Daily GK Updates - 10th July, 2020

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Cabinet approves Rs 1 Lakh Crore ‘Agriculture Infrastructure Fund’: The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval to a new pan India Central Sector Scheme-Agriculture Infrastructure Fund. Agri Infra fund will be managed and monitored through an online Management Information System (MIS) platform. The National, State and District level Monitoring Committees will be set up to ensure real-time monitoring and effective feed-back.

Total Outlay: Rs 1 Lakh Crore; Duration: 10 Years, from FY2020 to FY2029; Purpose: Provide medium – long term debt financing facility to entrepreneurs, start-ups, agri-tech players and farmer groups for setting up infrastructure and logistics facilities through interest subvention and financial support; Beneficiaries: Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), Marketing Cooperative Societies, Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), Self Help Group (SHG), Farmers, Joint Liability Groups (JLG), Multipurpose Cooperative Societies, Agri-entrepreneurs, Startups, Aggregation Infrastructure Providers and Central/State agency or Local Body sponsored Public Private Partnership Project; Loan Disbursement Stages: 4 Years. Rs. 10,000 crore will be disbursed in the current year (2020-21) and Rs. 30,000 crore each in next three financial years. Interest subvention: 3% per annum up to a limit of Rs. 2 crore for a maximum period of seven years; Credit guarantee coverage: Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme for a loan up to Rs. 2 crore.

2. PM Modi delivers inaugural address at India Global Week 2020: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi delivered the inaugural address on Day 1 of the India Global Week 2020, a three – day virtual conference, being organised in the United Kingdom, from 9 July to 11 July 2020. The theme for the event is ‘BeTheRevival : India and a Better New World’. India Global Week 2020 will have 5000 global participants from 30 nations across +75 sessions and +250 speakers for incisive global discussion and lively debate. This is for the first time the prime minister addressed a global audience since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. India Global Week is a pltform where India meets the World, and the World meets India, address some of the burning issues around India’s performance and impact on the world stage.

3. Asia’s Largest and World’s Second Largest Data Centre Inaugurated In Mumbai: Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and IT, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray jointly inaugurated the second-largest Tier IV data centre of the world in Mumbai on 8th July 2020, through online mode. The world-class ‘Yotta NM1 data centre’ building has been set up at Mumbai’s Panvel data center park, to cater to the needs of engineering and real estate businesses. It is the largest of its kind data centre in India and Asia, as well as the second largest in the world. The Yotta NM1 facility has been developed and owned by the Hiranandani Group through its fully owned subsidiary, the Yotta Infrastructure Group. The Yotta NM1 offers 7200 racks and 50MW of power with 48 hour backup. The data centre has been awarded the tier IV Design Documents Certification by Uptime Institute, USA, a globally recognised certification for data center design issued in over 98 countries. It is the first of five data centre buildings coming up at the Integrated Yotta Data Center Park, with an overall capacity of 30,000 racks and 210MW power.

4. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik Launches India’s first Space Technology & Artificial Intelligence based system ‘BLUIS’ to monitor Government Lands: In Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched Bhubaneswar Land Use Intelligence System (BLUIS), to monitor changes in all government land in the capital city Bhubaneswar by leveraging high resolution satellite imagery. With this, Odisha has become the first state in the country to tap space technology and artificial intelligence for safeguarding government lands. BLUIS is a geo-tagged repository of all the government lands in Bhubaneswar, created through high-resolution satellite imagery. Under BLUIS, a web and mobile-based solution has been developed to monitor changes in all government lands in Bhubaneswar. 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.

5. IIT-Hyderabad collaborates with NVIDIA to establish India’s first AI research centre: The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H) has collaborated with NVIDIA, a US-based multinational technology company, to establish India’s first ‘NVIDIA AI Technology Centre’(NVAITC) to accelerate research on Artificial Intelligence and its commercial adoption. The operations at the state-of-the-art facility commenced on July 9, 2020. The centre will focus on advancing AI research in the areas of Agriculture and Smart Cities besides Language Understanding, increasing crop yield, support safer transportation systems and better ways of managing traffic, among others.

Note: Director of IIT-H: B.S.Murty.

NVIDIA Headquarters: California, United States; NVIDIA Co-Founder, President and CEO: Jensen Huang

6. Sijo George appointed to Centre’s committee on STIP 2020: Sijo Kuruvilla George has been appointed to the Central Government’s committee on Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 (STIP 2020). He is a founding CEO of Startup Village and founder of Re-think Foundation. With this, he has become the part of the eight-member panel which is led by Harkesh Mittal, who also heads the Department of Science and Technology. The Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 (STIP 2020) was formulated by the Department of Science and Technology and Principal Scientific Advisor of the Union government.

7. A.K. Srikumar and Rupa Srikumar authors novel on 1962 Indo-China War titled ‘Mahaveer: The Soldier who never died’: Amid the rising tensions between India and China, the award winning author A.K. Srikumar along with his wife, Rupa Srikumar, has come up with a novel titled ‘Mahaveer: The Soldier who never died’ that tells the tale of the Indo-Chinese battle of Nuranang in 1962. It is a patriotic story of courage and selfless love of the Jaswant Singh Rawat, one of India’s legendary Garhwali soldiers from the war. The novel is published by highly noted Indian publishing house Rupa Publications.

8. National Fish Farmers’ Day: 10th July: The 20th edition of the National Fish Farmers’ Day was celebrated on 10 July 2020 by the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in association with the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB). The day is commemorated annually in remembrance of scientists Dr K H Alikunhi and Dr. H.L. Chaudhury who had invented induced breeding technology of Indian major carps on 10 July 1957.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. 15th India-EU Summit to be held on 15th July virtually: 15th meeting of India-European Union Summit will be held on 15th July in virtual mode. It will be co-chaired by PM Narendra Modi, President of European Council Charles Michel and President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. India-EU Summit will review cooperation covering political and security relations, trade and investment and economic cooperation. It will also discuss COVID-19 related development. 14th India-EU Summit was held on 6 October 2017 in New Delhi

2. India achieves 8th rank for cancer preparedness among 10 Asia-Pacific countries: India has been ranked at eighth position among 10 Asia-Pacific countries for cancer preparedness, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report titled “Cancer preparedness in Asia-Pacific: Progress towards universal cancer control”. The report is based on the findings from the EIU’s Index of Cancer Preparedness. India stood 8th with an overall score of 51.6 out of 100, which is below the regional average of 66.5. Australia (92.4) has topped the regional list, followed by South Korea (83.4) and Malaysia (80.3). The 10 Asia-Pacific countries in the list are Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam (44.5) and the Philippines (42.6) are the only nations behind India.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS

1. Egyptian world squash champion Raneem al-Welily announces retirement: World’s top-ranked women’s squash player, Raneem El Welily from Egypt has announced her retirement. The 31-year-old was the first Arab woman to be world No. 1 in any sport. El Welily first took the top ranking in 2015 and after that again since December 2018. She was officially named world champion in Manchester in 2017.

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. RBI: Tamil Nadu tops market borrowings among States:  According to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Tamil Nadu has topped market borrowings among States in the country. Tamil Nadu has accounted for 17% of the borrowings done through the issue of bonds (known as state development loans). The state is followed by Maharashtra ₹25,500 crores (14%), Andhra Pradesh ₹17,000 crores (9%) and Rajasthan ₹17,000 crores (9%).

Tamil Nadu borrowings: Tamil Nadu raised ₹1,250 crores at the low-interest rate of 6.63% for the 35-year bonds and ₹1,250 crores at the rate of 4.54% for the three-year bonds in the auction conducted by RBI. On July 7, Tamil Nadu borrowed an additional amount of ₹500 crores rather than the ₹2,000 crores originally planned. The State had planned to raise ₹2,000 crores through the issue of bonds of ₹1,000 each with tenures of 35 years and 3 years respectively. Tamil Nadu had an option to raise a further ₹250 crore in each of these securities, through what is known as the ‘greenshoe’ option.

Note: Governor of Tamil Nadu: Banwarilal Purohit; Tamil Nadu Chief Minister: K. Palaniswami.

2. Union Bank of India CMD Rajkiran Rai gets 2-year extension:  The term of Rajkiran Rai as managing director and CEO of Union Bank of India has received an extension for a period of  two-year from the government of India. He will now serv as the managing director and CEO of Union Bank of India till May 31, 2022. He was appointed as the managing director of Union Bank on July 1, 2017, for a period of 3 years until June 30, 2020. Union Bank of India (UBI) was the anchor bank for both Andhra bank and Corporation bank which came into effect on 1 April 2020.

Note: UBI Headquarters: Mumbai.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

1. India’s GDP to contract by 3% in FY21: BofA: The US brokerage firm BofA Securities has projected the India’s GDP to contract by 3 percent in FY21 because of the coronavirus pandemic, assuming the economy is opened up fully from August 2020. The GDP is likely to grow at 9 percent in FY22, expects BofA, the multinational investment bank division under the auspices of Bank of America.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

1. IOC receives EU Green Building Leadership Award 2020: The headquarters of International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne has been awarded the European 2020 US Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership Award. In addition to receiving the highest number of points of any LEED v4-certified new construction project to date, the Olympic House is the first international headquarters and the second building overall to obtain the highest (Platinum) level of the Swiss Sustainable Construction Standard (SNBS). The award was announced by the USGBC which recognises “those advancing the development of sustainable, healthy and resilient buildings, cities and communities in regions around the world”. It has been given to five organisations that are “a model for how LEED can be used to improve communities, support human health and well-being, and contribute to a more sustainable future for all”.

Note: International Olympic Committee Headquarters: Lausanne, Switzerland; International Olympic Committee President: Thomas Bach.

OBITUARIES

1. Ivory Coast PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly passes away:  Prime Minister of Ivory Coast, Amadou Gon Coulibaly passed away. The minister became unwell during a weekly cabinet meeting and was taken to a hospital where he died. He was also chosen as the ruling party Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP)’s candidate for October’s presidential election. He served at many positions which includes technical advisor, senior civil servant, deputy and mayor of Korhogo, agriculture minister, cabinet minister. After serving as secretary general of the presidency for six years, he became the prime minister of Ivory Coast in January 2017.

Note: President of Ivory Coast: Alassane Ouattara; Ivory Coast Currency: West African CFA Franc; De facto capital: Abidjan; Administrative capital (since 1983): Yamoussoukro.

2. Former Health Minister of Goa Suresh Amonkar passes away: Dr Suresh Amonkar, the former health minister of Goa has passed away due to Covid-19 infection. He was 68. He was a two-term MLA, being elected to the Goa Assembly in 1999 and 2002, as well as served as minister in the first Manohar Parrikar cabinet in 2000 as a minister of health. He has also served as the ex-president of the Goa unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).