Current Affairs - November 29, 2017 Current Affairs

India and United Kingdom (UK) will soon sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the urban transport sector for cooperation in policy planning, technology. The draft of MoU was finalised by Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari and Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport of UK. It will also help in promoting digital transactions and induction of high capacity diesel and electric vehicles (EVs) in India.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) appointed senior bureaucrat Badri Narain Sharma as Chairman of National Anti-Profiteering Authority. Sharma is 1985 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre. Prior to this appointment, he was an additional secretary of Department of Revenue, Finance Ministry. The Union Cabinet in November 2017 approved setting up of five-member NAA, mandated to ensure that the benefits of GST rate reduction.

ICICI Prudential Life has become first private Life Insurer in India to implement Electronic - National Automated Clearing House (e-NACH) service of the National Payment Corporation of India. e-NACH mandate service is a digital registration process through which a customer issues a mandate to the bank to debit his/her account at pre-determined frequencies. Customer can register for this mandate at the time of purchasing a life insurance policy, by sharing bank details and Aadhaar number.

Amazon India collaborated with hardware accelerator "HAX" and crowd-funding community "Kickstarter" to announce "Startup C-Cube" - a multi-level challenge for the startups that will commence in Bengaluru. The winning team in the Startup C-Cube challenge will be supported by Amazon India, HAX and Kickstarter through the entire "concept-to-customer" journey. They will also provide the startup with resources needed to scale up in India, Europe and the US.

Badri Narain Sharma, the 1985 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, has been appointed the chairman of the newly constituted National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAA) under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Prior to this appointment, Sharma was an Additional Secretary in the Department of Revenue. The NAA has been set up for a two-year period and is mandated to ensure that the benefits of input credit and the reduction in tax rates effected by the GST Council are passed on to the consumers.

The first edition of International Symposium to Promote Innovation & Research in Energy Efficiency (INSPIRE 2017) was held in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The five-day symposium is being organized by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) in partnership with The World Bank, and Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE). Its main objective was to provide a common platform for energy efficiency community to discuss energy efficiency policies, emerging technologies, market transformation strategies, delivery and business-model-driven transformations.

Madhya Pradesh becomes the first state in the country to adopt Panch Parmeshwar portal and app system for making panchayat's functioning more transparent easy and reliable. It is the first state in the country to adopt this system in which all acts and dealings of the gram panchayats will be displayed on the public domain. It will prove to be a milestone to implement digital and cashless dealings in even far-flung villages under the Digital India Campaign of Government of India.

Pradeep Singh Kharola, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre, has been appointed as the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India. He will succeed Rajiv Bansal, who has been serving as the interim CMD for a little over 3 months. Currently, Mr. Kharola is the Managing Director of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.

A new Payments Bank 'Paytm Payments Bank' was formally launched at the hands of the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Currently, India has four Payments Bank including Paytm Payments Bank. The other three operational ones are Airtel Payments Bank, India Post Payments Bank and Fino Payments Bank. A payments bank is a differentiated bank. A customer can open a savings bank account in them and have deposits of up to Rs. 1 lakh. These banks cannot, however, lend money to their customers.

Jet Airways and Air France-KLM announced a partnership to route more traffic through Europe and on to North America, in a potential challenge to Gulf carrier Etihad Airways that is a shareholder in Jet. The agreement also includes Delta Air Lines, with which Air France KLM has an existing partnership.

Tata Power Solar Systems has commissioned India's first rooftop solar carport at 70000 sq. mtr. Unity One Mall, in Rohini, Delhi. Solar carports are overhead canopies (mounted with solar panel) built to cover parking areas. This solar carport will make the mall self sufficient in terms of energy requirement. Besides, mall will also earn on the unused and excess solar electricity produced, by sending it to the local power grid.

Bill Gates has been elected as a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in 2017. Apart from Bill Gates, 66 other prominent Chinese and foreign scientists have been elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in 2017.

'SAUBHAGYA' scheme introduced with an aim to transform the lives, especially poorest of the poor by providing power supply to every household of the country. Launching the scheme, Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy RK Singh revealed that Manipur has been doing well in terms of power generation because of new initiatives were taken by the government. Saubhagya is a scheme launched to achieve universal household electrification in all parts of the country at a cost of Rs 16,320 crore including Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) of Rs 12,320 crore from the Centre.

The first edition of the International Symposium to Promote Innovation & Research in Energy Efficiency (INSPIRE 2017) has started in Jaipur, Rajasthan on November 27, 2017. The 5-day symposium is being organized by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) in partnership with World Bank (WB) and Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE). INSPIRE 2017 is a global conference which aims to bring together various stakeholders like policymakers, innovators, financiers to showcase best practices in the sector. It is designed to provide global and national thought-leaders and implementers to expand perspectives on energy efficiency.

Russia agreed to assist India to set up National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) in the country to handle disaster and other emergency situations. This was agreed during a meeting between Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Russian Minister for Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov in Moscow. Both sides agreed that EMERCOM of Russia would cooperate with India in the establishment of the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) in India.