September 2020 Monthly Current Affairs Online Test English

• A new species of freshwater fish named ‘Systomus gracilus’ has been identified in the Ganges river. The researchers from Kerala and West Bengal have identified the edible fish species, at West Bengal. It has a thin and compressed body and can be cultured in inland waterbodies. The discovery of the fish has been published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology.

• Gurgaon–based Indian airline SpiceJet has recently launched a compact, portable ventilation device named ‘SpiceOxy’. The handy and affordable device can be used for patients with mild to moderate breathing issues. SpiceJet has also introduced a fingertip pulse oximeter, which can be used to measure the oxygen level of the blood.

• The 17^th ASEAN–India Economic Ministers Consultations was held virtually and was co–chaired by Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry & Railways. The virtual meeting was attended by the Trade Ministers of 10 ASEAN countries. The discussion was focused on ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA).

Under the Swachh Bharat Mission of the Ministry of Jal Shakti, an event with a duration of a fortnight is observed to focus on the issues of Swachhata.

Named as ‘Swachhata Pakhwada’, the event was started in the year 2016 and an annual calendar is provided to the Ministries with a fortnight allotted to them. Recently, the Department of Fertilizers is observing Swachhta Pakhwada from September 1–15.

• As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the CEO of the leading space company SpaceX, Elon Musk is now the third–richest person in the world. The 49–year old billionaire has surpassed Facebook co–founder Mark Zuckerberg. Elon Musk’s net worth raised to USD115.4 billion while that of Zuckerberg is USD 110.8 billion. The first and the second positions were featured by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos respectively.

• World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has won the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament against Milos Raonic, at New York. This victory is his 35^th Masters title in USA. With this victory, Djokovic has created history by becoming the only male tennis player to win every Masters event twice. The opponent Milos Raonic is from Canada and currently ranked at No. 30.

• Indian ace Tennis player Sumit Nagal became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam singles main draw match in seven years. The 23–year old entered the second round of the ongoing US Open tournament. He defeated Bradley Klahn of the United States in the men’s singles first round. Prior to this achievement, Somdev Devvarman had reached the second round of the Australian Open, French Open, and US Open.

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ Meet is to be hosted in the city of Moscow, Russia. Union Defence Minister of India Rajnath Singh has recently left for Russia to attend the meet. He is also expected to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu. However, no schedule has been made for meeting with the Chinese Defence Minister.

• Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) implements Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (Scheme for Agro–Marine Processing and Development of Agro–Processing Clusters). Recently, the Union Government has approved the implementation of 27 projects under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana scheme. The projects aim to develop integrated cold chains and value addition infrastructure.

• In a boost to Make in India mission in Defence Sector, the Acquisition Wing of Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed contracts with Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. (BEML), Tata Power Company Ltd. (TPCL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T).
• The contracts have been signed for supply of 6 Pinaka Regiments to the Artillery unit of the Indian Army. The approximate cost of the project is Rs 2580 Crores.

• After the United Arab Emirates requested, Saudi Arabia announced that it will allow flights from all countries to cross its skies to reach the UAE. Before some days, Saudi Arabia allowed the first direct Israeli commercial passenger flight use its airspace to reach the UAE. It carried a high–level delegation of the Government of Israel and the USA.

• The lawmakers of Tunisia have approved Hichem Mechichi as the country’s new Prime Minister. Mechichi and his proposed government won a confidence vote, after a long debate. Earlier, the 46–year–old former Minister explained how his government would bring the country out of the economic and social crisis. This is the third Government of Tunisia since October and the ninth since the revolution held in 2011.

• The Jammu and Kashmir Government has recently set up a 10–member council for conservation of biological diversity.
• A new council named the Jammu and Kashmir Biodiversity Council will be constituted, which will have the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests as the Chairman and five non–official members. The council shall constitute a fund named as “Jammu and Kashmir Biodiversity Council Fund”.

• Researchers of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) have developed a method to detect corona virus infection using mass spectrometer.
• In this method, the virus detection can be done with sensitivity of 90 % and specificity of 100 %. The time taken from sample to result is 30 minutes. IGIB is an institute under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

• The Union Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister has approved a bill which gives official language status to Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
• These languages are apart from the existing official languages Urdu and English. Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020 would be introduced in the Monsoon session of the Parliament to legislate this bill.

• The Union Ministry of Shipping has directed all major ports to procure or hire tug boats, that are only made in India. All procurements that are being done by major ports will have to be carried out as per the revised ‘Make in India’ Order. Various initiatives are being taken to promote shipbuilding in India and improve self–reliance.

• “Chakr”, an IIT Delhi incubated start–up has developed an equipment named ‘Chakr DeCoV’ to decontaminate N95 masks. The equipment is designed in the shape of a cabinet. It uses ozone gas for cleaning the pores of N95 masks, thus ensuring complete decontamination of all layers of the mask.

• A powerful Typhoon named “Maysak” (Cambodian word) hit North Korea and has brought heavy rain and floods in the region. Maysak is the second typhoon in a week to hit the Korean peninsula. Another powerful Typhoon named Bavi made a land fall in the country in the last week of August 2020. The typhoon also hit the regions in South Korea.

• An important meeting of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi–sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) was held virtually under the chairmanship of Sri Lanka. During the meeting discussions were focussed on ways to expand cooperation among its member nations to deal with various challenges COVID–19. BIMSTEC is a multinational grouping of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.

• The President of India Ram Nath Kovind has conferred the National Award to teachers on the occasion of Teachers’ Day, which is celebrated on the birth anniversary of Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.
• As many as 47 educators across the country were conferred with the prestigious award for their selfless contribution for promoting education. Around 40 percent of the winners were women and this is the first time the event is held virtually.

• The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has elected Kenichi Ayukawa as its new President. He has been the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Maruti Suzuki India since 2013. He earlier served as the Vice President of SIAM and is succeeding Rajan Wadhera. Vipin Sondhi of Ashok Leyland is elected as the Vice President.

• The Railway Ministry has proposed to amend Sec 144 of Railways Act 1989. As per the present provision in the act, begging in Railway property is an offence and makes it liable for imprisonment or a fine of Rs.2000/–. The section is proposed to be changed by stating that begging will not be allowed in properties of Railways including Trains and Railway premises.

• Indian young Grand Master P Iniyan won the 48^th annual world open chess tournament conducted recently. This tournament was conducted in an online format due to the COVID–19 pandemic. The event was conducted in 3 rounds where in 122 participants of 16 countries participated.

• As per the recent statement from the India’s UN mission, India is to send two teams of specialists to support UN peacekeeping operations in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
• This move is aimed to meet the COVID–19 challenge in two countries. One team of 15 specialists will be sent to Goma in DRC and another team of 15 specialists will be sent to Juba in South Sudan. This will strengthen the hospital facilities managed by Indian peacekeepers and will help those two countries in fighting COVID–19.

• The International Day of Charity is observed every year on September 5, across the world. The day aims to sensitize people and NGOs to engage in volunteer and philanthropic activities.
• This date of 5 September marks the day of the anniversary of the passing away of Mother Teresa. She was honoured as a Saint was known for her missionary work in Kolkata. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

• Kesavananda Bharati, who was a petitioner of the landmark Supreme Court judgement on basic structure of the Constitution in 1973, has recently passed away. He was the head of a Mutt at Kasaragod in Kerala, and had moved the Supreme Court challenging the Kerala government’s land reforms Act of 1969. Supreme Court ruled that the basic structure of the Constitution is unbreakable and cannot be amended by Parliament.

• The first World Solar Technology Summit (WSTS) is to be organized by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) on September 8, 2020.
• More than 25000 participants from 149 countries and several distinguished judges are set to participate in the virtual summit. The President of the assembly and India’s New and Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh will be joined by Principal Scientific Adviser, K. Vijay Raghavan.

• The third annual Indo–Pacific Business Forum is to be held in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam on October 28 and 29, 2020. The United States Government will sponsor the forum, in collaboration with the Government of Vietnam, the US–ASEAN Business Council and others trade associations. The main focus will be on Infrastructure, Digital economy, Market connectivity, health and economic recovery.

• The Government of Tamil Nadu has announced a new electronics & hardware manufacturing policy. The policy aims to increase the State’s electronics industry output to $100 billion by 2025. The policy undertakes to impart skill training for more than 1,00,000 people by 2024, to meet the state’s human resource demand in electronics sector.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India has recently signed a USD 500 million loan, to build the Delhi–Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor.
This is the first tranche of a total USD 1 billion facility extended to construct the modern, high–speed 82–kilometer RRTS corridor in India’s national capital region (NCR). A total of three priority rail corridors planned under the NCR Regional Plan 2021, to connect Delhi to other cities.

UNICEF is leading in efforts to procure and supply COVID–19 vaccines. This could be the world’s largest and fastest ever procurement and supply of vaccines. In collaboration with Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), UNICEF is set in its efforts to procure and supply doses of COVID–19 vaccines for 92 low and lower middle–income countries.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Indian Railways has disrupted the operation of illegal software called “Real Mango”, in a nationwide investigation.
The investigation was made on account of increase in touting activity after restart of the passenger train services. RPF have been able to arrest 50 criminals so far including the King pin (system developer) and key managers involved in operation of this illegal software.

 Bangladesh has recently launched a nation–wide campaign named ‘Asol Chini’, to curb fake information on Social Media. The ‘Asol Chini’ campaign, which means ‘real identification’, aims to create digital literacy to stop fake information and rumours. To implement this three–month long campaign, a digital platform Durbar21.org has been created.

 The Prime Minister is to launch a new platform for managing Livestock named as e–Gopala App, which will serve as a breed improvement marketplace. The portal also aims to provide information on managing livestock including buying and selling of germplasm of livestock. It also ensures Quality breeding services for livestock, Animal nutrition and traditional medical treatment. It also sends alerts to remind vaccination and calving.

 The Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment, Thaawarchand Gehlot has recently released a book containing 33 Action Plans 2020–21 of all the schemes of the Department of Social Justice & Empowerment. This is the first time that the Department has released comprehensive Annual Action Plan 2020–21. The aim is to provide specific targets for the Ministry, State Governments and NGOs.

 The Chief Minister of New Delhi Arvind Kejriwal has recently inaugurated the Delhi government’s e–filing consumer complaint system. The system is aimed at helping the people to file complaints through virtual mode. This digital service helps people maintain social distancing amidst the COVID–19 pandemic. In July, Delhi launched an e–RTI portal that will enable citizens to file online Right to Information (RTI).

 The first Joint Commission Meeting between India and Angola was held recently. The meeting was co–chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his counterpart Tete Antonio. During the meeting, the two countries agreed to diversify their trade relationship. The leaders also discussed regarding cooperation in health, pharmaceuticals, defence, agriculture sectors.

India and Japan have recently signed a key agreement for Reciprocal provision of supplies and services between their Defence forces. Called as the Acquisition and Cross–Servicing Agreement (ACSA), it facilitates smooth provision of supplies and services between Japan’s Self–Defense Forces and India’s armed forces. This agreement is expected to promote military cooperation and regional security.

Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya has recently launched ‘SAROD–Ports’ (Society for Affordable Redressal of Disputes – Ports).
SAROD–Ports is established under Societies Registration Act and aims to resolve the disputes with the panel of technical experts as arbitrators. It is expected to save legal expenditure and time. This works similar to the SAROD–Roads constituted by NHAI.

The Department of Post has launched a new scheme called Five Star Villages, to expand Universal coverage of Postal schemes in rural areas of the country. The scheme aims to create public awareness on Postal Products and services across all interior villages. The products covered include Sukanya Samridhi Accounts, PPF Accounts, PM Suraksha Bima Yojana Account, PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana Account and other SB and RD accounts being offered.

Serena Williams has entered the US Open 2020 semi–finals. With this, the Tennis Legend has entered semi–finals in US Open for eleven times in a row. Serena, who is 38 years old, has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles including six US Open. She was the runner–up in US Open four times.

Jeff Bezos – the Chief Executive and co–founder of Amazon has topped Forbes’ list of richest Americans. He has been the richest American as per the Forbes’ list for 3 times in a row.
He is followed by Microsoft co–founder Bill Gates. As per the Forbes and Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jeff Bezoz became the first person whose net worth rose to over USD 200 billion.

The High Court of Kerala has issued a set of directives to the state regarding Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). The High Court has directed the state to appoint woman IPS officer in every district, to oversee the cases investigated under POSCO Act. It has also directed to establish 1–Stop Support Centres, in lines with the Supreme Court directions, to protect the victims.

India and China have recently agreed on five points regarding the situation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). On the side lines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet in Moscow, the External affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi had strategic talks which focussed on Disengagement of troops and easing of tensions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a report titled ‘Countdown to 2023: WHO report on global trans–fat elimination 2020’. As per the report, more than 100 countries have to take actions to remove harmful substances from their food supplies. Due to consumption of trans fats, 5 lakh deaths per year is estimated due to coronary heart disease.

The Government of Gujarat has announced the state’s first Heritage Tourism Policy. The policy permits use of historic buildings (pre–1950 historical buildings) such as heritage palaces and forts, as heritage hotels, heritage museums, heritage banquet halls and heritage restaurants etc. Under the policy, the State Government will offer an aid of Rs. 5 – 10 crore for renovation of these heritage structures.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has recently released the States’ start–up Ranking Framework 2019. As per the ranking, Gujarat has been named as the best performer among states and Andaman & Nicobar Islands has been named as the best performer in the category of Union Territory. Karnataka and Kerala emerged as the Top performers. The framework is based on 7 broad reform areas.

The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Rajasthan government to develop the MSME ecosystem in the state.
This is the initiative of the Department of Industries, Rajasthan to provide financial and technical support to MSMEs in the state. The state has also amended the MSME Act to promote industries and exempt businesses from permissions and inspections for three years.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and France’s ENGIE group have signed a long–term loan of up to Rs 466 crore to set up a 200–MW solar power project in Gujarat. The project that is to be developed in the Raghanesda Solar Park, is expected to be commissioned in the first half of 2021. Electro Solaire Private Ltd (ESPL), a special purpose vehicle owned by the ENGIE group, will implement the project.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines regarding Compliance Functions in Banks and Role of Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). The guidelines direct that all banks should have a board approved Compliance Policy and Appointment of CCO. The CCO shall be a senior executive of the bank, preferably in the rank of a General Manager.

The Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC) was established by the Ministry of Textiles in 1982, to promote export of Carpets and other allied Products from India. Recently, CEPC was in news as the organization has announced a three–day virtual Buyer–Seller Meet.

Marathi language movie ‘The Disciple’ has won the Best Screenplay award at Venice Film Festival. The film is directed by Chaitanya Tamhane. The movie describes the personal and professional experiences of a Hindustani classical singer. It also bagged the prestigious FIPRESCI award. “Nomadland”, directed by Chloe Zhao won the “Golden Lion” award in the file festival.

The Governor of the coastal State of Louisiana, United States has declared a state of emergency on account of the tropical Storm Sally. The storm is expected to strengthen to a hurricane and will weaken back to a tropical storm while moving inland over Louisiana.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated various projects under the ‘Namami Gange’ Yojana and the ‘AMRUT’ Yojana in Bihar. The four schemes inaugurated include sewerage treatment plants in Patna and water–related projects under the ‘AMRUT’ scheme. The Prime Minister also laid foundation stones were also laid for water supply projects and River Front Development Scheme under Namami Gange.

The Horticulture Department of the Jammu and Kashmir has launched the Flagship programme ‘Backyard Horticulture’ under CAPEX scheme. The programme aims to promote organic fruit production for home consumption. Under the programme, three fruit plants will be distributed among the farmers at 90% subsidy. It increases self–sustenance and also preserves environment.

Two important bills pertaining to Ministry of AYUSH has been passed in Lok Sabha, namely the “National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill 2020” and “National Commission for Homoeopathy Bill 2020”. The said bills have been already passed in the Rajya Sabha in March 2020. The bills seek to replace the existing “Indian Medicine Central Council Act 1970” and “Homoeopathy Central Council Act 1973”.________________________________________

The Rajya Sabha has recently passed the Aircraft (Amendment) Bill 2020, which was tabled by Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The bill has already been cleared by the Lok Sabha in March this year. It seeks to convert aviation agencies like the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Bureau of Civil aviation security (BCAS) and Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into statutory bodies. It also proposes heavy punishment for violations.

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank presented the first ever AICTE–Visvesvaraya Best Teacher Awards 2020. The award has been conferred to 12 faculty members of AICTE approved institutes on the occasion of Engineers Day. The award has been introduced to identify extraordinary teachers and recognize their best practice in the field of higher technical education.

Kerala State Electronic Development Corporation (Keltron), owned by the Government of Kerala, is set to manufacture commercially available Ventilators. The corporation has signed a pact with Society for Bio Medical Technology (SBMT) under the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) for technical expertise in ventilator production.

India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has exited from Sudan after the country has refused to pay for oil it lifted from the fields. The overseas investment arm of the state–owned oil company, ONGC Videsh (OVL) along with its Chinese partner CNPC and Malaysia’s Petronas have withdrawn from the oil fields. The African country had not paid USD 430.69 million for the Oil it bought from the block since 2011.

As per the recent statement of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, the government has set a target to increase the number of PMBJKs to 10,500 by March 2025.
The Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras (PMBJK) were launched with an aim to provide quality medicines at affordable rates to common citizens. At present, there were just over 6000 Kendras across the country.

The Government of Bangladesh has decided to export Hilsa fish to India on a limited scale. This is in view of the forthcoming Durga Pooja. The country’s commerce ministry has permitted nine exporters to export 1500 tonnes of Hilsa to India. Bangladesh imposed a ban on the export of Hilsa in 2012.

The Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani has recently announced subsidy schemes for electric two–wheelers and e–rickshaws. The schemes aim to encourage the use of electric vehicles to prevent air pollution.
The Chief Minister announced the subsidy as a “Panchsheel gift” of five development schemes in Gujarat. Under the scheme, Students will get a subsidy of Rs 12,000 to buy e–scooters.

The meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was held on 24th September 2020. The meeting was held in a virtual mode via video–conferencing. The meeting was chaired by Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali. The Foreign Ministers of all the member states attended the meeting. Ministers of India and Pakistan also met.

In order to improve the prescription practices among India’s medical graduates, a free online course has been launched by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
The course named ‘Prescribing Skills for Indian Medical Graduates’ will be offered by National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai. Medical Council of India (MCI) has made the course compulsory for post–graduates.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on September 19, 2020 that eight beaches of the country have been recommended for the ‘Blue Flag’ international eco–label. The minister said this on the eve of ‘International Coastal Clean–Up Day’ that is being celebrated across 100 countries since 1986. The eight beaches that have been recommended includes – Shivrajpur in Gujarat, Ghoghla in Daman and Diu, Kasarkod and Padubidri in Karnataka, Kappad in Kerala, Rushikonda in Andhra Pradesh, Golden in Odisha and Radhanagar in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

China has introduced a system of penalizing companies that appears on its “Unreliable entity list”. As per an official statement, the country will impose penalties including restricting trade, investment and visas to any company that pose a threat to China’s sovereignty, national security, development and business interests. The list also contains list of firms that discriminate against or harm Chinese businesses.

On September 18, ‘Krushi Bhavan’, a facility developed for the State’s Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment located in Bhubaneswar, Odisha won 10th annual AZ Awards 2020 as People’s Choice Winner under the category ‘social good’. The awards were revealed at its first–ever virtual AZ Awards Gala. The 12,077 sq.m ‘Krushi Bhavan’ is one among 20 winners and the only winner from India.

To mark the 75th anniversary of UN in 2020, a meeting of the UN General Assembly was organized virtually on 21st September 2020. It released a declaration titled “The Future We want; the UN We Need: Reaffirming our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism”. Year 2020 marks 75th anniversary of UN which was established on October 24, 1945.

Kerala will soon house one of the first medical device parks in the country, focusing on the high–risk medical device sector to provide full range of services for the medical devices industry like R&D support, testing, and evaluation.

Donimalai, which is known for Iron Ore mining is located in Bellari district of Karnataka. The rich Irone Ore mine was under state–owned NMDC for 50 years. The lease of NDMC ended in 2018 and since then the production has stopped here. Recently, the Karnataka government has decided to resume mining at Donimalai.

The Companies Act, 2013 is amended by the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 which was introduced by the Minister for Corporate Affairs. The Bill decriminalizes company law offences and allows direct foreign listing of companies.
The Bill seeks to establish benches of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. These shall ordinarily sit in New Delhi or such other place as may be notified.

The Second National Commission on Labour was set up in 2002 and recommended a separate law for small scale units with less stringent provisions for conditions such as payment of wages, welfare facilities, social security, etc

The Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs approved the second phase of the centrally sponsored Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) for a period of three years i.e. 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2020. The scheme was launched in 2013.

The Parliament of India passes the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020 which take into account the inclusion of Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi in the list of official languages in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, in addition to the existing Urdu and English.________________________________________

Karnataka has the highest number nursing colleges in India. It has 314 total number of colleges among which 13 are government colleges and 301 are private colleges.
Health is a subject of State list, therefore opening of new nursing colleges falls under the purview of the respective state government.

Union Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has inaugurated and laid foundation stones of as many as 45 Highway Projects in Madhya Pradesh. The project outlay is Rs 11427 crore and it includes projects include road length of 1361 kilometres. The Minister also announced Rs 700 crore from Central Road Fund (CRF) for Madhya Pradesh to be utilised in the road sector.

Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has recently distributed over 700 bee boxes, to provide Self–Employment for Migrant Workers. The boxes have been distributed to the workers of Uttar Pradesh at the KVIC’s training center in Panjokera. The Honey Mission was launched by KVIC before 3 years, to create employment for farmers, tribal people, women and unemployed youth.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has introduced a product Structured Finance and Partial Guarantee Programme to NBFC–MFIs. This is intended to promote unhindered flow of credit in rural areas, which has been affected by COVID 19 pandemic. The product provides partial credit guarantee on pooled loans extended to small and mid–sized micro finance institutions (MFIs).

German golf player ‘Sophia Popov’ became the first German women to win a major tournament victory by clinching AIG British Women’s Open at Royal Troon. The 27–year–old player holds a world ranking of 304. She finished two strokes clear of her opponent Jasmine Suwannapura of Thailand. Popov had won the International European Ladies Amateur Championship in 2010.

The country’s longest river crossing ropeway has been built and opened across river Brahmaputra. It is a 1.8 km long ropeway built across the river extending from central to northern Guwahati. It will reduce the time of travel to 8 minutes. The cost of the project is Rs.56 crore and has been completed after 11 years of starting the work.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently announced that the African continent is completely free of Polio. A commission headed by Rose Gana Fomban Leke has certified that no wild Polio cases occurred in the African region for the past four years. The threshold for eradication of poliovirus is also four years. Africa had earlier eradicated smallpox disease.

The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is to launch a new toll–free helpline for Mental health rehabilitation. The new helpline will provide support to the callers regarding first–aid, psychological support, distress management among others in as many as 13 major languages. Several issues regarding the mental health of people are noted during the COVID–19 crisis.

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has launched a new insurance product for pet animals, called ‘Bajaj Allianz Pet Dog Insurance Policy’. This is said to be the first and only retail comprehensive pet insurance cover for pet dogs. It will provide a complete coverage to all breeds of pet animals over their life time from 3 months to 10 years. It also covers the treatment costs of specified diseases or deaths due to illness.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently released its annual report 2019–20, in which it has estimated that India would have a negative growth of (–) 4.5 % for the year 2020–21. The central bank has also projected the global growth rate between (–) 6.0 per cent and (–) 7.6 per cent. It also said that the supply of banknotes during 2019–20 was also lower by 23.3 % than that of the previous year.

Every Year, Women’s Equality Day is observed in the United States of America and other parts of the world on August 26. This day is observed in memory of the American Women getting the constitution right to vote. It is proclaimed each year by the President of the United States. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Equality Day since on August 26 1920, right to vote was secured by women in America.

The state Government of Assam has extended the AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958) in the state for a period of 6 more months, from August 28 Assam has been declared a “disturbed area” due to various insurgent attacks on the security forces in the near past. The AFSPA is in force in Assam since 1990 and is renewed every 6 months. The Act empowers the security forces to make security operations, arrest anyone anywhere without prior notice.

The Union Culture Ministry has announced the formation of seven new circles of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). This has been announced following the Prime Minister’s call to preserve and register archaeological monuments. The new circles are – Trichy (Tamil Nadu), Raiganj (West Bengal), Rajkot (Gujarat), Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh), Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) and Hampi (Karnataka). Earlier there were 29 circles of ASI in India.

The Union Civil Aviation Minister has recently announced that a total of 78 additional routes has been approved under the fourth batch of Regional Connectivity Scheme—Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagarik (UDAN). So far, 766 routes have been sanctioned under the UDAN scheme. 29 served, 08 unserved (including 02 heliports and 01 water aerodrome), and 02 underserved airports have been included in the list for approved routes.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has launched the prototype of the ‘National GIS–enabled land bank system’. It enables the investors to get real–time information about the availability of industrial land and resources. The project is initially launched for six states and will expanded to all states/UTs by December 2020.

The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman chaired the 41st GST Council meet, which discussed about the options that can be given to states to meet shortfall of GST compensation. Earlier in the month of May, the Centre amended the FRBM act to raise the borrowing limit of States from 3 per cent to 5 per cent of GSDP for FY21. After the meeting, the Finance Minister said, a further relaxation of 0.5 per cent in the limit will be given. This year, there is a GST compensation gap of 2.35 lakh crore rupees.

Apex body on data protection in India, set up by NASSCOM, the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), along with PayPal India released a report titled ‘Fraud & Risk Management in Digital Payments’. The report suggests to safeguard payments for consumers, MSMEs, businesses, as the e–commerce market in India and UPI transactions are growing manifold during the recent times. It also discussed about the threats in the payment ecosystem and its prevention.

The Fisheries Department of the state of Kerala has acquired the first marine ambulance named “Pratheeksha”. The marine ambulance is constructed by Cochin Shipyard Ltd. The vessel can move at a speed of 14 knots per hour and will be used to rescue fishermen in distress. The vessel has inbuilt facility to provide medical support to as many as ten people at a time.

The “Draft Health Data Management Policy” of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) has been released by the National Health Authority. The draft policy has been released on the official webpage of NDHM for public comments and suggestions, after which the Health Data Management Policy would be finalized. The NDHM programme was announced by the Prime Minister during his Independence Day speech.

The Arunachal Pradesh Assembly has recently passed a resolution to bring the state under the scope of Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The Sixth Schedule provides protection of tribal people’s rights in the Northeast India. Under the Indian constitution, Arunachal Pradesh is the only North–eastern state without any protective provisions for its tribal communities.

After the supersession of the Medical Council of India (MCI), the board of governors (BoG) announced that Pandemic management will be included in the MBBS course.

The premier medical education regulator said that the Medical students will learn this module along with its social, legal and other portions. This module will extend from foundation course to the final year undergraduate programme. This will help the doctors to meet the challenges posed by pandemics like COVID–19.

UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has launched a new initiative named ‘Beirut’. The initiative seeks to raise funds to be used in rehabilitating the heritage buildings situated in Beirut. UNESCO will host a meeting for donors by the end of September. Earlier, during a massive explosion that hit Lebanon, several of is buildings were damaged.

The Government of Assam has proposed to set up a Skill University at Mangaldoi in Darrang district. The new University would be set up at a cost of over Rs.850 crore. Assam Cabinet has approved the Assam Skill Development University Bill. The Director of Assam Skill Development Mission has stated that the university will be called as Skill City and it would be the first of its kind in India. It would have a capacity of 10,000 seats.

India’s first International women’s trade centre (WTC) will be set up in Kerala. The WTC would come up in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) at Angamaly district of the state. The setting up of women trade centre aims to promote women entrepreneurship and achieve gender equality in the country. It is expected to provide a safe work place for women to start their new businesses and provide a platform for marketing their products globally.