Government constituted a High-level Ministerial Committee for implementation of Paris Agreement. The Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement to be chaired by Environment Secretary. It aims to generate a coordinated response to climate change.
C.K. Mishra - Secretary of MoEFCC.
Education Ministry set up a task force for preparing a roadmap on imparting technical education under the chairmanship of Secretary of Higher Education Amit Khare. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Education Minister, Ramesh Nishank
IITs & NITs to offer courses in mother tongue from next year.
NZ PM Jacinda Ardern declared a climate emergency, telling parliament that urgent action was needed for the sake of future generations. NZ is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Britain became the first in the world to declare a climate emergency
NZ aims to generate all energy from renewable sources by 2035.
UK became the 1st country to formally approve the Pfizer & BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, a symbolic milestone in fight against pandemic. Clinical trials of the vaccine by Pfizer, a U.S. pharmaceutical giant, and its German partner, BioNTech was 95 effective.
UK PM: Boris Johnson
Capital: London; Currency: Pound Sterling
In its multi-layered drive to curb cybercrime, the Jharkhand police launched a 36-page handbook on various types of cyber incidents and measures to prevent them. The book, titled ‘Cyber Security Awareness Handbook’, explains a wide range of cybercrimes.
Jharkhand Capital: Ranchi.
CM: Hemant Soren.
ADB & the Govt of India signed a $50 million policy-based loan to improve financial management procedures & operational efficiencies to achieve more fiscal savings, promote informed decision making, and improve service delivery in the state of West Bengal.
Loan based on past ADB policy-based programmes in 2012 & 2017.
Odisha Govt approved unified emergency helpline number 112 to provide all forms of police assistance to people in distress. It subsumes the earlier segregated helpline numbers like 100,101,108 & other for emergency services like police, fire & ambulance.
Odisha CM: Naveen Patnaik.
Governor: Ganeshi Lal.
7th India-Suriname Joint Commission Meeting was held virtually. The discussions were held in an atmosphere of warmth against the backdrop of friendly India - Suriname relations. It was agreed that the next JCM Meeting would be held in 2022 in Paramaribo.
Suriname: Capital: Paramaribo
Currency: Suriname Dollar
SBM Bank India announced the launch of SmartBanking platform in partnership with Finin. Towards this, SBM Bank India issues a Savings Account that can be opened instantly & comes with a VISA powered Debit Card equipped with smart card management features.
Finin Founder & CEO: Suman Gandham.
India’s digital financial services platform Paytm partnered with Suryoday Small Finance Bank to empower MSMEs with instant digital loans. This is the first lending partnership for Paytm with a small finance bank to help merchants get loans seamlessly.
Loans to be disbursed to over ₹ 1 Lakh small businesses.
IFSCA is a unified authority for the development & regulation of financial products. It obtained membership from IAIS. With this, IFSCA would have access to IAIS’s global network & would be able to exchange ideas & information with other global regulators.
IFSCA was established in April 2020. HQ: Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Karnataka regional office of NABARD & State Bank of India signed an MoU to extend concessional refinance facility to beneficiaries of watershed development & tribal development projects. It aims to benefit 45000 beneficiaries from 260 FPOs in 28 districts.
SBI to be the implementing agency for digitalising the SHGs.
According to the US Air Quality Index, Pakistan's cultural capital Lahore has once again topped the list of world's most polluted cities. The PM rating for the city was 423. New Delhi with a PM of 229 came in second. Nepal’s Kathmandu was ranked third.
An AQI under 50 is regarded as ‘satisfactory’ air quality.
Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry assumed the charge as 27th Director General Border Roads (DGBR). Lt Gen. Chaudhry was responsible for conceptualising and conducting the first-ever and only Engineer Brigade Exercise with US Engineer Brigade as part of EX YUDH ABHYAS
He takes over as the 27th Director-General of Border Roads.
Razorpay and PayPal have come together to enable seamless international payments for MSMEs and freelancers. By integrating PayPal into Razor pay’s payment platform, entities can accept international payments without having to write a single line of code.
Razorpay aims to disburse payments online.
CEO: Harshil Mathur.
Tata Digital invested about ₹10 crore for an undisclosed stake in Grameen e-Store, the govt's rural e-commerce venture. Grameen e-Store, launched in 2020, is available in 120,000 locations in India. The e-store is run by Common Service Centres under MeitY.
It has already clocked ₹120 crore in turnover so far.
Pune’s GMRT is an array of 30 antennas in a ‘Y’ fashion, operated by TIFR – National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, was the brainchild of Govind Swarup. It was awarded IEEE milestone for its novel engineering, advanced technology in radio astronomy.
IEEE HQ: New Jersey, United States.
GMRT is located in Pune.
US President Trump to award Presidential Medal of Freedom to Louis Leo Holtz, one of the greatest football coaches. It is the Nation’s highest civilian honour awarded to individuals who have made meritorious contributions to national interests of the US.
The award was established in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy.
The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) awarded the winners of the Infosys Prize 2020 for their outstanding contributions to science and research in a virtual awards ceremony. The prize consists of a pure gold medal & a citation and a reward of USD 1,00,000.
The awards are given to contributions in six fields.
International Day of Disabled Persons aims to promote the well-being of persons with disabilities in society. Theme for 2020: Building back better: towards an inclusive, accessible & sustainable post-COVID-19 world by, for & with persons with disabilities.
IDPD was introduced in 1992 by the UN General Assembly.
Frank Carney, who with his brother started the Pizza Hut empire in Wichita, died. Over the years, he got involved in various business ventures, including other food companies, real estate, oil and gas, automotive, rental and recreational businesses.
PepsiCo bought Pizza Hut for $300 million in 1977.
Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who set European monetary union in motion, fathered the 1st draft of the EU’s Constitution and helped create the Group of 8 fora, has died. Giscard was France’s youngest 20th-century president. (elected in 1974 at the age of 48).
He served as the president of France between 1974 & 1981.
Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, owner & CEO of iconic spice masala brand MDH (Mahashian Di Hatti), passed away. From a small shop in Karol Bagh, Dharampal Gulati built MDH as one of India's leading spices brand. He officially established his company in 1959.
Gulati became highest-paid CEO of a FMCG co. in India in 2017.
