‘Fit India Cyclothon’ flagged off in Goa

The Chief Minister of Goa Pramod Sawant and Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju flagged off the ‘Fit India Cyclothon‘ event. The Fit India Mission under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in collaboration with the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of Goa organised the inaugural event.

The Cyclothon was flagged off from the Campal Parade Ground and culminated at Bal Bhavan. More than 500 cycling enthusiasts participated in the event and cycled through a five-kilometer stretch within the city of Panaji.

“The Fit India Cyclothon event was not a race but a leisure activity organised with the aim to get the people involved in outdoor activities and start a cycling culture in the state,” Sawant said in a statement.

1st squadron of Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft inducted by Indian Air Force

The Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Bhadauria inducted its 1st squadron of Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft. This aircraft is carrying the BrahMos missiles in the South at its Thanjavur based in Tamil Nadu.

Thanjavur is strategically located in the southern peninsula. From  there, the Tigersharks can dominate the seas and provide very close and integrated support to the Indian Navy. It  can also provide support to the land forces.

The newly reinstated 222-squadron, also known as the Tigersharks, would serve as a lethal weapons platform capable of carrying both aerial and maritime roles in the Indian Ocean Region. The Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft integrated with the supersonic cruise missiles BrahMos is the strongest maritime combination that we have, in terms of weapon capability.

2nd NIC Tech Conclave 2020 inaugurated in New Delhi

The 2nd edition of NIC Tech Conclave 2020 is being held on 21-22 January 2020 at Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. The Union Minister for Law & Justice, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated the conclave. The two-day event is organized by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The theme of the NIC TechConclave 2020 is ‘Technologies for NextGen Governance‘. 

The conclave will discuss the steering application of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) at various levels in the Government. The Conclave will contribute immensely to the capacity building of Government officers across the country and help in delivering high-quality citizen-centric services. The speakers in the Conclave are experts from the IT industry who will share their expertise in various areas like Cyber Security, Design Thinking, Hyperscale Architecture, etc.

World Economic Situation and Prospects Report 2020 released by UN

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the five United Nations Regional Economic Commissions have jointly released the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2020 (WESP) recently. The report warns about strong economic risks, deep political polarization and increasing scepticism about the benefits of multilateralism.

The report suggested that India needs to implement structural reforms to face a global as well as Indian economic slowdown. The combination of fiscal stimulus, loose monetary policy and financial sector reforms is expected to support a recovery in growth to 6.6 %. India experienced a sharp drop from 6.8% in 2018 to 5.7 % in 2019. The report also indicated that India may be among the few countries where the per capita GDP growth rate could exceed 4% in 2020.

Uber Eats India acquired by Zomato in an all-stock transaction

Online food delivery and restaurant discovery platform Zomato has acquired the Indian operations of Uber Eats, the food delivery business run by Uber, for around $350 million (Rs 2,485 crore). The all-stock transaction will give the US-based ride-hailing company 9.99% shareholding in Gurgaon-based Zomato.

Uber Eats will cease to exist as a separate brand locally and users on its platform will be redirected to Zomato’s app. Zomato will not absorb Uber Eats’ team in India. This means around 100 executives will either be reallocated to Uber’s other verticals here or laid off.

Loan amount of nearly Rs. 70,000 crore disbursed under MSMEs scheme

As per the data by the Ministry of Finance, loan amount of nearly Rs 70,000 crore has been disbursed till 13 January 2020 under the scheme of providing loan to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) within 59 minutes.

The government has introduced loan provision to MSMEs through a dedicated online portal- www.psbloansin59 minutes.com for ease of access to credit for MSMEs.

The portal acts as a single interface portal which facilitates in principal approval of bank loans to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises upto Rs 5 crore within 59 minutes.

West Bengal becomes top State in vegetable production

West Bengal has emerged as the top state in the country in vegetable production in 2018-19, according to horticulture production data released by the Central government recently. West Bengal witnessed a production of 29.55 million tonne (MT) of vegetables during 2018-19 which was the maximum in the country in that period.

Uttar Pradesh was in the second place with 27.71 million tonne of vegetable production in the same period. UP produced 14.9 per cent of the country’s vegetable production, while Madhya Pradesh recorded 9.6 per cent followed by Bihar 9 per cent and Gujarat 6.8 per cent. In 2017-18, West Bengal was in the second place with 27.70 MT of vegetable production while UP held the top position with a production of 28.32 MT.

While in the Production of Fruits, Andhra Pradesh continued to hold on to the top position in with 17.61 mt, followed by Maharashtra (10.82 mt) and UP (10.65 mt). While Andhra Pradesh marginally improved its position, Maharashtra overtook Assam, which occupied the second position in 2017-18. UP, too, moved several notches up from 2017-18 levels to reach the third rank.

Bharat Electronics Ltd commissions real time train info system

Bharat Electronics Ltd, a public sector undertaking, has commissioned the first phase of the real time train information system for Indian Railways to increase its operational efficiency and improve passenger safety.

The system has been commissioned through the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), under the technical guidance of Space Applications Centre at ISRO. RTIS provides real-time positional information of locomotives to the Railways.

It facilitates automatic acquisition of train movement data, including that of arrival, departure and run-through timings, at the stations en route. The control chart of trains, which has RTIS-enabled locomotives, gets plotted automatically in the Control Office Application system of the Railways.