Assam Current Affairs – June 08-14, 2020

Posted on by admin 
Assam Current Affairs & GK – June 8 - 14, 2020

( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the week of June 8 – 14, 2020 )

June 2020 Current Affairs Monthly PDF  |  Assam 2020 Yearbook  | June 2020 Quiz Monthly PDF

Go To Assam Current Affairs                      Go To Assam Current Affairs Quiz

 

June 08, 2020

Assam CM urged for innovation to add value to traditional products
  • Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal called for innovation to add value to the traditional products of the State to capture global markets. He was taking part as chief guest at ‘Udyam Assam – celebrating success, supporting startup dreams’, a celebratory event commemorating the success of Assam Startup–The Nest at Ambari.
  • Assam Startup–The Nest under the aegis of the Industry and Commerce department, in the first year of its foundation, has incubated 75 startups, which cumulatively have a turnover of around Rs 11 crore and generated 1,690 direct and over 40,000 indirect employment so far.
  • Underlining the uniqueness of traditional textiles, bell metal products, etc. of the State, CM Sonowal said those products have all the ingredients to draw people’s attention. To match the changing consumer behaviour, there is a need to be more innovative and IT-enabled services would help give marketing advantages to these products.
  • Initiatives like Startup India, Skill India, Digital India and Make in India set the ball rolling for a level playing field for Indian entrepreneurs in the global platform. These programmes have started to deliver results now with Indian startups making a strong presence in the global market.
  • CM handed over cheques of the first instalment of financial grants to 31 startups incubated by the centre under the My Assam Startup ID. He also launched a new initiative named ‘Udyam – Youth Entrepreneurship programme’ for the homecoming migrant workers.
Haryana to have NABL labs in all districts
  • Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has accorded an approval to a proposal for setting up a centralized testing facility accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) in every district.
  • This will ensure that all tests related to agriculture, food, soil, environment, health, water, etc, can be carried out under one roof.
  • At present only four NABL accredited labs are operational in Karnal, Gurugram, Kurukshetra and Kaithal.
  • But labs are conducting testing of potable water quality only. With the Chief Minister”s consent these labs will be upgraded to multifarious testing labs.
  • At the meeting, the Chief Minister was apprised that four NABL accredited labs are already functional and these are to be set up in 18 districts.
  • The Chief Minister had instead directed the officers for setting up a centralized or multifarious testing facility in 18 districts and upgrading these four labs too.
Bande Utkala Janani gets state anthem status in Odisha
  • The Odisha Cabinet approved a proposal to give state anthem status to ”Bande Utkala Janani”.
  • This patriotic poem was written by Kantakabi Laxmikanta Mohapatra in 1912. It was the opening song of Utkal Sammilani during the fight for the formation of a separate province.
  • It will now be played at all government functions and state Assembly without instruments. All government schools and colleges, functions can play this song with instruments.

FACTFILE – Bande Utkala Janani

  • Bande Utkala Janani is an Odia patriotic poem written by Laxmikanta Mohapatra. When Odisha became a state on 1 April 1936.
  • Odisha Cabinet on 7 June 2020, accorded this poem as STATE ANTHEM status. It was a long standing demand of people of the State to accord state song status to this poem.
  • The poem envisages a Utkala who maintains her self-respect and dignity from a position of confidence and strength rather than insecurity and fear.
  • Once Rabindra Nath Tagore wrote in one of his essays i.e. “A Vision of India’s History” that ‘the history of India has been the history of a struggle between the mechanical spirit of conformity in social organization and the creative spirit of man which seeks freedom and love in self-expression’ justifies Laxmikanta as a true patriotic poet.
  • This song was first sung at the Utkal Sammilani’s Conference at Balasore in 1912. This song was used as a weapon by the Utkal Sammilani to emancipate Odisha.
  • It was made compulsory at the end of any Odisha Legislative Assembly Session and in the beginning of school prayer in State Govt. schools in Odisha during the 1990s.
Govt. of India inaugurated The Urban Learning Internship Programme(TULIP)
  • Union human resource development (HRD) minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and minister of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) Hardeep Singh Puri jointly inaugurated The Urban Learning Internship Programme (TULIP) to provide internship opportunities to thousands of fresh graduates and engineers of the county under the ‘Smart City’ projects. 
  • Under the internship programme, students will get to work for 100 smart cities under ministry of housing and urban development. According to the TULIP portal, there are a total of 295,200 internships under 23,970 companies. 
  • Objective of the program to provide a platform for Short-term exposure to fresh graduates to enhance their professional development through experiential learning with ULBs and smart cities.
  • Harnessing fresh energy and ideas towards ULBs and smart cities endeavours to solve critical challenges.
  • The duration of the internship will be a minimum of 8 weeks up to 1 year. Amount of stipend/subsistence allowance/expenses would be payable at the discretion of the ULB/ smart city and there shall be no liability of providing any employment on the ULB or smart city, whatsoever.
  • A digitally signed and shareable certificate regarding successful completion of internship shall be issued jointly by MoHUA, State Government, AICTE and the ULB/smart city.

June 09, 2020

Singaporean experts arrive to check Assam oil well gas leak
  • A three-member expert team from a Singapore-based emergency management firm reached Assam’s Tinsukia district from where gas is “uncontrollably” flowing out from a well.
  • State-owned Oil India Limited (OIL) brought the foreign experts to control their gas well blowout at the Baghjan village in Tinsukia, around 550 km east of Guwahati, after natural gas started spewing.
  • The experts from Singapore”s ”Alert Disaster Control”, led by Michael Ernest Allcorn, along with the OIL team, reached Baghjan well site.
  • They emphasised that safety of the local people in the area and the technical team working at the well site will be their prime concern while carrying out the operations.
  • As many as 650 families, comprising 2,500 people, have been shifted to three relief camps after the OIL”s oil well at the Baghjan village started releasing natural gas into the air. OIL will pay Rs 30,000 as immediate relief to each impacted family.
IIT Guwahati students develop mobile app for seamless air travel
  • Students of the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G) have developed a mobile application, ‘Flyzy’, to provide seamless air travelling experience to passengers during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The application has been developed by IIT-G’s Deepak Meena, third year B Tech student of the Department of Chemistry and Hansraj Patel, third year B Tech student of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering along with Arjit Singh, fourth year B Tech student of the Department of Electrical Engineering of Seth Jai Parkash Mukund Pal Institute of Engineering and Technology (JMIT).
  • Flyzy has been developed as per International Air Transport Association (IATA) guidelines.
  • The application seeks to provide contactless boarding, taking into account easier baggage drop, manageable parking and better shopping experience, besides providing necessary updates during the whole journey.
  • The students also seek to build Flyzy into an aviation information technology company for providing stress-free and safe journey to flyers.
  • The idea behind the mobile-based software is because majority of the people have smart phones.
  • Moreover, it is hybrid software which will support face-biometric recognition in the future, without even changing the complete software system of the airport.
  • It said that the idea is not only relevant during the present pandemic situation but will also be of use during the non-crisis time.
  • The main idea behind the application is to provide a seamless journey to passengers as they move through the airport, especially to the first-time flyers.
  • The application will guide them thoroughly and provide them with an easy understanding and implementation of several airport functions.
  • Passengers can shop from the airport using the application and can also pay from the application. They can either opt for the takeaway or gate delivery option. The application also supports multi-currency payments.
Indian Energy Exchange launches real-time electricity market
  • Energy trading platform Indian Energy Exchange launched the real-time electricity market (RTM) on its platform, a move that will help utilities buy and sell power just an hour before the requirement.
  • The RTM enables consumers, including distribution companies (DISCOMs) and captive users, to buy power on exchanges just an hour before delivery.
  • The real time market is an endeavour by the regulator, CERC, to make the power market dynamic by enabling trade in electricity through half-hourly auctions, Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) said in a regulatory filing.
  • There will be 48 auction sessions during the day with delivery of power within one hour of closure of the bid session.
  • With the fast-paced shift towards renewable energy, the real-time electricity market will facilitate the distribution utilities to manage the challenge of intermittency associated with renewables

FACTFILE – Indian Energy Exchange

  • The Indian Energy Exchange is an electronic system based power trading exchange regulated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).
  • IEX started its operations on June 27, 2008. It pioneered the development of power trading in India and provides an electronic platform to the various participants in power market, comprising State Electricity Boards, Power producers, Power Traders and Open Access Consumers (both Industrial & Commercial).
  • IEX is one of the two operational Power Exchanges in India. Ever since its incorporation, it has held an influential market share.
India, Denmark sign MoU to boost cooperation in power sector
  • India and Denmark have signed an MoU to develop strong and long-term cooperation between the two countries in the power sector.
  • The MoU provides for collaboration in areas like offshore wind, long term energy planning, forecasting, flexibility in the grid, consolidation of grid codes to integrate and operate efficiently variable generation options, flexibility in the power purchase agreements, incentivise power plant flexibility, variability in renewable energy production etc.
  • The Indian electricity market would benefit from cooperation with Denmark in these areas.
  • The MoU signed by Sanjiv Nandan Sahai, Secretary (Power) from the Indian side and Freddy Svane, Ambassador of Denmark to India from the Danish side, provides for establishment of a Joint Working Group (JWG).
  • The JWG will be co-chaired by Joint Secretary-level officials and will report to a Steering Committee, jointly chaired by the Secretary-level officers from both sides.
  • The governments will endeavour to take necessary steps to encourage and promote strategic and technical cooperation in the power sector for mutual benefit in the identified areas through the MoU.
IIT Madras researchers demonstrate role of microRNA in tongue cancer
  • Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) said its researchers have identified a specific microRNA (miRNAs) called ”miR-155 that is over-expressed in tongue cancer.
  • Mirnas affect cancer growth by inhibiting or enhancing the functions of certain proteins.
  • It has been seen that a type of protein called ”programmed cell death 4” –pdcd4– helps in stopping cancer cells from growing and spreading.
  • Inhibition of this protein has been known to cause the spread of oral, lung, breast, liver, brain and colon cancers.
  • IIT Madras collaborated with researchers from Cancer Institute and Sree Balaji Dental College and Hospital at Chennai and Indian Institute of Science at Bengaluru.
  • MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs containing 20–24 nucleotides that participate in virtually all biological pathways in animals.
  • According to the researchers, many of the oncomirs affect cancer by suppressing the performance of tumour suppressing agents that can prevent growth and spread of cancer cells, although some oncomirs are also involved in preventing tumour growth itself.
  • It is therefore important to identify the types of miRNAs that are associated with both suppression and proliferation of cancer cells.
  • They have also shown that knocking out miR-155 causes death of cancer cells, arrests the cell cycle, and regresses tumour size in animal models and reduces cell viability and colony formation in benchtop assays.
  • The research team has shown beyond doubt that miR-155 is overexpressed in tongue cancer cells and tongue tumour tissues.
  • Their study has shown that the restoration of Pdcd4 levels through molecular manipulation of miR-155 can lead to potential therapeutic developments for cancers, especially of tongue cancer.

June 2020 Current Affairs Monthly PDF  |  Assam 2020 Yearbook  | June 2020 Quiz Monthly PDF

Go To Assam Current Affairs                      Go To Assam Current Affairs Quiz

June 10, 2020

Publication Board of Assam organised Online poetry conference
  • Publication Board of Assam’s magazine Prakash organised an online poetry conference ‘Echo of Hope’.
  • Altogether eight poets from Assam, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bangladesh participated in the conference.
  • PBA Secretary Pramod Kalita said that Barun Kumar Biswas from Bangladesh, Agnivesh Mahapatra from Odhisa, Rashmi Sharma from Jharkhand and Lutufa Hanum Selima Begum, Pranjit Bora, Rajiv Bora, Dipak Borgoyary and Kaushik Kisholoi from Assam recited poems at the conference. They also engaged in a discussion related to poetry.
  • Renowned linguist Dr Bhaskarjyoti Sarma moderated the conference. Secretary of Prakash Mihir Deori welcomed the guest poets at the beginning of the online conference.
PM Modi launches grievance redressal technology platform ‘CHAMPIONS’ for MSMEs
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a technology platform CHAMPIONS (Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength) which aims at making the smaller units big by solving their grievances, encouraging, supporting, helping and handholding.
  • The portal is basically for making the smaller units big by solving their grievances, encouraging, supporting, helping and handholding. It is a real one-stop-shop solution of MSME Ministry.
  • This ICT based system is set up to help the MSMEs in present difficult situation and also to handhold them to become national and international champions.
  • The detailed objectives of the platform is to grievance redressal, to help them capture new opportunities, and to identify and encourage the sparks. Through grievance redressal, it will try to resolve the problems of MSMEs including those of finance, raw materials, labor, regulatory permissions etc particularly in the Covid created difficult situation.
  • It also aims to help them capture new opportunities including manufacturing of medical equipment and accessories like PPEs, masks, etc and supply them in National and International markets.
  • It is a technology packed control room-cum-management information system. In addition to ICT tools including telephone, internet and video conference, the system is enabled by Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics and Machine Learning.
Indian scientists develop AI to enhance brain tumour diagnosis
  • Scientists in India and Japan have developed a highly accurate machine tool to help clinicians choose the most effective treatment strategy for patients with glioma brain tumour.
  • A new machine learning approach classifies a common type of brain tumour into low or high grades with almost 98 per cent accuracy.
  • According to the researchers, gliomas are a common type of brain tumour affecting glial cells, which provide support and insulation for neurons.
  • Much of the data available in the MRI scans cannot be detected by the naked eye, such as details related to the tumour shape, texture, or the image”s intensity. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms help extract this data.
  • Medical oncologists have been using this approach, called radiomics, to improve patient diagnoses, but its accuracy still needs to be enhanced.
  • Kyoto University”s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS, Japan) bioengineer Ganesh Pandian Namasivayam collaborated with Indian data scientist Raman to develop a machine learning approach that can classify gliomas into low or high grade with 97.54 per cent accuracy.
  • The choice of patient treatment largely depends on being able to determine glioma”s grading.
  • The team, including Rahul Kumar, Ankur Gupta and Harkirat Singh Arora, used a dataset from MRI scans belonging to 210 people with high-grade glioma and another 75 with low-grade glioma.
  • They developed an approach called CGHF, which stands for: A computational decision support system for glioma classification using hybrid radiomics and stationary wavelet-based features.
  • They chose specific algorithms for extracting features from some of the MRI scans and then trained another predictive algorithm to process this data and classify the gliomas.
  • They then tested their model on the rest of the MRI scans to assess its accuracy. The method outperformed other approaches for predicting glioma grades from brain MRI scans.
Rajasthan govt interacts with 30 European companies in webinar
  • The Rajasthan government held a web interaction with representatives of 30 European companies, offering them the best opportunities for making investments.
  • State Chief Secretary D.B. Gupta and several senior bureaucrats participated in this webinar with ambassadors, diplomats and business representatives from several European countries, and invited them to invest in the state.
  • Gupta briefed the participants about the opportunities and USPs of Rajasthan as well as the transparent and attractive policy frameworks of incentives and concessions provided by the state.
  • He also highlighted the advantages of Rajasthan with regard to connectivity, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, skilled manpower availability, resource advantages as well as infrastructure strength.
  • The webinar was attended by representatives of European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC) and European Economic Group (EEG).
  • Diplomats from various European countries, including Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Belgium, among others, along with representatives of many multinationals operating in Europe participated in the discussion.
  • More than 30 companies across various sectors like pharmaceutical, agro product, fertilisers, cement, skill development, power and tourism participated in the Webinar.

June 11, 2020

IIT Guwahati ranked 470th in QS World University rankings 2021
  • Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G) has been ranked 470th globally in the QS World University rankings 2021.
  • This marks an improvement of 21 places by the institute, which was ranked 491st in the 2020 edition of the QS World University rankings.
  • IIT Guwahati has improved from 71.2 in 2020 (Global Rank 89th) to 77.9 in 2021 (Global Rank 55th).
  • The QS World University rankings 2021 announced were based on six metrics – academic reputation, employers’ reputation, faculty-student ratio, citation per faculty, international faculty and international students.
ICAR, IFFCO sign MoU for collaborative research
  • The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) signed an MoU for collaborative research, test and validation of different products through ICAR institutes and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs).
  • To disseminate technological advancements through training, awareness programmes, campaigns, field trials and demonstrations for the benefit of farmers.
  • Dr T. Mohapatra, Secretary DARE & DG, ICAR stressed the need for reducing use of fertilisers.
  • He emphasised that with collaborative research and extension, if consumption of fertilisers could be reduced to even 15 per cent, it will be a significant contribution.
  • He emphasised technology validation and commercialisation. He said that the Action Plan should be discussed and finalised.
  • Dr Udai Shanker Awasthi, Managing Director, IFFCO praised ICAR for its tremendous achievements in the field of agriculture.
India plans to reduce weapons imports and focus on domestic manufacturing
  • Under its “Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan”, the government has decided to soon initiate procurement of arms and ammunition from local industries to reduce import dependence on foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
  • The Union Home Ministry (MHA) which is responsible for the country’s internal security will urge private industries to come forward to meet the expectations of the government so that procurement of arms and ammunition from foreign countries could be curtailed.
  • This is an attempt to achieve the vision of “Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan” as India has been for the last many years dependent on outside OEMs.
  • To promote indigenous defence manufacturing and reduce imports, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, last month, had announced that a list of weapons and equipment banned for import would be made in consultation with the Department of Military Affairs headed by the Chief of Defence Staff.
  • In a bid to boost domestic manufacturing of arms and ammunition under the government”s ”Make in India” initiative, the MHA in 2017 had notified new Arms rules that allow arms manufacturing licences to be valid for the lifetime of the licensee company.
  • There are nearly 100 firms licensed by the MHA for the manufacture of guns (single barrel/double barrel) and around 30 firms manufacturing cartridges (blank or live cartridges or both) up to the quota permitted in their licences.
Centre allots Rs 4,000 crore to states under ”Per Drop More Crop”
  • The Central government has allocated Rs 4,000 crore as annual allotment to states for the current financial year under ”Per Drop More Crop” component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY-PDMC). The Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers” Welfare is implementing the ”Per Drop More Crop” component of PMKSY-PDMC, which focuses on enhancing water efficiency at farm level through micro irrigation technologies such as ”drip and sprinkler” irrigation.
  • The drip micro irrigation technique not only helps in saving water but also reduces fertilizer usage, labour expenses and other input costs.
  • Micro Irrigation Fund corpus of Rs 5,000 crore has been created with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), an apex development financial institution in India.
  • The objective of the fund is to facilitate the states in mobilizing the resources for expanding coverage of micro irrigation by taking up special and innovative projects and also for incentivising micro irrigation beyond the provisions available under PMKSY-PDMC to encourage farmers to install micro irrigation systems.
  • So far, micro irrigation funds have been released to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for Rs 616.14 crore and for Rs 478.79 crore, respectively, through NABARD.
  • The area covered under these projects is 1.021 lakh hectare in Andhra Pradesh and 1.76 lakh hectare in Tamil Nadu.

June 2020 Current Affairs Monthly PDF  |  Assam 2020 Yearbook  | June 2020 Quiz Monthly PDF

Go To Assam Current Affairs                      Go To Assam Current Affairs Quiz

June 12, 2020

IIT Guwahati ranks 7th best in NIRF rankings 2020
  • Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (IIT-G) has been ranked 7th among all top higher educational institutions in the country in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) Ranking 2020 released by Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
  • IIT-G has achieved its best ever rank with a score of 68.81 in the ‘overall’ category of the NIRF this year. Last year, the institute was ranked 9th in the ‘overall’ category with a score of 65.47.
  • IIT-G has also been ranked 7th among all the engineering institutes in India. It has improved its score from 70.87 in 2019 to 74.90 this year.
  • The main reason for the improvement in the rankings in both the categories is the strong growth seen across three parameters assessed – Research and Professional Practice (RPC), Graduation Outcomes (GO) and Perception.
  • Most of the state and central universities from the NE region, including the Gauhati University, Tezpur University and the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) have slipped in the overall rankings.
National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) Rankings 2020
  • IITs have emerged as the top institutes in India’s NIRF rankings 2020. Once again, IIT-Madras has gained the top rank in the overall category. IISc has secured the second rank this year again and the third top-ranked institute is IIT-Delhi.
  • In the fifth NIRF ranking, in the university category, top rank is obtained by the IISc followed by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and at third rank is Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
  • Miranda House is the top college in India and in the Pharma category, Jamia Hamdard has once again claimed the top position.
  • The education institutes and universities all over India are ranked across several parameters including teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practices, graduation outcome outreach and inclusivity, and perception.

 

Top engineering institutes in India

The top rank is obtained by IIT-Madras once again.

Rank 1: IIT-Madras

Rank 2: IIT-Delhi

Rank 3: IIT-Bombay

 

Top medical colleges in India

Rank 1: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, New Delhi)

Rank 2: Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER Chandigarh)

Rank 3: Christian Medical College, Vellore

 

Top management colleges

Indian Institute of Ahmedabad has taken over the Indian Institute Bangalore. The tussle between IIM A and IIM B continuous for the top rank for this year, IIM-A is the top management institute.

Rank 1: IIM-Ahmedabad

Rank 2: IIM-Bangalore

Rank 3: IIM-Calcutta

 

FACTFILE – NIRF Ranking

  • The NIRF is a methodology adopted by the Ministry of HRD to rank institutions of higher education in India. The Framework was approved and on 29 September 2015.
  • There are separate rankings for different types of institutions depending on their areas of operation like universities and colleges, engineering institutions, management institutions, pharmacy institutions and architecture institutions.
  • The ranking framework evaluates institutions on five broad generic groups of parameters, i.e. Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception (PR).
  • Rankings help universities to improve their performance on various ranking parameters and identify gaps in research and areas of improvement.
Railways successfully runs double stack container trains in electrified territory
  • The Indian Railways created a world record by commissioning the first high rise Over Head Equipment (OHE) and successfully running double stack containers in electrified territory on the Western Railway.
  • The Railway Ministry said that Indian Railways created a new world benchmark by successfully running the first double stack container train in high rise OHE electrified sections, which has contact wire height of 7.57 metre.
  • The operations successfully commenced from Palanpur and Botad stations in Gujarat.
  • With this remarkable development, Indian Railways has proudly become the first Railway to run double stack container train with high reach pantograph in high rise OHE territory.
Wipro partners with CloudKnox for Cloud security solutions
  • In partnership with CloudKnox Security, IT major Wipro announced new solutions to enable enterprises to proactively protect and manage their hybrid and multi-Cloud infrastructure by continuously detecting and remediating over-permissioned identities.
  • As part of the partnership, Wipro will offer an Access Governance for Hybrid Cloud “as-a-service” offering, powered by CloudKnox. This offering provides continuous protection of critical Cloud resources.
  • Wipro Ventures, the corporate investment arm of Wipro, invested in CloudKnox through it’s recently announced $150 million Fund II, to strengthen the strategic partnership.
  • With the proliferation of hybrid and multi-Cloud workloads and identities (be it humans, service accounts, bots or resources), the problem of managing authorizations and entitlements related to permissions for identities is becoming more complex and critical.
  • While adoption of private and public Cloud is increasing, existing security solutions are inadequate to manage identities and resources across such a hybrid environment.
  • With this partnership, Wipro has a first-mover advantage offering Identity Governance and secure Cloud Workloads for customers who are migrating and managing Hybrid Cloud infrastructures.

June 13, 2020

Assam NGO Touch of Humanity to promote sign language learning
  • Touch of Humanity, an NGO, in collaboration with the Assam Association of the Deaf started an initiative to enhance awareness and stress the importance of understanding and learning the sign language.
  • In the initiative, tutorial videos on the sign language will be provided on the Facebook page of Touch of Humanity.
  • Founder president of Touch of Humanity Hirakjyoti Bora said, if each and every person of the world learns the language, it will be very easy for the deaf and mute persons to communicate with other people.
  • And their soul motto is to reach each and every individual, especially the students, and our dream is to have Sign Language as a regular subject in our academics as we have German and other languages.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath launches schemes for child labourers in UP
  • Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched the ”Bal Shramik Vidya Yojana”, a scheme to educate child labourers in the state.
  • The chief minister said that the scheme would help children who are forced to work as labourers due to compelling circumstances in the family.
  • Under the scheme, unsupported children in the age group of 8 to 18 years would be entitled to school education. These children would be given admission in the Atal residential schools in the state.
  • The Atal residential schools are under construction in 18 divisions of the state.
  • Boys would be given a stipend of Rs 1,000 per month while the girls would get Rs 1,200 per month.
  • Those studying in class 8,9 and 10 would an additional amount of Rs 6,000 per year to encourage them.
  • The government will identify children labourers who are orphan or whose parent is physically challenged and they are landless.
  • The state government has identified 2,000 such children form 57 districts.
  • These children and their families will get the benefit of all government welfare schemes
  • Children who are not academically inclined will be sent for skill development.
MGNREGA support for migrant labourers, got 84% more work
  • Under the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) the daily wage labourers in the villages got 84 per cent more work in June than in the corresponding period last year.
  • Under the scheme, an average of 3.42 crore people have been offered daily work across the country in June, which is 83.87 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year.
  • According to statistics from the Union Rural Development ministry, an average of 2.51 crore people got work under MGNREGA in May, which is 73 per cent higher than the average figure of 1.45 crore in the corresponding period last year.
  • Therefore, in May employment under the scheme increased by 73.1 per cent.
  • The average number of daily wage labourers working under the MGNREGA scheme in June has been 3.42 crore, while 1.86 crore people benefitted under the scheme in June last year.
  • Under MGNREGA, employment is calculated on the basis of man days. On an average, in June, this figure has been 3.42 crore man days.
  • The wages paid to the labourers under the MGNREGA are directly deposited into their bank accounts and nearly Rs 31,500 crore were released to the states from the amount allocated for the scheme.
  • The total budgetary allocation under the MGNREGA in the current financial year 2020-21 was Rs 61,500 crore, but on May 17, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an allocation of additional amount of Rs 40,000 crore for the scheme.
  • Under MGNREGA, 60 per cent of the allocated amount is spent on providing work to unskilled labourers while up to 40 per cent is included in the project along with the cost of the material used in the work and wages paid to the skilled labour.
  • MNREGA pays special attention to water conservation and irrigation infrastructure development, which strengthens agriculture and rural economy.
3 firms operating from Hyderabad selected for NASA’s Covid ventilator
  • The three Indian companies selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to manufacture VITAL ventilators to treat Covid-19 patients are operating from Hyderabad.
  • Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd and Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd, which are among 21 companies picked up worldwide by NASA to manufacture Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally (VITAL) ventilators to treat critically-ill Covid-19 patients.
  • According to NASA”s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, manufacturers were selected to make Covid-19 specific ventilator VITAL.
  • It’s simpler and more affordable than traditional ventilator, freeing the latter for more severe symptoms. Its design can be used in the field hospitals.

June 2020 Current Affairs Monthly PDF  |  Assam 2020 Yearbook  | June 2020 Quiz Monthly PDF

Go To Assam Current Affairs                      Go To Assam Current Affairs Quiz

June 14, 2020

Centre asks 8 NE states to set up e-offices in a fixed time
  • The central government has advised to all the eight northeastern states to set up e-office in a fixed time and all technical and financial support to achieve the e-office mission to be implemented right from civil secretariat to district level in all the states would be provided by the centre.
  • The implementation of e-office in state secretariats of northeastern states would result in creation of paperless state secretariats in a time bound manner where officers would be empowered with virtual private networks, digital signature certificates and promote less contact governance.
  • The workshop on e-office for northeastern states was attended by Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim and Meghalaya and the IT Ministers of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura. Chief Secretaries and senior officials of NE states have also attended the workshop.
AP govt signs Bhogapuram airport deal with GMR
  • The Andhra Pradesh government and GMR group have signed an agreement to build an international airport at Bhogapuram in the state.
  • The greenfield airport project to come up at Bhogapuram near Visakhapatnam, is being developed as a crucial gateway to the northern part of Andhra Pradesh.
  • The agreement was inked in the presence of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy at his camp office by representatives of both sides.
  • While Special Chief Secretary, Industries, Kari Kalavan signed the pact on behalf of the state government, GMR Chairman, G.B.S. Raju signed on behalf of GMR Airports Ltd (GAL).
  • The Bhogapuram airport project was cleared by the state government on Thursday. As against the original plan of providing 2,700 acres, the developer will now get 2,200 acres. The state government would be developing the remaining 500 acres.
  • The connectivity between Vizag and the airport will be developed and all steps will be taken for laying a Metro train line from the airport to city.
Govt unveils PM SVANIDHI scheme to provide affordable loans to street vendors
  • Union Government launched PM SVANIDHI – Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s Atmanirbhar Nidhi – a special micro-credit facility scheme for providing affordable loan to street vendors.
  • The scheme is aimed at enabling the street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to COVID-19 lockdown. Street vendors play significant role in ensuring availability of the goods and services at affordable rates at the door-step of the city dwellers.
  • The scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors, who had been vending on or before 24th March this year, in urban areas.
  • The vendors can avail a working capital loan of upto ten thousand rupees, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.
  • On timely and early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy at the rate of seven per cent per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on six monthly basis.
  • If the vendor will repays the instalments in time or earlier, they will develop his credible credit score that makes him eligible for higher amount of term loan to 20 thousand rupees and so on. Urban Local Bodies will play pivotal role in the implementation of the scheme.
  • The lending institutions under the Scheme include Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Small Finance Banks, Cooperative Banks, NBFCs, Micro Finance institutions and Self Help Group banks.
Rural mart launched to promote local products
  • A rural mart under the NABARD’s Krishak Samridhi Project, implemented by the Ajagar Social Circle, an NGO based in Agia, was inaugurated at Agia town, Goalpara.
  • Inaugurating the rural Mart Goalpara AGM-DD Rajkumar Metei said  the aim behind the mart is to provide a market for domestic products produced by rural people of the area.
  • The rural mart will provide a market linkage to the local people and artisans engaged in producing indigenous items to fetch competitive prices.
  • The rural mart will act as an aggregate of the collective market products produced by rural artisans and weavers besides the farmers from where they will be able to get farm inputs at lower prices.
  • Moreover, around 1,200 rural people, including women entrepreneurs will be benefited from the project.
  • Various handicraft items including bamboo products, handloom items, vegetables and fruits and small farm tools are available at the rural mart currently.

June 2020 Current Affairs Monthly PDF  |  Assam 2020 Yearbook  | June 2020 Quiz Monthly PDF

Go To Assam Current Affairs                      Go To Assam Current Affairs Quiz