Current Affairs 19th November 2020| Current Affairs News

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CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS

International Students’ Day

• TheInternational Students‘ Day is celebrated all around the world on November 17th.
• The day aims to ensure that every student has access to education around the globe.
• The date was chosen to be commemorated as the International Students’ Day due to the events that took place in Prague during World War II.

Naturopathy Day

• The National Naturopathy Day is observed in India on 18 November every year, to promote positive mental and physical health through drugless system of medicine, called as Naturopathy.
• National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN), Pune under Ministry of AYUSH will be organizing a series of webinars on Gandhian philosophy of Self Reliance through Self Health Reliance on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary celebrations from 2nd Oct 2020 and which will go on till National Naturopathy Day, i.e., 18th Nov 2020.
• The institute will release a book on Naturopathy Day titled, Gandhi the Healer, which will be available for free download as an ebook from the NIN website (ninpune.ayush.gov.in).
• The day was declared by the Ministry of AYUSH(Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy), Government of India, on November 18,

World Toilet Day- 19^th nov

• This day is being observed to create awareness about sanitation and encourage people to use toilets.
• Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation of Ministry of Jal Shakti will celebrate ‘World Toilet Day’ under ‘Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen for promoting awareness on access to safe sanitation. On this occasion, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will felicitate top districts and States with ‘Swachhata Puraskar’.
• The theme of this year’s World Toilet Day is sustainable sanitation and climate change. Severe effects of climate change like floods, drought and rising sea levels are threatening sanitation systems and increasing health risks.

Indian Army celebrates 240th Corps of Engineers Day

• Indian Army celebrated the 240th Corps of Engineers Day.  In a solemn ceremony organized at ‘National War Memorial’, Lt Gen SK Shrivastava, Engineer-in-Chief along with other serving officers, laid wreaths and paid homage to the brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country.
• The Corps of Engineers provides combat engineering support, develops infrastructure for armed forces and other defence organisations and maintains connectivity along country’s vast borders besides providing succour to populace during natural disasters. These tasks are executed through four pillars of the Corps – Combat Engineers, Military Engineer Service, Border Road Organisation and Military Survey.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL

PM Modi virtually inaugurates Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bengaluru Tech Summit He stated technology helps speed up delivery of Government programmes and encourages transparency.
• May it be the world’s largest health insurance programme, Ayushman Bharat or reaching electricity and providing shelter to the poor, he stated that the policy of his Government is to find tech solutions for their quick implementation.
• The summit to be held for three days will see the participation of 4000 delegates, 270 speakers in 75 panel discussions. 25 tech nations are participating in the summit along with thought leaders, industry captains, technocrats, researchers, innovators, investors, policy makers and educators.
• During the event, 12 Memorandum of Understanding will be signed with foreign countries paving the way for investments in Karnataka. Over 200 Indian companies are setting up virtual exhibitions. Some 50 Indian tech start ups will showcase their technology to European companies.

Food Processing Ministry launches GIS One District One Product digital map

• The Ministry of Food Processing launched the GIS One District One Product (ODOP) digital map of India. Minister for Food Processing Industries, Narendra Singh Tomar, also virtually inaugurated the capacity building component of the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PM-FME Scheme).
• Under the capacity building component of the PM-FME scheme, training of Master Trainers would be delivered through the online mode, classroom lectures and demonstrations, and self-paced online learning material. NIFTEM and IIFPT play a key role by providing training and research support to selected enterprises/ groups/ clusters in partnership with State Level Technical Institutions. The Master Trainers will train the District Level Trainers, who will train the beneficiaries.
• States have also identified the food products of districts, keeping in view the availability of existing clusters and raw materials, under the scheme. The GIS ODOP digital map of India provides details of ODOP products of all the states and facilitates the stakeholders, the official statement added.

About Ministry of Food Processing Industries:

• Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Food Processing Industries
• Constituency: Morena, Madhya Pradesh
• Rameswar Teli, Minister of State for Food Processing Industries

Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurates curtain raiser of IISF-2020 Virtual Event

• Union Minister of Science & Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurated the curtain raiser of IISF-2020 for kick-starting different events of the 6th edition of India International Science Festival (IISF), in New Delhi.
• The Minister also released an e-brochure of this mega-event, on the occasion. IISF is an annual event organized jointly by DST, DBT, MoEF, MoHWF and CSIR from the Government of India and VijnanaBharati (VIBHA).
• The website of IISF-2020 was also launched during the event. All the activities and registration of the participants will be done through this website. Detailed information is available on IISF website- www.scienceindiafest.org
• Dr Harsh Vardhan announced that the theme for this year’s festival is ‘Science for Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Global Welfare’. He informed that “This year, IISF begins on 22 December 2020, the birthday of Srinivas Ramanujan, the world-renowned Indian mathematician and culminates on 25 December 2020, the birthday of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee”.

About Ministry of Science and Technology   :

• Union minister of Science and Technology, Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Minister of Earth Sciences: Dr. Harsh Vardhan
• Constituency: Chandni Chowk

CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL

UK Government first sponsors for 2021 UN Climate Change Conference

• The UK government announced the first principal partners for the UN climate conference, COP26, scheduled for November 1-12, 2021 in Glasgow.
• “The UK has revealed its first sponsors for COP26 as it drives climate action in the run up to the international climate change summit in Glasgow.
• SSE, Scottish Power, NatWest Group and National Grid are the first Principal Partners who will support the delivery of a successful and ambitious COP next November”, the government stated.
• The statement, listed Scottish Power, SSE and National Grid as energy companies that are investing in low-carbon assets as the country is working to reach an emission-free economy by 2050, while NatWest Group is one of the largest investors in the UK renewable energy industry.
• UN climate conferences are held annually to bring together the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for discussion on pressing climate issues.
• It was originally scheduled for November this year but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The conference is hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy.

About UK:

• Prime minister: Boris Johnson
• Capital: London
• Currency: Pound sterling

Japan Inc to begin experiments issuing digital yen on ‘mutually compatible platform’

• More than 30 major Japanese firms will begin experiments next year towards issuing a common, private digital currency to promote digitalisation in one of the world’s most cash-loving countries, the group’s organising body stated.
• The move follows the Bank of Japan’s recently announced plan to experiment with issuing a digital yen, underscoring a growing awareness of the need for Japan to catch up to rapid global advances in financial technology.
• The group, consisting of Japan’s three biggest banks as well as brokerages, telecommunication firms, utilities and retailers, will conduct experiments for issuing a digital currency that will use a common settlement platform.
• Japan has among the most cash-loving people in the world, with cashless payments making up only 20 per cent of total settlement – well below the United States, with 45 per cent and China with 70 per cent.
• Japan’s three megabanks – Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc , Mizuho Financial Group Inc and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc – have each rolled out their own digital payment systems. But they lag efforts by tech firms such as SoftBank Group unit PayPay.

About Japan:

• Capital: Tokyo
• Currency: Japanese yen
• Prime minister: Yoshihide Suga

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE

BSE StAR MF launches a direct investment portal for corporate

• BSE, the leading stock exchange has launched ‘Corp Direct – A Direct Investment Portal for Corporates’, with more features which will further simplify and provide end-to-end value-based services to the asset management companies (AMCs), distributors, investors, and mutual fund industry participants.
• The StAR MF Corp Direct Portal is loaded with salient new features and is currently live for Corporates. It will soon be available for other non-individuals (HUF, Partnership Firms, Societies, etc.)

The key features of StAR MF Corp Direct are as below:

• End to End Digital Web Module
• Corporate Parent-Child Entity Concept
• All AMCs and Schemes available under single platform
• SMS & Email Confirmation & approval process
• Multiple Transactions at single click
• Availability of Multiple Payment Options
• Quick Onboarding for Corporates who are already transacting (in any of the AMC/RTA platform)
• Customized Connectivity Feature (based on Corporate Requirement)
• Value added Services: Corporate Dashboard View, Transaction basket, Pre-filled transaction form, etc.

About BSE

• BSE Limited, formerly known as the Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd., is an Indian stock exchange located at Dalal Street, Mumbai. Established in 1875, it is Asia’s oldest stock exchange.
• Vikramajit Sen; (Chairman); Ashishkumar Chauhan; (MD & CEO)

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

Microsoft launches programme for health-tech start-ups, collaborates with Social Alpha

• The ‘Microsoft for Healthtech Startups’ programme has been launched to provide necessary resources to health-tech start-ups along with go-to-market support.
• The tech giant is also collaborating with start-up incubator Social Alpha “to accelerate the growth of participating start-ups.”
• The programme will provide technical support as well as resources for co-selling and co-building tech tools to entrepreneurs in the sector.
• It will provide various Azure benefits including free credits along with support for Azure Marketplace onboarding to qualified seed-to-Series C start-ups.
• “Start-ups with enterprise-ready solutions can scale quickly with joint go-to-market strategies, technical support and new sales opportunities with Microsoft’s partner ecosystem,” Microsoft stated.

About Microsoft:

• CEO: Satya Nadella
• Headquarters: Redmond, Washington, United States

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Poonawalla Finance, ICSI tie up to offer collateral-free loan for company secretaries

• Poonawalla Finance Pvt Ltd, a non-deposit taking NBFC, has entered into a tie-up with the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) to offer collateral-free special term loan product to over 65,000 Company Secretaries.
• The agreement will help ICSI members fulfil the financial requirements for their professional practice and personal emergencies, the company stated.
• The special term loan scheme carries zero processing fees for loans up to 36 months, attractive interest rate, zero prepayment charges, zero collateral and 100 per cent digital processing with minimum documentation. It also comes with an option to take-over existing loans with higher interest rates.
• The loan amount ranges from 2-30 lakh with flexible repayment tenure between 12-60 months. The loans can be availed with four easy steps: online application, document upload, approval in 24 hours and online loan disbursal.

About Institute of Company Secretaries of India:

• President: CS Ashish Garg
• CEO: CS Sutanu Sinha
• Headquarters location: New Delhi

CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATES

Martyr Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary will be celebrated as “Tribal Pride Day”

• Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken the decision to celebrate the birth anniversary of Martyr Birsa Munda as “Tribal Pride Day” in the state.
• “Tribal Pride Day” will be celebrated on November 15th at all district headquarters including Bhopal.
• The programme to be organized on the birth anniversary of Martyr Birsa Munda in the Tribal Museum of Bhopal.
• The event which is to be organized under the joint aegis of the Department of Culture and the Tribal Welfare Department, will have special programmes to pay tribute to the tribal heroes and remember their contribution.
• Besides, special programmes should also be organized in the honour of the tribal freedom struggle fighters.

About Madhya Pradesh

• Capital: Bhopal
• Chief minister: Shivraj Singh Chouhan
• Governor: Anandiben Patel

Puducherry govt rolls out free breakfast scheme for school students named after Karunanidhi

• The Congress-ruled Puducherry rolled out a free breakfast scheme for school students named after the late DMK President M Karunanidhi.
• Karunanidhi, a former Chief Minister of neighbouring Tamil Nadu, was keenly interested in development of Puducherry and more particularly the downtrodden and marginalised section.
• Senior DMK leader and Rajya Sabha member from Tamil Nadu, RS Bharathi, formally inaugurated the “Dr Kalaignar Mu Karunanidhi Kaalai Sitrundi Thittam” (Dr Kalaignar M Karunanidhi breakfast scheme) that will benefit about 80,000 students in 419 government and aided institutions.

About Puducherry

• Chief Minister: V. Narayanasamy
• Governor: Kiren Bedi

Kadalu App to help fishermen launched in Udupi

• The Coastal Security Police launched the Kadalu App for fishermen that will help them in submitting information about their arrival and departure from the fishing harbour using android mobile phones.
• The Coastal Security Police conceptualised the app and developed it for the Department of Fisheries. It was launched by the Minister for Fisheries, Inland Transport Department and Muzrai Kota Srinivasa Poojary at a fishing awareness programme held at Moodukudu, Krishnapura, near Udupi, Karnataka.
• With the app, those leaving on registered fishing boats can post details about the members onboard and upload their group photos before leaving the harbour. This information has to be uploaded even after returning to harbour with catch.
• In the next few days fishermen will get weather updates on the app. They will also provide information about places where fish will be available

Recent News

• Tamil Nadu fisherman from the Ramanathapuram district’s Pamban town has started ‘Kadal Osai FM 90.4’, India’s first and only radio channel for fisherfolk.
• The government ofKerala has launched a pioneering eco-sustainable programme called ‘Parivarthanam’, to improve the livelihood of the fishing community.

About Karnataka

• Capital: Bengaluru
• Governor: Vajubhai Vala
• Chief minister: B. S. Yediyurappa

Himachal Pradesh CM flags off Medical Mobile Unit Jeevan Dhara

• In order to provide complete range of health care services for people living in remote and inaccessible areas of Himachal Pradesh, the state government flagged off Medical Mobile Unit Jeevan Dhara, from the Ridge in Shimla.
• The van would function as a Mobile Primary Health Centre. He stated free medical consultancy and screening would be provided to the patients through Jeevan Dhara Mobile Health and Wellness Centre. Jai Ram Thakur also flagged off TB Detection Vans on the occasion.
• The mobile Health and Wellness Van would have basic facilities such as diagnostic, testing facilities for various ailments.  Jeevan Dhara would also have requisite drugs and supplies as prescribed for a Primary Health Centre.

About Himachal Pradesh:

• Governor: Bandaru Dattatreya
• Capitals: Shimla (Summer), Dharamshala (Winter)
• Chief minister: Jai Ram Thakur

Madhya Pradesh: Digital museum opens at Maharaj Bada in Gwalior

• In Madhya Pradesh, a digital museum has been opened at Maharaj Bada in Gwalior for the public. The museum is developed by Gwalior Smart City and entry for the public is being made free for a few days.
• It is the first center of its kind in Gwalior and Bundelkhand area and will play a role in educating school students. In the Digital Museum, the architectural styles, objects, costumes, lifestyle, musical instruments, jewelry, handicrafts, cultural tradition, painting and many genres of paintings have been digitally displayed in a modern way.
• Divided into 16 galleries, Digital Museum has been built in around 3500 square feet area and will play an important role in showcasing heritage in modern and Digital way. Tourists will be able to see the history, instruments, jewelry, handicrafts and other things of Gwalior adorned in various galleries using state-of-the-art IT equipment.

About Madhya Pradesh:

• Capital: Bhopal
• Governor: Anandiben Patel(additional charge)
• Chief Minister: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

CURRENT AFFAIRS: MOU

Andhra Pradesh Skill Development Corporation signs MoUs with IBM India, three other firms

• The Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) signed MoUs with the four industry/academic partners — IBM India, Singapore Polytechnic International (SPI), India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and LV Prasad Film & TV Academy (LVPA).
• IBM India partnered with the AP government to set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in IT. IBM India will assist in developing course & curriculum, training of the trainers programmes, industrial exposure, guest lectures and provide training in emerging technologies including coding, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, Blockchain.
• Singapore Polytechnic International (SPI) partnered with the APSSDC for enabling industry-led courses in advanced manufacturing, food innovation and processing and entrepreneurship to be offered in skill colleges.
• LVPA has partnered with APSSDC to set up and operate a centre of excellence in the media and entertainment sector in Visakhapatnam. They will design and develop courses and curriculum, design and deliver the training of trainers programme, offer courses in basics of 2D animation, digital photography, basics of editing, basics of VFX and digital restoration, industrial exposure, guest lectures.
• ITDC has partnered with the state government to set up and operate a centre of excellence in the hospitality sector, design courses and  curriculum and offer courses in hospitality, event management, front office operations, housekeeping, food and beverage operations and entrepreneurship programmes.

About Andhra Pradesh:

• Governor: Biswabhusan Harichandan
• Chief minister: Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy
• Capital(s): Visakhapatnam (executive), Amaravati (legislative),Kurnool (judicial)

Tripartite Agreement Signed between USOF, BSNL and A & N Administration for Operation and Management of CANI-SMC Project

• The Government of India approved the Chennai-Andaman and Nicobar Islands (CANI) Submarine Optical Fiber Cable project with an objective to connect Chennai Cable Landing Station (CLS) with Port Blair CLS and seven Islands viz. Swaraj Dweep, Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Campbell Bay, Long Island and Rangat in September, 2016.
• BSNL was nominated as the Implementing Agency and M/s NEC Infrastructures India (P) Ltd was engaged as the Executing Agency for implementing the project at a total project cost of Rs 1212 Crore. The capital cost of the project is funded by USOF, DOT Government of India and the Operation and Maintenance Cost to the tune of Rs 46.8 Cr per year will be borne by A & N Administration.
• The Foundation stone of the project was laid by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi on 30.12.2018. The project was completed as per schedule despite difficult times of COVID-19 and Segment-1 (Chennai-Port Blair), Segment-2 (Port-Blair-Little Andaman) and Segment-6 (Port Blair-Swaraj Dweep) of the project was inaugurated.
• The A & N Administration signed tripartite agreement on 13.11.2020 with USOF and BSNL for ensuring uninterrupted quality of service with Service Levels upto 99.99%.
• The agreement has back to back arrangement for continued warrantee support by M/s NEC Infrastructures Pvt. Ltd for equipment and SEAICOMA for Wet Plant (Submarine Part) for five years, which will be signed by BSNL (Implementing Agency).
• The tripartite agreement was signed by Vijay Kumar, IAS Principal Secretary (Fin & Plg), A & N Administration in simple function held at O/o Administrator USOF, Sanchar Bhavan, New Delhi.

EESL Signs MoU with DNRE Goa to implement the country’s first Convergence Project

• Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power and Department of New & Renewable Energy (DNRE), Goa, have signed a memorandum of understanding to discuss rolling out of India’s first Convergence Project in the State.
• Under the MoU, EESL and DNRE will carry-out the feasibility studies and subsequent implementation of decentralized solar energy projects. EESL shall implement the solar energy projects, establishment of 100 MW of decentralized ground mounted Solar Power projects on government lands to be used for agricultural pumping, replace approximately 6,300 agricultural pumps with BEE star rated energy efficient pumps and distribute approximately 16 Lakh LED bulbs for rural domestic households.

About Energy Efficiency Services Limited:

• Location: New Delhi
• Chairman: Rajeev Sharma

CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOURS

NFDB confers four awards to Assam for success in fishery sector

• The National Fisheries Development Board has conferred four awards to Assam for the success in the fishery sector. Assam has got the best state award under the category of best hilly and North Eastern state. Assam Apex Cooperative Fish Marketing and Processing Federation Limited (FISHFED) has been selected under the category of best hilly and North eastern government organization.
• On the other hand, Nagaon district has been selected under best hilly and North Eastern district category while a Nalbari based farmer Amal Medhi is selected under hilly and North Eastern fish farmer category. The awards will be given on 21st of this month in New Delhi.

About Assam:

• Capital: Dispur
• Chief minister: Sarbananda Sonowal
• Governor: Jagdish Mukhi

CURRENT AFFAIRS: RANKING

India’s AI supercomputer Param Siddhi 63rd among top 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems in world

• India’s Artificial Intelligence supercomputer Param Siddhi has achieved 63rd rank among top 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems in the world. Ministry of Science and Technology stated that the AI system will strengthen application development of packages in areas such as advanced materials, computational chemistry and astrophysics.
• It stated several packages are being developed under the National Supercomputing Mission for drug design and preventive health care system, flood forecasting package for flood prone metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Patna and Guwahati.
• This will accelerate Research and Development in war against COVID-19 through faster simulations, medical imaging, genome sequencing and forecasting and will be a boon for Indian masses and for start-Ups and MSMEs in particular.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: OBITUARY

Rajasthan Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Bhanwarlal Meghwal passes away

• Rajasthan Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Bhanwarlal Meghwal passed away. He was 72.
• He was a veteran leader who was passionate about serving Rajasthan.
• The five-time MLA represented the Sujangarh assembly constituency of Churu district of the state.

Ray Clemence, former England goalkeeper passes away, aged 72

• Former England, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Ray Clemence has passed away aged 72.
• He won five top-flight league titles, three European Cups and two UEFA Cups with Liverpool before moving to Spurs, where he added another UEFA Cup and FA Cup to his trophy cabinet.
• After his retirement as a player, Clemence held coaching positions with England and Spurs.

DAILY CA NOV 18^TH

• The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims takes place on the third Sunday in November every year. The theme for WDoR in 2020 is “First Responders”
• The central government has disbursed more than Rs 42,700 crore to 6 lakh retired defence personnel under the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme, which was notified five years ago.
• The Union Ministry of Family Welfare (MoHFW) launched a three-month campaign to focus on awareness generation and early intervention with regard to childhood pneumonia. The initiative targets to reduce less than five pneumonia deaths, per a 1000 live births, to less than three deaths by 2025 through the accelerated SAANS (Social Action and Awareness to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully) initiative.
• Equitas Small Finance Bank has launched a new product aimed at women, ‘Eva’, a unique savings account tries to address the well-being of Indian women. Meanwhile Equitas Small Finance Bank announced Smriti Mandhana – Indian Woman cricketer as the new Brand Ambassador.
• SBM Bank Indiawhich is the wholly-owned subsidiary of State Bank of Mauritius, is focussing on technology to reach out to customers and is set to launch a neo banking platform.They have tied up with afintech PayNearby
• RBL Bank has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud service to drive digital transformation.
• India captain Virat Kohli unveiled as the brand ambassador for Vize, a new healthcare and sanitation product.
• Maia Sandu has won Moldova’s presidential election after a run-off vote against the incumbent Igor Dodon.
• Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the seventh time in two decades while Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi took oath as the deputy chief ministers.
• SpaceX successfully launched its first operational space taxi flight for NASA, Falcon 9 rocket took to the skies above Kennedy Space Center in Three NASA astronauts, Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
• Researchers from the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), IISc, have discovered five new species of vine snakes, four from the Western Ghats alone.
• The second phase of Malabar Exercise 2020 is scheduled to start in the Northern Arabian Sea.
• Former Barcelona and Argentina great Javier Mascherano announced his retirement from football.
• Vice Admiral John Thomas Goslin Pereira(retd.), Indian Navy’s former Chief of Materials, passed away after a brief illness.
• Every year, the National Epilepsy Day is celebrated on November 17. The day is celebrated to create awareness about epilepsy.
• The selected renewable power generator (RPG) shall commission the solar power plant within twelve months from date of issuance of Letter of Award (LoA), it added.
• Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison have signed a landmark defence deal in a bid to counter China’s growing influence in the South China Sea and over the Pacific island nations.
• Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, DIPAM signed an agreement with World Bank.
• HDFC Bank Ltd, announced the launch of “Mooh Band Rakho,” a campaign to increase awareness on cyber frauds and preventing them.
• With Lakshmi Vilas Bank’s efforts to raise capital reaching a dead-end, the Reserve Bank of India superseded the board of the loss-making lender, placed the bank under moratorium and announced a draft scheme for its amalgamation with DBS Bank India Ltd (DBIL).
• Reserve Bank of India has announced the names of two startups that have been selected as a part of its regulatory sandbox programme. RBI stated, it has shortlisted six companies out of 32 entities that had applied for the ‘Test Phase’ of the first cohort.
• Karnataka Bank launched CASA (current account, savings account) mobilisation campaign which will run from November 17 to March 4, 2021.
• Bosch and BASF Digital Farming have signed a 50:50 joint venture (JV) agreement to globally market and sell smart farming solutions from a single source in the future.
• The Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) has joined hands with Microsoft and NASSCOM FutureSkills to roll out the ‘March to Million’ initiative in the State.
• Madhya Pradesh government has announced the first of its kind cow cabinet for the protection of cows.
• Railway Protection Force (RPF) has started an intensive awareness drive called ‘Meri Saheli’ aiming to provide better safety and security to women passengers in Madhya Pradesh also
• The Indian School of Business (ISB) and Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
• Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank” virtually launched Lilavati Award-2020: AICTE’s Innovative education program to empower women.
• WHO listed the nOPV2 vaccine (Bio Farma, Indonesia) for emergency use to address the rising cases of a vaccine-derived polio strain in a number of African and East Mediterranean countries.
• Cellulose nanocrystals derived from peel can be used for making biodegradable food packaging material with low oxygen permeability
• The second flight test of Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile System (QRSAM) was successfully conducted from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha.
• The Women’s Under-17 football World Cup in India, which was initially postponed to next year due to COVID-19 pandemic, was cancelled by FIFA, but India was handed the hosting rights of the 2022 edition.
• In tennis, Dominic Thiem defeated 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal in straight sets at the ATP Finals in London. World number three Thiem of Austria clinched a victory over world number two Spaniard Nadal.

DAILY CA NOV 19^TH

• TheInternational Students‘ Day is celebrated all around the world on November 17th.
• The National Naturopathy Day is observed in India on 18 November every year. The day was declared by theMinistry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy), Government of India, on November 18,
• Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken the decision to celebrate the birth anniversary of Martyr Birsa Munda as “Tribal Pride Day” in the state. “Tribal Pride Day” will be celebrated on November 15^th.
• The Congress-ruled Puducherry rolled out a free breakfast scheme for school students named after the late DMK President M Karunanidhi. The “Dr Kalaignar Mu Karunanidhi Kaalai Sitrundi Thittam” (Dr Kalaignar M Karunanidhi breakfast scheme) that will benefit about 80,000 students in 419 government and aided institutions.
• The Coastal Security Police launched the Kadalu App for fishermen that will help them in submitting information about their arrival and departure from the fishing harbour using android mobile phones near Udupi, Karnataka.
• BSE, the leading stock exchange has launched ‘Corp Direct – A Direct Investment Portal for Corporates’, with more features which will further simplify and provide end-to-end value-based services to the asset management companies (AMCs), distributors, investors, and mutual fund industry participants.
• India has entered into a technical recession in the first half of 2020-21 for the first time in its history with Q2:2020-21 likely to record the second successive quarter of GDP contraction
• Banking regulator the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has named Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former co-Chairman, Infosys, as the first Chairperson of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH).
• Prime minister Narendra Modi will deliver an address at the third Annual Bloomberg New Economy Forum. Established in 2018 by Michael Bloomberg,The inaugural forum was held in Singapore, followed by a second edition in Beijing, covering issues such as global economic management, trade and investment, technology, urbanisation, capital markets, climate change and inclusion.
• The Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) signed MoUs with the four industry/academic partners — IBM India, Singapore Polytechnic International (SPI), India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and LV Prasad Film & TV Academy (LVPA).
• The A & N Administration signed tripartite agreement on 13.11.2020 with USOF and BSNL for ensuring uninterrupted quality of service with Service Levels upto 99.99%.
• Rajasthan Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Bhanwarlal Meghwal passed away. He was 72.
• Former England, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Ray Clemence has passed away aged 72.
• Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation of Ministry of Jal Shakti will celebrate ‘World Toilet Day’ under ‘Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen for promoting awareness on access to safe sanitation. The theme of this year’s World Toilet Day is sustainable sanitation and climate change.
• Indian Army celebrated the 240th Corps of Engineers Day.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bengaluru Tech Summit virtually.
• The Ministry of Food Processing launched the GIS One District One Product (ODOP) digital map of India. Minister for Food Processing Industries, Narendra Singh Tomar, also virtually inaugurated the capacity building component of the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PM-FME Scheme).
• Union Minister of Science & Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurated the curtain raiser of IISF-2020 for kick-starting different events of the 6th edition of India International Science Festival (IISF), in New Delhi.
• The UK government announced the first principal partners for the UN climate conference, COP26, scheduled for November 1-12, 2021 in Glasgow.
• More than 30 major Japanese firms will begin experiments next year towards issuing a common, private digital currency to promote digitalisation in one of the world’s most cash-loving countries, the group’s organising body stated.
• The ‘Microsoft for Healthtech Startups’ programme has been launched to provide necessary resources to health-tech start-ups along with go-to-market support.
• Poonawalla Finance Pvt Ltd, a non-deposit taking NBFC, has entered into a tie-up with the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) to offer collateral-free special term loan product to over 65,000 Company Secretaries.
• Himachal Pradesh, the state government flagged off Medical Mobile Unit Jeevan Dhara, from the Ridge in Shimla.
• In Madhya Pradesh, a digital museum has been opened at Maharaj Bada in Gwalior for the public. The museum is developed by Gwalior Smart City and entry for the public is being made free for a few days.
• Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power and Department of New & Renewable Energy (DNRE), Goa, have signed a memorandum of understanding to discuss rolling out of India’s first Convergence Project in the State.
• The National Fisheries Development Board has conferred four awards to Assam for the success in the fishery sector. Assam has got the best state award under the category of best hilly and North Eastern state. Assam Apex Cooperative Fish Marketing and Processing Federation Limited (FISHFED) has been selected under the category of best hilly and North eastern government organization.
• India’s Artificial Intelligence supercomputer Param Siddhi has achieved 63rd rank among top 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems in the world.

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