Current Affairs - September 6, 2020 Current Affairs

The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) has signed a pact with the India Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre (ISIC) to jointly identify and nurture frugal innovations and make quality healthcare affordable and accessible.

The Union Minister Prakash Javadekar announced that the centre is working rejuvenation of 13 rivers. The minister announced this on the occasion of celebration of ?Cauvery Calling? movement. Highlights The 13 rivers that are under rejuvenation are Beas, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, Yamuna, Luni, Narmada, Godavari, Cauvery, Krishna, Mahanadi, and Brahmaputra.

Relations between India and Bangladesh reached another milestone on Thursday, following the operationalization of the Daukandi (Bangladesh)-Sonamura (Tripura) Inland Waterway Protocol route. This would be the first-ever export consignment from Bangladesh to Tripura through the inland waterways.

On September 3, 2020, Karnataka cabinet approved a new Information Technology Policy, 2020. The policy will help the state to increase its contribution in achieving its goal of 1 trillion USD. Also, the policy will help the state to create six million jobs. The policy is to be executed between 2020 and 2025.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released revised Priority Sector Lending (PSL) guidelines, which will enable better credit penetration in credit-deficient areas, increase loans for small and marginal farmers, and boost loans towards renewable energy and health infrastructure.

Private life insurer, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited has appointed Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana as its brand ambassador. As the brand ambassador of the life insurer, actor will be promoting the products as well as the digital services of the Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited.

On September 4, 2020, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met his Chinese counter part in Moscow. The Defence Minister is on a three day visit to Russia to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. He had earlier met the Russian Defence Minster and signed a deal to acquire AK-203 rifles.

The energy Efficiency Services Limited announced that it will procure 250 electric Vehicles from Tata Motors and Hyundai Motor India. Highlights The Tata Motors is to supply 150 Nexon electric compact SUVs and the Hyundai Motor India Limited will supply 100 Kona Electric SUVs for government use.

The United States recently published an annual report on Chinese Military power. According to the report, the Chinese Navy is now the largest in the world. Highlights The report says that the overall battle force of China is approximately 350 ships and submarines. This includes 130 major surface combatants.

The 12th Mekong Ganga Cooperation Senior Officials' Meeting (12th MGC SOM) was held via Video Conference on 3 September 2020. The meeting, which was attended by Senior Officials from all 6 MGC Member States, was co-chaired by H.E. Smt. Vijay Thakur Singh, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs and H.E. Mr. Sok Soken, Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Cambodia.

A new publication ?The Little Book of Green Nudges has been launched by the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP). The newly launched publication seeks to encourage around 200 million students around the world to adopt environmentally friendly habits and greener lifestyles.

The World Health Organization recently recommended the use of steroid drugs to treat COVID-19. The WHO trials say that the Corticosteroid drugs reduce the risk of death in critical COVID-19 patients by 20%. Highlights An analysis of seven international trials found that the Corticosteroid drugs reduced the risk of death in critical COVID-19 patients.

West Indies cricket icon Dwayne Bravo has become the first cricket ambassador for "SBOTOP" sportsbook brand. Isle of Man betting group Celton Manx has appointed the West Indies cricketer as the cricket ambassador for its flagship sportsbook.

India's GM P. Iniyan won the 48th annual world open chess tournament (online) recently. Usually held in Philadelphia, the USA, the tournament was conducted online following classical time control. In a strong field that had 31 GMs, Iniyan scored 7.5 points from nine games. Iniyan and Sanan Sjugirov (Russia) were tied on points but the former won on better tie-break.

Punjab government has rolled out ?I Rakhwali? App to ensure greenery and to protect the environment in Punjab. The development of app is state governments? effort to supplement its drive to preserve and maintain the environment in Punjab and to make people stakeholders in the process.

The current European Union President and the largest economy of Europe, Germany launched Indo-Pacific strategy. It was launched with India. Highlights The strategy has several indirect references to Chinese behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region. Germany has also suggested to play a key role in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.

The Defence Minister is at Russia's capital Moscow attending SCO meet. He arrived on September 2, 2020 and is on a three-day visit. Highlights The Defence Minister on the side lines of the SCO meet held talks with his Russian counter part Shoigu. During the meet, the leaders signed the AK-203 rifles deal.

The G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting will take place as part of the Sherpa Track for the G20 Leaders Summit 2020, which is to be hosted by Saudi Arabia at the end of 2020.

The 5th BRICS Culture Ministers? Meeting was held under the chairpersonship of Russian Federation. India was represented by Union Minister of State (I/C) for Culture and Tourism Shri Prahlad Singh Patel in the 5th BRICS Culture Ministers Meet. The participants of the meeting deliberated on the impact of the epidemiological situation on the cultural sphere in the BRICS countries. It also reviewed the possible implementation of joint cultural online-projects within BRICS.

The Reserve Bank of India today announced that it will conduct open market operations or OMO of government t securities worth ?20,000 crore in two tranches. "On a review of current and evolving liquidity and market conditions, the Reserve Bank has decided to conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under Open Market Operation (OMO) for an aggregate amount of ?20,000 crores in two tranches of ?10,000 crores each. The auctions would be conducted on August 27, 2020 and September 03, 2020," RBI said.