Current Affairs - July 19, 2020 Current Affairs

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the reappointment of Shyam Srinivasan as the managing Director and Chief Executive officer of Federal bank Limited with effect from September 23, 2020 till September 22, 2021.

The International Olympic Committee has postponed the 2022 Dakar(Senegal) Youth Summer Olympics by four years to 2026 due to Covid- 19 pandemic and this would be the first Youth Summer olympic Games to be organized in Africa.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed that, the Drug Controller General of India has given approval to India's first fully indigenously developed vaccine against pneumonia, Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine. The vaccine has been developed by M/s. Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd, Pune.

NTPC (formerly known as National Thermal Power Corporation Limited) signs the Memorandum of Understanding with National Investment and Infrastructure Fund(NIIF), acting through National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited(NIIFL) to seek investment opportunities in areas like renewable energy, power distribution and other areas of mutual interest in India.

L&T Technology Services(LTTS), the engineering services arm of Larsen and Toubro Group, informed that it will acquire a 100 % stake in Texas-based Orchestra Technology(Tech). The acquisition is an all cash deal of USD 25 million, or about Rs 187 crores.

Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon appointed Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda(56), as the First Women Prime Minister of Gabon succeeding Julien Nkoghe Bekale, On 16 July 2020. She is the sixth Prime Minister under Bongo's Presidency since 2009.

Union Minister of State for Shipping (I/C) Mansukh Mandaviya flagged off the first trial container ship from Kolkata (West Bengal) to Agartala (Tripura) through Chattogram Port of Bangladesh in a virtual ceremony. This will not only provide an alternative and shorter route for India to connect it's North East Region (NER) through Bangladesh but will also further boost India-Bangladesh maritime relations.

Indian Institute of Technology Madras(IIT-M)-incubated start-up, Modulus Housing has developed a portable hospital unit, 'MediCAB', a decentralized approach to detect, screen, identify, isolate and treat COVID-19 patients. It can be installed anywhere within 2 hours by four people.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only impacted the routine life but it also made the virtual world vulnerable to cyber threats as there was a rapid increase in digitization during the last 5 months of global lockdown. In order to deal with this situation, on July 16, 2020, India and Israel have signed an agreement to further expand their collaboration in dealing with cyber threats. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a unit of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and Israel's National Cyber Directorate (INCD).

Day of International Criminal Justice is annually observed on 17th July to recognise the importance of the international criminal justice system in prevailing the justice for the victims of the crimes, wars and genocide and to promote their rights.

Union Minister for Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal addressed the opening session of two day long Digital Indo- Italian Business Mission on Food Processing held virtually. This webinar consisted of digital conferences; trade fair, and B2B (business to business) meetings where 23 Italian companies virtually exhibited their products and services for end users and other industry players in India.

Union HRD (Human Resource Development) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Minister of State (MoS) for HRD Sanjay Dhotre have jointly launched the first online National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) programme for 1,200 key resources persons (KRPs) of Andhra Pradesh (AP), virtually from New Delhi.

In accordance with the "Cushman & Wakefield's 2020 Global Manufacturing Risk Index (MRI)" India ranks 3rd in the Baseline Scenario, 3rd in Cost Scenario & 30th in Risk Scenario.

Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', the Union Minister of Human Resource Development E-launched the world's most affordable Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) based COVID-19 diagnostic kit, "Corosure Kit". It is developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi(IIT-D) approved by Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) and Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat inaugurated 'Smriti Van' at Asthal village of Dehradun district in memory of late Jeet Singh Negi, famous folk singer of the state on the occasion of Harela festival.

The Toronto International Film Festival(TIFF), announced that Kate Winslet will be receiving the 2020 TIFF Tribute Actor Award at the virtual event of the 45th edition of TIFF. Kate will receive the honour in the virtual gala on 15th September 2020, following her film, Francis Lee's Ammonite in which she played a fossil hunter Mary Anning.

The Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE), announced integration of Artificial Intelligence(AI) in the high school (11th & 12th grade) curriculum for the 2020-2021 academic year. The curriculum was developed in collaboration with IBM (International Business Machines Corporation).

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development(NABARD) has sanctioned Rs 795 crore to West Bengal to reconstruct infrastructure which was damaged by Cyclone Amphan under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund.

Neela Satyanarayanan (72), first woman State Election Commissioner (SEC) of Maharashtra and a praised Marathi author died of COVID-19 on July 16, 2020. She died at Seven Hills Hospital at Marol in Andheri (East), Mumbai where she was undergoing treatment for COVID-19.

ICRA Limited (formerly Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency) projects India's Gross Domestic Product(GDP) to contract by 9.5%(-9.5%) in FY21 from 5% earlier forecasted as ongoing lockdowns in some states have affected the recovery seen in May and June 2020.