CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS
National Refreshment Day
- National Refreshment Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of July every year. This year the day falls on 23rd July 2020.
- This day is celebrated to remind us to refresh oneself from the busy and hectic routine. Taking regular intervals from the regular schedule will detoxify the stress. Everyone’s actions and behaviour vary from others, so the refreshment approach also varies.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
Home Minister Amit Shah to launch Vriksharopan Abhiyan in New Delhi
- Home Minister Amit Shah will launch Vriksharopan Abhiyan in New Delhi in the presence of Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi. During the launch event, Mr Shah will inaugurate and lay the Foundation stone of 6 Ecoparks and Tourism sites. The event will take place through Video Conferencing across more than 130 locations spread in 38 Districts of 10 coal and lignite bearing States.
- Vriksharopan Abhiyan will be organized by the Ministry of Coal involving all Coal and Lignite PSUs during which large scale plantations would be carried out in mines, colonies, offices and other suitable areas of Coal and Lignite PSUs. Seedlings will be distributed in the nearby areas for promoting plantation by the society.
- The eco-parks and tourism sites would provide avenues for recreation, adventure, water sport, bird watching etc. for the people residing in nearby areas and may also be integrated to form part of the tourism circuit. These sites are being planned to generate revenue for self-sustenance and to create employment potential for local people.
- Going Green is the key thrust area of the coal sector involving maximization of green cover through ecological reclamation of mined out areas and overburden dumps, plantation in and around mines and avenue plantation at suitable places.
- The ministry’s Going Green initiative will kick start through active participation of coal and lignite PSUs as well as private miners. This year, three coal and lignite PSUs, Coal India Limited, NLC India Limited and Singareni Collieries Company Limited have set an ambitious target to cover 1,789 Hectares of area in and around the coalfields under bio-reclamation and plantation, creation of grass land, hi-tech cultivation and bamboo plantation.
22 million children in South Asia missed out on early education due to Covid-19, says UNICEF
- As many as 22 million children from South Asian countries, including India, have missed out on early childhood education in their critical pre-school year due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, reveals new research by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
- It zeroed in on the predicament of childcare and early childhood education globally. It analysed the impact of widespread Covid-19 closure of vital family services.
- In the South Asia region, UNICEF covered Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka for the research.
- Raising concerns over the disruption of early education, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia, Jean Gough, stated: “Children are among the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in South Asia. Prolonged school closure and limited access to distant learning have deprived children of their universal right to education.”
- The research further noted that lockdown has been a setback for innumerable families as they try to balance childcare and paid employment. This gets tougher for women, on average, as they spend more than three times longer on care and housework than men.
- At least 40 million children worldwide, of which nearly 22 million are from South Asia, have missed out on early childhood, UNICEF added in its research.
- More than 9 in 10 women in Africa and nearly 7 in 10 in Asia and the Pacific work in the informal sector and have limited to no access to any form of social protection. Many parents become trapped in this unreliable, poorly paid employment, contributing to intergenerational cycles of poverty, it stated.
- UNICEF also suggested social protection systems, including cash transfers, that reach families working in non-formal employment.
About UNICEF:
- Headquarters: New York, New York, United States
- Head: Henrietta H. Fore
CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL
Turkmenistan gets observer status in World Trade Organization
- Turkmenistan has been granted Observer status by the World Trade Organization (WTO ) General Council. Turkmenistan has become the last former Soviet republic to establish formal ties with the trade body, a WTO Spokesperson stated.
- The Central Asian country filed a request for Observer status in May and expressed willingness to trigger the talks on accession to the WTO within five years.
- Neighbouring Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Afghanistan — have acceded to the WTO, while Uzbekistan has been in on-and-off negotiations on WTO accession since 1994.
About Turkmenistan:
- Capital: Ashgabat
- Currency: Turkmenistan manat
- President: Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
India revives initiative with South African Customs Union for the Preferential Trade Agreement
- The discussions between India and the South African Customs Union (South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho) have been revived to achieve a Preferential Trade Agreement. The two sides had a virtual meeting last week to discuss the various aspects of PTA.
- The Indian side of the dialogue was led by the Joint Secretary of Department of Commerce, Srikar Reddy while South African Customs Union side was led by Executive Director of Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and SME Development, Namibia, Steve Katjiuanjo.
- India has been committed to and supporting the manufacturing and industry in Namibia in areas such as irrigation, agriculture, ICT, renewables, pharma, and medical supplies. Both sides reviewed the progress and discussed steps to move forward on PTA.
- Srikar Reddy highlighted India’s historically close ties with South Africa and the country’s steadfast commitment to deepen the economic engagement with this region.
- He added that in 2019-20, the trade between India and Africa stood at $66.7 billion, out of which India-SACU trade was $10.9 billion which has an immense potential to expand further.
- Steve Katjiuanjo called India as a strategic partner for the South African Customs Union (SACU). He added that the trade is currently in SACU’s favour which shows that the region is benefitting from access to the vast Indian market.
- The High Commissioner of India to Namibia, Prashant Aggarwal mentioned in the current times of COVID-19 pandemic including its economic challenges, economies of the South African region, including Namibia, could majorly benefit by the enhanced trade and commercial links with India’s $2.9 trillion economy.
About Southern African Customs Union:
- Member: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini
- Headquarters: Windhoek, Namibia
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE
NPCI launches UPI Autopay
- The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched UPI Autopay, a facility that would allow recurring payments at regular intervals.“With this new facility introduced under UPI 2.0, customers can now enable recurring e-mandate using any UPI application for recurring payments such as mobile bills, electricity bills, EMI payments, entertainment and OTT subscriptions, insurance, mutual funds and loan payments, paying for transit, metro payments among others of up to 2,000, NPCI stated, adding that if the amount exceeds Rs.2,000, customers have to execute every mandate with UPI PIN.
- The facility was launched at the Global Fintech Fest.
- According to the NPCI statement, some of the banks, merchants and aggregators that have already gone live with UPI AutoPay include Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, HSBC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Paytm Payments Bank, AutoPe-Delhi Metro, AutoPe-Dish TV, CAMS Pay, Furlenco, Growfitter, Policy Bazaar, Paytm, PayU, RazorPay.
- Meanwhile, Jio Payments Bank, State Bank of India and Yes Bank will soon go live with the facility.
- Any UPI-enabled application would also have a ‘Mandate’ section, through which customers can create, approve, modify, pause as well as revoke auto debit mandate, NPCI further stated.
About NPCI:
- Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
- Non-Exe Chairman: Biswamohan Mahapatra
- MD & CEO: Dilip Asbe
