Focus Merit

Category: National Current Affairs

Nation pays tribute to Subhas Chandra Bose on his 123rd birth anniversary

January 23, 2020

The nation pays tribute to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his 123rd birth anniversary today. It was on this day in 1897, Netaji was born in Cuttack, Odisha. President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have paid tributes to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

In West Bengal, Governor Jaghdeep Dhankhar will pay floral tribute at the statue of Netaji in Kolkata. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will pay homage at a function in Darjeeling this afternoon. State Government is organizing Subhash Utsav in each Blocks of the state.

People from all works of life are visiting the house of Netaji in South Kolkata since early morning to pay their homage to the great hero of the freedom movement. Netaji Research Bureau has also organized programmes in Kolkata on the occasion.

Rs 4300 cr approved to establish permanent campuses for new NITs

January 23, 2020

Union Cabinet approved the Revised Cost Estimates for establishment of permanent campuses of new National Institutes of Technology, NITs, at a total cost of 4371.90 crore rupees for the period till 2021-2022. These NITs will be fully functional from their permanent campuses by 31st March, 2022.

At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Cabinet approved funds for the NITs in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Puducherry and Delhi. It also approved the extension of tenure of the Commission constituted under Article 340 of the Constitution by six months till 31st July 2020, to examine the issue of sub-categorization within Other Backward Classes in the Central List.  

Cabinet has also granted approval to addition of Term of Reference to the existing ToR of the Commission which include studying various Entries in the Central List of OBCs and recommending correction of any repetitions, ambiguities, inconsistencies and errors of spelling or tranion. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said, Daman will be the capital of newly carved out Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. 

Avadi Ordnance Factory doubles the manufacturing capacity of Battle Tanks

January 23, 2020

The engine manufacturing capacity for the battle tanks in the Indian Ordnance Board’s Engines Factory near Chennai has been more than doubled to 750 per annum to meet the increasing demand of the Indian Army. It was earlier fixed at 350 engines per year, as stated by the Board Chairman, Hari Mohan.

The new system is the first to be installed in any of the Ordnance Factories in the country to help increase productivity. The Engine Factory at Avadi is the only unit in the country dedicated to manufacturing fully indigenized engines for the Army’s Main Battle Tanks.

Global Mega Science Exhibition “Vigyan Samagam” inaugurated in New Delhi

January 23, 2020

The Union Minister of State (I/C) Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, Dr. Jitendra Singh inaugurated India’s first global Mega Science Exhibition “Vigyan Samagam“. It will be be held from 21 January to 20 March 2020 at National Science Centre, New Delhi.

The exhibition is jointly organized by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science & Technology, GoI and the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) under the ageis of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).

The exhibition aims to highlight the value and impact of fundamental research to a broad cross-section of the audience including students, academician, and industry. The exhibition also aims to further strengthen India’s participation in mega-science Projects.

Indian Oil signs pact with National Petroleum Authority of Ghana

January 23, 2020

Indian Oil has signed an MoU with Ghana’s National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to offer assistance and technical expertise to the country in implementing its National LPG Promotion Policy.

The purpose of this MoU is to strengthen cooperation between the two parties in the field of petroleum, in particular LPG, in which IOC would support the NPA in the successful implementation of the Cylinder Recirculation Model (CRM) of LPG.

Indian Oil will provide support to the NPA in developing Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Standards, a licensing, permit and legal framework, the economics for LPG bottling plants, a pricing structure, and a communication strategy.

NPCI Vajra, blockchain-based platform launched

January 23, 2020

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched the Vajra Platform to make payments fast and secure. Based on blockchain technology, the primary highlight of the Vajra Platform is that it automates clearing and settlement of payments, drastically reducing the need for manual reconciliation.

The Vajra Platform uses distributed ledger technology (DLT). It uses a permissions model to ensure that only approved parties are a part of the network. Payment companies can apply to be a part of the network. Once approved, they can deploy the platform using an application programming interface (API) that will be provided by NPCI.

India’s growth forecast for FY-20 lowered to 5.7% by UN

January 23, 2020

The UN projects India’s economy to grow by 5.7 percent in the current fiscal year and expects it to rise to 6.6 percent in the next fiscal year. The UN growth estimate for the current fiscal is drastically lower than the forecast of 7.6 per cent made in last year’s report in January and 7 percent in the May update.

The head of UN’s Global Economic Monitoring Branch, Dawn Holland, told IANS that although there has been a steep decline in growth, India was still one of the high performers globally. He said that it was expected to improve its growth rate in the coming year because of the steps being taken.

According to the report, only China has a higher growth rate than India among the world’s large economies with a 6 per cent forecast for the current calendar year.

13th Jaipur Literature Festival to begin

January 23, 2020

13th Jaipur Literature Festival will be held from 23th to 27th January. The themes of the festival include climate, constitution, poetry, and artificial intelligence. The five-day event will see more than 200 sessions. Around 500 speakers of different fields are expected to participate in the festival, out of which 120 are award-winning speakers.

The festival will have a range of speakers including Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, Booker award-winning British novelist Howard Jacobson and Auther Elizabeth Gilbert. 37 sessions will be held on the first day, which includes speakers such as Nandita Das, Subha Mudgal and Prasoon Joshi among others.

Japanese tech major NTT to invest in data centres in India

January 23, 2020

Japanese tech company NTT Data will make an investment of $1.5 billion (Rs 11,000 crore) for data centre business in India for next four years. The investment will be split equally between the four regions and the overall investments are bound to be shared proportionately.

The company is targeting to more than double its capacity in the next three years through the investments. Its overall capacity, which stands at 1.2 million sq ft at present spread across Mumbai, Noida, Chennai and it will go up by 1.5 million sq ft.

The company is looking at going to newer locations as well and also adding to its land bank to house the facilities. India is the fastest-growing region for NTT and a substantial amount of the USD 7 billion commitment will be invested.

Government approves pact for seafarers’ competency certificate

January 23, 2020

The government on 22 January, 2020 approved a model pact with foreign countries for recognition of seafarers’ competency certificates. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This will pave the way for mutual recognition of maritime education and training of seafarers by the countries involved.

The pact will facilitate unilateral recognition certificates issued by the Directorate General of Shipping to Indian seafarers by another country, without seeking similar acknowledgment by India of the certificates issued by that country. Indian seafarers will be eligible to be placed on ships under the flag of that country for employment, thus leading to increased employment opportunities, the ministry said.