Today Current Affairs - 29 July 2020 Current Affairs
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
GoI funded 10 Broad Gauge Locomotives handed over to Bangladesh by Indian Railways in a virtual ceremony
ii.All locomotives can attain speed of up to 120 km per hour and have residual life of 28 years or more.
iii.The locomotives were flagged off virtually to Bangladesh by External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Railway Minister PiyushVedprakash Goyal. From Bangladesh, the online ceremony was attended by Minister of Railway Md Nurul Islam Sujan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Abul Kalam Abdul Momen.
About Bangladesh:
Capital– Dhaka
Currency– Bangladeshi taka
President– Mohammad Abdul Hamid
PM Modi Launched High Throughput COVID-19 Testing Facilities at Kolkata, Mumbai & Noida
About ICMR:
Director-General– Prof. Balram Bhargava.
Headquarters– New Delhi
Govt released guidelines for 4 schemes to boost domestic manufacturing of bulk drugs & medical devices Parks
i.On July 27, 2020, In order to boost domestic manufacturing of bulk drugs and medical devices parks in India, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Devaragunda Venkappa Sadananda Gowda launched guidelines for four schemes of Department of Pharmaceuticals (under ministry of chemical & fertilizers), two each for Bulk Drugs and Medical Devices parks, on the lines of making India Atma Nirbhar (self-reliant) in pharma sector.
- Scheme for Promotion of Bulk Drug Parks: Rs. 3,000 cr outlay to create 3 drug parks
- Scheme Promotion of Medical Devices Parks: Rs 400 cr outlay for 4 Medical Device Parks
- Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Promoting Domestic Manufacturing of Medical Devices: Outlay Rs. 3,420 cr
- PLI scheme for promotion of domestic manufacturing of KSMs, DIs, & APIs in India: Outlay Rs 6,490 cr
Central Govt. with World Bank decides to convert ravines of Chambal region into arable land
ii.The decision was made through a virtual meeting with Adarsh Kumar, representative of the World Bank.
About World Bank:
President– David Robert Malpass
Headquarters– Washington, D.C., United States
Motto– Working for a World Free of Poverty
About Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare:
Union Minister– Narendra Singh Tomar
India’s GDP boosts to 2.5% by AI : Report by ICRIER, Google & NASSCOM
A unit increase(measured as the ratio of AI to total sales) in Artificial Intelligence(AI) intensity can result in a 2.5% increase in India’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) in the immediate term.
About Nasscom:
Headquarters– New Delhi, India
President– Debjani Gosh.
About ICRIER
Headquarters– New Delhi, India
Chairperson, Board of Governors – Isher Judge Ahluwalia
Director and Chief Executive– Rajat Kathuria
India to set up Solar Power Plant in Sri Lanka
About International Solar Alliance(ISA):
Director General– Upendra Tripathy
Headquarters– Gurugram, Haryana
About NTPC Ltd:
Chairman & Managing Director– Gurdeep Singh
Headquarters– New Delhi
GAIL and CCSL signs MoU to partner in Compressed BioGas projects in India
On 23rd July 2020, GAIL(India) limited and Carbon Clean Solutions Limited (CCSL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the project development opportunities in the Compressed Biogas(CBG) value chain in India.
Santanu Roy, Executive Director (Business Development) of GAIL and Aniruddha Sharma, CEO of CCSL signed the MoU
Objective of the MoU:
The MoU between the two organisations
aims to build a closer strategic partnership by jointly working on the
CBG projects in India.
Features of MoU:
i.CCSL will build 4 CBG plants
with their funding, technology and expertise based on 10 year CBG
off-take agreements with GAIL or its associated companies, as the
off-taker in line with the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable
Transportation (SATAT) initiative of Indian Government.
ii.Upon the completion of the
initial plants the partnership will be advanced with the intention of
developing 100 CBG plants in India.
iii.The partnership promotes the technological advancements in the production of CBG from organic waste.
Benefits:
i.The CBG projects will support India’s future energy access, efficiency, sustainability and security.
ii.The cleaner green fuel transition will help in reducing the crude imports of the country.
About GAIL (India) Ltd:
Chairman & Managing Director– Manoj Jain
Head Office– New Delhi
About Carbon Clean Solutions Limited (CCSL):
CEO– Aniruddha Sharma
Headquarters- London, United Kingdom
Home Minister Amit Shah Distributed 100 Electric Potters Wheels to Artisans of Gujarat
On 24th July 2020, Under the ‘Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana’ of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Union
Home Minister Amit Shah distributed 100 electric potters wheels to 100
trained artisans of Gujarat in a programme at the Gandhinagar
constituency through video conferencing from New Delhi.
Key Points:
i.The electric potters wheels
were distributed to empower and support the marginalised potters
community and to boost the atma nirbhar initiative of India.
ii.By incorporating technology to
increase and improve the productivity this scheme will support to
strengthen the potters community and this will also support to revive
the traditional art of pottery.
Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC):
The KVIC have trained around 100 potters
from around 14 villages and distributed around 100 electric potters
wheels and 10 blunger machines.
The average income of the potters under the scheme has increased to Rs. 12,000 per month from Rs.3000 per month.
About Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA):
Union Minister– Amit Shah
Ministers of State– Gangapuram Kishan Reddy & Nityanand Rai
Recent Related News:
i.The Integrated Risk Insurance Brokers Limited(IRIBL), announced ‘Mee Annapurna’ for farmers’ welfare across Maharashtra.
ii.Tripura govt launches Mukhyamantri Matru Pushti Uphaar Scheme to Provide Nutrition Kits to Pregnant and Lactating Women.
BANKING & FINANCE
IRCTC and SBI Card launched a Co-branded Contactless Credit Card on RuPay Platform
i.Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited(IRCTC) and SBI Card launched a co-branded contactless credit card, IRCTC -SBI Platinum Card on RuPay Platform to reward the frequent railway(train) travellers.
ii.The card is equipped with Near
Field Communication (NFC) technology by which users can facilitate
their transactions at the point of sale(POS) machines by Tap and Pay
Option. This enables consumers to transact safely and securely online.
About IRCTC:
Headquarters– New Delhi, India
Chairman & Managing Director– Mahendra Pratap Mall
About SBI Card:
Headquarters– Gurgaon, Haryana.
Managing Director(MD) and Chief executive Officer(CEO)– Hardayal Prasad(will retire on July 31, 2020) Ashwini Kumar Tewari to take charge from August 1, 2020.
Bharti AXA General Insurance Launched Crop Insurance Campaign, ‘Bohot Zaroori Hai’ for Farmers
ii.It aims to create awareness to farming communities about the relevance and significance of crop insurance, which can alleviate rural distress caused by crop failure or damage.
iii.Bharti AXA General Insurance had received Rs 800 crore worth crop insurance mandate from the governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka to insure their farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
About Bharti AXA General Insurance
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra
Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director– Sanjeev Srinivasan
SBI provided USD 16.20 million liquidity support for local businesses in Maldives as COVID-relief
ii.The fund will support economic relief measures by utilizing it for local businesses and defers loan repayment for over 200 retail accounts.
iii.The growing relationship between both nations is premised upon the ‘India First’ policy of Maldives and ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy of India.
About Maldives:
Capital– Male
Currency– Maldivian rufiyaa
President– Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
About SBI:
Formed– July 1955 as SBI
Headquarter– Mumbai, Maharashtra
Chairman– Rajnish Kumar
Digital banking platform– Yono
Tagline– The Banker to Every Indian
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Indian oil and France’s Total formed 50:50 JV to make superior quality bitumen
Indian Oil Corporation(IOC) has formed an equal(50:50) Joint Venture(JV) with France’s Total S.A. to manufacture and market high-quality innovative bitumen derivatives
and superior quality products like polymer-modified bitumen, crumb
rubber modified bitumen among others for the growing road-building
industry in India.
Key Info
- The JV will commence by taking over an existing plant of Total at Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
- After which it will invest Rs 226 crore to set up 6 new plants at locations in northern, eastern and southern India with cost-effective logistics solutions
About the new JV
i.The JV will combine the R&D and marketing strengths of both IOC and Total S.A.
ii.It will cater to B2B customers
involved in road infrastructure development and explore possibilities
to other South Asian markets.
Note– The 2 companies have already established a LPG and fuel additives business
relationship in India.
About Total S.A.
Headquarters– Paris, France
Chairman & Chief Executing Officer (CEO)– Patrick Pouyanné
About IOC:
Headquarters– New Delhi, India
Chairman– Shrikant Madhav Vaidya
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Ram Vilas Paswan launched ‘BIS-Care’ App to Check the Authenticity of ISI and Hallmark Quality Certified Products
ii.In addition to this, he also launched 3 portals of e-BIS: standardisation, conformity assessment and training Portals on www.manakonline.in for consumers.
About BIS
Headquarters– New Delhi, India
Director General– Pramod Kumar Tiwari
0 Comments