General Awareness

Daily G.K. - Top Stories

30 Sep 2020

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Taliban and Pakistan Interested in Withdrawal of International Forces

The Taliban and Pakistan are interested in the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan more than a peace settlement, a former Pakistani diplomat has said, warning that the ongoing peace talks in Doha were headed towards failure.
Pakistan's former Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani said that I am not optimistic about the outcome of the talks. The US has made all major concessions up front. The Taliban know that the US is eager to withdraw from Afghanistan. As they see it, they are just negotiating the withdrawal of foreign forces and the restoration of the status quo ante, when they ruled Afghanistan as its Islamic Emirate.
The Afghan government could prove stronger than the US-backed South Vietnam government and might fight on for a pluralist Afghanistan with the support of other countries, including India, he said. The US withdrawal was a function of America's tendency to lose interest in wars that go on too long, he added.

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BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

IDBI First Bank to Enable Document Embedding Feature on SFMS

IDBI Bank has implemented the new feature of document embedding facility with Letter of Credit (LC) / Bank Guarantee (BG) messages over SFMS (Structured Financial Messaging System) platform of Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS).
This new feature of "document embedding" provides banks with the functionality of transmitting a "pdf" document up to 1MB along with the LC / BG messages.
Transmission of digitally signed documents ensures reliability of the transaction. The bank added that it is the first bank to implement this feature.
The new feature will ease the current process of manual verification, reconciliation, reduce frauds, and enable documentary evidence for all the parties involved in the transaction.

SEBI Eases Rules for Delisting of Listed Subsidiaries

The capital markets regulator SEBI has eased rules for delisting of listed subsidiaries and asked companies to disclose details of forensic audit initiated by them. These decisions along with a few others were taken in the Securities and Exchange Board of India's board meeting.
Companies have been exempted from doing a reverse book building—a process followed to decide on a price that has to be paid to public shareholders to buy back shares before delisting- for listed units. The regulator said that to avail of this delisting route, the listed holding company and the listed subsidiary should be in the same line of business.
The exemption from reverse book building would provide an opportunity for eligible companies to streamline their corporate structure and consolidate the relevant businesses into one listed entity.

Mukesh Ambani tops Hurun India Rich List 2020

Mukesh Ambani gained Rs. 90 crore per hour since the coronavirus lockdown in March, thus retaining his position as the richest Indian for the ninth consecutive year on the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2020.
Ambani, who is the only Indian in the world's top 5 richest persons, amassed Rs. 2,77,700 crore through a series of fund-raising and strategic investment from Facebook, Google, Silver Lake among others into Jio and Reliance Retail, taking his personal wealth to Rs. 6,58,400 crore.
Ambani's total wealth, which is now bigger than the combined wealth of the next five in the list, making him Aisa's richest individual and fourth richest man across the world, according to the report.
The IIFL Hurun India list names the richest individuals in the country having a wealth of Rs. 1,000 crore or more. This year, the list names 828 Indians, where 627 increased their wealth and 162 are new entrants. Top 100 individuals in the list account for nearly 64 per cent wealth of the list.
London-based Hinduja brothers, with a joint wealth of Rs. 1,43,700 crore, bagged the second spot. HCL founder Shiv Nadar with Rs. 1,41,700 crore is ranked third, followed by Adani's Group's Gautam Adani at fourth and Wipro's Azim Premji at fifth spot.
Avenue Supermarts founder Radhakishan Damani made his debut to the top 10, positioned at the seventh place.

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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

ASTROTAT Completes Five Successful Years of Maping Star

The ASTROSAT was the first multi-wavelength satellite launched by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It was launched in September 2015. It has now completed five years of successful imaging of celestial objects.
The ASTROSAT explored stars, star clusters and mapped large and small galaxies of Milky Way galaxy called "Magellanic Clouds". The Magellanic Clouds are energetic phenomenon such as Gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, active galactic nuclei. In simple terms, they are called Satellite Galaxies of Milky Way.
The resolution of ASTROSAT is three times better than the resolution of NASA Mission, GALEX.
With the success of ASTROSAT, India has become one of the exclusive club of nations to have space-based observatories. The other countries that have space observatories are USA, Japan, European Space Agency, Russia and Japan. The satellite aims to provide high energy processes in binary star systems that contain black holes and neutron stars.
ASTROSAT was the first dedicated Indian Mission that studied celestial sources in X-ray, UV and optical spectral bands simultaneously with its five UV Telescopes and X-ray telescopes. The ground command and control centre of ASTROSAT is located in ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bangalore.
The ground stations of ISTRAC are located in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Port Blair, Thiruvananthapuram, Sriharikota and Lucknow.

United Arab Emirates to Launch Spacecraft to Moon in 2024

A top official in the United Arab Emirates said that his country plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2024.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the ruler of Dubai, made the announcement.
Sheikh Mohammed's announcement comes after the launch of a Mars probe earlier this year by the UAE.
Sheikh Mohammed said the rover would be named "Rashid," the same name of his late father, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum.
If successful in 2024, the UAE could become the fourth nation on the Earth to land a spacecraft on the moon, after the US, the Soviet Union and China. India has tried and failed to land a spacecraft, as has Israel and Japan.

Buried Lakes of Liquid Water Discovered on Mars

Three new underground lakes have been detected near the South Pole of Mars.
Scientists also confirmed the existence of a fourth lake - the presence of which was hinted at in 2018.
Liquid water is vital for biology, so the finding will be of interest to researchers studying the potential for life elsewhere in the Solar System.
But the lakes are also thought to be extremely salty, which could pose challenges to the survival of any microbial life forms.
Billions of years ago, water flowed in rivers and pooled in lakes on the Martian surface. But Mars has since lost much of its atmosphere, which means water canot stay liquid for long on the surface today.
However, it's a different matter underground.

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS

Bypolls to 56 Assembly Seats, One Lok Sabha Seat in November

By-elections to 54 assembly seats across 10 states will be held on November 3, the Election Commission annouced. Besides, one Parliamentary constituency in Bihar and two assembly seats from Manipur will to polls on November 7. The counting of votes will be held on November 10. The list of states where elections will be held includes Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
The commission has also decided not to hold by-elections to seven constituencies in four states. Elections on the seats -- two each in Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and one in Bengal -- will be held early next year.
The maximum number of seats going to polls is from Madhya Pradesh, where a chunk of seats fell vacant as Jyotiraditya Scindia switched camp from the Congress to the BJP with his loyalists. Twenty-seven seats will be up for election in the state.
In terms of numbers, Madhya Pradesh is followed by Gujarat, where eight seats will go to polls and Uttar Pradesh, where the corresponding number is seven.

Tharoor Continues as Head of Parl Panel on IT; Harsimrat New External Affairs Committee Member

The parliamentary panel on information technology will continue to be chaired by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, whose decisions to summon Facebook executives and take up the suspension of 4G internet services in J&K had drawn criticism from the committee's BJP members, some of whom had even sought his ouster.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in consultation with Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu announced the composition of several reconstituted parliamentary standing committees, with former Union Minister and Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal being made a member of the panel on external affairs.
Besides Tharoor, various other Congress leaders who were critical of the government as chairperson of their respective parliamentary panels have been retained.
Congress leader Anand Sharma will continue to chair the parliamentary panel on home affairs and Jairam Ramesh will remain the head of the panel on environment and science and technology.
The chairperson of all parliamentary standing committees have been retained.
YSR Congress' Vijaysai Reddy has been reappointed the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav of Health, TRS's K Keshava Rao of Industry, TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, BJD's Bhartruhari Mahtab of Labour.
DMK's Kanimozhi will continue to lead the panel on chemicals and fertilizers and JD(U)'s Rajiv Ranjan Singh will head the panel on energy.
All remaining chairpersons of the parliamentary standing committees, most of who are from the BJP, have also not been changed.

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DEFENCE

India Successfully Test-fires BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile with over 400-km Range

India successfully test-fired an extended range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. The supersonic cruise missile is capable of hitting targets at more than 400-km range.
The test was carried out under PJ-10 project of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, under which the missile was launched with an indigenous booster.
BrahMos is the first supersonic cruise missile known to be in service. Induction of the first version of BrahMos weapon complex in the Indian Navy commenced in 2005 with INS Rajput as the first ship.
All future ships being built and ships coming for mid-life up-gradation will be fitted with the missile, sources said.
The Indian Army has also inducted three regiments of Brahmos supersonic cruise missile.

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PERSONS IN NEWS

Shekhar Kapur New President Of FTII Society and its Governing Council

Noted filmmaker Shekhar Kapur was appointed president of the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Society and chairman of the institute's governing council, an official said. FTII Director Bhupendra Kainthola said Shekhar Kapur's appointment was announced by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The 74-year-old filmmaker's tenure will be till March 3, 2023, the official said. Born on December 6, 1945 at Lahore in Pakistan, the critically acclaimed director and actor is known for films like Elizabeth (1998), Bandit Queen (1994) and The Four Feathers (2002).
Shekhar Kapur directed the 1983 film Masoom, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Urmila Matondkar.
Shekhar's tenure as President if FTII Society and Chairman of Governing Council of FTII is till March 3, 2023.
After Bollywood actor Anupam Kher resigned as the chairman of the premier institute in October 2018, B P Singh, producer-director of popular TV serial CID, was named president of FTII Society and Chairman of Governing Council in December 2018.

Kuwaiti Ruler Sheikh Sabah Passes Away

Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the ruler of Kuwait who drew on his decades as the oil-rich nation's top diplomat to push for closer ties to Iraq after the 1990 Gulf War and solutions to other regional crises, passed away. He was 91.
In a Middle East replete with elderly rulers, Sheikh Sabah stood out for his efforts at pushing for diplomacy to resolve a bitter dispute between Qatar and other Arab nations that continues to this day.
His 2006 ascension in Kuwait came after parliament voted unanimously to oust his predecessor, the ailing Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, just nine days into his rule.
Yet as Kuwait's ruling emir, he struggled with internal political disputes, the fallout of the 2011 Arab Spring protests and seesawing crude oil prices that chewed into a national budget providing cradle-to-grave subsidies.
Sheikh Sabah is expected to be succeeded by his half brother, the crown prince Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah.

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DAYS AND EVENTS

Harijan Sevak Sangh : Celebrating its Foundation Day

Harijan Sevak Sangh was founded on 30 September, in 1932, when Gandhi Ji was on fast in the Yervada Jail, Pune.
Just before that, during the Second Round Table Conferece in London in 1931, Gandhi ji had opposed the segregation of the depressed classes of the Hindu community into a separate electoral group.
Gandhi Ji said that, this step is a device of British government to create a split in the Hindu community in order to strengthen its policy of divide and rule.
So, on 30 September, Gandhi founded All India Anti Untouchability League, so as to remove untouchability in the society.
The league was later renamed as Harijan Sevak Sangh meaning "Servants of Untouchables Society".
In that regard, the Harijan- a weekly newspaper was also started.
This step of Gandhi ji to support the untouchables was further supported by Poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Harijan Sevak Sangh is a non-profit organisation which was founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1932 in order to eradicate untouchability in India, working for Harijan or Dalit people and their upliftment. It is headquartered at Kingsway Camp in Delhi having its branches in 26 states across India. Ghanshyam Das Birla was its founding president and Amritlal Takkar was its Secretary.

International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (29)

With a view to promote and implement global efforts to resolve the issue of food wastage, the United Nations General Assembly in 2019 designated 29 September as International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. The idea was to take steps towards responsible consumption and production as well as zero hunger, along with working towards addressing the problem of climate change through sustainable food habits.
The first observance of the day, in 2020, comes as the world grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic, which makes it all the more urgent to relook at how our food production, consumption and distribution impacts the environment and the people around us.
The first theme for the new observance is "Stop food loss and waste. For the people. For the planet."

International Translation Day

International Translation Day is an international day celebrated every year on 30 September on the feast of St. Jerome, the Bible translator who is considered the patron saint of translators. The celebrations have been promoted by International Federation of Translators (FIT) ever since it was set up in 1953. In 1991 FIT launched the idea of an officially recognised International Translation Day to show solidarity of the worldwide translation community in an effort to promote the translation profession in different countries (not necessarily only in Christian ones). This is an opportunity to display pride in a profession that is becoming increasingly essential in the era of progressing globalisation. In line with the celebration of 2019 as International Year of Indigenous Languages, the theme for 2019 is Translation and Indigenous Languages.
The United Nations General Assembly has passed on May 24, 2017, a resolution declaring September 30 as International Translation Day, an act to recognise the role of professional translation in connecting nations.Eleven countries – Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, Qatar, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam – are the signatories of Draft Resolution A/71/L.68. In addition to the International Federation of Translators, several other organisations have been advocating for this resolution to be adopted: International Association of Conference Interpreters, Critical Link International, International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters, Red T, World Association of Sign Language Interpreters.

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AWARDS AND HONOURS

Kerala Tourism Bags PATA Grand Award

Kerala Tourism's internationally acclaimed 'Human by Nature' campaign has bagged the prestigious PATA Grand Award 2020 for marketing.
The award, one of the three PATA grand awards, gives a stimulus to the tourism industry in the State that is in a crisis for over six months due to the pandemic. The awards were announced at a virtual presentation ceremony in Beijing.
The event was attended by Minister for Tourism Kadakampally Surendran; Secretary, Tourism, Rani George; Tourism Director P. Bala Kiran; PATA Chief Executive Officer Mario Hardy; and Macao Government Tourism Office Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes.
'Human by Nature' was a marketing strategy to revive tourism that was hit by the 2018 floods and the Nipah outbreak. Showcasing culture and daily life of the people, it was conceptualised and scripted by Stark Communications. The campaign had helped Kerala Tourism achieve record growth of 17.2% in tourism arrivals in 2019, the highest in 24 years.
The PATA Gold Awards 2020 attracted 121 entries from 62 organisations and individuals worldwide. The winners were selected by a committee of 16 personalities from various destinations.
This year's awards recognised the achievements of three Grand title winners and 21 gold awards.

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GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES

AP CM Launches YSR Jala Kala Scheme

To benefit the small and medium farmers who have no open water source for irrigation, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched YSR Jala Kala Scheme. Under the scheme, borewells will be dug free of cost to the needy farmers. The scheme is estimated to bring in five lakh acres under cultivation through groundwater irrigation.
During his 3,648-km padayatra, Jagan met farmers, whose fields were parched due to lack of water sources. They explained how they were being pushed into debts by drilling borewells. After seeing their distress, Jagan promised to provide borewells to farmers having fields in uplands and included the same in the Navaratnalu (nine promises made by the YSRC before the elections).
With the launch of the scheme, one more election promise joins the long list of promises kept by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government. Around three lakh farmers will be benefitted from YSR Jala Kala, which is estimated to cost Rs. 2,340 crore in four years.

President Gives Assent to Taxation and Other Laws Bill

The President of India gave his assent to the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020, which will extend compliance-related timelines for taxpayers while offering significant relief to foreign investors.
The ministry of law and justice issued a notification to the effect.
The bill, which now becomes an Act, was issued as an ordinance on March 31, 2020, to defer compliance deadlines for direct and indirect taxes amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Act also provides significant relief to foreign investors.
Surcharge levied on the dividend income of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) that use a trust structure will be capped at 15%, offering them significant relief. From April 1, 2020, tax exemption will be provided on the income of category III Alternate Investment Funds in the International Financial Services Centre from 'masala' bonds, derivatives or overseas investments.
Among other changes, tax deduction at source or tax collection at source (TDS, TCS) at three-fourth the rate or 9% a year on transactions from May 14, 2020, till March 31, 2021, will be enacted. The lower rate of interest and exemption from penalty or prosecution in case of non-payments has been enabled in cases of payments of Equalization Levy, Securities Transaction Tax (STT), Commodities Transaction Tax (CTT) besides advance tax, TDS and TCS.

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GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION

Former Teacher Starts Mobile Library 'Hope on Wheels'

As the world shut its doors to the outside world followed by the emergence of a deadly virus called Covid-19, the schools were also deserted.
Suddenly, technology became the sole medium of imparting education. Teachers and students started to get used to spending hours in front of computers. The Internet became a very essential part of all.
Sandeep Kumar Badsra, a former teacher from Mohali did think of those students who were losing out on education due to the unavailability of essentials that are needed to cope up with the new normal.
Sandeep Badsra started an initiative of the mobile library in which he carrys books and other essential items for the children of slum so that they can continue their studies.
He provided books and other study material to the underprivileged students who could not afford the technology.
Sandeep Kumar Badsra also initiated a non-government organization called 'Open Eyes Foundation' and he named his mobile library initiative as the 'Hope on Wheels'.
He has equipped one side of the vehicle with a LED screen to be used to teach students and the other side of the vehicle has been made into a mobile library.

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BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Rajnath Singh Launches Book 'A bouquet of Flowers'

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched a book written by Dr. Krishna Saksena- the first lady to get PhD, way back in 1955 from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.
"A bouquet of flowers", the ninth book authored by the senior English Professor, was launched at the New Delhi residence of Singh.
Through this book, Dr. Saksena presents a series of anecdotes that allow the reader to extract the moral of the stories, rather than a didactic imposition of her views. Rather than push the reader down a path she allows the reader to guide themselves as they contemplate the essence of each of the anecdotes she has selected for them.
The book has been designed to allow the readers to travel their own journey and arrive at their own very personal realisation and be inspired by it. I hope the readers enjoy the book and relate with it.

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General Awareness

Daily G.K. - Top Stories

30 Sep 2020

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Taliban and Pakistan Interested in Withdrawal of International Forces

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

IDBI First Bank to Enable Document Embedding Feature on SFMS

SEBI Eases Rules for Delisting of Listed Subsidiaries

Mukesh Ambani tops Hurun India Rich List 2020

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

ASTROTAT Completes Five Successful Years of Maping Star

United Arab Emirates to Launch Spacecraft to Moon in 2024

Buried Lakes of Liquid Water Discovered on Mars

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

Bypolls to 56 Assembly Seats, One Lok Sabha Seat in November

Tharoor Continues as Head of Parl Panel on IT; Harsimrat New External Affairs Committee Member

DEFENCE

India Successfully Test-fires BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile with over 400-km Range

PERSONS IN NEWS

Shekhar Kapur New President Of FTII Society and its Governing Council

Kuwaiti Ruler Sheikh Sabah Passes Away

DAYS AND EVENTS

Harijan Sevak Sangh : Celebrating its Foundation Day

International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (29)

International Translation Day

AWARDS AND HONOURS

Kerala Tourism Bags PATA Grand Award

GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES

AP CM Launches YSR Jala Kala Scheme

President Gives Assent to Taxation and Other Laws Bill

GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION

Former Teacher Starts Mobile Library 'Hope on Wheels'

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Rajnath Singh Launches Book 'A bouquet of Flowers'

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