Daily GK Updates - 6th Oct, 2020

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2020 comes into force: As per the Ministry of Home Affairs, the amended Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act came into force on 29 September 2020. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2020 amends the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. The FCRA Act regulates the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution by individuals, associations and companies.  Foreign contribution is the donation or transfer of any currency, security or article (of beyond a specified value) by a foreign source. Key changes made in the act includes amending the following sections:

(1) Section 3 – to expand the list of persons who are prohibited from receiving foreign contribution, by adding “public servant” as defined in Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 to this list.

(2) Section 7 – to prohibit persons authorized under FCRA to receive foreign contributions from transferring such foreign contributions to any person.

(3) Section 8 -to decrease the cap on administrative expenses, of any NGO receiving foreign funding, to 20% from the existing 50%

(4) Section 11 – to add a provision, giving  Power to Central Government to prohibit a foreign contribution recipient from utilising/receiving its funds.

(5) Section 17 – requiring the recipient of foreign contribution to receive such amount only in an account designated as “FCRA Account” opened in a branch of the State Bank of India at New Delhi.

(6) Section 13 – to give the Government the power to suspend the registration certificate (which means that foreign contribution cannot be received/ utilised) of a person for up to 360 days (which currently is 180 days)

 

2. MoHUA signs MoU with Swiggy to take street food vendors online: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has entered into an MoU with “Swiggy”, one of the leading food delivery platforms, to onboard street food vendors on its e-commerce platform. The MoU aims at giving the street food vendors online access to thousands of consumers and help them grow their businesses. The arrangement has been facilitated under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme. About the MoU:

(1) The Ministry and Swiggy will run a pilot programme by on-boarding 250 vendors across five cities namely – Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Indore, and Varanasi.

(2) The street vendors will be helped with PAN and FSSAI registration, training on technology, menu digitization and pricing along with hygiene and packaging best practices.

(3) Upon the successful completion of the pilot programme, Urban Affairs Ministry and Swiggy plan to expand this initiative across the country in phases.

(4) In a first of its kind initiative, the Urban Affairs Ministry has coordinated with the key stakeholders including Municipal Corporations, FSSAI, Swiggy and GST officials to ensure that necessary pre-requisites are completed for this initiative.

Note: Minister of State (IC) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs: Hardeep Singh Puri.

Swiggy CEO: Vishal Bhatia; Swiggy Founded: 2014; Swiggy Headquarters: Bangalore, India.

 

3. PM Modi inaugurates RAISE 2020, a Mega Virtual Summit on Artificial Intelligence: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated RAISE 2020, a Mega Virtual Summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI) on 5th October 2020. RAISE (Responsible AI for Social Empowerment) 2020 Summit hasa been organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NITI Aayog from October 5-9, 2020. RAISE 2020 is a platform where delegates and experts in research, policy and innovation on Artificial Intelligence will join from across the globe to exchange ideas and chart a course for using AI for social transformation, inclusion and empowerment in areas like Healthcare, Agriculture, Education and Smart Mobility, among other sectors.

 

4. Delhi’s Deputy CM Manish Sisodia launches a book “Bapu-The unforgettable”: On the occasion of the 151st Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia has launched the coffee-table book titled “Babu – The Unforgettable” over the virtual event. This virtual event was organised by the Delhi Archives & Department of Art, Culture and Language, Government of Delhi. The department also organised a webinar on “Footprints of Gandhi Ji in Delhi”. The book “Bapu – The Unforgettable” will make the readers think and provide a glimpse of the ideology and philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi. The book also holds several untouched aspects of history, rare photographs, epigraphs and other details about Delhi.

 

5. “Baahubali” series author Anand Neelakantan pens debut kids’ book: The author of Baahubali series, Anand Neelakantan has authored his first kid’s book titled “The Very, Extremely, Most Naughty Asura Tales for Kids”, published by Puffins Publishers Private Limited under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The book narrates the story of the asura twins Kundakka and Mandakka who hate to go to school, troublesome Bhasma and per pig Nakura, brothers Atapi and Vatapi and others. This book introduces the Indian Puranas to the kids who are indulged in electronic gadgets. The illustrations of the book are made by Subhadeep Roy and Shiladitya Bose.

 

6. Wildlife Week: 2nd to 8th October: Wildlife Week is annually celebrated across India between 2nd to 8th October with an aim to protect and preserve the flora and fauna of India. The first Wildlife Week was observed in 1957. Wildlife Week 2020 marks the 66th Wildlife Week which is celebrated under the theme “RoaR (Roar and Revive) – Exploring Human-Animal Relationships”. Wildlife Week was conceptualized in 1952 to raise awareness of safeguarding the lives of wildlife through critical action.

Note: Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change: Prakash Keshav Javadekar.

 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. China to send first-ever ‘asteroid mining robot’ into space: An IEEE Spectrum report, the Beijing-based company is set to send the world’s first mining robot named ‘asteroid mining robot’ into space by November 2020 to identify and extract resources. The mining robot will be launched into space by a Chinese Long March series rocket. The 30-gram spacecraft, NEO-1, is likely to be launched as a secondary payload on a Chinese Long March rocket. This company also has another mission, Yuanwang-1 (‘Look up-1’), nicknamed ‘Little Hubble’, which is to be launched by late 2021 or early 2022.

Note: China Capital: Beijing; China Currency: Renminbi; China President: Xi Jinping.

 

2. 12th BRICS Summit to be held on 17 November virtually: The 12th BRICS Summit is scheduled to be held on 17th November 2020 via video conference. This is the first time in the history of the forum that the meeting will be held virtually, due to the global COVID pandemic. The Summit is being held under the Chairmanship of Russia. The BRICS Summit will focus on further strengthening cooperation among the member states amid the Covid-19 crisis. The theme of the Meeting of the Leaders of BRICS countries is “BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth”. During 2020, the five countries in the grouping continued their close strategic partnership on three major pillars: peace and security, economy and finance, cultural and people-to-people exchanges

Note: The five-member BRICS states are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

 

3. Indo-French to launch constellation of maritime surveillance satellites to trace illegal oil spillage in IOR: India and France have collaborated to jointly launch the constellation of maritime surveillance satellites for the Indian Ocean Region, to trace illegal spillage of oil by ships. The satellite will be the first space-based system in the world capable of tracking ships continuously. In August 2019, the French Space Agency, CNES and ISRO committed to developing and building a constellation of satellites carrying telecommunications and radar and optical remote-sensing instruments. The monitoring centre of the satellite will be based in India and will be operated jointly by France and India to monitor ships in the Indian Ocean.

Note: France Capital: Paris; Currency: Euro; President: Emmanuel Macron; Prime Minister: Jean Castex

 

OTHER UPDATES:

 

BANKING AND FINANCE

 

1. GoI appoints three new economists as RBI’s MPC members: The Government of India has appointed three new economists as members of the six-member rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The government had formed a committee for selection of these three new members of MPC. This search-cum-selection committee for MPC was headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj. The new members are:

(1) Prof. Ashima Goyal, a professor at the Mumbai-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Developmental Research

(2) Prof. Jayanth R Varma, a professor of finance at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad

(3) Dr. Shashanka Bhide, an agricultural economist and a senior adviser with the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi

About Monetary Policy Committee: MPC committee of RBI comprises six members which include three officials of the Reserve Bank of India and three external members nominated by the Government of India. The three members from RBI Side are Dr. Mridul K. Saggar, Dr. Michael Debabrata Patra and Shri Shaktikanta Das. Governor of RBI is the Ex-Officio Chairman of MPC. They replace the three previous external MPC candidates, Chetan Ghate, Ravindra Dholakia and Pami Dua, whose terms expired with the last policy meeting in August 2020.

Note: RBI 25th Governor: Shaktikant Das; Headquarters: Mumbai; Founded: 1 April 1935, Kolkata.

 

AWARDS AND HONOURS

 

1. Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 announced: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was divided, one half awarded to Roger Penrose for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity. The other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy. The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden.

About Roger Penrose: Roger Penrose, born 1931 in Colchester, UK. PhD. 1957 from the University of Cambridge, UK. Professor at the University of Oxford, UK

About Reinhard Genzel: Reinhard Genzel, born 1952 in Bad Homburg vor der Hohe, Germany. PhD. 1978 from University of Bonn, Germany. Director at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany and Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.

About Andrea Ghez: Andrea Ghez, born 1965 in City of New York, USA. PhD. 1992 from California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA. Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA

 

2. IACC presents lifetime achievement award to Ratan Tata: The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) has presented the lifetime achievement award to business icon Ratan Tata for his pioneering role in the Business Relations of India-USA and for his lifetime achievement in Global Leadership. This award was announced in the virtual event of IACC “COVID Crusader Award-2020”. This is the 1st time IACC conferred the Lifetime Achievement award to any individual. Tata, who grew the revenues for India’s largest conglomerate ‘The Tata Group’ to nearly USD 100 billion by 2011-12, remains an influential industrialist, philanthropist and humanitarian to the day.

Note: IACC- India National President: Purnachandra Rao Surapaneni; IACC Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra.

 

DEFENSE

 

1. DRDO successfully flight tests “Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo”: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully flight tested the “Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo” (SMART) from Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha. All the mission objectives including missile flight up to the range and altitude, separation of the nose cone, the release of Torpedo and deployment of Velocity Reduction Mechanism (VRM) have been met perfectly. SMART is a missile assisted release of lightweight Anti-Submarine Torpedo System for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations for far beyond torpedo range. The technologies required for SMART have been developed by a number of DRDO laboratories, including DRDL, RCI Hyderabad, ADRDE Agra, NSTL Visakhapatnam.

Note: DRDO Chairman: Dr G. Satheesh Reddy; DRDO Headquarters: New Delhi.

 

OBITUARIES

 

1. Veteran Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav passes away: Veteran Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav (92 years) passed away after a prolonged illness. He started his political career from Auraiya district (Uttar Pradesh) as a sarpanch at the age of 21 in 1949 and was elected sarpanch for five consecutive terms. He later served as the block pramukh for 15 years between 1973 and 1988. e was a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) in Uttar Pradesh from 1990 to 2010.

 

2. Justice AS Dave, former Judge and acting CJ of the Gujarat HC passes away: Former Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court Justice Anantkumar Surendraray Dave passed away at the age of 62. Justice Dave was appointed as a Gujarat High Court Judge in 2004 and was made permanent in 2006. He was appointed as an Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court on November 14, 2018 and served until the present Chief Justice Vikram Nath took over the helm in September 2019. He was also legal advisor for Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC), SSNNL and BSNL.