Current Affairs - July 22, 2020 Current Affairs

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat launched "Arun Jaitley Financial Assistance for Group C Employees", an Employees Welfare Scheme in the name of former Union Minister of Finance, Arun Jaitley .The Scheme will be funded by the pension his family receives as he has been a member of the upper house. The scheme was formulated and approved based on the decision of Sangeeta Jaitley, wife of Arun Jaitley.

Rajasthan Cabinet has approved 'One-Stop Shop' Scheme- OSS (earlier known as single window clearance system) to fast track investment and capacity expansion proposals by facilitating time-bound approvals and clearances.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Harsh Vardhan launched Punjab National Bank (PNB)'s nationwide Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) campaign to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by distributing face masks and sanitizers.

The Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 2019, which has replaced old Consumer Protection Act 1986 has came into force w.e.f. July 20, 2020 aiming to enforce and protect the rights of consumers, and provide an effective mechanism to address consumer grievances. The act was briefed by Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan through video conference with media.

Lalji Tandon, Governor of Madhya Pradesh, passed away on 21 June 2020 due to illness. He was 85 years old. Lalji Tandon has played a vital role in strengthening the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh. Tandon has made a mark as an effective administrator.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that the Men's T20 World cup, 2020 scheduled to be played in Australia in October - November, has been postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two tax policy bodies under the Finance Ministry: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), signed A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a smoother data exchange between the two organisations. The MoU comes into force from the date of signing. The MoU was signed by Shri Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT and Shri M. Ajit Kumar, Chairman, CBIC.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has provided its indigenously-developed drone named Bharat to the Indian Army. The drones will help the army carry out accurate surveillance in high altitude areas and mountainous terrain, especially along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh.

The United States has listed Reliance Jio among the companies that are becoming "Clean Telcos", saying they are rejecting doing business with companies like Huawei that are tools of the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state.

In the review meeting of "Char Dham Road Project" over a virtual platform, Prakash Javadekar, the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change(MoEF&CC) informed the approval of the Zonal Master Plan (ZMP) of Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone by the Ministry Environment, Forest and Climate Change(MoEF&CC) on 16th July 2020.

The Haryana Cabinet gave approval to the 'Samadhan se Vikas', a one-time settlement scheme for the recovery of long-pending dues on account of External Development Charges (EDC). It is modeled on the central scheme 'Vivad se Vishwas-2020'.

A team of researchers led by Peter Ng from Singapore confirmed the discovery of a new species called 'Bathynomus raksasa'(Described as "cockroach of the sea"). The scientists reported their findings in the biodiversity research journal 'ZooKeys'. The researchers found the new species in 2018 during a deep-sea survey off of the coast of Banten, Western Java, Indonesia (Indian Ocean).

Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' is to launch virtually the Manodarpan initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on 21 July 2020. Manodarpan is an initiative under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, to provide psychosocial support to students for their Mental Health and Well-being

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MoMSME) signed the formal memorandum of understanding (MoU) for sharing of data related to income tax returns by the CBDT to the Ministry of MSME. The union Minister of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MoMSME) is Nitin Jairam Gadkari.

The Tamil Nadu government signed 8 Memorandums of Understandings (MoUs) worth Rs 10,399 crore with companies to create employment opportunities for over 13,507 people. The MoUs were signed in the presence of Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami in the Secretariat at Fort St George in Chennai.

The official notification of The Department of Social security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) informed that, Odisha Government has included the transgender community under Madhu Babu Pension Yojana(MBPY), a social security scheme by amending to Rule 6 of the Madhu Babu Pension Rules 2008.

The Indian armed forces successfully test-fired the helicopter-launched Nag Missile Dhruvastra anti-tank guided missile, erstwhile called Helina, indirect and top attack mode. The flight test trials were done without a helicopter on 15th and 16th July at ITR Balasore, Odisha.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, who also holds the finance portfolio presented Rs 9000 crore tax free budget for the financial year 2020-2021 in the assembly. The budget is Rs 575 crore more than the previous year's outlay of Rs 8,425 crore and Rs 1073 crore more than the revised budget outlay of Rs 7927 crore in 2019-2020.

Karur Vysya Bank (KVB)'s Board of Directors has co-opted Ramesh Babu Boddu as an Additional Director and appointed him as the Managing Director(MD) & Chief Executive Officer(CEO) for three years tenure. He replaces P R Seshadri, who resigned in January 2020 citing personal reasons.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) signed the statement of intent with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s multi stakeholder platform - YuWaah to mobilise 1 crore youth volunteers in India to achieve the goals of Atmanirbhar Bharat.