Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has cleared the appointment of Ravinder Singh Dhillon as Chairman and Managing Director of Power Finance Corporation. Somnath Ghosh has been appointed as the officer on special duty in the Department of Defence.
Somnath Ghosh’s appointment is for an overall period of 3 years.
The government has set an ambitious target to achieve sales of around 70 lakh hybrid and electric vehicles by the end of 2020 under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India scheme. FAME India was initiated in 2015.
FAME is under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020.
Under the UDAN scheme, the Ministry of Civil Aviation flagged off the first-ever thrice-weekly flight from Indore, Madhya Pradesh to Kishangarh, Rajasthan. With the commencement of this route, the Ministry has operationalised 268 routes under the scheme.
Civil Aviation Minister- Hardeep Singh Puri.
Lok Sabha passed Appropriation Bill 2020-21, authorising the govt to draw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India for its working as well as implementation of its schemes. Contingency Fund & Public Account are also part of the Annual Financial Statement.
Consolidated Fund comes under Article 266 of the Constitution.
Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi was nominated for Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, by President Ram Nath Kovind. No CJI has been nominated to the Upper House, usually dominated by celebrities and artistes, by the head of the state.
Sharad Arvind Bobde- Current & 47th Chief Justice of India.
Gujarat, UP, J&K & Chandigarh have seen 12-14% decrease in road accidents, 5 months since the new Motor Vehicles Act was applied. India ranks 1st in the number of road accident deaths across the 199 countries reported in the World Road Statistics, 2018.
Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019- Aim to reduce road accidents.
Indian Culture Portal showcases the information about the rich cultural heritage of India across the globe. Indian Culture Portal was launched on 10 December 2019 with an aim to create awareness about the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of India.
The portal is available in 2 languages- Hindi and English.
Ministry of Culture has announced that it is to revisit the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. The Act regulates construction around centrally protected monuments and classify them based on their historical significance.
Act bans construction within 100 m boundary of secure monuments.
The 39th GST Council meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi. Implementation of the new GST return system, implementation of e-invoicing & the QR code has been postponed to 1st of October 2020.
Present return system will be continued until September 2020.
Oil India Ltd (OIL), the country's second-largest national oil explorer has signed an agreement with Numaligarh Refinery for sale and purchase of crude oil. The Crude Oil Sales Agreement (COSA) will come in effect from 1 April, 2020 to 31 March 2025.
ONGC is the largest national oil explorer.
The Agharkar Research Institute of Pune has isolated 45 strains of methanotrophic bacteria. These bacteria oxidize methane through anaerobic metabolism. With the use of methanotrophic bacteria in agriculture, emission of methane shall be greatly reduced.
The isolated bacteria were from southern and western India.
‘Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public & Private Property Ordinance, 2020’ has been passed by the Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel even as a recovery exercise to collect damages to public property during anti-CAA riots is underway in the state.
Ordinance aims at dealing with violent acts at public places.
Tamil Nadu announced more than Rs 750 Cr worth of projects that include rooftop solar units, implementation of prepaid meters and other customer-friendly initiatives for 2020-21. They will set up 50 MW rooftop solar projects at an outlay of Rs 250 Cr.
10-MW wind-solar hybrid project will also be set up at Kayathar.
India will provide 107.01 million Nepali Rupees for three new school buildings in Nepal. The schools will be constructed in Darchula, Dhanusha and Kapilvastu districts. These schools will be built under the India-Nepal Development Partnership program.
Estimated cost of Partnership program- 73.96 million Nepali Rs.
1st human trial to evaluate a candidate vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 has begun in Seattle. The US National Institutes of Health said that the open-label trial will enrol 45 healthy adult volunteers ages 18 to 55 years over approximately 6 weeks
SARS-CoV-2 virus is a betacoronavirus.
UN Conference on Trade and Development released a report on the effect of COVID-19 on global economy. India is the 10th most impacted economy due to supply chain disruptions in China. Among the most affected European Union is to take a hit of $15.6-b.
India’s economic slow-down will be low as compared to others.
The 2019 Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Media person for the year has been awarded to independent journalist Rohini Mohan and The Wire's Arfa Khanum Sherwani. First given in the 1980s, the Chameli award is instituted by the Media Foundation.
Last year's recipient was Priyanka Dubey of the BBC.
Noted Malayalam poet, writer and freedom fighter Dr Puthussery Ramachandran passed away.He was 92. He won several major awards and honours, including fellowship of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi in 2009, Bhasha Samman in 2014 and Ezhuthachan Award in 2015.
He played a role in earning the classical status for Malayalam.
A book on the life of bureaucrat-turned-politician Manohar Parrikar titled ‘An Extraordinary Life: A biography of Manohar Parrikar’, who served as the defence minister & Goa CM, will be released, announced publishing house Penguin Random House India.
Authors- Sadguru Patil and Mayabhushan Nagvenkar.
CRPF inked a deal with a disability support NGO to train its troops, who lost their limbs in operations in various skills including cyber operations & AI. MoU is aimed to create new opportunities for such personnel who remain an integral part of the force.
CRPF is the country's largest paramilitary force.
The Election Commission of India appointed Hirdesh Kumar as the new Chief Electoral Officer of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. He will replace Shailendra Kumar with effect from the date he assumes charge. Hridesh Kumar is a 1999 batch IAS officer.
He is the current Commissioner Secretary of School Education.
Microsoft’s GitHub subsidiary has agreed to buy Npm,a company that operates an online service for distributing packages of open-source software written in the popular JavaScript programming language.Npm was founded in 2014 & is based in Oakland, California
Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion in 2018.
Veteran journalist and former Rajya Sabha (RS) Member Patil Puttappa, better known as 'Papu', passed away, he was 101. He was a Recipient of several awards, including the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award, T.S.R. Award and ‘Nadoja’.
He served as RS Member from 1962 to 1974.
Marathi Actor Jairam Kulkarani passed away at the age of 88 due to old-age related illness. He had acted in more than 150 films & his last movie was ‘Khel Aayushyacha’. He had worked in Akashwani in Pune, Maharashtra where he met different personalities.
Other Films: ‘Chal Re Laxya Mumbaila’ and ‘Ashi Hi Banwabanwi’.
Paytm Payments Bank Ltd announced it will now start issuing Visa virtual debit cards to its customers. Visa virtual debit cards would enable its customers to transact at all merchants accepting payments through cards.
Paytm/CEO- Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
