Current affairs : January 20, 2017 for all competitive exams
The Centre has so far
awarded ₹60.9 crore as prize money to over 3.81 lakh consumers and 21,000
merchants under its two lucky draw schemes – Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan
Vyapar Yojana – announced to boost digital payments post demonetisation.
- “Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar
Pradesh and Karnataka have emerged as the top five states with the maximum
number of winners,”
- The two schemes, aimed at “incentivising the
consumers and the merchants to promote digital payments,” were unveiled on
December 25 last year and will remain open till April 14.
Govt inks MoU with National
Yuva Cooperative Society to set up 1,000 Janaushadhi Kendras
The government has signed an
agreement with the National Yuva Cooperative Society to set up 1,000
Janaushadhi Kendras across the country and targets to open such medical stores
in every block and gram panchayat to provide quality medicines at an affordable
price.
- At present, 750 Janaushadhi Kendras, providing more
than 600 medicines and 150 medical devices, are operational and the target
is to open 3,000 by end of this fiscal for achieving health safety,
Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar stated.
‘Church
courts’ cannot veto divorce law, says Supreme Court
Canon law and decrees of
divorce given by ecclesiastical tribunals or ‘Church Courts’ cannot veto the
statutory law of divorce, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.
- Thus saying, a Bench of Chief Justice of India J.S.
Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud disposed of a writ petition filed in
2013 seeking a judicial declaration that divorce decrees passed by
ecclesiastical tribunals are valid and binding.
Centre sets up a negotiation panel on river Mahanadi and
its tributaries
Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has
constituted a negotiations committee to assess availability and utilisation of
waters of Mahanadi and its tributaries.
The committee has been set up with reference to complaint of State of
Odisha under section 3 of the ISRWD Act, 1956 regarding utilisation of waters
of Mahandi Basin.
- The committee will be chaired by Member (WP&P),
Central Water Commission and will have 11 other members comprising
representatives from the States of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra and Jharkhand, Union Ministries of Agriculture, Environment
Forest and Climate Change, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga
Rejuvenation, India Meteorological Department and Central Water
Commission.
- The committee has been asked to submit its report
within three months.
CCI imposes penalty on bidders for cartelisation in
tenders of Indian Railways
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed penalties on three
firms for bid rigging of tenders floated by Indian Railways for procurement of
Brushless DC fans in the year 2013.
- CCI has held that the firms had shared the market by
way of allocation of tenders of Indian Railways for Brushless DC fans
amongst themselves under an agreement/ arrangement and indulged in bid
rigging/ collusive bidding in contravention of the provisions of Section
3(3)(c) and 3(3)(d) read with Section 3(1) of the Act.
India Innovation Index to measure performance of Indian
states
The World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, the World Intellectual Property
Organization and the Cornell University are working together to develop an
India Innovation Index that will provide impetus to Indian states to drive the
innovative spirit.
- This index will encourage states to compete with
each other and, in turn, lead to better policies for inclusive growth.
- Each partnering organisation will nominate a working
group member to work on the index. The first ranking is expected to be
released at the India Economic Summit in New Delhi in October 2017.
- The index will be based on key pillars of innovation
and sub-indices that together will assist in tailoring policies that
promote inclusive growth. The pillars include the strength of
institutions, capacity of human capital and research, supporting
infrastructure and the level of business sophistication, among others.
ICMR to study
A.P. kidney disease crisis
Amid mounting concern about
high rates of unexplained kidney disease in the Uddhanam region of Srikakulam
district, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is launching an
intensive study there in February to identify the likely cause.
- A high–level ICMR team will investigate the Chronic
Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu) that has affected thousands. The
ICMR is sending the team following a request from Andhra Pradesh Chief
Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Dharamsala to be
2nd capital of H.P.
Himachal Pradesh Chief
Minister Virbharda Singh on Thursday announced that Dharamsala would be the
second capital of the hill State with a population of about 70 lakhs.
- The announcement is significant as 25 out of 68
Assembly seats fall in Kangra, Una and Hamirpur districts, and Dharamsala
is important for the lower areas of Himachal Pradesh, including Kangra,
Chamba, Hamirpur and Una districts.
Jammu &
Kashmir Assembly calls for ‘safe return’ of Pandits
The Jammu and Kashmir
Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution calling for the return of
migrants, including Kashmiri Pandits, to the Valley.
- The resolution was moved by former Chief Minister
and National Conference working president Omar Abdullah.
Entrepreneurship Development
Scheme inaugurated in Mizoram
Mizoram Chief Secretary
Lalmalsawma inaugurated the Entrepreneurship Development Scheme (EDS) under the
New Economic Development Policy (NEDP).
- Lalmalsawma stated that state government gave high
priority to entrepreneurship development and has allocated Rs two crore
under the NEDP during the current fiscal.
World Bank Sanctions Rs 1,376
Cr For Tripura Power Upgradation
Washington based World Bank has
sanctioned Rs 1,376 crore for upgradations and improvement of the Tripura power
system network on This was announced by Tripura’s power minister Manik
Dey.
- The Power Upgradation project is divided into 5
phases. SPML Infra Ltd has got the contract of the first phase with the
budget of Rs 461 crore .A large number of 132 KV and 33 KV
substations will be constructed and upgraded under the project across
Tripura.
India, UAE to hold 1st
strategic dialogue in New Delhi
Ahead of the visit of the
UAE crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan , who will be the Chief
Guest at the Republic Day function this year, India UAE is scheduled to hold
their first strategic dialogue in New Delhi.
- The two countries have been moving closer for security, counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing and trade and during this visit of the Crown Prince , India and UAE will also be looking to boost economic ties. Indians are the largest expatriate community in UAE comprising of nearly 20% of its migrant population.
Workshop on MSME Cooperation amongst Indian Ocean Rim
Association (IORA) Member Countries
Workshop on MSME Cooperation amongst Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA)
Member countries was recently held in India.
- This workshop aims to strengthen economic relationship
amongst the member countries in the field of trade and investment
facilitation especially in MSME sector.
- This Workshop will facilitate exchange of ideas,
concerns and experiences of IORA member states and would help evolve a
common MoU to address the emerging challenges in the region in MSME
sector.
NASA aims to send spacecraft to giant ‘metal’ asteroid
NASA is preparing to send a spacecraft to a giant “metal” asteroid that may
tell scientists the secret of how our solar system was formed.
- The mission is called “Psyche”. It is focused to
know whether the asteroid, called “16 Psyche” and thought to be made of
iron and nickel, could be part of what was an earlier planet perhaps as
large as Mars.
- Psyche robotic mission will launch in October 2023
and will arrive at the asteroid in 2030, following an Earth gravity assist
spacecraft manoeuver in 2024 and a Mars flyby in 2025.
Lloyd’s Gets Final Approval
from IRDAI to Open First Branch in India
London’s insurance giant
Lloyd has received the final approval from the Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority (IRDA) on to set up its first branch in India.
- The specialist insurance and reinsurance company
would open its first branch office in India before April 2017 and will be
located at Mumbai. Lloyd’s will bring expertise and specialist capacity to
India’s insurance market and work in partnership with local insurance
businesses to develop innovative solutions that meet the unique needs of
the growing economy.
Delhi Police commissioner Alok
Verma appointed next CBI chief
A 3-member committee headed
by PM Modi selected Alok Kumar Verma as next CBI chief for a period of 2
years.
- Verma, a 1979-batch IPS officer, has been Delhi Police chief for the last 11 months. Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana was acting as CBI's interim director.
Alibaba Becomes Worldwide
Sponsor of Olympic Games through 2028
The International Olympic
Committee (IOC) and Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group entered into a
long-term partnership through 2028 at the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland. This makes Alibaba the worldwide sponsor of Olympic Games through
2028.
- The partnership was agreed between IOC President
Thomas Bach, Alibaba Group Founder and Executive Chairman Jack
Ma and Alibaba Group Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang.
- With this Alibaba has become the first company in the world to make a long-term commitment to the IOC through 2028 as well as first Chinese company to commit to the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
Punjab Royals bagged
ProWrestling League Season 2 title
Punjab Royals have bagged
the Pro Wrestling League Season 2 title.
- In the summit clash in New Delhi, the Punjab team beat Haryana Hammers 5-4.Punjab reigned supreme with their foreign imports Vladimir Khinchegashvili, Vasilisa Marzaliuk and Ilias Bekbukatov, besides India's Nirmla and Jitendra doing the damage in the crucial ties of the day.
ICICI, YES
Bank’s partner app resolve UPI spat
ICICI Bank is set to start
allowing users of PhonePe – a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) based mobile
payments app – to complete transactions with the bank after the National
Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) intervened to resolve a dispute between the
two.
- ICICI had last week blocked PhonePe – a Flipkart
group firm that has partnered with YES Bank – alleging violation of UPI
guidelines mandating interoperability. “Based on a review by NPCI on ICICI
Banks’ action to block UPI transactions made through PhonePe App, we would
like to state that ICICI Bank has been advised to open UPI transactions
immediately,” NPCI said in a statement.
Praful Patel in
FIFA finance panel
All India Football
Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel was appointed member of FIFA’s Finance Committee,
which The committee will work from 2017 to 2021, according to a release.
- Patel was named senior vice-president of the Asian
Football Confederation (AFC) in December, 2016.
- The FIFA Finance Committee monitors the financial management and advises the FIFA Executive Committee on financial matters and asset management.
