Excellence by Saikat Sir: 07/20/20

The former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Shri Kamaraj ji’s 117th birth anniversary has been observed as Tamil Nadu’s Educational Development Day.
It aims to remind people about his contribution to boost the school education facilities of Tamil Nadu state.
In the year 2006, The Tamil Nadu state Govt brought a development and celebration bill that highlighted 15th july as “Educational Development Day” in order to remember Perunthalaivar Kamarajar’s contributions.
Perunthalaivar Kamarajar was born on 15th July 1903 in Virudhunagar, Madurai, Tamil Nadu India. He served as 3rd Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and stayed at post for three consecutive tenures between 1954 and 1963.
He was honoured with highest civilian award of India Bharat Ratna award in the year 1976.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) App.
It aims to provide a user-friendly digital interface for lending institutions (LIs) and their field functionaries for sourcing and processing loan applications of street vendors under the scheme.
PM SVANidhi Mobile App is a step towards boosting the use of digital technology and will enable field functionaries of LIs like Banking Correspondents (BCs) and Agents of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs)/ Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs), who have proximity with the street vendors, to ensure maximum coverage of the Scheme.
The ministry has already launched the website on June 29, 2020 and the app has all the features similar to the web portal of PM SVANidhi. The features include vendor search in the survey data, e-KYC of applicants, processing of applications, and real-time monitoring.
PM SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, on June 01, 2020, for providing affordable working capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown.

This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh Street Vendors who had been vending on or before 24 March, 2020, in urban areas including those from surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas. Under the Scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.
On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on a quarterly basis.
There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan. The scheme promotes digital transactions through cash back incentives up to an amount of Rs. 100 per month. Moreover, the vendors can achieve their ambition of going up on the economic ladder by availing the facility of enhancement of the credit limit on timely/ early repayment of loan.

Income Tax Department has rolled out new Form 26AS with an aim to assist Tax payers in filing quick and correct Income Tax Return (ITR). The new form will carry some additional details on taxpayers financial transactions as specified in the Statement of Financial Transactions (SFTs) in various categories.
The additional details will facilitate voluntary compliance, tax accountability and ease of e-filing of returns. In a media statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has stated that these SFTs will handhold the taxpayers while filing their ITR.
It stated, the new form will also calculate the correct tax liability based on these entries. The new Form 26AS is expected to bring in further transparency and accountability in the tax administration.

India has established bilateral Air bubbles with the United States of America, France and Germany. The Civil Aviation Ministry stated talks with the United Kingdom are in an advanced stage and similar arrangement in place with UAE till 26th July of this month.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri stated that bilateral Air Bubbles will be the way to resume international travel amid the Covid-19 pandemic with certain conditions. Mr Puri stated the government’s negotiations with three countries are at an advanced stage for establishing bilateral air bubble mechanisms.
He informed that Air France will operate 28 flights from 18th July to 1st of August between Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Paris. He stated, in case of the United States, there is an agreement with United Airlines to operate 18 flights between India and US between 17th to 31st July but this is an interim one. He stated we have also received a request from Germany and an agreement with Lufthansa is almost done.

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