NATIONAL UPDATES:
1.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari launches ‘RestartIndia’ advisory platform for MSME
sector: The
Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs), Shri Nitin Gadkari
launched a mentoring platform ‘www.restartindia.in’, on 23 July 2020, with the
main objective to help the sector in restarting businesses across the country.
This website has been developed jointly by Muthoot Fincorp and INKtalks as an
open platform for advisory support, and is in sync with Atmanirbhar project.
The portal will act as a single platform to bring together professionals/
experts from various fields and industry domains, to address the questions and
provide information on various schemes and initiatives of the government. This
in turn will help the MSME sector, particularly the nano and micro enterprises,
by bringing global management information and expertise to the doorstep. The
objective of RestartIndia is to raise the self-confidence primarily of small
businesses by creating an environment for the re-establishment and progress of
their businesses.
2.
APSEZ becomes the first Indian port to sign up for Science Based Targets
Initiative (SBTi): Adani
Ports and Special economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) has become the first Port in
India and 7th Port in the world to sign the commitment letter to Science Based
Targets initiative (SBTi). Overall, 43 Indian companies have signed a
commitment letter to SBTi, till date from a total of 909 companies. What is
SBTi?
The science-based targets are the targets
adopted by companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are in line
with meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement – to limit global warming to
well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit warming
to 1.5°C. Through SBTi, companies commit to set science-based emissions
reduction targets, across their entire value chain, which in turn provides
companies with a clearly defined pathway to future-proof growth by specifying
how much and how quickly they need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Committed companies have 24 months to have their targets approved and published
by the SBTi. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is collaboration
between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI)
and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
3.
India’s first honey testing laboratory set up at NDDB in Anand district of
Gujarat: India’s
first dedicated honey testing laboratory has been set up at the National Dairy
Development Board (NDDB) in Anand district of Gujarat. The ‘World Class State
of Art Honey Testing Laboratory’ was inaugurated virtually by Union Agriculture
Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on 24 July 2020, with the aim to boost exports and
ensure better rates to farmers. The facility has been established by NDDB with
support of National Bee Board (NBB). The new lab will test honey as per the
norms specified by the food safety regulator FSSAI. The purity of honey,
adulteration, chemical substances, residues, heavy metals or antibodies can be
checked to help for quality production of honey and its export to other
countries.
4.
Prakash Javadekar launches piloting of National Transit Pass System: Environment
Minister Prakash Javadekar virtually launched piloting of the National Transit
Pass System at Indira Paryavaran Bhawan in Delhi. The National Pass System
enhances seamless movement of forest produce. The pilot project will be
functional in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Telangana, and by this Diwali, it will be
operational in pan India. NTPS will replace manual paper-based transit system
by online transit system enabling ease of movement of timber, bamboo and other
minor forest produce.
5.
TRIFED enters into partnership with IIT, Delhi for Unnat Bharat Abhiyan: Tribal Cooperative
Marketing Development Federation of India, TRIFED has entered into a
partnership with IIT, Delhi for the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) which is a
flagship national programme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. To
cement and formalize this partnership, a tri-partite Memorandum of
Understanding was signed between TRIFED, IIT, Delhi and Vijnana Bharati. Tribal
entrepreneurs under TRIFED’s Van Dhan Programme will now be able to get access
to the expertise of the entire network of over 2,600 academic and research
institutions under UBA. Speaking about the significance of this agreement and
the pivotal role it will play in tribal development, Managing Director of
TRIFED Pravir Krishna said that TRIFED is actively working on convergences with
various Ministries for skill development for Tribal Livelihoods.
6.
Transgenders in Odisha to get benefit under Madhu Babu Pension Yojana: The Odisha
Government has included transgender community under Madhu Babu Pension Yojana,
which aims at providing financial assistance to destitute elderly,
differently-abled persons and widows in the state. Madhu Babu Pension Yojana
(MBPY) is a social security scheme launched by the state government. Under this
scheme, around 5,000 transgenders will recieve Rs 500, Rs 700 and 900 per month
as a pension under various categories depending on their age
7.
FCC, NPCI host world’s largest virtual fintech event: To bring together
fintech and BFSI ecosystems across the globe, the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC),
the flagship fintech committee of Internet & Mobile Association of India
(IAMAI) along with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the
Payments Council of India (PCI) host the Global Fintech Fest (GFF), an
international virtual event. The event is presented by the Department of
Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance, Government of India and the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The two-day event themed ‘Fintech: With and Beyond
Covid’ with over 100 speakers. It will have more than 10,000 participants from
50 countries
8.
Cipla is all set to launch Favipiravir for COVID-19 treatment: Pharmaceutical firm
Cipla is all set to launch Favipiravir, developed by the Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR) in a cost-effective process, for the treatment
of COVID-19 patients. An off-patent anti-viral drug, Favipiravir, originally
discovered by Fuji Pharma in Japan, has shown promise in clinical trials for
the treatment of COVID-19 patients, especially in mild and moderate cases.
CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT) developed a
cost-effective process using locally available chemicals to synthesise this
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and transferred the technology to Cipla.
Cipla has scaled up the process in their manufacturing facility and approached
DCGI (Drug Controller General of India) for permission to launch the product in
India. Given that DCGI has given restricted emergency use for Favipiravir in
the country, Cipla is now all set to launch the product to help patients
suffering from COVID-19.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:
1.
WHO launches New COVID-19 Law Lab for implementing legal frameworks for the
global Pandemic response: The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched
COVID-19 Law Lab on 22 July 2020, which is a database of laws that countries
have implemented in response to the pandemic. The main aim of this law lab is
to ensure that laws protect the health and wellbeing of individuals and
communities and that they adhere to international human rights standards. The
new Lab (at www.COVIDLawLab.org) is a joint project of United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the O’Neill Institute for
National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. The COVID-19 Law Lab
initiative will gather and share legal documents from over 190 countries across
the world to help states establish and implement strong legal frameworks to
manage the pandemic.
2.
NASA to Launch ASTHROS Mission to study Cosmos using football stadium-sized
balloon: NASA
has planned to launch a new mission ‘ASTHROS’, to observe wavelengths of light
invisible from the Earth, in a bid to find answers about formation of giant
stars in the galaxy. Under the mission NASA will send a telescope, on a
football stadium-sized balloon, high into the stratosphere. The telescope
mission ASTHROS stands for Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High
Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths The mission is
likely to be launched in December 2023 from Antarctica, and will be managed by
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ASTHROS mission will spend about three weeks
drifting on air currents above the icy southern continent to observe
far-infrared light, or light with wavelengths much longer than what is visible
to the human eye at an altitude of about 130,000 feet (40 km) roughly four
times higher than commercial airliners fly.
OTHER UPDATES:
SPORTS
1.
Ben Stokes overtakes Jason Holder to be world’s top-ranked all-rounder: England’s Ben
Stokes has overtaken West Indies captain Jason Holder to become the number one
ranked all-rounder in the world. The 29-year-old scored 254 runs and took three
wickets as England beat West Indies at Old Trafford to level the three-Test
series at 1-1. Stokes is the first English all-rounder to top the rankings
since Andrew Flintoff in May 2006.He has also climbed to a career-best third
position in the batting rankings. The left-hander is joint third with
Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne and behind only Australia’s Steve Smith and
India captain Virat Kohli.
BANKING AND FINANCE
1.
RBI releases the Financial Stability Report, July 2020: The Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) has released the 21st Issue of the Financial Stability Report
(FSR), which reflects the collective assessment of the Sub-Committee of the
Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) on risks to financial
stability, and the resilience of the financial system in the context of
contemporaneous issues relating to development and regulation of the financial
sector. Highlights: (1) In response to COVID-19, a combination of fiscal,
monetary and regulatory interventions on an unprecedented scale has ensured
normal functioning of financial markets.
(2) The overleveraged non-financial sector,
simmering global geopolitical tensions, and economic losses on account of the
pandemic are major downside risks to global economic prospects.
(3) Actions undertaken by financial sector
regulators and the Government to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 eased
operational constraints and helped in maintaining market integrity and
resilience in the face of severe risk aversion.
(4) Bank credit, which had considerably
weakened during the first half of 2019-20, slid down further in the subsequent
period with the moderation becoming broad-based across bank groups.
(5) The capital to risk-weighted assets
ratio (CRAR) of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) edged down to 14.8 per cent
in March 2020 from 15.0 per cent in September 2019 while their gross
non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio declined to 8.5 per cent from 9.3 per cent
and the provision coverage ratio (PCR) improved to 65.4 per cent from 61.6 per
cent over this period.
(6) Macro stress tests for credit risk
indicate that the GNPA ratio of all SCBs may increase from 8.5 per cent in
March 2020 to 12.5 per cent by March 2021 under the baseline scenario; the
ratio may escalate to 14.7 per cent under a very severely stressed scenario.
(7) Network analysis reveals that total
bilateral exposures among entities in the financial system declined marginally
during 2019-20; with the inter-bank market continuing to shrink and with better
capitalisation of public sector banks (PSBs), there would be reduction in
contagion losses to the banking system under various scenarios in relation to a
year ago.
2.
PhonePe partnered with ICICI Lombard to offer Hospital Cash cover: Digital payments
platform PhonePe partnered with 'ICICI Lombard' to launch ‘Hospital Daily Cash
benefit’ under Group Safeguard Insurance. It is a customised hospitalisation
policy that allows PhonePe users to get an assured amount on hospitalisation
due to injury or illnesses including Covid-19. PhonePe users aged 18-65 can get
this policy without prior medical tests. PhonePe users can buy the insurance
through the app, from the “My Money” section.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
1.
India’s GDP to contract 6% in FY21: DBS: Singaporean brokerage firm DBS Bank
Ltd has estimated that the Indian economy will contract by 6 percent in FY21
(2020-21). In its previous forecast,, DBS had estimated – 4.8 percent growth
for FY21. The reason for this downward revision is the prolonged sub-normal
reopening as the country is yet to stabilize the infection curve and the
pandemic is going to take a deeper economic bite.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
1. Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute adjudged the best research institute under ICAR: The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has been adjudged as the best research institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). CMFRI won the Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR institutions award, the highest award of the ICAR with a cash prize of ₹10 lakh, in the category of the large institutions. This is in recognition of CMFRI’s excellent performance in marine fisheries research during the 2014-19 period
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