) for a period of two years.
India ranked 3rd in gaining forest area in the world
As per the latest Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), India has ranked third among the top 10 countries that have gained in forest areas in the last decade. India makes up for two per cent of total global forest area.
FAO brings this comprehensive assessment every five years since 1990. This report assesses the state of forests, their conditions and management for all member countries.
The top 10 countries that have recorded the maximum average annual net gains in forest area during 2010-2020 are China, Australia, India, Chile, Vietnam, Turkey, the United States, France, Italy and Romania.
The Asian continent reported the highest net gain in forest area in 2010-2020, it recorded 1.17 million hectares (ha) per year net increase in forests in the last decade.
India has been taking up massive afforestation and plantation schemes. During 2010-20, the rate of increase in naturally regenerating forest was just 0.38 per cent according to the FRA 2020.
India reported maximum employment in the forestry sector in the world. India accounted for 6.23 million, or nearly 50 per cent of 12.5 million people who are employed in the forestry sector globally.
July 27, 2020
PM Modi praises skilled artisans of Assam, Tripura and Manipur for value addition to bamboo products
Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised skilled artisans of Assam, Tripura and Manipur for value addition to bamboo products including water bottles, tiffin boxes etc with the aim of making the country ‘Atmanirbhar’.
During his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’, PM said these indigenous products boost the income of the people and the business during the festivities and various other occasions.
The government has set up a new National Bamboo Mission (NBM) to focus on the development of the bamboo sector in the country. Now the North Eastern Council Cane & Bamboo Development Council (NECBDC) act as a coordinating and facilitating agency for the North-Eastern region.
The North-Eastern region has now slowly become bamboo industry hubs as more youths and entrepreneurs are engaging in this craft with the support from the government. Various value-added bamboo products including bamboo tiffin boxes manufactured at a small town- Churachandpur of Manipur State have become popular.
Zogam Bamboo Works of Churachandpur now could provide jobs to a number of young craftsmen of the district and its products have international buyers from Singapore, Dubai, Oklahoma etc.
Delhi govt launches ‘Rozgar Bazar’ web portal to generate more jobs
The Delhi government launched a web portal to make job opportunities available to those who lost employment due to the COVID-induced lockdown, a move aimed at reviving the capital’s economy.
The web portal http://jobs.delhi.gov.in can be used by those looking for jobs and also for employers looking to recruit people.
Recruiters can go to the website and update their requirement. Job seekers can also go there and update their qualification, experience and requirement.
Kannan C S Warrier receives 2019 National Award of Excellence for Outstanding Research in Forestry
Coimbatore-based scientist, Kannan CS Warrier, has received the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education’s National Award of Excellence for exceptional research in forestry, including conservation of endangered sacred groves in the Alappuzha district of Kerala.
Sacred groves, also called kavu in Malayalam, are remains of natural forests, which are seen on the premises of Hindu ancestral homes (tharavaad). The breakdown of the joint family system spelt doom for Kerala’s sacred groves.
India builds World’s first-ever electrified Rail Tunnel for running Double Stack Container Trains
Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) has completed caving work for the one-kilometre long tunnel of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) through Aravalli mountain range in Haryana.
The tunnel connects Mewat and Gurugram district of Haryana and negotiates a steep gradient on the uphill and downhill slope of the Aravalli range.
The D-shaped tunnel with a cross-sectional area of 150 square metres, can accommodate double line with higher OHE (Over Head Equipment) to enable double-stack container movement on WDFC, making it world’s first electrified rail tunnel fit to run double-stack containers.
Assam CM Sonowal launches 2nd phase of PMAY(U) in State
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal centrally laid the foundation stone of the second phase of the flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) at a residence of Nagaon Choukitoop.
During the inaugural ceremony, CM distributed cheques of the first instalment of Rs 80,000 among three beneficiaries and also distributed cheques of last instalment among three beneficiaries of the town.
He also transferred the first and last instalments of Rs 80,000 and 30,000 respectively among 4000 and 2000 beneficiaries of the State through an electronic device.
India sends 10 diesel locomotives to Bangladesh Railways
India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal flagged off 10 broad gauge diesel locomotives to Bangladesh Railways under its “neighbourhood first” policy.
The 10 diesel locomotives were handed over from the Gede station of Sealdah Division of Indian Railways to Darshana station of Bangladesh Railways.
The handing over of these locomotives, under grant assistance from the Indian government, fulfils an important commitment made during the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in October, 2019.
Both the countries have stepped up their rail cooperation in mitigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, as trade via land border faced disruptions. There was the highest ever exchange of freight trains in the month of June 2020.
RBI to extend $400 millioncurrency swap facility to Sri Lanka
The Reserve Bank of India has signed necessary documents for extending a USD 400 million currency swap facility to Sri Lanka to boost the island nation’s draining foreign exchange reserves due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Haryana to host the Khelo India Youth Games in 2021
Haryana will host the fourth edition of the Khelo India Youth Games in 2021.
Star Sports will be the Official Broadcast Partner of the Khelo India Youth Games.
KIYG is a part of the revamped national programme for development of sports ‘Khelo India’ which was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2017.
The 2020 edition of KIYG was held in Guwahati.
The Khelo India Scheme aims to encourage sports all over the country.
Assam’s Poba Reserve Forest to be upgraded to wildlife sanctuary
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal announced that the Poba Reserve Forest in Dhemaji district would be upgraded to a Wildlife Sanctuary.
Poba Reserve Forest, declared in 1924 with an area of 10,522 hectares, is home to large number of flora and fauna.
FACTFILE – Poba Reserved Forest
Poba Reserved Forest is situated in Jonai Subdivision of Dhemaji District of Assam.
Poba is one of the richest rain forests of North-East India in terms of the flora and fauna found in it.
Poba Reserved Forest is an important elephant corridor linking the foot hills of Arunachal Pradesh and Dibru Saikhowa National Park via the proposed Kobu Chapori Reserve Forest.
Wildlife Sanctuary
A natural area which is reserve by a governmental or private agency for the protection of particular species.
It came under the category called “Protected Areas”. The Protected Areas are declared under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has defined its Category IV type of protected areas
Reserved Forests
Land rights to forests declared to be Reserved forests or Protected forests are typically acquired and owned by the Government of India.
Unlike national parks of India or wildlife sanctuaries of India, reserved forests and protected forests are declared by the respective state governments.
Rights to all activities like hunting, grazing, etc. in reserved forests are banned unless specific orders are issued otherwise.
FIFA releases World Cup 2022 match schedule
The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) released the match schedule for the 2022 World Cup which will be hosted by Qatar.
The tournament will begin November 21 at Al Bayt Stadium in the northern city of Al Khor with the hosts Qatar in action while the final will be played on December 18 at Lusail Stadium in Doha.
The group stage will be spread over the course of 12 days and will feature four matches a day to give all teams “optimal rest” between their matches and promise fans a full and exciting schedule.
FACTFILE – The International Federation of Association Football (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), FIFA
FIFA was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
It has headquartered in Zürich
It has total membership of 211 national associations. These national associations must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations viz. Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean, Oceania, and South America.
FACTFILE – 2022 FIFA World Cup
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup, scheduled to take place in Qatar in 2022.
This will be the first World Cup ever to be held in the Arab world and the first in a Muslim-majority country.
This will be the second World Cup held entirely in Asia after the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan.
Union Govt asked states to expedite work in Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan
Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Narendra Singh Tomar has urged the states to expedite the work under the Central government’s “Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan” with a competitive approach.
He reviewed the progress of Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan through video-conference with the Rural Development Ministers and senior officials of six states and found it satisfactory.
The drive of employment for migrant labourers at their native places launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 20, is being undertaken in 116 districts in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan.
The ‘Abhiyaan’ will continue for 125 days, and 25 projects coming under 11 different ministries have been identified for completion.
The Abhiyaan was found to be progressing well under various parameters which are being regularly monitored.
Union Minister Tomar emphasised on developing a competitive approach among the states to achieve maximum results along with minimising the hurdles being faced by various ministries in the implementation process so that the set targets are completed within the determined time period.
Gujarat to develop water aerodromes
Gujarat state government has decided to set up water aerodromes at four places in the state. For this project, a tripartite MoU is to be signed between the state government, Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Under Indian government’s Regional Connectivity Scheme, RCS UDAN-3 and 4, the Gujarat government has decided to set up 4 water aerodromes at Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad, Sardar Sarovar Dam, Kevadia in Narmada, Shatrunjay Dam in Palitana near Bhavnagar and Dharoi dam in Mehsana.
The AAI will act as the implementing agency in the project and will develop the project at four places.
Water aerodromes are spaces in water bodies, where amphibious aircraft can take off and land.
July 16, 2020
First container ship from Kolkata to Agartala through Chattogram Port inaugurated
The first-ever container cargo from Kolkata via Bangladesh’s Chattogram port has reached Agartala, achieving a “historic milestone” in the Indo-Bangladesh connectivity and economic partnership.
An agreement was reached to use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for movement of India’s transit cargo through Bangladesh.
Via this route, the distance and time taken in transportation of goods for India particularly the northeastern States will get reduced significantly.
It will enhance business services and revenue generation for Bangladesh while the logistical sector will also get a big boost in Northeast part of India.
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaikinaugurates Covid Plasma Bank
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated a Covid Plasma Bank at SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack through video conferencing to start the convalescent plasma therapy treatment of acute COVID-19 patients in the state. He also appealed to people who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma for treatment of other critical patients in the state.
The therapy will be introduced in three dedicated COVID Hospitals, viz. SUM Hospital and KIIMS Hospital in Bhubaneswar and Ashwini Hospital in Cuttack.
He also expressed gratitude towards the Drug Controller General of India for allowing the state to use of convalescent plasma for treatment of acute COVID-19 patients.
PM Modi addresses a digital conclave on World Youth Skills Day on 15 July
Addressing a digital conclave on World Youth Skills Day, on July 15, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the coronavirus pandemic has changed the “culture” along with the “nature of the job”.
He said the mantra to remain relevant is – skill, re-skill and up-skill. Skill – Learn a new skill and value add to things. Re-skill – Add to your skill every day by learning something new. Up-skill – Widening your skillset is upskilling yourself.
FACTFILE – World Youth Skills Day
World Youth Skills Day is celebrated each year on July 15.
Its aim is to recognise the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship, and to highlight the crucial role of skilled youth in addressing current and future global challenges.
Scientists discover key element of strong antibody response to COVID-19
A team of scientists at the Scripps Research has discovered a common molecular feature found in many of the human antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The team reviewed data on nearly 300 anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and noted that a subset of these antibodies is particularly powerful at neutralizing the virus and these potent antibodies are all encoded by the same antibody gene, IGHV3-53.
The research was a collaboration chiefly involving the Wilson and Burton labs, and the Scripps Research-based Neutralizing Antibody Center of IAVI, a prominent non-profit vaccine research organization.
Antibodies are Y-shaped proteins made in immune cells called B-cells. Each B-cell makes a specific antibody type, which is encoded by a unique combination of antibody genes in the cell.
The scientists found that an antibody gene called IGHV3-53 was the most common of the genes for the 294 antibodies.
Tamil Naduallows the use of BCG vaccine for 60-95 aged Covid patients
Tamil Nadu government has allowed a pilot project to study if the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, which is actually used for the treatment of Tuberculosis, will help reduce the mortality rate among elderly Covid-19 patients.
The National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis will start the pilot programme and BCG vaccine will be administered on a trial basis to people in the 60-95 age group.
The BCG vaccine was found to boost innate immunity, which could lower morbidity and mortality rates. The vaccine could reduce the severity of Covid-19, avoid hospitalisation and mortality rate.
Odisha partners with online learning platform ‘Coursera’ to upskill 50,000 Youths
The Odisha Skills Development Authority (OSDA) has partnered with leading online learning platform ‘Coursera’ to train 50,000 unemployed youths during the COVID-19 crisis.
The partnership is part of Coursera’s global roll-out of the ‘Workforce Recovery Initiative’ where any state and country can provide unemployed workers with free access to online learning.
The programme aims to build in-demand skills like data science, cloud computing and Internet of Things while also offering professional certificates like the Google IT Support Professional Certificate.
The ‘Workforce Recovery Initiative’ initiative is part of the Coursera- for-the-government offering launched in 2017 to equip government employees and citizens with in-demand skills.
India ranks 3rd in Global Manufacturing locations suitability
As per property consultant Cushman & Wakefield, India ranks third in the list of most-suitable locations for global manufacturing among 48 countries in terms of cost competitiveness and operating conditions.
China and the US retain the top two positions, while India has moved one place higher to rank third.
In cost scenario also India is at 3rd position after China and Vietnam. But India ranks 30th in risk scenario, due political and economic risks.
IIT Madras-incubated start-up develops ‘MediCAB’portable hospital for Covid cases
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras-incubated start-up, Modulus Housing, has developed a portable hospital unit Called ‘MediCAB’ that can be installed by four people anywhere within two hours.
‘MediCAB’ it is a decentralised approach to detecting, screening, identifying, isolating and treat Covid-19 patients in their local communities at these portable microstructures.
Recently it was launched recently in Kerala’s Wayanad District, where the units are being deployed to treat Covid-19 patients.
The start-up firm Modulus Housing is developing micro hospitals that can be deployed rapidly across the nation.
The Medicab unit is composed of four zones – a doctor’s room, an isolation room, a medical room/ward and a twin-bed ICU, maintained at negative pressure.
Ved Parkash Dudeja, RLDA Vice-Chairman is awarded ‘Infra Business Leader of the Year’
The Vice-Chairman, Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) Ved Parkash Dudeja, was recently awarded the coveted ‘Infra Business Leader of the Year’ award for 2020 by the Rail Infra and Mobility Business Digital Awards (RIMBDA).
RLDA is a statutory authority under the Ministry of Railways, responsible for the development of vacant railway land for commercial use for the purpose of generating revenue by non-tariff measures and creating assets for Indian Railways.
Dudeja has initiated several commercial projects, multifunctional complex, colony redevelopment and station redevelopment projects and shattered all previous records of earnings as well as those of awarding of lease contracts in 2019-20.
Union Govt launches IIT Delhi’s COVID-19 test kit ‘Corosure’ for commercial use
Indian Government announced the commercial launch of a COVID-19 test kit which was developed by the IIT Delhi at a base price of ₹399, the cheapest in the market.
Approved by the Indian Medical Council of India with the highest score and Drug Control General of India with very high sensitivity and specificity, the commercial product named ‘Corosure’ was commercially developed by a company named NewTech Medical Devises after obtaining license from the IIT Delhi.
HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, who e-launched the affordable RT-PCR based covid-19 diagnostic kit, said “the country requires affordable and reliable testing for the country which can help to control the pandemic. The Corosure has been developed indigenously and is much cheaper than other kits.
Hyderabad Airport gets India’s 1st contactless car parking
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) that operates the Hyderabad International Airport is offering fully contact-less airport car parking service.
Apart from offering an end-to-end contact-less boarding experience for safe travel, GHIAL has also scaled up its NETC (National Electronic Toll Collection) FASTag Car Parking in collaboration with NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India).
With this, the Hyderabad international airport now offers the country’s first and only fully contact-less airport car parking experience for passengers and visitors.
July 18, 2020
6 Agricultural scientists from Northeast get ICAR awards
Six agricultural scientists of three northeastern states Tripura, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh were awarded ICAR’s National Award for their outstanding innovation in farming and boosting agricultural economy in the region.
Additionally, two Krishi Vigyan Kendras in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur and three farmers of Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya also received the ICAR awards for their exceptional feats in agricultural and farming sectors of the region.
Lopamudra Sahoo, Gulab Singh Yadav, Chandan Debnath and Basant Kumar Kandpal of ICAR research complex in Tripura received the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Award and Swami Sahajan and Saraswati Award.
Scientist Amit Kumar, associated with the ICAR research complex in Meghalaya and Nangsol Dolma Bhutia, Assistant Professor of Central Agricultural University at Pasighat have received the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for P.G. Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Agricultural and Allied Sciences.
FACTFILE – The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research is an autonomous body responsible for co-ordinating agricultural education and research in India
It is the largest network of agricultural research and education institutes in the world.
Clinical trials for Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine begins
India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin got a nod from the AIIMS Ethics Committee to start human trials. AIIMS Delhi is among the 12 sites selected by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting phase I and II human trials of Covaxin.
In phase I, the Covaxin vaccine would be tested on 375 volunteers and a maximum of 100 of them would be from AIIMS.
Moreover, human dosing of the vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech India (BBIL) in collaboration with ICMR’s National Institute of Virology (NIV) also started with the vaccine being given to participants at AIIMS, Patna and PGIMS Rohtak.
Drug firm Zydus Cadila also started human clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D. The company will be enrolling over 1,000 subjects across multiple clinical study sites in India.
Earlier, DCGI has permitted two vaccines – Covaxin developed by the Bharat Biotech International Limited in collaboration with the ICMR and ZyCoV-D by Zydas Cadila Healthcare Ltd to go in for phase I and II human clinical trials.
Rose Raponda becomes Gabon’s first woman Prime Minister
The President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, appointed the country’s first woman prime minister, Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda.
After serving as budget minister eight years ago, she became the first woman to be elected mayor of the capital Libreville in 2014. Raponda had served as defence minister since February 2019.
FACTFILE – Gabon
Gabon is a country on the west coast of Central Africa, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo on the east and south, and the Gulf of Guinea to the west.
Its capital and largest city is Libreville and the official language is French.
Abundant petroleum and foreign private investment have helped make it one of the most prosperous countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the 7th highest HDI and the fourth-highest GDP per capita (PPP) in the region.
Uttarakhand govt to start ‘Waste to Energy’ initiative
Uttarakhand government has decided to convert waste generated in the state to electricity under an initiative ‘Waste to Energy’. The electricity will be generated from the waste coming out in the municipal corporation and municipality area.
The initiative was taken into consideration keeping in view the present issues faced by most municipalities and corporations of land scarcity in depositing solid waste at one place.
According to the assessment by Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB), the waste can generate up to 5 MegaWatt of electricity and curb the pollution.
Govt aims to make use of the 24 MW of biomass power generation capacity available in the state.
India ranks 34th in the Global Skills Index 2020 Report
India has surged ahead of China in business and technology skills due to its growing younger population, reported by the world’s largest online learning platform Coursera.
In its latest Global Skills Index 2020, India is placed at 34th position within the business domain as compared to China’s rank of 45.
Within the technology domain, India ranks 40th while China ranks 50th
Within the data science domain, India ranks 51th and within the data management competency, India ranks 58th.
Govt nod for contributions by individuals, institutions to NDRF
Central government has laid out the modalities for contributions and grants from any person or institution to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the contributions to the NDRF have been allowed through any of the modes like physical instruments, RTGS/NEFT/UPI and https://bharatkosh.gov.in
The NDRF, constituted under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, supplements the State Disaster Response Fund of the states in case of natural calamities like cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloud burst and pest attack considered to be of severe nature by the government.
FACTFILE – National Disaster Response Fund
The Disaster Management Act, 2005 (DM Act) defines “disaster” to mean ‘a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or man-made causes, or by accident or negligence which results in substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to, and destruction of, property, or damage to, or degradation of, environment, and is of such a nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area.’
The financial assistance from SDRF/NDRF is for providing immediate relief and is not compensation for loss/damage to properties /crops.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the National Disaster Management Authority takes decisions on the expenses from National Disaster Response Fund
Ashok Lavasa appointed Vice-President of Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has appointed election commissioner Ashok Lavasa as its Vice-President on the recommendation of the Indian government.
Ashok Lavasa will succeed current vice president at ADB Diwakar Gupta and will look after private sector operations and public private partnerships.
FACTFILE – Asian Development Bank (ADB)
The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines.
The company also maintains 31 field offices around the world to promote social and economic development in Asia.
The ADB was modelled closely on the World Bank and has a similar weighted voting system where votes are distributed in proportion with members’ capital subscriptions.
ADB is an official United Nations Observer.
Shareholding pattern – Japan holds the largest proportion of shares at 15.677%, the United States with 15.567%, China holds 6.473%, India holds 6.359%, and Australia holds 5.812%.
BIOGRAPHY – Ashok Lavasa
A 1980 batch Haryana cadre IAS officer, Ashok Lavasa took over as Election Commissioner on 23 January 2018.
He held a range of senior posts in the government, including finance secretary, environment secretary, civil aviation secretary among others.
UNICEF ties up with SAP India to provide career counselling to young people
UNICEF India partnered with a software major SAP India to provide career counselling to young people in order to improve their employability skills in the present and post-COVID-19 era.
UNICEF will also collaborate with ”YuWaah” – (Generation Unlimited), an initiative supported by the UN body, to provide digital education and occupational skill-set to the under-served young people of the country.
Generation Unlimited brings young people together with the private sector, governments, international and local organisations to tackle the challenge of investing in their learning and training.
Australia’s Monash University develops new blood test to trace coronavirus in 20 minutes
Researchers at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, have developed a new blood test that detects positive coronavirus cases in just about 20 minutes, a finding that could assist the world to mitigate the coronavirus spread through robust contact-tracing.
Researchers at the university developed the simple agglutination assay, an analysis to determine the presence and amount of a substance in blood to detect the presence of antibodies raised in response to the SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The team of researchers were able to identify recent COVID-19 cases using 25 microlitres of plasma from blood samples.
Positive COVID-19 cases caused an agglutination or a clustering of red blood cells, which was easily identifiable to the naked eye.
The findings could help high-risk countries with population screening, case identification, contact-tracing, confirming vaccine efficacy during clinical trials and vaccine distribution.
Delhi Police launches plasma donation campaign
On the initiative of Delhi Police, a ‘Plasma Donation Campaign’ has been launched at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
The objective of the campaign is to encourage people to come forward to donate plasma to be used for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
Covid-19 related death rates of NE states among the country’s lowest
Central Govt informed that India has one of the lowest fatality rates in the world. Four northeastern states viz. Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim have zero case fatality rate (CFR) till now.
As per the Health Ministry data, the northeastern states have less than one per cent CFR.
Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Tripura have a CFR of 0.23 per cent, 0.46 per cent, 0.48 per cent and 0.19 per cent respectively.
Himachal Pradesh promotes fruit cultivation through ADB funding
To make Himachal Pradesh a horticulture hub, the Asian Development Bank (ADB)funded HP Shiva Pilot Project is undergoing with an outlay of Rs 100 crore in four districts of the state.
The project would be implemented in Bilaspur, Mandi, Kangra and Hamirpur districts. Fruit-bearing sapling would be planted on 170 hectares. And a target of planting 2.50 lakh fruit-bearing saplings of orange, litchi, pomegranate, guava, etc., has been identified under the project in July and August.
The state has initiated several steps like 12.50 lakh hectare meter anti-hail net is made available for protecting the crops from natural calamities.
About 225 metric tonnes insecticide has been made available at subsidized rates. Special training is being given for packaging of apple, cherry and stone fruits. About 3.5 crore boxes were made available for packaging of fruits.
United Arab Emirates launches its first mission to Mars
The United Arab Emirates launched its first mission to Mars as it strives to develop its scientific and technological capabilities.
The Hope Probe blasted off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center for a seven-month journey to the red planet, where it will orbit and send back data.
The Emirates Mars Mission with a cost of $200 million, it aims to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere for the first time, studying daily and seasonal changes.
To develop and build the Hope Probe, Emiratis and Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), Dubai, worked with U.S. universities.
HRD Ministry announced guidelines on digital education
Union Human Resource and Development Ministry has announced guidelines for online classes operationalised by schools amid the COVID pandemic.
Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank virtually released the PRAGYATA guidelines on digital education, which has many recommendations including restriction on the screen time for students.
Online classes for pre-primary students should not be for more than 30 minutes a day. For Classes 1st to 8th, it has suggested that not more than two online sessions of up to 45 minutes each should be conducted in a day.
For the senior students, from class 9th to 12th, the suggested limit of the online classes is to a maximum of four sessions of up to 45 minutes each.
These guidelines on Digital Education provide a roadmap for carrying forward online education to enhance the quality of education. It also stresses upon the use of an alternative academic calendar of NCERT.
The Guidelines also emphasize the need to unify all efforts related to digital, online education, benefitting school-going children across the country.
Indian Railways’ first cable-stayed rail bridge in Jammu
The Anji Khad Bridge, India’s first cable-stayed Indian Railways bridge will soon connect Katra and Reasi in of Jammu–Baramulla rail line.
The ambitious project of Indian Railways has a single pylon, standing at a height of 331 metres above the river bed, is being developed by Konkan Railway Corporation Limited.
The cable-stayed railway bridge is a part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project.
The total length of the bridge is 473.25 metres. The length of the viaduct is 120 metres and the central embankment has a length of 94.25 metres.
Indian-origin Chan Santokhi elected as the President of Suriname
Suriname, a small country in South America elected Indian-origin Chan Santokhi as the new President.
61-year-old Chan Santokhi, former police chief, won a landslide victory in the general elections.
Suriname is a former Dutch colony but the country’s relations with the Netherlands, which was once its primary trade partner, deteriorated under the previous regime.
FACTFILE – Suriname
Suriname is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America.
At just under 165,000 square kilometres, it is the smallest country in South America.
It’s capital and largest city is Paramaribo.
It is the first country to reach carbon neutrality.
Suriname is the only sovereign nation outside Europe where Dutch is spoken by a majority of the population.
Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurated the Zoram Mega Food Park Ltd at Kolasib in Mizoram through virtual conference.
The Zoram Food Park built at a cost of Rs 75 crore will directly benefit over 25,000 farmers and will create employment for over 5,000 local people.
It is the first mega food park operationalized in Mizoram. It will benefit about 25,000 farmers in the core processing centre and primary processing Centre catchment areas.
The 55-acre Zoram food park, promoted by Zoram Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd, is located at Khamrang village in Kolasib District, Mizoram.
A total of 88 ministry-supported food processing projects have been sanctioned in the entire North Eastern Region.
The human trial of COVID-19 vaccinecandidate developed by the University of Oxford and backed by AstraZeneca Plc has shown a positive result. The vaccine has generated a protective immune response in the vaccinated sample population.
This Covid-19 vaccine is a chimpanzee adenovirus viral vector (ChAdOx1) vaccine that expresses the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. It uses a common cold virus i.e. adenovirus, that infects chimpanzees, which has been weakened so that it can’t cause any disease in humans, and is genetically modified to code for the spike protein of the human SARS-CoV-2 virus.
When the adenovirus enters vaccinated people’s cells it also delivers the spike protein genetic code. This causes these people’s cells to produce the spike protein, and helps teach the immune system to recognise the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
CBDT, MSME Ministry sign pact for sharing tax related data
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises signed a MoU for facilitating seamless sharing of Income Tax Return (ITR) related information concerning SMEs.
This data will enable the ministry to check and classify enterprises in Micro, Small and Medium categories as per the new criteria notified by the government.
MSME Criteria
Composite Criteria: Investment in Plant & Machinery/equipment and Annual Turnover
Classification
Micro
Small
Medium
Manufacturing Enterprises and Enterprises rendering Services
Investment in Plant and Machinery or Equipment: Not more than Rs.1 crore and Annual Turnover ; not more than Rs. 5 crore
Investment in Plant and Machinery or Equipment: Not more than Rs.10 crore and Annual Turnover ; not more than Rs. 50 crore
Investment in Plant and Machinery or Equipment: Not more than Rs.50 crore and Annual Turnover ; not more than Rs. 250 crore
TN signs eight investment MoUs for Rs 10,339 crore
Tamil Nadu government signed eight Memorandums of Understanding involving an industrial investment of about Rs 10,339 crore with an employment potential for 13,507 persons.
The proposed projects include production of solar cells and modules, air compressors, ductile iron foundry, industrial parks, cashew nut processing, data centre and a foundry expansion project.
Some of the important projects are
Vikram Solar to invest Rs 5,423 crore in a facility to produce solar cells and modules in Orgadam in Kancheepuram district.
Hiranandani group’s Yotta to set up a data centre in Chengalpattu district at an investment of Rs 4,000 crore.
Elgi Equipments will invest Rs 250 crore in setting up an air compressor unit.
Aquasub to invest Rs 200 crore to set up a ductile iron foundry in Coimbatore.
GI Agro Tech to set up a cashew nut processing unit at Villupuram investing Rs 36 crore.
JS Auto Cast to expand its foundry facility at Erode district at an outlay of Rs 40 crore.
CGD Satharai Pvt Ltd to set up an Industrial park projects with outlay Rs 250 crore at Kancheepuram district and NDR Infrastructure to set up another industrial park with an outlay of Rs 200 crore at Ranipet.
UP launches ‘Navin Rojgar Chhatri Yojana’ for SCs
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched ”Navin Rojgar Chhatri Yojana” for an all-round development of the Scheduled Castes communities.
Economic equality becomes the basis of social equality. The society with one of its sections becoming strong while another remaining weak will not be able to become self-reliant. It is necessary that there is a balance in the society and this balance should also be at the economic level.
Marianna Vardinoyannis & Morissana Kouyate win UN 2020 Nelson Mandela Prize
Marianna Vardinoyannis of Greece and Morissana Kouyate of Guinea are selected for this year’s United Nations 2020 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize.
Marianna Vardinoyannis is a Greek philanthropist known for fighting childhood cancer and for a world without borders in health for about 30 years. He is also the world advocate for human rights and the protection of children’s health and welfare.
Morissana Kouyate is also a Human rights activist known for her contribution towards curbing violence against women and girls in Africa. She is a leading advocate in the fight against harmful traditional practices against women, particularly female genital mutilation.
The prize was established in 2014 by the General Assembly to recognise the achievements of those who dedicate their lives to the service of humanity by promoting the purposes and principles of the United Nations while honouring and paying homage to Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary life and legacy of reconciliation, political transition, and social transformation.
FACTFILE – The United Nations Nelson Mandela Prize
The United Nations Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize aims to recognize the achievements of those who dedicated their lives to the service of humanity as guided by the purposes and principles of the UN while honouring and paying homage to Mandela’s extraordinary life and legacy of reconciliation, political transition and social transformation.
The prize is awarded every five years. It was first awarded in 2015.
PM SVANidhi mobile app for street vendors launched
A mobile application of PM Street Vendor’s Atmanirbhar Nidhi, PM SVANidhi was launched in New Delhi to bring micro-credit facility for street vendors at their doorsteps.
PM SVANidhi Mobile App aims to provide a user-friendly digital interface for lending institutions and their field functionaries for sourcing and processing loan applications of street vendors under the scheme.
The app is a step towards boosting the use of digital technology and will enable field functionaries to ensure maximum coverage of the scheme.
The Mobile App will give impetus to the implementation strategy of the scheme besides promoting paper-less digital accessing of micro-credit facilities by the street vendors.
More than one lakh 54 thousand street vendors have applied for working capital loan across States and Union Territories. Out of which, loan to over 48 thousand street vendors have already been sanctioned.
PM SVANidhi scheme was launched for providing affordable working capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to COVID-19 crisis.
Under the scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to ten thousand rupees, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year. There will be no penalty on early repayment of the loan.
Q1. Recently, the government of which state had released a book titled ‘The Tangams’?
Tamil Nadu
Assam
Madhya Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh
D. Arunachal Pradesh
The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Pema Khandu has released a book titled “Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study Of The Critically Endangered Group of Arunachal Pradesh”. The book is based on the Tangams, a critically endangered speech community of Arunachal Pradesh resides at Kugging village, Upper Siang district.
Q2. According to the report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), what is the rank of India forest areas during 2010-2020?
5th
8th
3rd
7th
C. 3rd
India accounted to 0.38% of annual gain in forest cover in 2010-2020, which is around 266,000 hectares of forest increase every year at an average.
Globally, 12.5 million people employed in the forestry sector. Out of this, India accounted for 6.23 million.
Q3. Who wins the first edition of the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity?
Kallan Benson
Greta Thunberg
Isra Hirsi
David Wicker
B. Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg has been awarded for her efforts to mobilise younger generations to tackle climate change.
Gulbenkian Prize is a series of prizes awarded annually by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. It is a special international Prize funded by an annual award of €100,000 each in the field of human rights.
Q4. Which Ministry has recently launched ‘MANODARPAN’ initiative to provide psychosocial support to students for their mental health and well-being?
Ministry of Human Resource and Development
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Ministry of Civil Aviation
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
A. Ministry of Human Resource and Development
‘MANODARPAN’ initiative a advisory guidelines for students, teachers and faculty of School systems and Universities along with families. Under this initiative the working group will provide support to address the mental health and psychosocial aspects both during and after COVID-19 lockdown through counselling services, online resources and helpline. A special web page of MANODARPAN and a handbook was launched.
Q5. India’s First public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging plaza inaugurated at which state/UT?
New Delhi
Tamil Nadu
Jammu and Kashmir
Karnataka
A. New Delhi
It has been set up for enhancing energy efficiency and promoting e-mobility. This plaza will host 5 EV chargers of different specifications.
Q6. Which country has been granted “Observer” status by the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council?
Pakistan
Turkmenistan
Tajikistan
Iraq
B. Turkemenistan
Turkmenistan became the 25th country observer of the organization and the last former Soviet republic to establish formal ties with the trade body.
Q7. Recently, India and which country signed an agreement for establishment of ‘Emergency Medical Services Unit’?
US
Brazil
Bangladesh
Maldives
D. Maldives
This service is financed by India under grant assistance of around $20 million to the Maldives. The Emergency Medical Service will help to increase the collaboration between the countries, especially in the critical times of need.
Q8. Green Climate Fund (GCF) and which bank partnered towards ‘green recovery’ on the impacts of COVID-19 disease?
World Bank
EXIM Bank
National Development Bank
Asian Development Bank
D. Asian Development Bank
It is a partnership toward a ‘green recovery’ for members confronting the harsh economic impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. They agreed to strengthen collaboration on non-sovereign operations while ensuring GCF’s processes are as flexible as possible to foster at-scale financing.
Q9. Which state/UT has recently launched “Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana” to facilitate the doorstep delivery of ration to the beneficiaries?
Chandigarh
Jharkhand
New Delhi
Odisha
C. New Delhi
Under the scheme, wheat, flour, rice and sugar-packed hygienically in bags will be delivered to the doorstep of people. ‘Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana’ ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme and will be implemented in Delhi on the same day.
Q10. India’s first in-orbit space debris monitoring and tracking system was recently developed by
Dhruva
Digantara
Team Indus
Pixxel
B. Digantara
Digantara Research and Technology (DRT) which has developed India’s first in-orbit space debris monitoring and tracking system that works on LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology. It is India’s first air and space surveillance company. It has received a grant of Rs 25 lakhs.
Q1. Recently, who among the following has been elected as the new President of Hockey India?
Gyanendro Ningombam
Tapan Kumar Das
Rajinder Singh
Pradyum Reddy
A. Gyanendro Ningombam
Gyanendro Ningombam is a resident of Imphal East district. He has been associated with hockey for several years. He was CEO of Manipur Hockey before being elected as Vice President of the association.
Hockey India was established on 20 May 2009. It is now the governing body with exclusive mandate to direct and conduct all activities for both men and women’s hockey in India.
Q2. Union Food Processing Minister, Harsimrat Kaur Badal has virtually inaugurated the “Zoram Mega Food Park” in which state recently?
Uttarakhand
Rajasthan
Jharkhand
Mizoram
D. Mizoram
This is the first Mega Food Park operationalized in the State of Mizoram. The mega food park will generate huge job opportunities for the youth and boost farmers’ income and reduce food wastage in the country.
Q3. As per the Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav, the capital cities of all North-East states in the country will be connected via the rail network by the year?
2024
2023
2025
2022
B. 2023
Except Sikkim, all northeastern states are connected to the rail network. Capitals of Assam, Tripura and Arunachal are already connected. In Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya, the capital connectivity work is in progress.
Q4. Recently, NITI Aayog has recommended the Government of India to use what per cent use of recycled products in large infrastructure projects?
10%
50%
25%
35%
C. 25%
Using recycled products by up to 25 per cent may reduce raw material cost of the project by nearly 10-15 per cent.
Q5. Fampay launched India’s first numberless card ‘FamCard’ in partnership with which bank?
ICICI Bank
State Bank of India
IDBI Bank
IDFC Bank
D. IDFC Bank
Using this numberless card, minors can finally make online and offline payments without the need to set up a bank account. Every transaction is protected with device locks like fingerprint, Face ID, pattern lock or PIN.
Q6. Government of which state has recently launched ”Navin Rojgar Chhatri Yojana” for an all-round development of the Scheduled Castes?
Assam
Uttar Pradesh
Rajasthan
West Bengal
B. Uttar Pradesh
The aim of the scheme is to provide financial assistant to support people to become self-dependent.
Q7. Who has been recently appointed as Vice-President of Asian Development Bank (ADB)?
Ashok Lavasa
TC Venkat Subramanian
David Rasquinha
Tarun Bajaj
A. Ashok Lavasa
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966. Its Headquarter is in Metro Manila, Philippines. From 31 members at its establishment it now has 68 members. Masatsugu Asakawa is the current President.
Q8. Who has been recently appointed as the First Woman Prime Minister of Gabon?
Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda
Dame Marguerite Pindling
Adrienne Louise Clarkson
Monica Dacon
A. Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda
She became the first woman to be elected mayor of the capital Libreville in 2014.
Gabon is located on the west coast of Central Africa. Its capital and largest city is Libreville. The official language is French.
Q9. What is the rank of India in Global Manufacturing Risk Index 2020?
3rd
2nd
5th
1st
A. 3rd
India ranked 3rd among 48 countries in in terms of cost competitiveness and operating conditions. The Index was released by the US-based property consultant Cushman & Wakefield. China and the United States retain the top two positions.
Q10. Recently, in which country India planned to create its first ever overseas oil stockpile?
Russia
US
Austria
Iran
B. US
India and the US have signed an MoU to develop a strategic petroleum reserve to store crude oil in America to increase India’s stockpile.
Q1. The government of which state has recently decided to upgrade Poba Reserve Forest into a Wildlife Sanctuary?
Meghalaya
Bihar
Assam
West Bengal
C. Assam
Assam Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal has announced, Poba Reserve Forest in Dhemaji district would be upgraded to a wildlife sanctuary. The Poba Reserve Forest was created in the year 1924 and covers an area of 10,221 hectares. It is home to a large number of flora and fauna.
Q2. Union Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurated the first container ship from Kolkata to Agartala through Chattogram Port. Chattogram port is located in which country?
Bhutan
India
Bangladesh
Nepal
C. Bangladesh
This route will open doors of new opportunities for both the countries. It will also provide the alternative and shorter route to connect the North East Region through Bangladesh.
Q3. Which institute has developed a portable hospital unit called ‘MediCAB,’ to treat COVID-19 patients?
IIT Bangalore
IIT Guwahati
IIT Indore
IIT Madras
D. IIT Madras
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) start-up Modulus Housing, has developed a portable hospital unit called ‘MediCAB,’. This unit can be installed anywhere within two hours by four people. MediCAB is foldable and is composed of four zones – a doctor’s room, an isolation room, a medical room/ward and a twin-bed ICU, maintained at negative pressure.
Q4. UNICEF India partnered with which company to provide career counselling to young people in the country?
Wipro
Infosys
SAP India
Microsoft
C. SAP India
UNICEF India and SAP India partnered to provide career counselling to young people in the country and aims to improve the employability skills in a COVID-19 and post COVID-19 era. UNICEF has collaborated with YuWaah (Generation Unlimited) to offer digital education as well as occupational skillset to the underserved young people of India.
Q5. Recently, which shipbuilding company has signed a contract to construct autonomous electric vessels for ASKO Maritime AS, Norway?
Hindustan Shipyard Limited
Cochin Shipyard Limited
Mazagon Dock Limited
Goa Shipyard Limited
B. Cochin Shipyard Limited
Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) has signed a contract with ASKO Maritime AS, Norway for the construction and supply of the two autonomous electric ferries along with an option to build two more identical vessels.
Q6. CBSE collaborated with which company to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) in high school curriculum of 2020-2021?
Google
Microsoft
IBM
Walmart
C. IBM
Q7. Pakistan and China have signed an agreement for the 700 MW Azad Pattan hydel power project located on which river?
Ganga
Jhelum
Narmada
Chenab
B. Jhelum
Azad Pattan Hydel Power Project is a run on the river scheme with a reservoir near the Muslimabad village located 7km upstream from the Azad Pattan bridge. This project is the 2nd power project under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC).
Q8. What is the rank of India in Global Skill Index 2020?
34th
55th
42nd
26th
A. 34th
In the Data Science Domain India secured the global rank 51(lagging) and secured 12th rank in the Asia Pacific region. India secured the global rank 34 (emerging) in the Business Domain and 8th rank in the Asia Pacific region. In the Technology Domain India secured the global rank 40 (emerging) and 10th rank in the Asia Pacific region.
Q9. Government of which state has recently decided to convert waste generated in the state to electricity under an initiative titled ‘Waste to Energy’?
Tamil Nadu
Maharashtra
Punjab
Uttarakhand
D. Uttarakhand
According to Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB), this waste can generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity and curb pollution. It will also help to solve the problem of unavailability of landfills to dispose of the solid waste across the hill state.
Q10. FIFA World Cup 2022 will be held in which country?
Q1. The first-ever Bamboo Industrial Park to be set up in which district of Assam?
Goalpara
Majuli
Dima Hasao
Udalguri
C. Dima Hasao
The Bamboo Industrial Park will be set up in Manderdisa in Dima Hasao. The park will be set-up within an area of 75 hectares.
Q2. Recently, the government of which state has inaugurated five Water Supply projects worth Rs 48.39 crore?
Manipur
Himachal Pradesh
West Bengal
Meghalaya
A. Manipur
Chief Minister of Manipur N. Biren Singh inaugurates five Water Supply projects and one office building of Weight and Measures Department and Rapid Antigen Detection Testing Centre at Jiribam through video conferencing.
Q3. Recently, who has been honoured with the “Top Publicist” award in the Global Humanitarian Awards 2020?
Sachin Awasthi
Anil Prakash Joshi
Venu Srinivasan
Anand Mahindra
A. Sachin Awasthi
The Global Humanitarian Award is known as a part of the honouring the honourable initiative of the World Humanitarian Drive (WHD). The award is to honour the popular men and women who contribute to the betterment of the society and the world.
Q4. Which country remains the top trading partner of India in FY 2019-20, according to the recent data released by Commerce Industry?
China
UK
USA
Bangladesh
C. USA
As per the data, the bilateral trade between the US and India in the fiscal year 2019-20 has increased from $87.96 billion in 2018-19 to $88.75 billion.
Q5. Which ministry released the ‘PRAGYATA’ Guidelines on Digital Education?
Ministry of Civil Aviation
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
Ministry of Health
Human Resource Development Ministry
D. Human Resource Development Ministry
Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ released PRAGYATA guidelines on Digital Education to provide a roadmap for carrying forward online education to enhance the quality of education. The guidelines include eight steps of digital learning that is, Plan- Review- Arrange- Guide- talk- Assign- Track- Appreciate.
Q6. Recently, which giant company announced to invest $10 Billion digitalization fund in India?
Facebook
Google
Apple
Twitter
B. Google
Google will invest close to $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years through a “Google for India Digitisation Fund”which will be utilized in another five to seven years to digitize the Indian Economy.
Q7. Which IIT has developed Ultraviolet sanitizing device ‘SHUDH’ to make the surroundings COVID free?
IIT Ropar
IIT Kanpur
IIT Gandhinagar
IIT Jodhpur
B. IIT Kanpur
IIT Kanpur has developed an Ultraviolet (UV) sanitizing product named SHUDH. It is a smartphone operated Handy UV Disinfection Helper. It helps in killing the spread of corona virus at the highly prone places such as hospitals, hotels, malls, offices and schools.
Q8. India’s first cable-stayed rail bridge ‘AnjiKhad bridge’ is located in which state/UT?
New Delhi
Haryana
Madhya Pradesh
Jammu and Kashmir
D. Jammu and Kashmir
Q9. Name the organization, which has recently prepared the White paper on ‘Focused Interventions for ‘Make in India’: Post COVID 19’?
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Health for All
Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC)
Healthcare trade unions in India
C. Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC)
Q10. Scientists from which country have developed a low-cost method to turn waste into ethanol for use as sanitizers?
Karnataka launches 6 locally developed products to fight Covid-19
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwathnarayan launched six Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approved products made by startups to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The six products are Shieldex 24, Florescence probes and PCR mix, Daksh, VTM, Cov-Astra and Anti-microbial face wash.
Developed by Ravi Kumar at Biofi, Shieldex 24 is a UV-ROS box for Covid sterilisation. It can help eliminate viruses located on objects and is useful in the transportation industry.
Govindarajan and Meher Prakash from VNIR have developed the Florescence probes and PCR mix for RTPCR detection. These probes are part of Covid testing kits which are currently being imported.
Arun Agrawal from Janitri has developed Daksh, a remote foetal monitoring device which is used in treating Covid positive pregnant women.
Manjunath and Dinesh from Deno Bio labs at IBAB have developed the VTM which helps in safely transporting live virus samples from a sample collection centre to a testing lab.
Cov-Astra is an Artificial Intelligence based device which can detect Covid virus through x-ray, relegating the conventional throat swab for testing people for the virus.
Developed by Adarsh Nararajan from Aindra A, Cov-Astra can help detect the virus at a significantly lower price of Rs 150 to Rs 250 per person.
Latha Damle and team from Atrimed have developed an anti-microbial face wash containing herbal anti-microbials, which can kill viruses on the face in a fraction of seconds.
India, Sweden agree to cooperate in fight against Covid-19
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and his Swedish counterpart Lena Hallengren discussed via video link the status and plans to handle coronavirus and decided to co-operate in the field of health and medicine.
The two countries and agreed to hold the Joint Working Group”s (JWG) next meeting by autumn and stay in touch digitally till the end of crisis.
Vardhan spoke about the decade of vibrant Indo-Swedish partnership that oversaw 10 JWG level bilateral meetings and mentioned recent achievements of India, like the Ayushman Bharat Yojana that covered 550 million people.
World Bank provides $400 million to enhance support for Namami Gange
Indian government and the World Bank(WB) signed a loan agreement of $400 million, to enhance support for the Namami Gange programme that seeks to rejuvenate the Ganga.
The Second National Ganga River Basin Project will help stem pollution in the iconic river and strengthen the management of the river basin which is home to more than 500 million people.
The agreement comprises a loan of $381 million and a proposed guarantee of up to $19 million. The $381 million variable spread loan has a maturity of 18.5 years including a grace period of 5 years.
The World Bank has been supporting the government’s efforts since 2011 through the ongoing National Ganga River Basin Project, which helped set up the National Mission for Clean Ganga as the nodal agency to manage the river, and financed sewage treatment infrastructure in several riverside towns and cities.
To ensure that these infrastructure assets function effectively and are well maintained, the project will build on the innovative Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) of public private partnership introduced under the ongoing NGRBP, and which has become the solution of choice for sewage treatment investments in the Ganga Basin.
Government pays a private operator 40 per cent of the capital cost to build a sewage treatment plant during the construction period; the remaining 60 per cent is paid as performance-linked payments over 15 years to ensure that the operator runs and maintains the plant efficiently.
India’s First NPNT Compliant Drone Flight Successfully Completed
Quidich Innovation Labs announced the successful completion of India’s First No-Permission No-Takeoff (NPNT) compliant drone flight on the A200 Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS).
The flight was carried out in a green zone identified by the DGCA in Karnataka and marks a critical breakthrough in online testing and permission systems. This will go a long way in opening up the skies for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
MoCA& DGCA released a comprehensive policy on use of UAVs, which came into effect in 2018. Under the new policy, only UAVs which complied to stringent manufacturing standards laid down by the government could be used.
The UAV also had to be compliant with the newly formulated NPNT architecture. A Unique Identification Number (UIN) and an Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit (UAOP), along with Online permission artifacts (OPA) for every flight, are mandatory.
Himachal Pradeshbecomes the first state where everyone possesses LPG connection
Himachal Pradesh has become the first state in the country in which every household has an LPG gas connection.
HP Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that as many as 2,76,243 families were provided free gas connections under the Himachal Grihini Suvidha Yojana.
This scheme was launched for those households which were left out of the Central Govt’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana under which connections were provided free to poor women of rural areas.
CBDT, SEBI sign MoU for exchange of data
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for data exchange between the two organisations.
The MoU will facilitate the regular sharing of data and information between the SEBI and the CBDT on an automatic and regular basis.
SEBI and the CBDT will also exchange with each other, on request and suo moto basis, any information available in their respective databases, for the purpose of carrying out their functions under various laws.
July 09, 2020
UP govt approves new start-up policy 2020
UP state government has approved the UP-Start-up Policy 2020 to promote fledgling units in various areas including agriculture, health, power, education, tourism and transport.
Objective of the policy is to ensure that UP is ranked within the first three states in the Centre’s start-up rankings, create 100 incubators with, at least, one in each district, create an ecosystem to promote at least 10,000 start-ups, set up state of the art excellence centres and create India’s largest incubator in Lucknow.
The policy will be valid for five years and will provide direct employment to 50,000 people and indirect employment to 1 lakh.
There are more than 1,800 start-up units registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade under the Centre and since there is no holistic policy for start-ups, it was decided to create an ecosystem for promotion of start-ups which would require a new policy.
The state government is already providing start-ups with a subsidy and has started a Rs 1,000 crore fund to promote new entrants in the field.
Punjab okays Rs 3,200 crore for Industrial park and manufacturing cluster
Punjab govt approved development of a modern Industrial Park and Integrated Manufacturing Cluster near Ludhiana and Rajpura, respectively, at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore each.
The two projects, be set up in 1,000 acres each, the projects will help prospective entrepreneurs and industrialists set up ventures, will help accelerate industrialisation and create jobs.
The And Integrated Manufacturing Cluster near Rajpura in the Patiala district will be developed with the help of the National Industrial Corridor Development Corp.
To mobilise additional revenue, the cabinet gave the go-ahead to raise the mutation fee from Rs 300 to Rs 600. Accordingly the State Govt asked the Revenue Department to launch a campaign for clearing all pending mutations in the interest of landowners.
Union Cabinet approves Rs 12,450 crore recapitalisation of 3 Govt general insurance companies
The Union Cabinet approved capital infusion of Rs 12,450 crore for three state run insurance companies, viz. Oriental Insurance Company, National Insurance Company and the United India Insurance Company.
The approved amount also includes Rs 2,500 crore infused in FY 2019-20.
In the Union Financial Budget 2020-21, central government had set aside Rs 6,950 crore for recapitalisation of the three public sector general insurance companies.
The government aims to improve the solvency ratio of these companies before merging theses three state-run general insurance entities to create a general insurance giant.
NSDC, Microsoft partnership to impart digital skills to Indian youths
The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Software major Microsoft announced a partnership aimed at providing digital skills to over 1 lakh youth in the country over the next 12 months.
Microsoft will collaborate with NSDC’s eSkill India portal to provide free access to learning resources and conduct digital skilling awareness drives, equipping the next generation of learners with the skills they need to find employment opportunities in the digital economy.
Microsoft’s this partnership is an extension of it’s global skilling initiative to help 25 million people worldwide acquire new digital skills needed for the future economy.
Microsoft’s learning resource centre, Microsoft Learn will be integrated with the eSkill India digital platform to provide access to personalised learning paths and resources that are recently in demand and expected to continue to grow in the time to come.
Learnings will cover a broad range of skills, from entry-level digital literacy to advanced product-based skilling in critical technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud computing, providing numerous opportunities for people to reskill and upskill.
FACTFILE – National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)
NSDC is a not-for-profit public limited company incorporated on July 31, 2008 under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956. It was set up by Ministry of Finance as Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) holds 49% of the share capital of NSDC, while the private sector has the balance 51% of the share capital.
NSDC aims to promote skill development by catalyzing creation of large, quality and for-profit vocational institutions. It also provides funding to build scalable and profitable vocational training initiatives. Its mandate is also to enable support system which focuses on quality assurance, information systems and train the trainer academies either directly or through partnerships.
NSDC acts as a catalyst in skill development by providing funding to enterprises, companies and organizations that provide skill training. It also develops appropriate models to enhance, support and coordinate private sector initiatives.
NSDC’s eSkill India portal catalogues more than 490 e-learning courses in multiple Indian languages through leading knowledge providers.
Chhattisgarh becomes India’s first state to start e-Lok Adalats
The Chhattisgarh High Court and the Chhattisgarh State Legal Services Authority organized the India’s first ever E-Lok Adalat amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
About 195 benches were constituted at different places of the state, including remote areas like Sarguja, Kanker, Bastar, Surajpur etc., via video conferencing and 3,135 cases were identified for compromise.
2,270 cases were settled in a single day via e-Lok Adalat.
Himalayan Butterfly ’Golden Birdwing’ is India’s largest butterfly
A Himalayan butterfly named Golden Birdwing is India’s largest, a record an unknown specimen had held for 88 years.
With a wingspan of 194 mm, the female of the species is marginally larger than the Southern Birdwing (190 mm) that Brigadier William Harry Evans, a British military officer and lepidopterist, had recorded in 1932.
The hitherto largest Indian butterfly that Brigadier Evans recorded in 1932 was an individual of the Southern Birdwing (Troidesminos), which was then treated as a subspecies of the Common Birdwing.
While the female Golden Birdwing was recorded from Didihat in Uttarakhand, the largest male was from the Wankhar Butterfly Museum in Meghalaya capital Shillong.
India good example in solar auctions amidst pandemic, say UN Secretary General
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that as the world designs and implements Covid-19 recovery plans, it should invest in a better, more sustainable future.
Citing the case of India, he said at the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s Clean Energy Transition Summit that solar auctions have seen popularity amidst the height of the pandemic.
A growing number of coalitions of investors and real economy stakeholders are advocating for a recovery aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Bailout support to sectors such as industry, aviation and shipping should be conditioned on alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Praising India, Antonio Guterres said that Solar auctions have seen popularity amidst the height of the pandemic. India serves as a good example.
IIT Hyderabad and Nvidia team up for AI research centre
Nvidia unveiled ‘The Nvidia AI Technology Centre ‘, a technology centre at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad that will accelerate research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its commercial adoption.
The collaboration between IIT Hyderabad and Nvidia will focus on advancing AI research in the areas of agriculture and smart cities, besides language understanding.
The projects in the area of increasing crop yield using AI algorithms, applying AI-based solutions to support safer transportation systems and better ways of managing traffic, will be taken up.
FACTFILE – Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad
The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a public technical and research university located in Sangareddy district of Telangana, India.
It is known for its academic strength, research, publications and proximity to IT and industrial hubs.
IITH was founded in 2008, among the eight young Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
It was ranked 201st in Asia by the QS World University Rankings in 2020 and 94 among BRICS nations in 2019. Ranks in the range of 601-650 in the World.
In India, IIT Hyderabad was ranked 8 among engineering institutes by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2020 and 17 overall.
AIIB released $50 million loan to L&T Infra Finance for Renewable Energy
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has released $50 million in the first tranche of assistance to L&T Infrastructure Finance Ltd for funding Renewable Energy projects in India.
AIIB invests in sustainable infrastructure, has sanctioned total $100 million loan to unit of L&T Finance Holdings. This is it’s first loan to an Indian non-banking financial company (NBFC).
AIIB provide loans for operational infrastructure projects of which majority are backed by tripartite agreements, government guarantee and support from government.
FACTFILE – Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank that aims to support the building of infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region.
It has 82 members as well as 20 prospective members from around the world.
AIIB started operation after the agreement entered into force on 25 December 2015, with initial capital base of $100 billion, which is 2⁄3 of the capital of the Asian Development Bank and about half that of the World Bank.
The bank received the highest credit ratings from the three biggest rating agencies in the world, and is perceived as a potential rival to the World Bank, ADB and IMF.
July 11, 2020
Central Govt to set up Bamboo Industrial Park in Dima Hasao
The Central government has decided to set up the first Bamboo Industrial Park in the Northeast in Dima Hasao district of Assam for tapping the immense potential of bamboo sector of the locality.
The park on completion will cover an area of 75 hectares, would contribute to the overall economic development of the State apart from developing the bamboo-based industries.
The Bamboo Industrial Park would immensely benefit the bamboo growers of the State which has come close on the heels of Assam Govt’s Bamboo and Cane Policy.
DoNER ministry has taken at the initiative for setting up this Bamboo Industrial Park.
T-Hub partners MeitYto mentor hardware startups in India
Hyderabad-based global start-up catalyst T-Hub announced a partnership with the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to lead Digital India’s Scale Up programme for hardware and Internet of Things (IoT) startups.
As many as 15 startups with leading-edge solutions in mobility, energy, agriculture, aerospace, manufacturing, consumer, healthtech, medtech, smart cities and logistics and supply chain sectors will be shortlisted for the programme.
The startups will go through regular interventions through bootcamps and dedicated mentoring organised by T-Hub. The startups will get exposure to design/enhance their hardware.
They will receive mentorship in areas such as pricing, go-to-market strategies, fund raising, and will also receive equity-free grants.
BDL signs contract for licence & Technology Transfer of Akash Missile with DRDO
Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) has signed a licence agreement and transfer of technology of Akash Missile Weapon System with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
FACTFILE – Akash Missile Weapon System (AKASH)
Akash is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile defense system developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) for Missile Systems, Bharat Electronics (BEL), Tata Power Strategic Engineering Division and L&T for other radars, control centers, launcher systems in India.
It can target aircraft up to 30 km away, at altitudes up to 18,000 m and has the capability to neutralize aerial targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles as well as ballistic missiles.
FACTFILE – Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL)
Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) was founded in 1970 to be a manufacturing base for guided weapon systems.
It is one of India’s manufacturers of ammunitions and missile systems. It in Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
BDL began by producing a first generation anti-tank guided missile – the French SS11B1. This product was a culmination of a licence agreement the Government of India entered into with Aerospatiale.
Injeti Srinivas appointed as Chairman of International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA)
IAS officer Injeti Srinivas has been appointed as the first chairman of the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) for the Gandhinagar-based Financial Special Economic Zone, popularly known as Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) City.
Injeti Srinivas is a 1983 batch IAS officer from the Odisha cadre and served at the corporate affairs ministry for nearly three years. He has also served as secretary, department of sports, and as Director General of SAI.
The main function of the IFSCA is to regulate financial products such as securities, deposits or contracts of insurance, financial services, and financial institutions that have been previously approved by any appropriate regulator in an IFSC.
FACTFILE – International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA)
Indian government has established International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to regulate all financial services in International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) with headquarters in Gandhinagar.
IFSCA will regulate financial products such as securities, deposits or contracts of insurance, financial services, and financial institutions which have been previously approved by any appropriate regulator such as RBI, the SEBI etc., in an IFSC.
It will also regulate any other financial products/services/institutions in an IFSC.
It will consist of nine members, appointed by the central government, including the Chairperson of IFSCA, a member each from the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, and PFRDA; and two members from the Ministry of Finance and two other members will be appointed on the recommendation of a Selection Committee.
Unification of regulatory activities under one authority will be of immense benefit and would accelerate the development of India’s first IFSC at GIFT City, Gandhinagar.
Odisha Govt launches Bhubaneshwar Land Use Intelligence System
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik launched BLUIS (Bhubaneswar Land Use Intelligence System), the flagship development of General Administration and Public Grievances Departments.
Under the initiative, a web and mobile-based solution has been developed to monitor changes in all government lands in Bhubaneswar by leveraging high-resolution satellite imagery.
BLUIS is a geo-tagged repository of all the government lands in Bhubaneswar, created through high-resolution satellite imagery to detect all changes taking place on government lands.
Odisha became the first state in the country to tap space technology and artificial intelligence for safeguarding government lands.
The mobile app also enables crowdsourcing cases of unauthorised land use and can also be used by citizens to report any unauthorised development taking place over geo-tagged government lands. This will check the menace of encroachments of public lands.
The Centre has released the fourth tranche of the Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant equated monthly instalment amounting Rs 6,195 crore Assam and other 13 states.
The Centre released advance payments of over Rs 631 crore to Assam.
Other states which received the grant were Kerala (Rs 1,276 crore), Himachal Pradesh (Rs 952 crore), Punjab (Rs 638 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 491 crore), Uttarakhand (Rs 423 crore) and West Bengal (Rs 417 crore).
As per the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission, equal instalments of the grant have been issued by the Centre to the states since April 2020.
The grant will assist the states to take preventive and mitigation measures for containment of the COVID-19 and these funds can be used to cover the cost of consumables, and purchase of personal protection equipment (PPE) for healthcare, municipal, police and fire authorities, besides purchase of medical equipments.
Biosafety level two lab unveiled in Chikkaballapura, Karnataka
Karnataka Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar inaugurated a biosafety level two dedicated Covid and Virology lab in Chikkaballapura, Karnataka. The state-of-the-art lab is temperature controlled and complete clean air lab with fully automated machine for autolysis with RNA extraction.
It has contamination free passage for samples through ultra violet pass boxes without the need for human movement.
Bio-medical waste disposal from the lab is also carried through contamination free ISO – 8 classification process.
Flipkart signs MoU with Karnataka to promote local art and craft
Flipkart has signed an MoU with Karnataka Govt’s MSME and Mines Department to promote the states arts, crafts and handloom sectors by bringing them on to e-commerce and providing market access, under it’s Samarth programme.
The partnership will enable Karnataka’s local artisans, weavers and craftsmen to showcase their hallmark products to a pan-India customer base.
Both the parties will focus on creating avenues to increase business and trade inclusion opportunities for these underserved segments of the society.
Manipur’s Gyanendro Ningombam elected as new President of Hockey India
Gyanendra Ningombam has been elected unanimously as Hony President of Hockey India. Gyanendra is a resident of Imphal East district, the septuagenarian Hockey lover has long been associated with Hockey promotion in Manipur for the last four decades.
He is instrumental in producing eminent international class hockey players from the state. He also served as General secretary of the earstwhile Manipur Hockey Association, and presently Senior Vice president of Manipur Hockey and also of Hockey India.
Indian battalion wins UNIFIL environment award
An Indian battalion stationed with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has won an environment award for a project that aims to decrease waste generation, reuse plastic and build green houses.
UNIFIL’s Indian Battalion was adjudged first for a project that seeks to increase awareness and decrease waste generation by planting seedlings in their positions and areas of responsibility and reducing wastage.
Other UNIFIL units that received awards and recognitions included French-led Force Commander’s Reserve, Indonesian Battalion, Republic of Korea Battalion and Italian Battalion.
The awards commend individuals, UN positions, contingents, sections and units that have demonstrated leadership, innovation or exceptional activities in protecting the environment.
July 13, 2020
‘Ypthimawatsoni’ butterfly discovered in Tripura
A team of wildlife researchers has rediscovered ‘Ypthimawatsoni’ butterfly commonly known as ‘Looped three-ring’ after 61 years near a village in Jampui Hills under the North Tripura district of Tripura.
Researchers constantly survey the butterflies in North-East India to document current populations, distributions, and status of butterflies for the past five years.
Looped Three-ring Ypthimawatsoni, 1893 belonging to subfamily Styrene and family Nymphalidae of insect order Lepidoptera has not been recorded for approximately 61 years since it was last seen in the year 1958 in Manipur.
This rediscovery is also important in the context of updating the status and distribution of the butterfly fauna for Tripura.
United States remains India’s top trading partner in 2019-20
The US remained India’s top trading partner for the second consecutive fiscal in 2019-20, which shows increasing economic ties between the two countries.
In 2019-20, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $88.75 billion as against $87.96 billion in 2018-19.
The trade gap between the countries has increased to $17.42 billion in 2019-20 from $16.86 billion in 2018-19.
China was India’s top trading partner from 2013-14 to 2017-18. But in 2018-19, the US first surpassed China to become India’s top trading partner.
The bilateral trade between India and China has dipped to $81.87 billion in 2019-20 from $87.08 billion in 2018-19 and the trade deficit between the two has declined to $48.66 billion in 2019-20 from $53.57 billion in the 2018-19.
IIIT Delhi develops AI model to repurpose existing drugs to treat Covid cases
The Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Delhi) has developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model for drug repositioning in the treatment of Covid-19.
Instead of manually going through available drug and checking its effectiveness against Covid-19 one, using AI to speed things up and find the drugs which have the highest probability of success against the disease.
The AI model computes the similarity between the chemical structures of the drugs and the similarity between the genomic structures of existing viruses and the novel Coronavirus.
The model analyse the historical information about the efficacy of the drugs on different viruses; it selects chemical structurally similar drugs that have been successful in treating viruses that have a genomic structure close to that of the novel Coronavirus.
Russia 1st nation to finish human trials for Covid-19 vaccine
Russia became the first nation to complete clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine on humans, and the results have proven the medication’s effectiveness.
Russia had allowed clinical trials of two forms of a potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology.
The first vaccine, in the form of a solution for intramuscular administration, was carried out at the Burdenko Military Hospital and other vaccine, in the form of a powder for the preparation of a solution for intramuscular administration, was carried out at Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.
Microsoft joins Google to create new generation of web apps
Microsoft’s PWABuilder and Google’sBubblewrap have joined hands to help web developers get their Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) into the Play Store.
Progressive web apps use emerging web browser APIs and features, along with traditional progressive enhancement strategy, to bring a native app-like user experience to cross-platform web applications.
com is Microsoft’s open source developer tool that helps build high-quality PWAs and publish them in app stores.
Google’s Bubblewrap is command line utility and library to generate and sign Google Play Store packages from Progressive Web Apps.
Arunachal Pradesh filmmaker Kezang D Thongdok bagged the Dada Saheb Phalke Award 2020
Kezang D Thongdok, an independent filmmaker, documented the process of honey hunting has bagged the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2020.
Thongdok’s short documentary ‘Chi Lupo’ artfully sketches the custom of honey hunting practised in the Shertukpen community wherein ‘Chi’ means honey and ‘Lupo’ means hunters
Thongdok’s attempt to depict and preserve the age-old tradition of honey hunting amongst the Shertukpens bagged him the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award this year.
Govt to curb import dependence of APIs/medical devices
As part of efforts to make India self-sufficient in manufacturing bulk drugs or APIs, the Govt of India’s Department of Pharmaceuticals is finalising guidelines for selecting locations of three bulk drug parks and four medical devices parks.
Currently, India imports more than 70 per cent of its API or bulk drug needs, largely from countries such as China.
The guideline will become the basis for selection of developers for this prestigious project which is part of government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat mission.
The guidelines which will form basis for objectively selecting locations of upcoming three bulk drugs parks and four medical devices parks in the country.
In order to encourage domestic production of critical APIs and medical devices, the Union Cabinet had recenlty approved a scheme for development of three bulk drugs and four medical devices parks in which the Centre will extend Grants-in-Aid to states with a maximum limit of Rs 1,000 crore per bulk drug park and Rs 100 crore per medical device parks.
Govt has also announced a production linked incentive scheme for promoting domestic manufacturing of key critical starting materials/drug intermediates & APIs and medical devices.
Google’s Rs 75,000 crore boost for digitisation in India
Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, announced a Google for India digitisation fund through which, the company will invest Rs 75,000 crore or approximately $10 billion over the next five to seven years to help India go digital.
The investment will focus on four areas important to India’s digitisation:
By enabling affordable access to information to every Indian in their own language.
By building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s specific needs.
By empowering businesses to continue or embark on digital transformation.
By leveraging technology and Artificial Intelligence for social good in areas like health, agriculture and education.
India becomes second-largest foreign investor in the UK
India invested in 120 projects and created more than 5000 new jobs in the UK to become the second-largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) after the US in 2019.
The US remains the number one source of FDI for the UK, delivering 462 projects, followed by India, Germany, France and China and Hong Kong.
The Department for International Trade inward investment statistics for 2019-2020 found India moving up from its previous third-largest spot, representing an overall 4 per cent FDI increase for the UK on 2018-2019 with 1,852 new inward investment projects in the 2019/2020 financial year.
DRDO develops software tool for tracking Covid patients in quarantine
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a software tool for enforcement of quarantine, which will be implemented in partnership with the Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA), an industry body of software professionals.
Both the organisations signed an agreement to implement the automated management of the software. The pilot for the implementation is likely to begin soon.
The DRDO has devised Smart Automated Management of Patients and Risks for Covid-19 (SAMPARC), an intelligent software for enforcement of quarantine or isolation.
The software tool will be a handy tool for law enforcement and health officials, as it would enable intelligent automated tracking of those in quarantine or isolation.
It will also generate alerts if there are violations or wilful suppression of movement details. This is expected to reduce the tracking workload of law enforcement or health officials.
The online pact was signed by Dr Rituraj Kumar, Scientist G, Centre for AI & Robotics (CAIR) of the DRDO and Sundeep Kumar Makthala, Global President, TITA.
The SAMPARC solution can be deployed as a national service by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), or can be distributed as a state-wise or region-wise service.
Relying on the information provided by the police and health officials, it allows geofencing, face recognition, display of data on map.
The rollout of the solution involves no cost to the patient and local authority needs to position only a suitable computer and the software is based on a combination of open-source software.
Details of the patient including name, cell phone number, IMEI of the phone, coordinates of the quarantine location, duration of quarantine, email id and optionally photographs of the patient for AI-based face detection.
The app has to be installed on the patient”s smartphone which would automatically send a protected message to the Covid server every 10 minutes. The app would run as a background service that would automatically restart even if the phone reboots.
Based on the requirements of the authorities, the patient will be able to send selfies taken through the SAMPARC app to the server for automated AI based face recognition.
Lee Hsien Loong won fourth term as Prime Minister of Singapore
Lee Hsien Loong has become the Prime Minister of Singapore after the People’s Action Party won the recently held General Elections. With this, Lee Hsien Loong has won a fourth term as the PM of Singapore.
The People’s Action Party (PAP) have won 83 seats out of the total 93 seats contested in the Election by securing 61.24 per cent of the total valid votes.
BIOGRAPHY – Lee Hsien Loong
Lee Hsien Loong is a Singaporean politician who has served as the 3rd Prime Minister of Singapore since August 2004. Lee is the eldest son of the 1st Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew.
He led the People’s Action Party to victory in the 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2020 general elections.
Lee graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University and later earned a Master of Public Administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
NTPC Limited wins CII-ITC Sustainability Award 2019
National Thermal Power Corporation has won the prestigious CII-ITC Sustainability Award 2019, under Outstanding Accomplishment in Corporate Excellence Category. It has also received Commendation for Significant Achievement in the category of CSR.
NTPCs flagship CSR program Girl Empowerment Mission, a four weeks residential program has been institutionalized in the vicinity of its power stations for the benefit of school going girls to support in their overall development.
India’s 2018 Tiger census sets new Guinness World Record
The fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation 2018 has entered the Guinness World Record for being the world’s largest camera trap wildlife survey.
The country now has an estimated 2967 tigers as per the latest census, which makes India home to nearly 75 percent of the global tiger population and has already fulfilled its resolve of doubling tiger numbers, well ahead of the target year of 2022.
The fourth iteration of the survey – conducted in 2018-19 – was the most comprehensive to date, in terms of both resource and data amassed. Camera traps were placed in 26,838 locations across 141 different sites and surveyed an effective area of 1 lakh 21 thousand 337 square kilometres.
Atal Innovation Mission launches app development module for school students
NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission has launched the ATL App Development Module for school children across the country.
Through six project-based learning modules and online mentoring sessions, young innovators can learn to build mobile apps in various Indian languages.
To build capacities and acumen for app development within school teachers, periodic Teacher Training sessions will be conducted on the AIM App Development course.
NITI Aayog is now bringing the skills of app development to the young tinkerers of Atal Tinkering Labs across the country so that they can integrate their Tinkering Lab innovations with mobile apps enhancing the usability and reach of their innovations.
