Central govt based on the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission released ₹2,200 crores as the 1st instalment to 15 states for improvement of air quality measures in their million-plus cities. Maharashtra received the highest amount of ₹ 396.5 cr.
Chairman of 15th Finance Commission: N K Singh.
The Roundtable is being organised by Finance Ministry & National Investment & Infrastructure Fund. It is a dialogue between leading global institutional investors, Indian business leaders & highest decision-makers from Govt & Financial Market Regulators.
To be attended by 20 large pension and sovereign wealth funds.
Duarte Pacheco of Portugal with 56% of the vote was elected as the new President of Inter-Parliamentary Union for the period 2020-2023. He will be the 30th President of the Geneva-based body. Previous IPU president was Mexican MP Gabriela Cuevas Barron.
IPU Secretary-General: Martin Chungong
Members: 179
Founded: 18
Attempting to reduce the spread of plastic waste on the roads & spreading awareness about Covid-19 at the same time, Municipal Corporation of Dehradun in association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) & HDFC bank launched the initiative.
5,000 masks to be distributed in exchange for plastic under this
India & the GCC Troika held their annual Political Dialogue. External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar led the Indian delegation. Senior representatives from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar also participated in the meeting. GCC – Gulf Cooperation Council.
GCC was established in 1981.
Secretariat: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
MyGov launched the COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge in collaboration with UN Women to involve women-led startups to come up with innovative solutions that can help fight COVID-19. It was implemented in two stages: Ideation stage and Proof of Concept Stage.
3 Winners are: Dr Gayatri Hela, Romita Ghosh, Anjana Ramkumar.
Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL), the telecom operator providing services under the brand Vi, has appointed Jagbir Singh as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He was also involved with very large 4G network rollouts and operations. He will be replacing Vishant Vora.
CEO of Vi: Ravinder Takkar.
Tagline: Together for Tomorrow.
State-run power giant NTPC which ranked first among Indian PSUs in Forbes' World's Best Employer 2020, approved the extension of tenure of its Chairman and Managing Director Gurdeep Singh till July 31, 2025. His extended term will start from Feb 4, 2021.
NTPC - incorporated under Companies Act, 1956.
HQ: New Delhi.
According to WWF Water Risk Filter which is an online filter co-developed by the Worldwide Fund for Nature helps evaluate water risk worldwide. Jaipur topped the list of Indian cities, followed by Indore and Thane. China accounts for almost half the cities
100 cities are expected to suffer rise in water risk by 2050.
Private entity Manipal Hospitals to acquire Columbia Asia. The combined entity will have a presence of 27 hospitals across 15 cities, with 7,300 beds, 4,000 doctors, and 10,000 employees, making it the second-largest hospital chain in India, after Apollo.
Manipal Education & Medical Group Chairman: Dr Ranjan Pai.
Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. signed an MoU with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy setting key targets for 2020-21. Govt set a revenue target of Rs. 2,406 cr under ‘Excellent’ rating along with various performance-related parameters.
Minister for New and Renewable Energy: R K Singh.
India’s first, solar energy-driven miniature train was inaugurated at Veli Tourist Village by Kerala. The train was part of a string of projects totally worth Rs 60 cr taken up to elevate facilities at the panoramic destination to international standards.
The train has 3 bogies & can accommodate 45 people.
Indian Ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri inaugurated a school building constructed with India's assistance in Nepal's Dharchula district. The new building of Shree Mahendra Model School has been built with Indian government's grant of NPR 30 million.
Nepal PM: K P Sharma Oli.
President: Bidhya Devi Bhandari.
HDFC ERGO General Insurance, India's 3rd-largest non-life insurance company in private sector launched IDEAS (Intelligent Damage detection Estimation and Assessment Solution) for motor claim settlements. It uses Neural Network image processing & Analytics.
It supports instant image detection & claims estimates.
State Bank of India partnered with edX in order to offer Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The bank will initially offer 3 courses - Unleashing Creativity at the Workplace, Relationship Marketing Strategy for Financial Services, & Conflict Resolution.
CEO of edX & Prof at MIT: Anant Agarwal
SBI Chairman Dinesh Khar
Aegon Life Insurance launched Life + 36 critical illness Insurance on Flipkart at a starting premium of Rs. 153 for a life cover of Rs 1 lakh plus Critical Illness cover of Rs.10,000. The policy is issued instantly and requires no medical check-up nor KYC.
Aegon Life Insurance HQ: Mumbai.
CEO: K. S. Gopalakrishnan.
Asiamoney asks participants in the poll to consider the company's overall performance. Known as Asia's Outstanding Companies Poll, it recognises listed companies in 2 categories: by country & by sector. HDFC Bank bagged the honour for 2nd consecutive year
Asiamoney is a financial publication established in 1989.
Ivory Coast (aka Côte d'Ivoire), a West African country’s incumbent President Alassane Ouattara has won a controversial third term in office in an election boycotted by the opposition. He took 94% of the vote, even winning 99% in some of his strongholds.
Capital: Yamoussoukro.
Currency: West African CFA franc.
Shane Watson, the former Australia all-rounder & Chennai Super Kings opener, formally announced his retirement. Watson, who was bought by CSK two years ago, already retired from international cricket in 2015. He played a crucial role in CSK’s IPL 2018 win.
He played 59 Tests, 190 ODIs, & 58 T20s at international level.
Bihar’s shortest-serving CM Satish Prasad Singh died of COVID-19, six days after his spouse’s demise. He became Bihar’s 6th CM in 1968 only for five days. He was also Bihar’s first non-upper caste chief minister. He became an MLA from Parbatta constituency
He was succeeded by the socialist leader B P Mandal.
During the Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0 event, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation of the Maharashtra govt inked MoUs worth around Rs 35,000 crore with 15 companies and called for attracting over Rs 1 lakh crore investments this year to the state.
Maharashtra CM: Uddhav Thackeray.
To boost agricultural activity, Indo-Israeli Centre of Excellence for Vegetables Protected Cultivation is coming up at Khetri with an investment of Rs 10.33 Cr. It aims to provide exposure to Israeli technologies to farmers & maximize production & income.
Assam CM: Sarbananda Sonowal.
Governor: Jagdish Mukhi.