Current Affairs - October 9, 2020 Current Affairs

Union Minister of Textiles, Smriti Irani has launched the first-ever Brand and Logo for Indian Cotton on Second World Cotton Day through video conferencing. Now India's premium cotton would be known as 'Kasturi Cotton' in the world cotton trade. The Kasturi Cotton brand will represent Whiteness, Brightness, Softness, Purity, Luster, Uniqueness and Indianness.

World's biggest fertilizer cooperative, Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) and Prasar Bharati on Monday signed a MoU to broadcast and promote new agriculture technology and innovations. The agreement was signed at a program organised in Prthivi Bhavan, New Delhi.

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2020 is awarded to the American poet Louise Gluck "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal". The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded by The Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Sweden.

On October 7, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Jan Andolan. It is a campaign for covid-19 appropriate behaviour. The campaign was launched by the Prime Minister in the social media platform Twitter.

The Telangana Government on Tuesday signed a tripartite agreement between DET, GIZ India and Siemens India to implement a new initiative, Indo-German Initiative for Technical Education (IGnITE), which focuses on the need of the industry, industry practices and training of trainees in the presence of Labour and Employment Minister Ch Malla Reddy.

Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra today launched the Application Programming Interface, integration between the PM SVANidhi Portal and the State Bank of India portal to ease processing of loan applications. This integration will facilitate seamless flow of data between the PM SVANidhi Portal and SBI's e-Mudra Portal in a secure environment and expedite the loan sanctioning and disbursement process, which will benefit the street vendors seeking working capital loan under the scheme.

The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and Ladakh administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding for conducting a benchmark survey to promote dairying and rural livelihood in the region. NDDB's dairy potential survey will help prepare a road map to boost dairying in the union territory (UT) and will help in enhancing income of rural population in the mountainous border areas, NDDB said in a release.

The Kuwaiti government, headed by Prime Minister(PM) Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah submitted its resignation to Emir Nawaf Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah in anticipation of the upcoming general elections that are due to be held in November 2020. He took charge as the PM in 2019.

Russia successfully test-fired a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile in the Arctic. The Missile was fired from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the White Sea, Russian Arctic. The missile covered a distance of 450 km with the maximum altitude of its trajectory at 28 km. The flight lasted 4.5 minutes and the missile reached a hypersonic speed of over Mach 8. The Missile is a scramjet-powered maneuvering anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile.

The 42nd GST Council meeting chaired by the Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman started via video conferencing. GST Council was unable to come to a consensus on the compensation borrowing options as no final decision was taken at the 42nd meet held on October 5. The next meeting has been scheduled for October 12.

Chqbook, India's first Neobank for small business owners like kiranas, merchants, chemists, and others running proprietorships, announced the launch of its new mobile platform. With this launch, Chqbook brings world-class financial services to a massive underserved segment.

The state government of Gujarat has announced a 'Digital Seva Setu' programme to ensure optimum utilization of technology for public welfare in rural areas. The program has been initiated under the Centre's BharatNet Project.

Axis Bank in partnership with India's full-service carrier, Vistara launched a Co-Branded Forex Card, 'Axis Bank Club Vistara Forex Card' to cater to the needs of international travellers. This is the 1st-ever collaboration by a bank and an Indian airline for a co-branded forex card.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center (ISLRTC) and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to make educational materials accessible for hearing impaired children, informed the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on Tuesday.

J Venkatramu has been appointed the managing director and chief executive officer of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). He will succeed Suresh Sethi, who served the post till March 2020. Venkatramuis presently working as the chief digital officer in Equitas Small Finance Bank. He has been appointed to the post of MD and CEO of IPPB for a period of three years.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has launched an online discovery platform for startups called "Startup India Showcase". The main aim of this website is to make a repository of India's most promising startups that have proved their capabilities, from across sectors such as fintech, enterprise tech, social impact, health tech, and edutech, among others.

The Centre has appointed M Rajeshwar Rao as the new deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India on 7th October 2020. Prior to this, M Rajeshwar Rao was an executive director at RBI. He succeeds NS Vishwanathan as the central bank's fourth deputy governor. NS Vishwanathan resigned from the post in March 2020 before the completion of his term in June, citing health reasons.

Indian Air Force Day is celebrated every year by the Indian Air Force on 8th of October. This year Indian Air Force celebrated its 88th anniversary. Indian Air Force was officially established on 8 October 1932 by the British Empire as the Royal Indian Air Force. The name was changed to Indian Air Force in 1950.

Former Governor of Manipur and Nagaland, and ex-CBI Director, Ashwani Kumar passed away. He was born at Nahan in Sirmaur district and joined the Indian Police Force in 1973. He was allotted the Himachal Pradesh cadre and while working as the District Superintendent of Police at Shimla in 1985, he was inducted in the newly created Special Protection Group (SPG), where he worked till 1990.

The United States recently stopped its 12 million USD funding to World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society and other conservation NGOs.