Friday, 12 June 2020
Live updates 12 June 2020 India
Friday, 15 May 2020
NPTEL NBA Accreditation and Teaching-Learning in Engineering (NATE) Assignment 1
Assignment 1
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Monday, 10 February 2020
Daily news 8 February 2020
International News
1. NASA's Astronaut Christina Koch comes back to Earth after record stay in space
Christina Koch, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s astronaut has returned to earth. She stayed on the International Space Station for 328 days and has surpassed Peggy Whitson's record for an American woman on a single spaceflight at 289 days.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Headquarters of NASA: Washington, D.C.
- Established: July 29,1958.
State News
2. Andhra Pradesh government has inaugurated Disha Police Station in Rajamahendravaram
The state government of Andhra Pradesh has launched the first Disha Police Station in Rajamahendravaram city to provide speedy justice for female victims of Sexual assault (rape), Sexual harassment and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
Important Takeaways for upcoming competitive Exams:
- Biswabhushan Harichandan is the current Governor of Andhra Pradesh.
- Capital City of Andhra Pradesh: Amaravati.
- Jaganmohan Reddy is the leader of YSR Congress Party.
3. Madhya Pradesh to employ "Drones" for mapping of the villages
Madhya Pradesh government has entered into an agreement with the Survey of India to employ drones for mapping of villages. The Survey of India is the India's national mapping agency. Drones will be used for the mapping of 55 thousand villages of the state on a scale of 1:500.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh: Kamal Nath; Governor: Lal Ji Tandon.
Economy & Banking News
4. Minimum net worth for pension fund managers has been raised to Rs 50 cr by PFRDA
The minimum net worth criterion for pension fund managers has been raised from Rs 25 crore to Rs 50 crore by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). This will bring pension funds on par with mutual funds which have to meet a minimum net worth requirement of Rs 50 crores as per Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) rules.
5. WhatsApp receives NPCI's approval to expand its UPI project to 10 million users
The instatnt messaging platform "WhatsApp" has received the National Payments Corporation of India's approval to expand its Unified Payment Interface (UPI) services to 10 million users through "WhatsApp Pay".
Appointments
6. C N R Nair has been appointed by Supreme Court to make inventory of ornaments at Sabarimala temple
Retired Kerala High Court judge C N Ramachandaran Nair has been appointed by the Supreme Court of India for the formulation of the inventory and valuation report of ornaments at Sabarimala temple.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Chief Minister of Kerala: Pinarayi Vijayan; Governor: Arif Mohammed Khan.
7. Pinelopi Koujianou has resigned from the World Bank as the chief economist
Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg has announced her resignation as the Chief Economist of the World Bank. Aart Kraay will be the interim WB chief economist until the appointment of a new permanent chief economist.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- President of World Bank: David Robert Malpass.
- Managing Director(MD) and Chief Financial Officer(CFO): Anshula Kant.
Defence News
8. Indian Army develops world's first bulletproof helmet
World's first bulletproof helmet has been developed by the Indian Army. The bulletproof helmet can stop an AK-47 bullet round fired from a distance of 10 meters. The Ballistic helmet is developed by An Indian Army Major Anoop Mishra.
Wednesday, 23 October 2019
Daily updates 23 October 2019
National
- Indian Railways has installed the most advanced Electronic Interlocking System on the Grand Chord route.
- The measure is expected to help Indian Railways speed up trains and achieve the objective of reducing the travel time between Delhi and Howrah to about 12 hours from the existing 17 to 19 hours.
- Grand Chord is part of the Howrah-Gaya-Delhi line and Howrah-Allahabad-Mumbai line.
- The new Electronic system has replaced outdated 65-year old mechanical signalling system at Tundla Junction in Uttar Pradesh on the route.
- Railway Minister: Piyush Goyal.
- IIM Kozhikode and Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd. have announced a special drive Labelled as "La Eve (meaning The Woman)" to support women entrepreneurs in the country.
- The initiative aims to identify innovative, promising women-founded start-ups to provide a comprehensive start-up support programme. The initiative would be steered by the institute's entrepreneurship development centre, Laboratory for Innovation, Venturing and Entrepreneurship or IIMK LIVE.
- Under the drive "La Eve" IIMK LIVE would identify women-founded, innovation-led start ups and provide incubation that would provide access to the institutes intellectual, network and infrastructural resources. MRPL would provide seed fund assistance from the start funding initiative under start-up India Program.
States News
- The State Cabinet of Assam has decided to make government jobs out of bounds for people with more than 2 children.
- The policy will come into effect from January 1, 2021.
- The Cabinet also adopted a new land policy that will make the landless indigenous people eligible for 3 bighas (43,200 sq. ft.) of land for farming and half a bigha for constructing a house. The beneficiary will be able to sell the given land only after 15 years of use.
Agreements
- The AYUSH ministry has signed an MoU with the Defence Ministry to provide traditional medicine services at the armed forces’ hospitals and dispensaries.
- Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik inaugurated an Ayurveda Palliative Care Unit at the Base Hospital in the Delhi Cantonment.
- Under the MoU, Ayurveda units will also be established at palliative care centres at the Army Research and Referral Hospital, Air Force Hospital, Hindon in Ghaziabad and five identified ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) polyclinics in Delhi–NCR.
- Union Minister of Defence: Raj Nath Singh.
- Grasim Industries Limited has signed a definitive agreement to form a joint venture company in India with Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen GmbH (MR) of Germany.
- The joint venture is for the manufacturing and sale of Composite Hollow Core Insulators to serve the power transmission and distribution (T&D) industry globally.
- This joint venture will bring together Aditya Birla Insulators (a unit of Grasim) and Reinhausen Power Composites (a unit of MR).
- ABPCL will build a fully integrated CHCI plant at Halol, bringing the latest technology for Composite Hollow Insulators from Europe.
- It will serve the insulator requirements of Indian and global OEMs in the power equipment industry.
Appointment
- Ashok Malik has been appointed as the Policy Advisor in the External Affairs Ministry in the rank of Additional Secretary.
- The Distinguished Fellow of the prominent think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) will have a 2-year tenure.
- Ashok Malik has previously served as the Press Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind from August 1, 2017 to July 31, 2019.
- The Ministry of External Affairs notified that Godavarthi Venkata Srinivas (IFS:1993), presently Ambassador of India to the Republic of Senegal, has been concurrently accredited as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Cabo Verde.
- He will replace Rajeev Kumar.
- Union Minister of External Affairs: Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
- The Government of India appointed IAS officer Pankaj Kumar as the new CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
- He is currently Additional Secretary in the Ministry Of Electronics and IT.
- The UIDAI is a statutory authority established under the provisions of the Aadhaar Act, 2016 by the government under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, with the mandate to issue Unique Identification numbers (UID), or Aadhaar, to all residents of India to eliminate duplicate and fake identities.
- Headquarters of UIDAI: New Delhi.
- One of India's most decorated captains Sourav Ganguly takes over as the 39th President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
- Ganguly is the unanimous nomination for the post of BCCI President along with Union Home Minister Amit Shah's son Jay Shah as the Secretary.
- Mahim Verma of Uttarakhand is the new Vice President of BCCI.
Defence
- The Defence Research and Development (DRDO) has started work to produce hypersonic weapon missiles that travel at 5 times speed of sound, or a little over a mile every second.
- A wind tunnel to test and fine-tune the technology will be operational soon.
- Hypersonic weapons are specifically designed for increased survivability against modern ballistic missile defence systems.
- These missiles are capable of delivering conventional or nuclear payloads at speeds not imagined hiterto over long ranges.
- DRDO Chairman: G Satheesh Reddy; Formed: 1958; Headquarters: New Delhi.
Summit and Conference
- The 1st India-Bangladesh Stakeholders' meet was held in Guwahati. Bangladesh was represented by Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi.
- India is the second-largest trading partner of Bangladesh.
- A 70-member delegation from Bangladesh is participating in the meet, while a similar top-level team will represent the host nation.
- The idea of the meet is to put Assam at the focus point of India's trade expansion with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.
- Bangladesh Capital: Dhaka; Currency: Taka; PM: Sheikh Hasina.
Ranks and Reports
- The latest 2 edition of Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) India University Rankings 2020 released.
- The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) has again topped all Indian Institutes in the list with an overall score of 88.5 followed by IISc- Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (ranked 2 with 84.7 score) & Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD),which has improved a notch to rank 3 with 82.2 scores.
- Headquarters of Quacquarelli Symonds (QS): London, United Kingdom
- Founded: 1990
- Founded by Nunzio Quacquarelli, QS is a British company specialising in education.
Sports
- Former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith has been elected an Honorary Life Member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
- Smith has an impressive record in One-Day International, scoring 6,989 runs including ten centuries and also became South Africa’s youngest ever captain at 22.
- Former Australian off-spinner Tim May was also awarded Honorary Life Membership in recognition of his outstanding achievements in cricket.
- The pair follows Paul Collingwood, AB de Villiers, Mitchell Johnson and Adrian Morgan in being awarded Honorary Life Membership of MCC in 2019.
- Para-athlete Anandan Gunasekaran has won 2 gold medals at the 7th CISM World Military Games held in Wuhan, China.
- He won the medal in the disabled men’s 100m and 400m IT1 events.
- Gunasekaran finished the 100m race in 12 seconds and won India’s 1st medal in the ongoing Games.
- He clinched his 2nd gold clocking 53.35s in the disabled men’s 400m IT1 event.
- In the final of 7th season of Vivo Pro Kabaddi League 2019, Bengal Warriors won their first title by defeating Dabang Delhi by 39-34 at the EKA Arena by TransStadia in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
- Most Valuable Player award of the League was bagged by Naveen Kumar from Dabang Delhi, Best raider to Pawan Kumar Sherawat from Bengaluru Bulls; Best defender award to U Mumba's Fazel Atrachali and New Young Player of the season to UP (Uttar Pradesh) Yoddha's Sumit.
- The logo for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games unveiled at a ceremony in the French capital.
- The circular design with Paris 2024 in the art deco style which was in vogue in 1924 when Paris last hosted the Games, also incorporates the lips and outline of Marianne, the personification of the French Republic since the revolution in 1789.
- President of France: Emmanuel Macron; Capital: Paris; Currency: Euro, CFP Franc.
Miscellaneous
- The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India has imposed penalties of Rs 1.01 crore on Cholamandalam MS GIC.
- The insurer was penalised for violations observed during an inspection.
- The penalty of Rs 1 crore is for violation of Clause 15 of Schedule I of IRDA (Health Insurance) Regulations, 2013 which clearly specifies that no commission shall be payable to any intermediary on the acceptance of a ported policy.
- The other penalty of Rs 1 lakh is for motor insurance and was for violating the outsourcing guidelines by agreeing to payment terms not in the interests of the insurer.
- IRDAI Chairman: Subhash Chandra Khuntia; Headquarters: Hyderabad.
Saturday, 19 October 2019
Daily updates 18 October 2019
National
- NITI Aayog with Institute for Competitiveness as the knowledge partner released the India Innovation Index (III) 2019. Karnataka is the most innovative major state in India.
- Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana, Haryana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh form the remaining top ten major states respectively.
- Sikkim and Delhi take the top spots among the northeastern & hill states, and union territories/city-states/small states respectively.
- Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh are the most efficient states in translating inputs into output.
- The study examines the innovation ecosystem of Indian states and union territories.
- The aim is to create a holistic tool which can be used by policymakers across the country to identify the challenges to be addressed and strengths to build on when designing the economic growth policies for their regions.
- Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog: Rajiv Kumar; CEO, NITI Aayog: Amitabh Kant.
- Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan released a postal stamp to commemorate the centenary celebrations of the city-based ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) at a function held at Indian Council of Medical Research in New Delhi.
- The postal stamp has been brought out under the ‘Corporate My Stamp’ scheme of India Posts.
- About 5,000 stamps with a face value of ₹5 each have been printed and the India Posts would print an additional 1,000 sheets for sale online at the e-post office and for display and sale at national and global philately exhibitions by the Department.
- ICMR Director: Balram Bhragava; NIN Director: R. Hemaltha.
- Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has announced the naming of new National Highway No. 703AA as "Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji Marg."
- The road starting from Kapurthala connecting Goindwal Sahib and terminating near Taran Taran in Punjab. The naming would be effective from next month.
- The decision has been taken to mark the 550th Birth Anniversary of Shri Guru Nanak Dev.
- CM of Punjab: Amarinder Singh; Governor: VP Singh Badnore.
International
- Italy approved a new tax on digital companies, including U.S. tech giants, as part of its 2020 draft budget on October 16.
- The levy, due to be introduced from next year, will oblige companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, to pay a 3% levy on internet transactions, according to a text of the draft budget.
- The Italian scheme is expected to yield about 600 million euros ($662 million) a year.
- President: Sergio Mattarella; Prime Minister: Giuseppe Conte.
- Capital: Rome; Currency: Euro.
State News
- Odisha's smart city Bhubaneswar gets it 1st Robo Chef Restaurant in Odisha.
- The Robot Restaurant opened at the Infocity DLF tower of Bhubaneswar claims to be the first restaurant in Eastern India where two indigenously developed robots, 'Champa' and 'Chameli' are engaged.
- The robots are developed at a Jaipur-based startup using SLAM technology, and It automatically navigates like humans, follows the routes and instructions.
- Not only this, after serving the food, the robots will also ask you for feedback in Odia that 'Are you happy'.
- Earlier Chennai and Bengaluru had introduced smart restaurants with robots machines imported from China.
- Utkal Divas or Odisha Day falls every year on 01st April.
- Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath formally inaugurated the 2-day Magnificent Madhya Pradesh Conference started.
- Many well-known industrialists are attending this conference held in Indore.
- The event showcasing various opportunities that exist in the state in variegated sectors, including food processing, pharmaceuticals, textile and garment, warehousing and logistics, IT &ESDM, urban development and renewable energy.
- Chief Minister Kamal Nath also inaugurated the Global Trade Exhibition at the Brilliant Convention Centre, Indore.
- Governor of Madhya Pradesh: Lal Ji Tandon.
- The Tamil Nadu government constituted two committees to deal over water disputes with Kerala relating to the Parambikulam-Aliyar Project (PAP) and the Pandiyar-Punnampuzha project.
- Secretary of Tamil Nadu’s Public Works Department (PWD) K. Manivasan would lead both the committees constituted by the State government.
- Cauvery Technical Committee chairperson R. Subramanian is also part of both the panels.
- Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu: Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
- Governor of Tamil Nadu: Banwarilal Purohit.
- Tamil Nadu Capital: Chennai.
- Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has inaugurated J&K Bazar.
- J&K Bazar is a retail showroom of authentic Jammu Kashmir Handicrafts, Handlooms, Silk, Agro-based products and Restaurant serving Authentic Kashmiri Cuisine at J&K House in New Delhi.
- The newly constructed state-of-the-art showroom is for promoting J&K specific products of handicrafts and authentic cuisine.
- The newly inaugurated showroom shall cater to the people who cherish the Kashmiri handicraft and relish the traditional Kashmiri food which is now available in the heart of Delhi.
- Other handicraft products in the showroom which are on display include-Paper Mache items, carved walnut-wood items, Pashmina shawls and Kashmiri embroidery sarees.
Appointments
- The World Steel Association (Worldsteel) has elected Sajjan Jindal, Chairman and Managing Director, JSW Steel, as Vice-Chairman of the association for one year.
- The association has also appointed Tata Steel CEO and MD T V Narendran and Arcelor Mittal Chief L N Mittal as its members.
- The board also elected a 14-member Executive Committee.
- Chairman of World Steel Association: Andre Johannpeter; Formed: 10 July 1967.
- Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium.
Agreement
- Home Credit India (HCIN), a local arm of the international consumer finance provider, has tied-up with Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) for joint lending using end-to-end automated processing which will help the customer get real-time approval and disbursement.
- Under the agreement, HCIN and KVB will disburse loans in a single amount to customers.
- With this partnership and by leveraging the lower cost of funds of KVB, Home Credit India will be able to reach out to a new segment of customer.
- Home Credit India has operations spread over 179 cities across 20 States in India.
- Managing Director and CEO: PR Seshadri; founded: 1916.
- Headquarters: Karur, Tamil Nadu.
- Tagline: Smart Way to Bank.
Awards
- Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra has been named orchestra of the year at the 2019 Gramophone Awards.
- The group is the first Asian orchestra to win the award, a fact noted by its Dutch-born conductor Van Zweden, who has been its Music Director since 2012.
- The category is the only one of the classical music magazine’s awards open to the public vote. This award is often likened to the Oscars for the classical music world.
Defence
- Indian Air Force and Japanese Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) carrying out a joint military air force exercise named 'Shinyuu Maitri' began from October 17 to 23, at the air force station, Arjan Singh in Panagarh town in West Bengal.
- C-130 J aircraft of the Special Operations Squadron of IAF and C-130 H of Tactical Airlift Squadron of JASDF will participate in the exercise.
- The focus of the exercise will be to undertake Joint Mobility and Tactical interoperability among the two forces.
- Motto of the Indian Air Force: Nabha Sprsham Deeptam (The Glory that touches the sky).
- Air Chief Marshal: Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria.
- Indian Air Force (IAF) kickstarted its bilateral joint exercise with Royal Air Force Oman (RAFO), named 'EX EASTERN BRIDGE-V' at Air Force Base Masirah, Oman.
- The exercise will be held till October 26. The IAF contingent comprises of MiG-29 and C-17 aircraft.
- MiG-29 will be exercising with Royal Air Force Oman’s Eurofighter Typhoon, F-16 and Hawk.
- For the first time, MiG-29 fighter aircraft will be participating in an international exercise outside India.
- The exercise will enhance inter-operability during mutual operations between the two Air Forces and will provide an opportunity to learn from each other's best practices. Last time, the bilateral exercise was held in 2017 at Jamnagar, Gujarat.
- Oman Capital: Muscat, Currency: Omani rial.
Books and Authors
- A new book titled "India in a Warming World: Integrating Climate Change and Development" is set to release on November 2019.
- This book is featuring a collection of articles by climate experts including Sunita Narain, Anil Agarwal, Dr Friederike Otto & Shibani Ghosh, edited by Navroz K Dubash.
- It is published by Oxford University Press(OUP).
- This book aims to bring together the many and growing, voices that seek to find the language and ideas with which to engage climate change and to do so from a perspective that resonates with broader Indian development policy discourses.
Sports
- England all-rounder Jennifer Louise Gunn has announced her retirement from international cricket.
- Gunn, who is England’s most capped player in T20Is, made 259 appearances for her country, winning 3 World Cups and five Ashes series.
- She was a member of the England side that won the inaugural Women’s World T20 in 2009, and also featured in her country’s Women’s World Cup-winning campaign that same year.
Miscellaneous
- The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is planning to review the 14-year-old National Curriculum Framework (NCF) in accordance with new national education policy (NEP) and set up a committee for the purpose.
- The NCF has been revised four times so far - in 1975, 1988, 2000 and 2005. A panel led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Kasturirangan had submitted the draft of the new national education policy to Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’.
- The new proposed revision will be a 5th of the framework. The council is also undertaking a survey in six blocks to analyse the quality of primary education available and the areas that need change.
- The revision of NCERT textbooks has also been recommended in the new education policy draft.
- Director of NCERT (ex-officio) Chairperson: Prof. Hrushikesh Senapaty.
- Headquarters of NCERT: New Delhi.