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Daily Current Affairs PDF of 31st January 2020

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL

Centre asks banks to collect annual life certificates of its Pensioners from their doorsteps for continued pension

Centre has decided that pensioners’ life certificates will be collected from their doorstep, saving them from hassles of visiting pension disbursing banks.
Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare has taken this landmark step to make life easier for senior citizens to submit their Annual Life Certificate for continued pension.
An amount not exceeding 60 rupees will be charged for the service. Pensioners are required to give proof of them being alive to banks every year in order to ensure continued pension.
The statement stated directions have been issued to all pension disbursing banks to send SMS or emails to all their pensioners on 24th of October, 1st of November, 15th of November and 25th of November every year reminding them to submit their annual life certificates by 30th November.
The banks will also ask such pensioners through SMS and email if they are interested in submission of life certificate through a chargeable doorstep service.

Nine Judge Constitution Bench of SC to frame issues about discrimination against women in various religions

The Supreme Court stated, a 9-judge Constitution bench will on February 3 frame issues for deliberation in the matter relating to discrimination against women in various religions and at religious places including Kerala’s Sabarimala Temple.
The Constitution bench will consider issues related to the entry of Muslim women into mosques, female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community and barring of Parsi women, married to non-Parsi men, from the holy fireplace at Agiary.
A 3-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde stated, the 9-judge bench will go through the issues framed by some arguing lawyers and would try to crystalize the common legal questions to be adjudicated upon by it. It will also fix the hearing schedule.

Govt aims to achieve objective of Housing for All by 2022 under PMAY-G

Union Government aims to achieve objective of Housing for All by 2022 under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen.
A total of over one crore 50 lakh rural houses have been completed in the last five years.
Ministry of Finance stated, the eligible beneficiaries will get one crore 95 lakh houses in the second phase of the scheme. Government has set a target of 60 lakh houses for the current financial year.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL

WHO declares International Emergency following outbreak of novel coronavirus from China

World Health Organization has declared an international emergency over the novel coronavirus from
It is a rarely used designation that could lead to improved international coordination in tackling the disease.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that their greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems. He declared the disease a public health emergency of international concern.

About WHO:

Head: Tedros Adhanom
Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
Founded: 7 April 1948

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE

FICCI survey projects FY20 GDP growth at 5%, to improve to 5.5% in FY21

Industry body FICCI stated its Economic Outlook Survey has projected the country’s annual median GDP growth for 2019-20 at 5 per cent, in line with the projections made by the National Statistical Organisation (NSO).
The survey has put the median growth forecast for agriculture and allied activities at 2.6 per cent for 2019-20, the industry and services sector at 3.5 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively, during the current year.
Growth is likely to improve to 5 per cent in 2020-21 as per the projections, the survey stated.
Further as per the survey, the economic growth has been pegged at 4.7 per cent for the third quarter of 2019-20
As per the first advance estimates of the national income released by the NSO, India’s GDP growth is seen dipping to an 11-year low of 5 per cent in the current fiscal, mainly due to poor showing by manufacturing and construction sectors.
The survey further stated concerns remain on external front with exports projected to contract in 2019-20.

About FICCI:

Headquarters location: New Delhi
Founded: 1927
President Sangita Reddy
Senior Vice-President : Uday Shankar
Vice President: Sanjiv Mehta

Economic survey likely to peg India’s FY21 growth at 6-6.5%: Report

India’s economic survey is seen projecting growth of 6 to 6.5 per cent in the next year starting April 1, boosted by a series of fiscal measures to revive demand that the government is likely to announce in the budget.
India faces its worst economic slowdown in a decade. Growth slipped to 4.5 per cent in the July-September quarter, imperilling job prospects for millions of young people entering the workforce each year.
The government has estimated gross domestic product expansion at 5 per cent for the financial year ending on March 31, which would be the slowest pace since the global financial crisis of 2008/09.
An economic survey by chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian will be officially announced later in the day and the government will present its budget

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

Pine Labs launches Paper PoS for merchants

Pine Labs, a merchant commerce platform, has announced the launch of Pine Labs Paper PoS for its merchants.
Pine Labs Paper PoS is an all-in-one solution for accepting multiple forms of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Bharat QR payments through a single merged static QR at the point of sale. Merchants can use Pine Labs Paper PoS to accept payments across different kinds of UPI and Bharat QR payments, including those from Amazon Pay, Google Pay, PayZapp, PhonePe, and YONO, among others.
Using the Pine Labs countertop PoS machines – Plutus and Plutus Smart – merchants can print a customer chargeslip, thus, immediately confirming the transaction.
Paper PoS is low-cost, easy to implement and ensures safe payment transactions. It is simple to install and helps merchants to declutter the billing counter as well as contain long customer queues. Paper PoS also offers a range of other benefits to the merchants such as detailed insights on the transactions as well as reconciliation of all transactions, including Paper PoS transactions at one place on myPlutus web (TRM) or on the myPlutus app. Merchants can also receive instant notifications for transactions on the myPlutus app. The Paper PoS sticker can also be customised with the merchant name / store name and the merchant logo on the QR sticker.

Airtel’s name removed from DGFT blacklist after dialogue with authorities

Bharti Airtel stated its name has now been removed from the denied entry list for non-fulfilment of export obligation under an export promotion scheme.
The company stated its has now been removed from the denied entry list, after it highlighted the relevant details and documents submitted to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).
It was working to get its name removed from the list, and added that DGFT’s latest action does not limit its ability to undertake future imports or exports.
The DGFT, which is under the Commerce Ministry, had put the company under the list, commonly known as blacklist, for non-fulfilment of export obligation in respect of certain Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) authorisation issued to it.
Under the EPCG, an export promotion scheme, import of capital goods is allowed at zero customs duty. Capital goods imported at zero duty must fulfil EPCG export obligation equivalent to six times of duty saved, as per the scheme.

About Airtel :

CEO: Gopal Vittal
Founder: Sunil Bharti Mittal
Founded: 7 July 1995, India
Headquarters: New Delhi

Nasscom, Japan join hands to match startups and tech firms with VCs

Industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) and the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) have teamed up to bring more startups and technology firms in contact with venture capitalists and strategic partners from
Nasscom, in line with its effort to cover more markets, has taken the the first steps towards facilitating contact between Indian and Japanese firms, and three startups have already received funding as part of the first round of interactions held .
Nasscom has been looking to expand into more markets to reduce its overdependence on US and UK, which together make up more than 70 per cent of its exports, as of last financial year. A part of this initiative is the Sino-Indian Digital Collaboration Opportunity Plaza (SIDCOP), a partnership between Nasscom and Chinese municipal governments, aimed at bringing Indian IT companies and Chinese enterprises closer on a digital platform.
For Japan, the going has been relatively slower because of the country’s cultural issues. However, the country has been looking for alternative investment sources after its move to negative policy rates in 2016 failed to raise inflation expectations. It also faces increasing competition from China.

About NASSCOM:

Chairperson: Keshav R Murugesh
Headquarters location: New Delhi
Founded: 1 March 1988
Founders: Dewang Mehta, Nandan Nilekani

CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATES

Assam Rifles builds war memorial in Nagaland for 357 martyrs

The Assam Rifles has constructed a combined war memorial in Nagaland for the 357 Army and Assam Rifles personnel killed while fighting insurgency in the northeastern state.
The memorial has been built at Mokokchung, which is also the cultural and intellectual centre of Nagaland.
This memorial is the first of its kind in Nagaland, which also has the famous Second World War Cemetery at Kohima. Christened “Veer Samriti”, the memorial is spread over 13,500 sq ft and was built by 44 Assam Rifles.
The war memorial has been designed in a concentric circular form, with outer rectangular flower beds as boundary wall. The central arena, the heart of the memorial, comprises two circular podiums with a 19-feet high main memorial mast having three converging posts signifying the Army, Air Force and Assam Rifles. The names of the 357 martyrs have been carved, each on a single granite stone.

About Assam Rifles

Founded- 1835.
Headquarters- Shillong, Meghalaya.

Kamal Nath govt to offer Rs 5,000 as stipend to unemployed in Madhya Pradesh

The Kamal Nath-led Madhya Pradesh government is launching a revised version of its Yuva Swabhiman Yojana (YSY) – a scheme for the unemployed – with an increased monthly stipend and annual number of working days.
The scheme was launched on January 31, 2019, ensuring 100 days of employment every year to economically weak urban youth at a stipend of Rs 4,000 per month.
A year after the scheme’s launch, the Congress government in the state is increasing the amount of monthly stipend to Rs 5,000 from Rs 4,000, while the days of employment will be increased to 365 days from 100 days
They have decided to relaunch the scheme for unemployed youths after a year. The stipend has been hiked by Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month.

About MP

Governor: Lalji Tandon
Capital: Bhopal
Chief minister: Kamal Nath

Month-long Nagoba jatara concludes in Telangana

Nagoba Jatara is a tribal festival held in Keslapur village, Inderavelly Mandal Adilabad district, Telangana, India.
It is the second biggest tribal carnival and celebrated by Mesaram clan of Gond tribes for 10 days.
Tribal people from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh belonging to the Mesram clan offer prayers at the festival. Thousands of Tribal people from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Karnataka, jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh belonging to the Mesaram clan offer prayers at the festival Nagoba. It’s Starts in pushya masam.
The 10-day festival has begun after tribal priests performed abhishekam to Nagoba idol at the temple in Keslapur with water fetched by them from river Godavari in Jannaram mandal, 70 km away from the village.

Festivals celebrated in telangana

Bonalu Festival
Bathukamma: The floral festival of Telangana
Ugadi Telugu New year
Deccan Festival in Hyderabad

Uttarakhand to get first Snow Leopard conservation center of India

Uttarakhand is set to open the country’s first snow leopard conservation center. The project aims at protection and propagation of the species in higher reaches of the hill state which happens to be the natural habitat of the elusive big cat. ‘
The center will be built at the entry point of Gangotri National Park above 2800 meters sea level. However, no time limit has been set for the project. It will be built under central government scheme ‘SECURE Himalaya’.
It is a six-year project which was launched in year 2017 to ensure conservation of locally and globally significant biodiversity, land and forest resources in high Himalayan ecosystem spread over four states- Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and
The animal is considered to be one of the most enigmatic wild cat species due to its reclusive nature which has earned it a title of ‘Ghost of the Mountains’.
The center has been designed by experts from the Netherlands with a budget of Rs 5.30 crore.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATION

India’s Gita Sabharwal Appointed UN Resident Coordinator in Thailand

The UN has appointed India’s Gita Sabharwal, who has over two decades of experience in peace building and social policy, as the Resident Coordinator in Thailand.
The UN Resident Coordinator is the highest-ranking representative of the UN development system at the country level. Resident Coordinators lead UN Country Teams and coordinate the world body’s support to countries in implementing the 2030 Agenda. Resident Coordinators are the designated representatives of the UN Secretary-General and report to the UN chief.
She most recently served the UN in Sri Lanka as the Peace building and Development Adviser for nearly seven years.

Arvind Krishna elected IBM CEO

Krishna’s appointment as head of the global IT giant adds to the growing list of Indian-origin executives at the helm of some of the biggest multinational companies
Indian-origin technology executive Arvind Krishna has been elected Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of American IT giant IBM after a “world-class succession process, succeeding Virginia Rometty, who described him as the “right CEO for the next era at IBM and well-positioned to lead the company into the cloud and cognitive era.
The IBM Board of Directors elected Krishna as company CEO and member of the Board of Directors effective April 6. Krishna is currently IBM Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software and will succeed Rometty, 62 who will retire after almost 40 years with the company at the end of the year.
Krishna, 57, had joined IBM in 1990 and has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

About IBM:

Founder: Charles Ranlett Flint
Founded: 16 June 1911, Endicott, New York, United States
Headquarters: Armonk, New York, United States

Lt Gen CP Mohanty takes charge of Southern Army Command

Lieutenant General CP Mohanty assumed command of Southern Army with a solemn wreath-laying ceremony at the National War Memorial, Pune, wherein he paid tribute to the fallen soldiers, followed by traditional Guard of Honour at Headquarters Southern Command.
An alumnus of Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) Dehradun and National Defence Academy, Lt Gen Mohanty is a June 1982 batch Infantry Officer from the Rajput Regiment and is currently also the Colonel of the Regiment.
During his distinguished military career, General Mohanty has had vast operational, logistics and administrative experience in varied command and staff appointments.
He commanded his Battalion in Jammu and Kashmir and North East, a Mountain Brigade along the Indo-China border and a Mountain Division in Counter Insurgency Operations in North East.

ICC appoints Anurag Dahiya as chief commercial officer

The International Cricket Council (ICC) appointed seasoned media professional Anurag Dahiya, who launched Star Cricket, as its Chief Commercial Officer.
Dahiya brings more than two decades of commercial experience from the media industry, most recently as head of content and media sales at Singtel, Asia’s leading telecommunications group.
Prior to that, he spent 14 years with Fox International Channels (previously ESPN STAR Sports) as senior vice president, strategy and business development. His responsibilities there included cricket rights and content acquisition working on high profile, high value acquisition of sports rights, the ICC said in a statement.
He also launched India’s first international cricket-only channel Star Cricket and oversaw the launch of ESPN STAR Sports’ first 24×7 sports news channel ESPNEWS and OTT platform ESPN Play.

About ICC:

Chairperson: Shashank Manohar
CEO: Manu Sawhney
Headquarters: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Founded: 15 June 1909
Membership: 104 members

CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOURS

Dr Partap Chauhan conferred with Ayurveda Ratan Award in Brussels

The All-Party Parliament Group on Traditional Medicines organized a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium with the objective of devising a roadmap to legalize Ayurveda in Europe and to integrate it with their healthcare systems.
Dr Partap Chauhan discussed with his European counterparts the key strengths of authentic Indian Ayurveda in resolving the world’s need for a holistic healthcare blueprint that could potentially reduce dependency on synthetic medicines by leveraging the body’s innate ability to heal itself.
Partap Chauhan, the pioneer ofAyurvedic Telemedicine, has Conferred with Prestigious Ayurveda Ratan Award 2020 in Brussels, Belgium.
Ayurveda Day was first celebrated at the European Parliament on November 21, 2018.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

NCRB Launches two online national level services related to Search of Missing Persons and to Generate Vehicle NOC

National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) launched Police related Citizen centric services on CCTNS platform.
These online services will help Citizens in Searching their Missing Persons and Generating Vehicle NOC.
The services can be accessed through ‘digitalpolicecitizenservices.gov.in’ portal or through a link in the existing ‘Digital Police Portal’.
So far such services are being provided through the state citizen portals and it is the first time that these are being launched centrally.
The two citizen services namely ‘Missing Person Search’ and ‘Generate Vehicle NOC’ will now be available online to Citizens.
The Citizens can search for their missing kins against the national database of recovered unidentified found person/unidentified dead bodies from their homes.
This will hugely benefit relatives of missing persons and save them from running around pillar to post, as all such details including photos are available in Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System and will now be accessible to citizens through this portal at their convenience.
NCRB and Cyber Peace foundation together have designed CCTNS Hackathon and Cyber Challenge 2020 with the aim to enhance skills and knowledge of law enforcement personnel at ground level.
This Hackathon has been organized to offer a unique experience to the participants to advance their skills and knowledge and to promote coordination with industry and academia.

About NCRB

Founded- 1986.
Headquarters- New Delhi.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: RANKING

Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district tops Niti’s ranking in Dec

Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh has topped the list of aspirational districts ranked by the government think tank Niti Aayog in December.
Belangir (Odisha) and YSR (Andhra Pradesh) have been placed at the second and third positions, respectively.
Sahibganj (Jharkhand) has been ranked at the fourth spot and Hailakandi(Assam) at the fifth
The delta rankings took into account incremental progress made by over 112 aspirational districts across six developmental areas in December 2019.
Health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion, skill development and basic infrastructure were the development areas that were taken into consideration for the ranking.
Aspirational districts programme, launched in January 2018, aims to transform districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas and have emerged as pockets of under-development.

About NITI Aayog

Formed–2015
Headquarters– New Delhi
Chairperson– Narendra Modi
CEO- Amitabh Kant
Vice Chairperson– Rajiv Kumar

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS

National Shooting trials: Ayonika Paul and Vijayveer Sidhu emerge winners

Olympian Ayonika Paul has won the women’s 10m Air Rifle T1 event while Vijayveer Sidhu won the men’s 25m Pistol T2 event in the National Shooting trials at Thiruvananthapuram .
Ayonika overcame a quality eight-woman field which had the likes of Tokyo 2020 quota holders Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil among competitors.
Ayonika registered a score of 252.0 enroute to victory. Her effort was just 0.9 behind Apurvi’s world record of 252.9.
Apurvi came third with a score of 229.8 but it was Himachal’s Zeena Khitta, who had the best day in women’s Air Rifle event, coming in second place with a score of 251.1.
Zeena also won the junior women’s trials in the same event and also had the best qualifying score on the day with a 630.0 to show after 60 shots.
Chandigarh’s Vijayveer won the junior men’s 25m Pistol with an aggregate score of 585. He had three inner 10s, more than second-placed Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu of Punjab.

Rani Rampal becomes first ever hockey player to win World Games Athlete of the Year’ award

Indian women’s team captain Rani Rampal became the first-ever hockey player to win the prestigious ‘World Games Athlete of the Year’ award.
The World Games announced the winner last night after 20 days of polling in January this year by sports fans worldwide.
Last year, India won the FIH Series Finals, and Rani was named Player of the Tournament.
Under Rani’s leadership, the Indian women’s team qualified for just the third Olympic Games in its history.

Rani, who was recently named among the Padma Shri awardees, dedicated the award to the entire hockey fraternity, her team and the country.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: OBITUARY

Eminent Social Worker and Educationist Tushar Kanjilal passes away

Eminent social worker, environmentalist, educationist and writer Tushar Kanjilal passed away.
Kanjilal is known for his contribution to education in remote Rangabelia in the Sundarbans in the 1970s and his work for the uplift of the people in the area.
The Government of India awarded Tushar Kanjilal the 4th highest civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1986.
He also received Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 2008.

DAILY CA – 30^thJAN

Nation pays homage to Mahatma Gandhi on his 72nd death anniversary, martyrs day

NHRC organise meeting of Statutory Full Commission
Govt gives nod to amendments in National Commission for Homoeopathy Bill, 2019
Govt has released seven billion dollars to all states to tackle climate change: Javadekar
European Parliament approves Brexit deal with Britain
IRDAI slaps ₹1-cr fine each on Tata AIG and ICICI Lombard
Tata AIG to offer tailor-made insurance policies for drones
RBI imposes ₹1 crore penalty on HDFC Bank
RIL approaches NHAI for offering waste plastic-to-road technology
Google announces $1-million grant to promote news literacy among Indians
Mumbai gets India’s first ‘walk-through’ aviary
Interceptor boat C-448 commissioned at New Mangalore
S Jaishankar lays foundation stone of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Centre at Kevadia in Gujarat
OPPO, IIT-Hyderabad to take up joint R&D projects
Harsh Vardhan Shringla takes charge as new foreign secretary

Vakrangee appoints Ex- RBI & Ex-SEBI ED Ramesh Joshi as Non-Executive Chairman
Alastair Cook & Ricky Skerritt Appointed to MCC’s World Cricket Committee
RBI appoints Executive Director Janak Raj as member of MPC
IDBI Federal Life Insurance appoints M Balakrishnan as CFO, Prabhu as CIO
Abhijit Banerjee conferred D Litt by alma mater Calcutta University
Noted theatre personality Sanjna Kapoor to be conferred French honour
China Ranked World’s Second Largest Arms Producer Trailing Behind US
Assam tops in budgetary practices, followed by Odisha, Andhra: Survey
10 more wetlands in India declared as Ramsar sites
New mission to take first peek at Sun’s poles: NASA
Motera Cricket Stadium, world’s largest, could host IPL 2020 final in Ahmedabad
Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra qualifies for 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Ex Bihar Minister and RJD MLA Abdul Gafoor passes away
Eminent Assamese litterateur Sashi Sarma passes away
Kerala: Senior Congress leader M Kamalam passes away at 92

DAILY CA – 31^stJAN

Centre asks banks to collect annual life certificates of its Pensioners from their doorsteps for continued pension
Nine Judge Constitution Bench of SC to frame issues about discrimination against women in various religions
Govt aims to achieve objective of Housing for All by 2022 under PMAY-G
WHO declares International Emergency following outbreak of novel coronavirus from China
FICCI survey projects FY20 GDP growth at 5%, to improve to 5% in FY21
Economic survey likely to peg India’s FY21 growth at 6-6.5%: Report
Pine Labs launches Paper PoS for merchants
Airtel’s name removed from DGFT blacklist after dialogue with authorities
Nasscom, Japan join hands to match startups and tech firms with Venture Capitalists
Assam Rifles builds war memorial in Nagaland for 357 martyrs
Kamal Nath govt to offer Rs 5,000 as stipend to unemployed in Madhya Pradesh
Month-long Nagoba jatara concludes in Telangana
Uttarakhand to get first Snow Leopard conservation center of India
India’s Gita Sabharwal Appointed UN Resident Coordinator in Thailand
Arvind Krishna elected IBM CEO
Lt Gen CP Mohanty takes charge of Southern Army Command
ICC appoints Anurag Dahiya as chief commercial officer
Dr Partap Chauhan conferred with Ayurveda Ratan Award in Brussels
NCRB Launches two online national level services related to Search of Missing Persons and to Generate Vehicle NOC
Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district tops Niti’s ranking in Dec
National Shooting trials: Ayonika Paul and Vijayveer Sidhu emerge winners
Rani Rampal becomes first ever hockey player to win World Games Athlete of the Year’ award
Eminent Social Worker and Educationist Tushar Kanjilal passes away

Current Affairs Today 31st January 2020| Current Affairs News