CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
Railway launches completely digitized online Human Resource Management System
- Indian Railway has launched a completely digitized online Human Resource Management System (HRMS). HRMS is a high thrust project for Indian Railways to leverage improved productivity and employee satisfaction. It is a move to improve efficiency and productivity of the Railway system.
- Vinod Kumar Yadav, Chairman and CEO of Railway Board launched HRMS modules of Employee Self Service, PF Advance and Retirement Settlement. The modules will benefit over 27 lakh families of both serving and retired Railway employees. Several other modules of HRMS are already operational in the Indian Railways.
About Indian Railways:
- Headquarters: New Delhi, India
- Piyush Goyal (Minister of Railways)
- Vinod Kumar Yadav (Chairman, Railway Board)
Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot E-Launches ‘National Portal for Transgender Persons’ and E-Inaugurates Garima Greh: A Shelter Home for Transgender Persons in Gujarat
- Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot e-launched a ‘National Portal for Transgender Persons’ and e-inaugurated a ‘Garima Greh: A Shelter Home for Transgender Persons’ in Vadodara, Gujarat .
- Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot stated that this National Portal for Transgender Persons has been developed within 2 months of Notification of Transgender Persons (Protectionof Rights) Rules, 2020 on 29 September, 2020. This highly useful Portal would help a transgender person in applying for a Certificate and Identity card digitally from anywhere in the country.
- The most important benefit is that it helps the transgender person to get the I-Card without any physical interface and without having to visit any office, the Minister stated. Through the Portal, they can monitor the status of their application that ensures transparency in the process. The issuing authorities are also under strict timelines to process the applications and issue certificates and identity cards without any necessary delays.
About Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment:
- Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Cabinet Minister
- Constituency: Madhya Pradesh
- Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State
Nitin Gadkari inaugurates Highway projects worth over Rs 7400 Cr in Uttar Pradesh
- Union Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of 16 National Highway projects worth 7477 crore rupees in Uttar Pradesh.
- These highway projects includes a road length of 505 kilometers and will provide better connectivity, convenience to the public as well as lead to economic growth in the state.
- Mr Gadkari stated that National Highways works worth two lakh crore rupees are being undertaken in UP.
About MoRTH:
- Minister for Road Transport & Highways andMSME: Nitin Jairam Gadkari
- Constituency: Nagpur, Maharashtra
APEDA holds Virtual Buyer Seller Meet with Germany
- Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, APEDA, continued its endeavour to promote export of agricultural products through the virtual medium. Several virtual buyer seller meets were organised with the importing countries in association with the Indian Missions abroad.
- A virtual networking meet with German importers was also organised to promote export of fresh fruits and vegetables from the country. The event was organised by APEDA in collaboration with Embassy of India, Berlin and German Agribusiness Alliance.
- The event comprised of presentations by the Indian side on the strength of Indian agricultural products in exports specifically grapes and fresh fruits and vegetables.
- From the German side, there were presentations on the requirements and expectations of the German market. The event provided a platform to showcase India’s strength in export of fresh fruits and vegetables to further strengthen the confidence of the German buyers in Indian agri products and facilitate exports.
About Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority:
- Headquarters: New Delhi
- Chairman: Dr. M. Angamuthu
- Parent organization: Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India
About Germany:
- Capital: Berlin
- Currency: Euro
India has emerged as fourth largest producer of renewable energy in world: PM Modi
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated India’s renewable power capacity is the 4th largest in the world and it is growing at the fastest speed among all major countries. He stated, the renewable energy capacity in India is currently 136 Giga Watts, which is about 36 percent of the country’s total capacity.
- Inaugurating the virtual 3rd Global Renewable Energy Investment Meeting and Expo, RE-Invest 2020 Mr Modi stated, India is travelling on an unparalleled journey in the last 6 years. He stated, the country is expanding generation capacity and network to ensure every citizen has access to electricity to unlock their full potential.
- The Prime Minister stated, India’s annual renewable energy capacity addition has been exceeding that of coal based thermal power since 2017. In the last 6 years, India has increased installed renewable energy capacity by two and half times. The Prime Minister stated, India is showing to the world that sound environmental policies can also be sound economics.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL
UNDP, Invest India launch SDGs Investor Map for India
- United Nations Development Programme, UNDP and Invest India have launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Investor Map for India. It laid out 18 Investment Opportunities Areas in six critical SDG enabling sectors, that can help the country push forward on the trajectory of Sustainable Development.
- Deepak Bagla, CEO of Invest India stated, India occupies a key role in determining the success of the SDGs, globally. Shoko Noda, Resident Representative of UNDP India stated, Investing in the SDGs is crucial to ‘Building Back Better’ and making the economy and our societies more resilient and sustainable.
About United Nations Development Programme:
- Headquarters: New York, United States
- Head: Achim Steiner
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE
Mercedes-Benz joins hands with SBI to target HNI customers
- Mercedes-Benz has joined hands with State Bank of India (SBI) to offer financial benefits to the lender’s High Net Worth Individual (HNI) customers.
- This collaboration will give the luxury automobile manufacturer access to State Bank of India’s High Net Worth Individual (HNI) customer base, while the bank’s customers will enjoy exclusive benefits at the time of booking a Mercedes-Benz car.
- The collaboration with SBI gives an exciting opportunity to expand our customer base and reach out to the potential HNI customers of the bank with products and services.
About SBI:
- Chairperson: Rajnish Kumar
- Headquarters: Mumbai
- Founded: 1 July 1955
About Mercedes-Benz AG:
- Headquarters :Stuttgart,Germany
- Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management
CBDT will validate UDIN generated from ICAI portal at the time of upload of Tax Audit Reports: Finance Ministry
- Finance Ministry has stated, CBDT will validate Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) generated from ICAI portal at the time of upload of Tax Audit Reports.
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, in its gazette notification dated 2nd August, 2019, had made generation of UDIN from ICAI website icai.orgmandatory for every kind of certificate/tax audit report and other attests made by their members as required by various regulators. This was introduced to curb fake certifications by non-CAs misrepresenting themselves as Chartered Accountants.
- In line with the ongoing initiatives of the Income Tax Department for integrating with other Government agencies and bodies, Income-tax e-filing portal has completed its integration with ICAI portal for validation of UDIN generated from ICAI portal by the Chartered Accountants for documents certified or attested by them.
- Income-tax e-filing portal had already factored mandatory quoting of UDIN with effect from 27th April this year for documents certified and attested by a Chartered Accountant. With this system level integration, UDIN provided for the audit reports and certificates submitted by the Chartered Accountants in the e-filing portal shall be validated online with the ICAI.
About CBDT:
- Headquarters: New Delhi
- Chairman:Pramod Chandra Mody
About The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India:
- Headquarters: New Delhi , India
- President: Atul Kumar Gupta
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
Indian Oil successfully tests ‘zero-emission e-mobility’
- Indian Oil Corporation Ltd has successfully conducted a ‘Proof of Concept’ feasibility study on ‘zero-emission electric mobility’ at one of its fuel stations in Bengaluru.
- A company stated that Zero-Emission Electric Mobility is a concept that allows the electric vehicle (EV) to charge using solar power and ensuring zero emissions.
- The EV charging system has been designed by Hygge Energy, a start-up incubated by Tech Mahindra, and has three main features – EVs are charged using solar power, no upgrades are required in grid infrastructure, and grid resilience is improved by the system’s architecture, especially in remote areas,” the statement stated.
- The technology enables intelligent electric-vehicle charging using “hybrid microgrids”. Hybrid microgrids are created by integrating existing grid infrastructure with solar PV batteries, the statement added.
About Indian Oil Corporation:
- Chairperson: Shrikant Madhav Vaidya
- Headquarters: New Delhi
SpiceJet launches dedicated freighter services to Leh in Ladakh
- Airline major SpiceJet launched dedicated freighter services connecting Leh with the rest of the country.
- Accordingly, the airline operated its first freighter flight from Delhi to Leh carrying 13 tonnes of cargo The flight was operated by SpiceXpress, the dedicated cargo arm of SpiceJet.
- In addition, the airline stated that the dedicated cargo flights will help transport fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, perishables, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and other general cargo. At present, SpiceJet operates a fleet of 17 cargo aircraft including three wide-body planes and is the only Indian carrier to operate long-haul non-stop cargo flights to Europe, Africa and CIS countries.
About SpiceJet:
- CEO: Ajay Singh
- Headquarters: Gurugram
Honey FPOs will help in achieving the goal of increasing income of small farmers: Narendra Singh Tomar
- The Honey FPO Programme of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd was inaugurated by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. The inauguration programme was hosted online and attended by the new Honey FPOs, farmers and FPOs from various parts of the country.
- He assured that NAFED will address these issues by acting as an intermediary and filling up the gaps between the elements of the beekeeping supply chain and also ensure price remuneration to the beekeeping farmers.
- Through these Honey FPOs, NAFED will also work for promotion of beekeeping as an occupation for unemployed women and tribal populations and uplift their livelihood. Mr Tomar also stated that honey beekeeping will change the lifestyle of small and marginal farmers and help in achieving the goal of increasing farmer’s income.
About National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd:
- Founded: 2 October 1958
- Headquarters: New Delhi
- Chairman: Bijendra Singh
Flipkart, GiveIndia Foundation provide 50,000 PPE kits to UP
- E-Commerce Company Flipkart in collaboration with GiveIndia Foundation provided 50,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits to the state government.
- As many as 50,000 PPE kits have been provided to the UP government in collaboration with GiveIndia Foundation which will help in protecting the health workers, patients, and other frontline warriors from coronavirus infection.
- Earlier, Flipkart had donated more than 50,000 PPE protective gear and N95 masks to the Uttar Pradesh administration to fight the epidemic, he stated.
- Till now, Flipkart has distributed over 1 million medical gowns and 6 lakh N-95 masks across the nation, he added
About Flipkart Private Limited:
- CEO: Kalyan Krishnamurthy
- Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka
