Current Affairs - July 11, 2020 Current Affairs

The Alumni Council of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Alumni Council) signed an agreement for joint research on COVID-19 and patient data analysis with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research - Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB).

The Union Cabinet has approved the capital infusion for an overall value of Rs.12,450 crore; (including Rs. 2,500 crore infused in FY 2019-20) in the three Public Sector General Insurance Companies namely Oriental Insurance Company Limited , National Insurance Company Limited and United India Insurance Company Limited. Of this, Rs.3,475 crore will be released immediately; while the balance Rs,6475 crore will be infused later.

Indian Institute of Technology - Hyderabad(IIT-H) collaborates with NVIDIA to establish India's first 'NVIDIA Artificial Intelligence(AI) Technology Centre'(NVAITC) to speed up the research work on AI and its commercial purpose.

PM Narendra Modi has inaugurated Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Power Project in Madhya Pradesh. The 750 MW solar plant will provide electricity not only to industries in Rewa but also to Delhi Metro.

The Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, launched the Bhubaneswar Land Use Intelligence System (BLUIS), a flagship development of the General Administration and Public grievances departments. Odisha becomes the first state in India to use high resolution satellite imagery utilising space technology and artificial intelligence to monitor government lands.

Raneem El Welily, the 31 year old Egyptian Squash player and world's top ranking(No.1) Women Squash Player announced her retirement ending her 18 year sports career. Nouran Gohar of Egypt claims the No.1 ranking after the retirement of Welily. Raneem El Welily became the top ranking squash player in 2015 and became the 1st Arab woman to secure the world's top ranking in any sport. Joshna Chinappa, 33 year old Indian Squash player ranked 10th in the latest PSA World Women's Ranking 2020.She entered the top 10 of the PSA world ranking following the retirement of Raneem.

The Competition Commission of India has approved the proposed combination which involves Eros International Plc, STX Filmworks Inc and Marco Alliance Limited. The indirectly wholly owned subsidiary of Eros Plc will merge into STX, where STX will continue to be the surviving entity. The Hony Group will subscribe some shares of the merged entity through Marco, an existing investor in STX. Competition Commission of India was Formed in 14 October 2003.

The cable TV operators of Nepal have banned all the news channels of India, except Doordarshan. Though there is no official notification by Nepal's Government, a channel operator of Nepal informed the ANI that they turned off the signals of all Indian news channels. The move came after Deputy PM Narayan Kaji Shrestha said that the Indian media has crossed all limits against Nepali government and PM KP Sharma Oli.

Raghu Sharma, Health minister of Rajasthan launched the week long campaign "Pure for Sure" from 8th July 2020 to 14th July 2020 - to ensure the purity of the milk and dairy products.

With the Coronavirus pandemic causing massive disruption across various sectors, IRDAI has formed a 9- member working group under the chairmanship of Suresh Mathur, Executive Director of Irdai to look into the possibility of setting up 'Pandemic Risk Pool' to deal with the various risks arising out of a pandemic -like health emergencies & recommend the structure and operating model for the Pool within 8 weeks.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has addressed the inaugural session of 3-day (July 9-July 11) virtual India Global week 2020 based on the theme 'Be The Revival: India and a Better New World' organized in UK (United Kingdom) by India Inc. Group, the UK-headquartered media house with the aim to connect global leaders and captains of industry to discuss aspects relating to opportunities in India as well as the global economic revival post-coronavirus (COVID-19).

Uttar Pradesh government has imposed statewide lockdown from 10th July to 13th July 2020 to check the spread of novel Coronavirus and other communicable diseases. During the lockdown in UP, all the offices and markets will remain closed and only the essential services, health & medical services will be available for people.

Bar Council of Delhi has requested PM Narendra Modi for financial assistance of Rs 500 crore under the PM Cares Fund and Contingency Fund to help the advocates in Delhi NCR. The move came in the wake of problems faced by advocates in Delhi in last 4 months due to the closure of courts amid COVID-19 pandemic.

In accordance with the Dun and Bradstreet's (D&B) Country Risk and Global Outlook Report, which has covered 132 countries, the global economy is likely to contract by 5.2% in 2020. This is the biggest decline since the Second World War and a far stronger contraction than the 1.7% recorded in 2009 during the global financial crisis. As per report, the global economy will not reach pre-pandemic levels of activity again before 2022.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the data exchange between the two organisations via video conference.

Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly (61), the Presidential election candidate of Ivory Coast's ruling party, died on 8 July 2020 at Abidjan, Ivory Coast within a few days after returning from two months of treatment in France.

According to data from the Reserve Bank of India, Tamil Nadu has topped market borrowings among States in India with a collection of Rs.30,500 crore in the fiscal 2020-21(FY 21). TN, which has accounted for 17% of the borrowings done through the issue of bonds (known as state development loans), has been followed by Maharashtra 25,500 crore (14%), Andhra Pradesh 17,000 crore (9%), Rajasthan 17,000 crore (9%).

As a part of the Rs 20 lakh crore "Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan" announced in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Union Cabinet has given its approval to a 10 years long (FY2020 to FY2029) pan India Central Sector Scheme namely "Agriculture Infrastructure Fund" with an outlay of Rs. 1 Lakh Crore in order to support agri-entrepreneurs, start-ups, agri-tech players and farmer groups for infrastructure and logistics facilities. Under this, the total outflow as budgetary support from Government of India (GoI) will be Rs.10,736 crore.

In accordance with the Economist Intelligence Unit report on "Cancer preparedness in Asia-Pacific: Progress towards universal cancer control", India has been ranked eighth with an overall score of 51.6 for cancer preparedness among 10 Asia-Pacific countries. The report sponsored by Roche, examined the findings from the EIU's Index of Cancer Preparedness which was created upon the findings of the global ICP (evaluated 28 countries based on 45 separate indicators).

United Arab Emirates has announced to send probe to Mars to capture comprehensive image of the weather in the atmosphere of Mars. With this, the UAE will be the first Arab nation to achieve the milestone. The UAE's probe will help pave the way for scientific breakthroughs in studying the Mars Atmosphere.