Current Affairs 06th & 7th September 2020| Current Affairs News

 CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATES

First-ever cannabis medicine project coming up in Jammu

• Union minister Jitendra Singh announced that the first ever cannabis medicine project will soon be set up at Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) in Jammu with Canadian collaboration.
• Special permission had to be obtained to produce the pain-relief medicine for patients suffering from cancer, diabetes, etc., using cannabis, which is otherwise restricted for use because of narcotic drug abuse.
• The medicine prepared from this plant can be utilised even for export to other countries.
• Singh also reviewed the progress of the construction of north India’s first biotech industrial park in Kathua near Jammu.
• A few other projects are also being set up through the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

About Jammu and Kashmir

• Capitals: Jammu (Winter), Srinagar (Summer)
• Governor: Manoj Sinha

Tamil Nadu Govt constitutes 7- member panel to look into NEP-2020

• The Tamil Nadu Government has constituted a seven member panel to look into the National Education Policy-2020.
• The committee will be headed by the state education department principal secretary Dheeraj Kumar with six former vice chancellors as the members.
• The higher level committee will go through the policy and make recommendations that are feasible for adoption.

About TN

• Capital: Chennai
• Chief minister: Edappadi K. Palaniswami
• Governor: Banwarilal Purohit

Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu selected as fully Digital Economy district

• Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu, which houses a large number of small and medium enterprises, especially in the fire crackers and allied sectors, has been selected by the Central Government as the state’s first Fully Digital Economy district.
• All industrial units and commercial establishments in the district are at present implementing various forms of cashless transactions.
• These include widespread use of ATM debit cards, increased usage of internet banking, widespread use of QR codes etc.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

Rajiv Lall Resigns As Non-Executive Chairman Of IDFC First Bank

• Rajiv B Lall, non-executive chairman of IDFC First Bank, has resigned with immediate effect.
• While Lall was the founder MD and CEO of the IDFC Bank since October 2015, he ceased to be the MD and CEO after the bank got merged with Capital First in December 2018. He took the role of non-executive chairman of the merged entity IDFC First Bank. Earlier, he was the CEO and then executive chairman of IDFC Ltd.

About IDFC First Bank

• CEO: V. Vaidyanathan
• Headquarters: Mumbai

FADA appoints Vinkesh Gulati as its new President for 2020-22

• Auto dealer’s body The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations(FADA) has announced the appointment of Vinkesh Gulati as its 35th President for the period 2020-22.
• Gulati is the Director of United Automobiles, based out of Allahabad and Faridabad.
• The appointment was made at the Governing Council Meeting of FADA that held immediately after the 56th Annual General Meeting of the Federation.
• FADA also appointed Manish Raj Singhania, Managing Partner – Ralas Motors, Raipur (dealer for Mahindra & Mahindra) as the Vice President and Chittur Selvakumar Vigneshwar, Deputy Managing Director – Anaamalais Toyota, Coimbatore (dealer for Toyota, VECV and Benelli) as the Secretary.
• Sai Giridhar – Director, Saisha Motors – Jaipur (dealer for Skoda Auto) will be treasurer for the year 2020-22.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONORS

National Teachers’ Awards 2020: President Kovind confers awards to 47 teachers across India

• The national level awards are given on Teachers’ Day to celebrate the unique contribution of some of the finest teachers in the country and to honour those teachers who through their commitment have not only improved the quality of school education but also enriched the lives of their students.
• For infusing joyful learning to making maths easy and developing innovative methods of teaching 47 teachers from across the country were conferred the National Teachers’ Awards by President Ram Nath Kovind.
• This year, the candidates appeared before the jury through video conference and made presentations.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SUMMITS AND CONFERENCE

Prahlad Singh Patel virtually attends 5th BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meeting

• Union Minister of State (I/C) for Culture and Tourism Shri Prahlad Singh Patel virtually attended 5th BRICS Culture Ministers’
• The 5th BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meeting was held through video conference under the Chairpersonship of the Russian Federation.
• The delegates from Culture Ministries of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa participated in the meeting.
• During the meeting, the discussion was held on the impact of the epidemiological situation on the cultural sphere in the BRICS countries and review of the possible implementation of joint cultural online-projects within BRICS.
• The Minister of State for Culture addressed participants of the meeting and presented India’s perspective to strengthen the cultural cooperation within BRICS through alternative mechanisms of sharing and organizing cultural events in the online format given the prevailing pandemic situation.
• The National Gallery of Modern Arts, New Delhi will host the BRICS Joint Exhibition titled ‘Bonding Regions & Imagining Cultural Synergies’ under the auspices of the BRICS Alliance of Art Museums and Galleries.
• The exhibition is proposed to be organized in 2021 coinciding with the BRICS event that India would be hosting in 2021.
• The exhibition aims to present around 100 works of art from the five prestigious institutions under the BRICS Alliance.

About MoCT

• Minister of Culture and Minister of Tourism of India: Prahlad Singh Patel
• Constituency: Damoh, Madhya Pradesh

35th FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC)

• The 35th Session of the Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific is being held virtually from 1-4 September 2020, on a videoconferencing platform, on an exceptional basis, in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health concerns.
• The move to a virtual format followed consultations with the FAO Director-General, the Regional Groups representing member nations, and with the concurrence of the Host Country, Bhutan.
• Hon’ble Lyonpo Yeshi Penjor, Minister for Agriculture and Forest was elected as the Chairperson for the 35th session of the APRC. More than 490 representatives from the 46 member countries are participating in this four days virtual conference.
• The Conference decided that the 36th APRC will be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2022.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

CMERI Durgapur develops solar-powered sprayers for small, marginal farmers

• CMERI Durgapur has developed two solar-powered spray systems to help small and marginal farmers engage in site-specific irrigation to reduce water wastage.
• The solar battery-operated sprayers developed by CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) can also be used for targeted pest control, thus reducing environmental pollution.
• The systems are equipped with two tanks, flow control and pressure regulators for different water and pesticide requirements of the crops.
• These devices can bring a revolution in the sphere of precision agriculture by reducing water usage in the fields.

Recent News

• CSIR’s Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute have developed world’s largest ‘solar tree’ which is installed at its residential complex in Durgapur in West Bengal.

IIT Guwahati Researchers Design Engineered Surfaces To Detect, Prevent COVID-19

• Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati have developed methods to detect and prevent the novel coronavirus using bio-interface interactions between the virus and the surface spike protein.
• The novel coronavirus (SARS CoV-2) is composed of inner nucleic acid which is covered with surface spike glycoprotein and the engineered surfaces can be potentially applied for the detection as well as prevention of COVID-19 — the disease caused by the virus.
• The interaction between the spike protein and contacting surfaces constitutes the key step of transmission of coronavirus.
• Thus, surface engineering, on one hand, shall facilitate a quick detection method and on the other hand, it would be a very secure method of protection against the virus, for example when applied on PPEs.

IIT Bombay’s robotic submarine Matsya 6 finishes third in RoboSub competition

• A robotic submarine – Matsya 6 – designed by students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, won the third position in presentation at the global RoboSub competition held in California.
• Matsya 6 is the latest in the series of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) developed by students of IIT Bombay.
• The IIT-B team ranked seventh in the overall category. Matsya 6 is an autonomous underwater vehicle that operates on its own without any human intervention. It is capable of detecting underwater objects through cameras installed on it or the sound excited by the objects

CURRENT AFFAIRS: MOU

WhatsApp partners Cyber Peace Foundation to drive cyber safety awareness

• Facebook-owned WhatsApp has partnered Cyber Peace Foundation (CPF) to create awareness on cyber safety among students.
• The partners aim to reach about 15,000 students in five Indian states Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra by the end of this year under the first phase of a pan-India programme.
• This latest initiative builds on a previous partnership under the ‘e-Raksha’ programme that reached thousands of students.
• CPF will train teachers, parents and students using a co-created curriculum to arm them with tips and tricks to increase online safety for children in consultation with UNICEF and state police authorities.
• At the end of these trainings, the participants will create a ‘Cyber Peace Club’ to ensure that this knowledge is further institutionalised and manage a repository of guidance that other students can refer to for boosting online child safety
• The curriculum that has been created by WhatsApp and CPF will focus on developmental skills and offer consultations with education boards, and governments at the state and national level.

About Cyber Peace Foundation

• Headquarters: Ranchi, Jharkhand
• Founder: Vineet Kumar

About Whatsapp

• CEO: Mark Zuckerberg

CURRENT AFFAIRS: RANKING

Andhra Pradesh tops ease of doing business rankings, Telangana on 3rd spot

• Andhra Pradesh has bagged the first rank among all the states in the country in the state business reforms action plan-2019 (BRAP-2019), representing ease of doing business for Atmanirbhar Bharat.
• The ranks were announced by the Department of Industrial Promotion and Internal Trade (DPIIT) during a virtual event chaired by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the presence of Union minister of commerce Piyush Goyal and all state industries ministers.
• While Uttar Pradesh stood in the second position, Telangana bagged the third spot in the overall ranking of the state business process reforms undertaken during 2019.
• Andhra Pradesh has undertaken several reforms in the last year, ranging from the development of online systems, enhancing transparency to regulating inspections covering the entire lifecycle of the business.

About BRAP-2019

• The Business Reform Action Plan 2019 released by the Centre contains a list of 80 reforms (187 reform action points) to be implemented by 19 State departments.
• Andhra Pradesh has achieved 100 percent compliance to the 187 reform action points by DPIIT-World Bank as a part of BRAP 2019

Hyderabad among top cities for career in AI

• Hyderabad is one of the top five cities in the country to offer jobs in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), a latest report by job portal site Indeed has revealed.
• Bengaluru tops the list of destinations for a career in AI, followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai.
• Job searches in the field have risen 106 per cent in the past year (June 2019 to June 2020), and this has increased further by 20 per cent from March to July 2020, in line with the onset of the pandemic.
• AI-related job postings have also seen a steady rise in the last two years, with a 51 per cent jump between June 2019 and June 2020.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS

Former England batsman Ian Bell announces retirement from cricket

• Former England batsman Ian Bell has announced his retirement from professional cricket.
• Bell played 161 one-day internationals and eight Twenty20s.
• He was player of the series in the 2013 Ashes, in which he hit three centuries in five matches as England beat Australia 3-0.

Pierre Gasly wins thrilling Italian Grand Prix 

• Pierre Gasly took a stunning upset win in the Italian Grand Prix for Red Bull’s Alpha Tauri team in one of the most remarkable races in history.
• Lewis Hamilton was dominating until he was penalised for being called in for a stop when the pit lane was closed.
• McLaren’s Carlos Sainzhas spotted second and he is followed by Lance Stroll.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: OBITUARY

Veteran filmmaker Johnny Bakshi passes away

• Veteran producer-director Johnny Bakshi passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 82.
• Bakshi mostly worked as a producer, backing films such as Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain, (1974), Raavan, (1984) and Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee (1993).  He has also directed two films Daku Aur Police (1992) and Khudai (1994)

Former BSF DIG Dr Mahesh Kumar Dwivedy passes away

• Former DIG of BSF (Medical Wing) Dr Mahesh Kumar Dwivedy passed away after prolonged illness at the age of 73.
• Dr Dwivedy, a native of Sukinda in Jajpur district, served in North-East Punjab and various parts of the country as a doctor in the BSF.