Daily GK Updates - 29th June, 2020

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal launches Pradhan Mantri Scheme for Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises: The Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal formally launched Pradhan Mantri Scheme for Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises as a part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan on 29 June 2020. The scheme aims to enhance the competitiveness of the existing individual micro enterprises by increasing their access to credit, modern technologies among other things. Salient Features of the scheme: (1) The All India Centrally Sponsored Scheme has an outlay of Rs.10,000 crore for 5 years from 2020-21 to 2024-25; (2) Provide employment to about nine lakh skilled and semi-skilled workers.; (3) Cover 2,00,000 enterprises; (4) Expenditure will be shared by Government of India and States at 60:40; (5) About Rs. 35,000 cr investment is expected under the programme.

2. Arjun Munda inaugurates Tribes India store on GeM: Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Arjun Munda has inaugurated the TRIBES India store on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) and the TRIFED’s new website (trifed.tribal.gov.in). The store will help in facilitating purchases by Government. The newly launched website contains all important information about the schemes as well as initiatives underway to the benefit of tribal communities. The products and the website were launched during a webinar organised by TRIFED, Ministry of Tribal affairs with focus on “TRIFED Goes Digital” and “Be Vocal for Local”.

Note: Chairman of TRIFED: Ramesh Chand Meena.

3. Anandiben Patel took additional charge as MP’s Governor: Anandiben Patel has been given additional charge as Governor of Madhya Pradesh. President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Anandiben Patel under Articles 155 and 160 of the Constitution. She is currently serving as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh since 2019. She will be discharging the functions of the Governor of Madhya Pradesh in addition to her own duties, as the present governor of Madhya Pradesh Lalji Tandon is undergoing treatment in Lucknow.

Note: Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh: Yogi Adityanath; Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

MP's Chief Minister: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

4. Piyush Goyal chairs 49th Governing Council Meeting of NPC: Shri Piyush Goyal, Commerce & Industry Minister and President of NPC Governing Council chaired the 49th Governing Council Meeting of National Productivity Council (NPC). The participants in the meeting deliberated on increasing the productivity levels of the India in various sectors and put forward various suggestions such as interlinking of academia and industry for creation of a highly skilled labor force, identification of Champion sectors which has the potential to drive the economy, sector formulation of specific action plans by NPC especially in agriculture and logistics sectors, and adoption of technology to increase the productivity.

5. National Statistics Day: 29th June: Government of India celebrates the National Statistics day on 29th June on the birth anniversary of Prof. P C Mahalanobis. The National Statistics Day is celebrated to create awareness among youth about the role of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation. The National Statistics Day was first celebrated on 29th June 2007. Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis is known as the father of Indian Statistics. The theme of Statistics Day 2020 is selected as SDG- 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages) & SDG- 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls).

Note: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation: Rao Inderjit Singh.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. G20 Extraordinary Virtual Education Ministers’ Meet: The G20 Extraordinary Virtual Education Ministers’ Meeting was held to address the widespread disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the education sector. Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ represented India in the meeting. The meeting held under the presidency of Saudi Arabia, was convened to deliberate the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on the education sector, to discuss how different governments are dealing with it and how the Member States can collaborate to further the cause of education in these difficult times.

2. India among Switzerland’s top-3 partners for getting info on bank accounts: India is among the top-three countries to get detailed information from Switzerland on request about bank accounts and beneficiary ownership of entities established by their residents in the Alpine nation, as per the latest study by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Global Forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes. The Global Forum’s latest peer review report on exchange of information on request, during the period from July 2015 to June 2018, features India among the top-three jurisdictions, helping India to launch prosecution against a large number of alleged tax evaders. The report is topped by France and Germany.

Note: OECD headquarters: Paris, France

3. World Bank Approves USD 500 mn loan to improve quality of education system in 6 Indian States: The World Bank has approved loan worth $500 million (about Rs 3,700 crore) for Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS) to improve quality and governance of school education in six Indian states. The STARS program builds on the long partnership between India and the World Bank (since 1994), for strengthening public school education and to support the country’s goal of providing Education for All. The six states are Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Rajasthan. It will be implemented through Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.

4. International Day of the Tropics: 29th June: The International Day of the Tropics is a United Nations designated day, observed on 29 June every year. The main purpose of the day is to raise awareness about the specific challenges faced by tropical areas, the far-reaching implications of the issues affecting the world’s tropical zone and the need, at all levels, to raise awareness and to underline the important role that countries in the tropics will play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It was on this day in 2014, that Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi launched inaugural State of Tropics Report which is the culmination of collaboration between 12 leading tropical research institutions, and offers unique perspective on Tropics.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS

1. Indian umpire Nitin Menon inducted in ICC Elite Panel: Indian umpire Nitin Menon has been included in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) Elite Panel of Umpires for the upcoming 2020-21 season on 29 June 2020. The 36-year-old is the only third Indian umpire to feature in the prestigious panel after former captain Srinivas Venkatraghavan (2002) and Sundaram Ravi (2010). Menon replaces Nigel Llong of England in the list of 12 umpires for the season. He is the youngest umpire to join the elite panel. Earlier, Nitin Menon was a part of Emirates ICC International Panel of Umpires. He has officiated 3 Tests, 24 One Day Internationals and 16 T20 Internationals.

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. Sidbi sets up Swavalamban Crisis Responsive Fund to facilitate free onboarding of MSMEs on TReDS platform: The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has set up ‘Swavalamban Crisis Responsive Fund’ to support free onboarding for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on trade receivables discounting system (TReDS). The initiative aims to offer relief to the MSMEs from severely crunched cash flow, during these challenging times. The free onboarding of MSMEs would be available till September 2000. It is an open-ended fund with the target to onboard 10,000 MSMEs during this period. Usually, an MSME has to pay a fee of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 for getting registered on a TReDS platform. Three TReDS platforms namely Receivables Exchange of India Ltd (RXIL), M1xchange and Invoicemart will help MSMEs to gain access to working capital through invoice discounting via multiple financiers.

2. PhonePe partners with ICICI Bank on UPI multi-bank model: Flipkart-owned PhonePe has partnered with ICICI Bank on UPI multi-bank model giving its users the option to create and use multiple UPI IDs with ICICI and Yes Bank”s handles. The ‘@ibl’ handle for ICICI Bank users and ‘@ybl’ handle for YES Bank users will enable easy, quick and contactless payment services to over 200 million registered PhonePe users. The PhonePe customers will now be able to choose between multiple handles for their UPI IDs, thus making payments easy, secure and accessible to all.

Note: Phonepe founded: December 2015; CEO of Phonepe: Sameer Nigam; Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

1. Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai Make Global Startup Ecosystem List: Two Indian cities made it onto the top 40 of the world’s most favourable ecosystems to build a globally successful startup, topped by the Silicon Valley in California. Bangalore was ranked 26th and Delhi 36th in The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020′ by Startup Genome, with Mumbai topping a parallel Top Emerging Ecosystems ranking. London and New York also overtook Silicon Valley in the connectedness ranking, a factor based on the number of tech meetups in the ecosystem and a life sciences-focused measure of accelerators and incubators, research grants, and R&D anchors in the ecosystem.