Cabinet Approves Continuation of PMAY-U up to Dec 31st, 2024; Indo-Australia Audio Visual Co-Production Treaty also Approved
i.The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister (PM) of India Narendra Modi approved the proposal of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) for the continuation of ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) – Housing for All’ up to December 31st 2024.
ii.Upto March 31st, 2022, Central Assistance of Rs 1,18,020.46 crore has already been released, and now under the extension, Rs 85,406 crore will be released as Central Assistance till 31st December 2024 for the completion of already sanctioned 122.69 lakh houses.
iii.The Union Cabinet also approved the signing of ‘Audio Visual Co-Production Treaty’ between India and Australia to promote the co-production of films.
iv.The Union Cabinet approved the ratification of amendments to the Constitution of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) as contained in the 11th Additional Protocol to the Constitution signed during the 27th Congress of the Universal Postal Union held at Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire from 9 to 27 August 2021.
About Australia:
Capital– Canberra
Currency– Australian Dollar
ISRO Unveils India’s First Virtual Space Museum ‘SPARK
S.Somanath, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), unveiled the ‘SPARK’: The Space Tech Park, India’s first virtual space technology museum, as part of the AzadiKaAmrit Mahotsav celebrations commemorating India’s 75th anniversary of independence.
SPARK is the first 3D (three-dimension) virtual space tech park ever created by ISRO.
i. The platform’s beta version offers a virtual tour of SPARK and visitors can virtually board the Space on Wheels bus to take the tour.
It has a museum, a theatre, an observatory, a garden with life-size rockets, a lakeside cafe area, a children’s play area, as well as several other interactions.
ii.Visitors can explore various exhibits on ISRO’s achievements, satellites, and launch vehicles inside the virtual facility, which is located inside the main museum structure.
Visitors can also view the documents of all the top scientists who contributed to ISRO’s success story. A movie highlighting ISRO’s missions will be screened in the theatre.
About Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO):
Chairman – S. Somanath
Establishment – 1969
Microsoft tie-ups with MSDE, CBC for capacity building of Civil Servants of India
Microsoft partnered with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), and Capacity Building Commission (CBC) to boost the functional computer literacy of nearly 2.5 million Civil Servants of India.
Objective:
To help civil servants in helping the underprivileged and to develop citizen-friendly and business-friendly policies.
Key points:
i.The project is in line with the initiative envisioned by the Prime Minister- Mission Karmayogi, it is aligned towards the development of our civil servants.
ii.Under the project, the training will be provided which include job roles such as section officers, assistant section officers, clerks, upper division clerks, lower division clerks, under secretaries, deputy secretaries, and equivalent officers at senior, junior and supporting levels in the central government entities.
iii.CBC has undertaken the capacity building plans for the Ministries of Defence, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Expenditure, Finance, Social Justice, Civil Aviation, Ports and Shipping, and Labour.
Key people:
The MoU was signed and exchanged in the presence of Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary MSDE; Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, CBC; Praveen Pardeshi, Member Admin, CBC and Ashutosh Chadha, Group Head & Director, Government Affairs, Microsoft India.
Courses-
i.Microsoft will develop an online, self-paced learning course on Microsoft Office 365 digital productivity suite offerings for MSDE, that would enable MSDE to provide digital skills training to the officials in central government ministries and departments.
ii.The courses will be created under two categories – Beginners and Advanced courses of 12 hours duration each and the learners would be enabled with access to Advanced course after receiving the certificate of completion in Beginners course.
iii.Microsoft would host the course content on Microsoft Community Training portal (MCT) which the learner can easily access.
MSDE and CBC would enable free access to the developed course content from Microsoft to officials from various central government organisations and departments in collaboration with CBC through MCT.
MSDE would monitor the project progress and keep track of the training outcomes.
iv.The MSDE also encourages all the Ministries, Departments and Organisations (MDOs) to make it mandatory for all the Section Officers and Assistant Section Officers to be certified in digital productivity skills from the project for their career progression, as per the National Training Policy.
About Microsoft:
CEO-Satya Nadella
Headquarters-Washington, United States
Founded- 1975
India Sets Target to Raise Share of Natural Gas in Energy Mix to 15% by 2030
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Rameswar Teli, Minister of State (MoS) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, announced that the Government of India (GoI) has set a target to raise the share of natural gas in the energy mix to 15% in 2030 from the current about 6.3%.
To reach the target, the government has taken various initiatives like;
Expansion of National Gas Grid to about 33,500 Km from current 21,715 Km.
Expansion of City Gas Distribution (CGD) network
Setting up of Liquefied Natural Gas Terminals.
Allocation of domestic gas to Compressed Natural Gas(CNG) (Transport) / Piped Natural Gas (Domestic) in no cut category.
Allowing marketing and pricing freedom to gas produced from high pressure/high-temperature areas, deep water & ultra-deep water and from coal seams.
Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiatives to promote Bio-CNG.
7.3% Of Indians Owned Digital Currency in 2021, 7th Highest in World: UNCTAD
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated that 7.3% of the Indian population possessed digital currency in 2021, placing India 7th out of the top 20 global economies for digital currency ownership as a share of population.
According to UNCTAD, the use of cryptocurrencies escalated at an unprecedented global rate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has issued three policy briefs in this regard. They are as follows:
i. Policy Brief No. 100 – “All that glitters is not gold: The high cost of leaving cryptocurrencies unregulated”
ii.Policy Brief No. 101 – “Public payment systems in the digital era: Responding to the financial stability and security-related risks of cryptocurrencies”
iii. Policy Brief No. 102 – “The cost of doing too little too late: How cryptocurrencies can undermine domestic resource mobilization in developing countries”
In these three policy briefs, UNCTAD stated that although these private digital currencies have benefited some people and made remittances easier, they are an unstable financial asset that can also pose societal risks and costs.
About United Nations Conference On Trade and Development (UNCTAD):
Secretary-General – Rebeca Grynspan
Established – 1964
International Solar Alliance floats tender for 1150 MW solar project in Cuba
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) in partnership with the Republic of Cuba signed a tender for setting up a 1150 MW solar project in Cuba.
NTPC is the project management consultant for ISA for setting up the project.
ISA, Cuba’s Unión Eléctrica (UNE), and India’s NTPC Limited will work together to ensure the solar project is bankable, technically sound, and attractive to international investment in Cuba.
Highlights:
i.The project is part of Cuba’s plan to implement 2100 MW of solar projects, reducing the reliance on expensive and polluting diesel generators and increasing its green energy portfolio.
It will also include building of 150 MW/150 MWh of storage to support grid reliability.
ii.This project is the first in ISA’s broader solar park programme, which will support developing markets in structuring bankable, economic solar parks through technical support, transparent and competitive tendering and implementation agreements.
iii.The project will be supported by a functional scheme that guarantees the return of investments and the benefits accruing from the savings of fossil fuels from the project.
As per Cuban legislation, a sovereign guarantee is also being extended to the project along with other guarantees.
The project will receive priority with relevant procedures and permissions expedited in accordance with the regulations for Cuban foreign investment.
Tender process:
Request for qualification (RFQ) was floated on behalf of UNE by NTPC for the selection of an eligible list of participants.
The selected participants will be called for the final stage of the tender, i.e., Request for Proposal (RFP), where they will need to provide price bids and quantum of power capacity in MW.
Kotak Mahindra Bank Launches Lifestyle Focused Corporate Salary Account
On 10th August 2022 Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited launched Kotak Crème, a lifestyle-focused corporate salary account that offers an upgraded banking experience.
This flagship programme will be available to all corporates in India and will also come with a host of privileges and rewards across lifestyle, travel, healthcare, dining, skilling and learning experiences.
Features:
i.Earlier, the corporate salary account benefits included no minimum balance commitments, zero transaction charges and some access to other banking products with a sustained relationship.
ii.Kotak Crème is launched in Bengaluru, Karnataka for it is one of the corporate hubs.
iii.Each account will include a complimentary Zen Credit Card through which, the account holders can avail a number of benefits like subscription to top lifestyle brands offering health and wellness, lifestyle, entertainment and access to complimentary airport lounges.
iv.It also offers preferential pricing on personal, home and vehicle loans including emergency funds via overdraft facility upto five times the salary limit and salary PayDay loan at affordable interest rates.
About Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited:
Managing Director (MD) & CEO – Uday Kotak
Establishment – 2003
Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra
Yes Bank and IBSFINtech Partners to Provide Enhanced Digital Services
Yes Bank and IBSFINtech, a TreasuryTech Solution provider, have partnered to empower the corporate treasury ecosystem with a robust decision-making tool and automated workflows backed by seamless bank connectivity.
This partnership provides next generation technology solutions across Cash, Liquidity, Treasury, Risk, Trade Finance and Supply Chain Finance functions of corporations.
This will also provide connectivity between a corporate’s ERP and a bank’s solutions.
Key Highlights:
i.IBSFINtech’s TreasuryTech platform is deeply integrated with the internal IT ecosystem of corporates through which it enables an end-to-end connected ecosystem for corporates and the bank
ii.With this partnership, the Platform connects YES Bank through Application Programming Interface (APIs) and provides real-time cash visibility.
It is focused on co-creating and delivering deeply integrated treasury solutions through IBSFINtech’s platform with the aim to achieve complete digitisation between corporates and banks.
iv.The collaboration yields paperless communication between the Bank and corporates across the function of treasury that includes a range from issuing fund transfers to forex transactions to completing trade documentation where the entire process will be digitised and powered by IBSFINtech.
v.This collaboration will enable paperless communication between Yes Bank and corporates for treasury and trade finance.
About IBSFINtech:
MD & CEO – Chandra Mohan Grover
Chairman – Shailesh V Haribhakthi
Headquarters – Bengaluru, Karnataka
India Could Emerge as Asia’s Strongest Economy in 2022-23: Morgan Stanley
According to economists at Morgan Stanley, a global leader in financial services, India could emerge as Asia’s strongest economy in 2022-2023 since it is best positioned to generate robust domestic demand, boosted by economic policy reforms, a young workforce, and business investments.
The brokerage Morgan Stanley anticipates India’s growth to be 7% on average for 2022–2023 and to contribute 28% and 22%, respectively, to Asian and global growth.
Background
The estimate from Morgan Stanley arrives as India, the third-largest economy in Asia, grew 9.2 % in the fiscal year 2022, recovering a 6.6 % contraction in 2021 as the COVID-19 lockdowns severely hurt the country’s economy.
In India, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is now anticipated to be between 8% and 8.5 % in 2022–2023.
The outlook released by Morgan Stanley also coincides with a gloomy picture being painted by developed economies, with economic activity declining in the United States (US) and the Eurozone in July 2022, according to data from the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI).
Key Points:
i. Lower corporate taxes, the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, and India as a potential supply chain beneficiary will stimulate and sustain domestic demand, particularly in investment.
India lowered corporate tax rates in 2019 to attract manufacturers and boost private investment, and the PLI scheme was introduced in 2020 to support local manufacturing.
ii.According to the brokerage, risks associated with rising energy costs brought on by the war in the Ukraine and supply issuesstill persist, but have started to decline.
iii. While other nations hiked interest rates to combat inflation, including India, its Rs 39.45 trillion ($529.7 billion) budget for the current fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23) has continued to favour increased public investment.
iv.It anticipates that domestic consumption will increase and that services exports will perform better than goods exports.
ICCR Distinguished Indologist for 2021 awarded to Canadian Scholar Jeffrey Armstrong
Jeffrey Armstrong (Kavindra Rishi) Canadian scholar and founder of the VASA (Vedic Academy of Science & Arts) has been awarded the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Distinguished Indologist for 2021 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the research in India’s philosophy, thought, history, art, culture, Indian languages, literature, civilisation and society.
Manish, India’s consul-general in Vancouver, Canada presented the award to him. He becomes the 7th recipient of this award.
The award comprises a citation, a gold-plated medallion, and USD 20,000 (~ Rs 1.6 Lakhs).
The award was instituted in 2015 and the inaugural award (2015) was presented to Prof. Heinrich Freiherr Von Stietencron of Germany
ICCR was founded in 1950 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, independent India’s first education minister.
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit Appointed 49th CJI; Takes Oath on 27th August
On 10th August 2022 Justice Uday Umesh Lalit(UU Lalit), judge of the Supreme Court was appointed as the 49th Chief Justice of India (CJI) by the warrant signed by President Droupadi Murmu.
In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President has appointed Justice U U Lalit as CJI
He will take oath and assume charge on 27th August 2022 replacing incumbent CJI Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana(N V Ramana), who will retire on 26th August 2022.
He recommended to the government the name of Justice Uday Umesh Lalit as his successor and the 49th Chief Justice of India.
Key Highlights:
i.Justice Uday Umesh Lalit will be the 2nd CJI who was directly elevated to the apex court bench from the Bar.
In 1971 Justice Sarv Mittra Sikri(SM Sikri) was the 1st lawyer to be elevated directly to the top court bench in March 1964.
ii.He will have a brief tenure as the head of India’s judiciary and would demit office on 8th November 2022 after holding the charge as the CJI for 3 months.
Note – According to Article 124(2) of the Constitution, Supreme Court judges retire on attaining the age of 65 years and As per Article 217(1) of the Constitution, judges of the 25 high courts retire at 62.
iii.Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was born on 9th November 1957, in Solapur, Maharashtra and was enrolled as an Advocate by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in June 1983.
iv.The ‘Memorandum of Procedure of Appointment of Supreme Court Judges’ says “appointment to the office of the Chief Justice of India should be of the senior most Judge of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the office”.
His Positions:
i.He practised in the High Court of Bombay till December 1985 before shifting his practice to Delhi in January 1986.
ii.He has also worked in the chambers of Soli J. Sorabjee from 1986 to 1992 and was on the panel of lawyers for the Union of India while Soli J. Sorabjee was Attorney General for India.
iii.In April 2004, he was designated as a senior advocate by the apex court.
iv.In 2011, a Supreme Court bench of Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly appointed justice Lalit as the special public prosecutor for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 2G spectrum cases.
He was also appointed Amicus Curiae in many important issues, including Forest matters, Vehicular Pollution, Pollution of the Yamuna and such others.
His landmark cases:
i.Triple Talaq, divorce-related case of Muslim community which was marked as void, illegal and unconstitutional.
ii.Travancore Royal Family case which ruled the erstwhile royal family of Travancore that had the management right over Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala.
iii.Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case which ruled that touching sexual parts of a child’s body or any act involving physical contact with sexual intent amounts to ‘sexual assault’ under section 7 of the POCSO Act.
Nitish Kumar takes Oath as Bihar CM for 8th time, Tejashwi Yadav as Deputy CM
Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister (CM) of Bihar for the 8th consecutive time. He was joined by Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav who swore in as his Deputy CM.
They were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Phagu Chauhan.
i.Nitish Kumar joined hands with RJD, Congress, and the Left. He submitted his resignation to Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan to stake a claim to form a new government with the support of 164 MLAs.
ii.An in-principle agreement was reportedly reached about the composition of the new cabinet, which is likely to have “35 members or more”, drawn from Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), the RJD and the Congress.
About Nitish Kumar:
i.Nitish Kumar was born on 1 March 1951in Bakhtiyarpur, Bihar. He is a politician and serving as CM of Bihar since 2015, having previously held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000.
He also served as the leader of the Janata Dal (United), he has also served as a Union Minister.
ii.He founded the Samata Party in 1994 along with George Fernandes.
iii.Political career-In 1996 he was elected to the Lok Sabha, and served as a Union Minister in the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with his party joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
In 2003 his party merged into the Janata Dal (United), and he became its leader.
In 2005 Nitesh Kumar became chief minister heading a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
LIC sold 2% shares in Mahindra & Mahindra for Rs 2,222.49 Cr
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has sold 2% of its shareholding in Mahindra & Mahindra Limited(M&M) for about Rs 2,222.49 crore.
i.The shares were sold through open market transactions during the period from December 21, 2020, to August 8, 2022.
After the completion of the sale, the shareholding of LIC in the passenger cars and utility vehicles company decreased from 8.43 % to 6.42%.
A total of 2,49,73,233 shares were sold by the LIC at an average cost of Rs 889.95 crore.
According to SEBI(Security and Exchange Board of India) guidelines, the listed companies are required to intimate the stock exchanges when their shareholding in an entity changes by 2% or more.
About Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC):
Founded-1 September 1956
Headquarters- Mumbai, Maharashtra
Chairperson-Mangalam Ramasubramanian Kumar
ISRO Successfully Tests Gaganyaan Low Altitude Escape MotorIndian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully carried out the test-firing of the Low Altitude Escape Motor (LEM) of the Crew Escape System (CES) of Gaganyaan project from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh(AP).
Key Points:
i.If the mission is aborted during the initial phase flight, LEM will provide the required thrust to CES, to take away Crew Module from the launch vehicle.
ii.The main objectives of the static test includes evaluation of motor ballistic parameters, validation of motor subsystem performance and to confirm the design margins, evaluation the thermal performance of nozzle liners; especially to confirm the erosion / ablative characteristics.
iii.Validation of integrity of all interfaces, evaluation of the head-end mounted safe arm (HMSA) based ignition system performance and evaluation of the side thrust due to misalignment in flow reversal are the other primary reasons.
About Low Altitude Escape Motor (LEM):
i.The LEM is a distinctive special purpose solid rocket motor with four reverse flow nozzles and generates a maximum sea level thrust of 842 kN (nominal) with a burn time of 5.98 seconds (nominal).
ii.The nozzle end of LEM is mounted at the fore end of the launch vehicle unlike the conventional rocket motors to avoid exhaust plume impingement on the crew module.
iii.This will induce the use of a reverse flow multiple nozzle in this solid rocket motor which implies the reversal of the exhaust gas flow direction in the nozzle region.
China Launches 16 New Satellites into Orbit
On 10th August 2022, China launched 16 new satellites into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi province, China for commercial remote sensing and atmospheric imaging.
The 16 satellites including Jilin 1 Gaofen 03D09 satellite and Yunyao 1 04-08 were launched by a Long March 6 Y10 carrier rocket.
The launch is marked as the 432nd mission for the Long March series carrier rockets.
Key Points:
i.Onboard were ten Jilin 1 high-resolution optical imaging satellites for Chang Guang Satellite Technology (CGST), a commercial satellite manufacturer and operator based in northeast China and a spinoff from the state-owned Chinese Academy of Sciences.
ii.The other 6 satellites were also developed by CGST, jointly with Yunyao Aerospace, a commercial meteorological satellite data firm.
iii.The satellites are based on the Jilin 1 Gaofen 03D satellite platform, designed to deliver 29.5-inch (75 centimeter (cm)) resolution imagery from around 322 miles (535 kilometers(Km)) above the Earth.
Other Launches:
i.In July 16 2022, China had launched a Long March-2C carrier rocket to place two satellites in space that included Siwei 03 and 04 which was lifted from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, Shanxi, China
ii.China also launched Wentian, the first lab module of its space station.
iii.China successfully landed an exploratory rover on the moon in December 2020 and another on Mars in May 2021.
About China:
President – Xi Jinping
Capital – Beijing
Currency – Renminbi
Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute gets 1st ever ‘Made In India’ Surgical Robotic System’ – SSI- MANTRA
Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre (RGCIRC) in New Delhi, Delhi have installed the first-ever “Made in India” Surgical Robotic System, SSI-MANTRA, which was invented by the new-age Indian Med-Tech start-up SS innovation Private Limited- World renowned medical and engineering leadership team.
SSI-MANTRA is an acronym for Multi Arm Novel Tele Robotic Assistance and the company making it is, SS Innovations. ‘SS’ is Dr Sudhir Srivastava, India-born cardiac surgeon. The SSI MANTRA surgical robot, brainchild of cardiac surgeon Dr. Sudhir Srivastava, was developed in Atal Incubation Centre.
The system introduced at RGCIRC is a visionary project of the Indraprastha Cancer Society and Research Centre aimed at providing the best of oncological care.
44th Chess Olympiad 2022 held in Chennai, TN; Uzbekistan won Open Section
44th FIDE Chess Olympiad 2022 was held at the Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram Resort and Convention Centre in Poonjeri village in Mamallapuram/Mahabalipuram (a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) heritage site) near Chennai, Tamil Nadu(TN), India from 28th July 2022 to 9th August 2022.
i.This is the first time the Chess Olympiad is being hosted in India and the first in Asia after 30 years.
ii.It was organized by the TN State Government, All India Chess Federation (AICF), and International Chess Federation (FIDE).
The coordinating committee was headed by the CM MK Stalin.
iii.Uzbekistan, one of the youngest teams, defeated the Netherlands by 2.5-1.5, and secured the gold medal in Open Section. It was their first overall medal in the Chess Olympiads.
iv.India clinched two bronze medals with 18 match points.
The India ‘B’ team settled for a bronze medal in the Open section Average rating of 2649.
India ‘A’ women’s team also finished third and won bronze in the Chess Olympiad with Average rating of 2486.
About International Chess Federation (FIDE):
President– Arkady Dvorkovich
Headquarters– Lausanne, Switzerland
Former West Indies cricketer Kieron Pollard becomes first ever to play 600 T20 matches
Kieron Adrian Pollard, former West Indies cricketer(Trinidadian), has become the first-ever cricketer to play in 600 Twenty20 (T20) cricket matches. He achieved the feat while playing for London Spirit against the Manchester Originals in “The Hundred”, a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament of teams across England and Wales.
He represents, Mumbai Indians in Indian Premier League (IPL), Trinbago Knight Riders in Caribbean Premier League.
In Big Bash League, he has been involved with Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renegades and he has also participated in Pakistan Super League(PSL), Bangladesh Premier League and CSA (Cricket South Africa) T20 Challenge.
He has scored 11,723 runs across 600 games at an average of 31.34 and has the best individual performance of 104. Pollard has scored one century and 56 half-centuries.
The other cricketers behind Kieron Pollard in terms of playing T20 cricket matches are Dwayne Bravo (543 matches), Shoaib Malik (472), Chris Gayle (463) and Ravi Bopara (426).
National Thermal Engineer Day 2022 – July 24
National Thermal Engineer Day is annually observed on 24th July to celebrate the contribution of the thermal engineers.
The day has been introduced to encourage the engineers who work hard and help to increase the technological growth of a nation. July 24 was chosen as National Thermal Engineer Day since it is the hottest day of the year.
The Engineers work in this field would deal with many issues due to inflammation.
To appreciate the dedication of thermal engineers, Advanced Thermal Solutions Inc, the global engineering and manufacturing company in the United States (US), introduced this day in the year 2014