CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS
Constitution Day being celebrated across the country
- Constitution Day is being celebrated across the country to mark the adoption of the Indian Constitution by the Constituent Assembly. The day is also known as National Law Day and commemorates the adoption of the Constitution in India. On 26th November in 1949, the Constituent Assembly of the country formally adopted the Constitution of India which came into force on 26th January 1950.
- The constituent assembly took two years, eleven months and seventeen days to accomplish the stupendous task of drafting the historic document. It had many members who fought for the freedom of the country and came from different regions, religions, communities reflecting the country’s diversity.
National Milk Day: 26 November
- National Milk Day is celebrated across the country on November 26 every year on the birthday of Dr Verghese Kurien. This day marks the birth anniversary of Verghese Kurien, the Father of White Revolution in India. India is celebrating 98th birth anniversary of Dr Kurien this year.
- National Milk Day was established in 2014 by the Food and Agriculture Organisation to commemorate Dr. Verghese Kurien, who is considered the father of India’s White Revolution.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
Cabinet approves infusion of 6000 crore rupees in NIIF; Lakshmi Vilas Bank to be merged with DBS Bank India Limited
- Union Cabinet has approved equity infusion by Government of 6000 crore rupees in NIIF Debt Platform sponsored by National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, comprising Aseem Infrastructure Finance Limited and NIIF Infrastructure Finance Limited. This was one of the twelve key measures made by the Finance Minister as part of Government’s stimulus to the economy, under AatmaNirbhar Bharat 3.0 on 12th November.
- NIIF Infrastructure Debt Financing Platform is expected to contribute nearly one lakh crore rupees in debt to the infrastructure sector over the next five years. This will act as a catalyst in attracting more investments into the infrastructure sector as envisaged in the National Infrastructure Pipeline.
- Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar informed that Cabinet has approved Scheme of Amalgamation of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) with DBS Bank India Limited. He stated with this, there will be no further restrictions on the depositors regarding withdrawal of their deposits.
- Cabinet was apprised of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in the field of Physical Culture and Sport signed among BRICS Countries.
- Cooperation in the field of sports among the five countries will help in expanding knowledge and expertise in the area of sports science, sports medicine, and coaching techniques. This would result in improvement in performance of Indian sportspersons in international tournaments and strengthening of bilateral relations with BRICS member countries.
- Mr Javadekar also informed that CCEA has approved FDI of 2480 crore rupees in M/s. ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited by M/s. ATC Asia Pacific pvt Ltd. This would lead to foreign direct investment inflow of 2480.92 crore rupees. The inflow of foreign investment to India will spur economic growth; as well as foster innovation.
About National Investment and Infrastructure Fund:
- National Investment and Infrastructure Fund is India’s first infrastructure specific investment fund that was set up by the Government of India in February 2015.
- Headquarters: Mumbai, India
- Sujoy Bose: CEO
PM Narendra Modi chairs 33rd PRAGATI interaction
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the PRAGATI meeting. It marked Prime Minister’s thirty-third interaction through PRAGATI – the ICT based multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation, involving Central and State governments.
- During the meeting, multiple projects, grievances and programmes were reviewed. The projects taken up were of the Ministry of Railways, MORTH, DPIIT and Power Ministry. These projects, with a total cost of 1.41 lakh crore rupees, were related to ten states and union territories, including Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
All fixed to mobile calls to be dialed with prefix ‘0’ from Jan 15
- Communications Ministry has stated all Fixed to Mobile calls will be dialed with prefix ‘0’ from 15th January next year. There will be no change in dialing plan from fixed to fixed, mobile to fixed and mobile to mobile calls. Department of Telecommunications has taken the decision of implementing this with the consideration of TRAI Recommendation on “Ensuring Adequate Numbering Resources for Fixed Line and Mobile Services”.
- Suitable announcement will be made for the same. This announcement shall be played whenever a subscriber dials a fixed to mobile call without prefixing ‘0’. All fixed line subscribers will be provided with ‘0’ dialing facility.
- A total of approximately 2539 million numbering series is expected to be generated from this. This will free up sufficient numbering resources for future use. With the freeing up of sufficient numbering resources, more number of connections can be added in future which will be beneficial to the mobile customers at large.
About MEITY:
- Union Minister of the Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications: Ravi Shankar Prasad
- Constituency: Patna sahib, Bihar
NITI Aayog Forms Panel To Study Feasibility Of Hyperloop Tech In India
- Government think-tank NITI Aayog has formed a high-level panel to explore the technological and commercial viability of the Virgin Hyperloop technology for ultrahigh speed travel in India, weeks after its first test was completed with humans on board.
- The Virgin Hyperloop test run was conducted on a 500-meter track in Las Vegas in the USA with a pod, as the hyperloop vehicles are called, travelling with passengers, including an Indian, inside an enclosed tube at more than 100 mph or 161 kmph.
- The committee has NITI Aayog member VK Saraswat as its Chairman and Adviser (Infrastructure Connectivity, Niti Aayog) Sudhendu Jyoti Sinha as its convener.
- Its other members are Railway Board Chairman & CEO VK Yadav, the secretaries of the ministries of Housing and Urban Affairs, Road Transport and Highways, and the Maharashtra government’s Transport Secretary.
About Niti Aayog:
- Headquarters:New Delhi
- Narendra Modi, (Chairperson)
- Rajiv Kumar, (Vice Chairperson)
- Amitabh Kant, (CEO)
Cabinet minister Narendra Singh Tomar virtually inaugurates Phagwara mega food park in Punjab
- Union Food Processing Industries Minister Narendra Singh Tomar virtually inaugurated the Rs 107.83 crore mega food park at Phagwara in Kapurthala district of Punjab which is likely to generate 5,000 jobs.
- The mega food park, spread over 55 acres of land and that will benefit 25,000 farmers, is equipped with warehouses in 3,944 square meter, silos with 20,000 tonne capacity, cold storage with 3,000 tonne capacity as well as individually quick-frozen and deep freezer units and other facilities.
- So far, 37 mega food parks have been sanctioned across the country, of which 20 have started functioning.
- Highlighting measures taken to boost the farm sector, Tomar stated MSP has been increased and a new scheme has been started to establish 10,000 new farmer producers organizations (FPOs) across the country. Besides, a Rs 10,000 crore fund has been created for the promotion of the food processing sector.
- He further stated that research has a huge role to play in the agriculture sector and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been doing great work.
