Daily Current Affairs : October 7, 2020

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Daily Current Affairs (October 7, 2020) like many other sections is inevitable and this also helps to score in the Banking awareness, Static GK, and Financial Awareness sections. Remember, Banking Awareness, and Static Awareness Questions are asked from the General Awareness section. This will also help you to ride your preparations for the forthcoming exams.

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Important Days

World Cotton Day- October 7:

• World Cotton Day is observed on October 7.
• World Trade Organization (WTO) will host the first World Cotton Day (WCD) in Geneva Since October 7, 2019.
• It was initiated by the Group of Cotton-4 countries namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali to the reflect the importance of cotton as a global commodity.
• Theme: “Cotton: The Fibre that Moves Me”

Wildlife Week- October (2-8):

• Wildlife Week is observed every year from 2 October to 8 October, there are some places in India that start celebrating it from 1 October onward. For the conservation and Protection of the Biodiversity, this initiative is given importance. In this week, seminars to bring the more difficult aspects of wildlife conservation are conducted.
• Theme: “RoaR (Roar and Revive) – Exploring Human-Animal Relationships”

National News

Gujarat government announces “Digital Seva Setu” Programme for rural areas:

• Gujarat government has announced “Digital Seva Setu” Programme for rural areas in which citizens will be able to get benefit from public welfare services at Panchayat level. It has been initiated under the Bharat Net Project an initiative to connect the Village Panchayats through fibre network.
• The villages of Gujarat will be connected with a 100 MBPS optical fibre network. Phase 1 of Digital Seva Setu will start from 8th October.

Gujarat:

• Capital: Gandhinagar
• Chief Minister: Vijay Rupani
• Governor: Acharya Devvrat
• National Park: Blackbuck NP, Vansda NP, Gir Forest NP, Marine NP, Gulf of Kutch.

Goa government Launches Online E-Learning Platform “DISHTAVO”:

• Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant launched DISHTAVO (Digital Integrated System for Holistic Teaching and Virtual Orientations) an online e-learning platform that is accessible to all.
• Goa is the first state in the country to take the entire academic syllabus of higher education to an online platform and first state to offer online training for teachers.

Goa:

• Capital:Panaji
• Chief Minister:Pramod Sawant
• Governor: Bhagat Singh Koshyari (Additional Charge)

Delhi-Mumbai E-way to Have 5 ‘Animal Bridges’ to Provide Safe Passage for Wildlife:

• Delhi-Mumbai expressway will have India’s first-ever animal overpass. These will be on the lines of “Animal Bridges” in the Netherlands for safe passage of wildlife. These have been planned to ensure there are no disturbances to the Ranthambore Wildlife Corridor connecting Ranthambhore and Mukundra (Darrah) wildlife sanctuaries in Rajasthan.

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal Inaugurates Renaming of Naugarh Railway Station to Siddharthnagar Virtually:

• Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal virtually inaugurates the renaming of Naugarh railway station to Siddharthnagar railway station situated at Siddharthnagar district in Uttar Pradesh.
• “Naugarh railway station was named Siddharthanagar in view of public aspirations due to the birth of Mahatma Buddha in Lumbini near Naugarh and being associated with his life events from this region.

Uttar Pradesh:

• Capital: Lucknow
• Chief Minister: Yogi Adityanath
• Governor: Anandiben Patel
• National Park: Dudhwa National Park (Tiger Reserve)
• Zoological park: Shaheed Ashfaq Ullah Khan Prani Udyan(Gorakhpur), Kanpur Zoological Park, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological Garden.

My Ganga My Dolphin campaign launched by NMCG, WII and the Forest Department at six sites across river Ganga:

• National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG), Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Forest Department launched the “My Ganga My Dolphin campaign” on the occasion of Ganga River Dolphin Day. A Dolphin-based ecotourism programme was launched at various sites along the Ganga River. 
• The campaign was started in six sites Kahalgaon (Bihar), Bijnor, Brijghat, Prayagraj and Varanasi (all in Uttar Pradesh), and Bandel (West Bengal).

Google India launches “Make Small Strong” campaign for small businesses:

• Google India announced the launch of “Make Small Strong campaign” nationwide in order to help support small businesses and drive demand through customer support. 
• The aim of the initiative is to help grow small and local businesses such as local kirana or book stores, vegetable and fruit vendors, etc. that proved to be instrumental during the nationwide lockdown.

NABARD to provide India’s first two Organic Spices Seed parks in Gujarat:

• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will provide “Grant Assistance” to two first-of-its-kind Organic Spices Seed Park Cumin seeds in Patan and Fennel seeds in Banaskantha districts of Gujarat.
• The parks will encourage capacity building and help farmers in adoption of best practices in the production of cumin & fennel seeds.

Gujarat:

• Capital: Gandhinagar
• Chief Minister: Vijay Rupani
• Governor: Acharya Devvrat
• National Park: Blackbuck NP, Vansda NP, Gir Forest NP, Marine NP, Gulf of Kutch.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD):

• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Formation: July 12, 1982
• Chairman: Chintala Govinda Rajulu

International News

India and Myanmar Agree to Target Operationalisation of Strategic Sittwe Port in first quarter of 2021:

• Indian army chief General M.M. Naravane and foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla travelled to Myanmar on a two-day visit. They called on State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s Commander in Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
• Sittwe Port is a deepwater port constructed by India in 2016 at Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in Myanmar, on the Bay of Bengal. It will connect India’s landlocked north-eastern region with the Bay of Bengal through Mizoram.

Myanmar:

• Capital: Naypyitaw, 
• Currency: Burmese Kyat.

Foreign ministers of India, Japan, US and Australia attend QUAD meeting in Tokyo:

• Foreign ministers of all four Quad countries – the United States, Japan, India and Australia in Tokyo, Japan to hold bilateral discussions over “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) initiative amid coronavirus pandemic.
• Foreign ministers of all four Quad countries are were Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi will be present for the face to face meeting, a first amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

12th Virtual BRICS Summit to be held on 17 November 2020:

• 12th Virtual BRICS Summit is scheduled to be held on 17th November 2020. The Summit is being held under the Chairmanship of Russia. Meeting of the Leaders of BRICS countries held under the theme of “BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth”.
• This is the first time in the history of the forum that the meeting will be held virtually, due to the global COVID pandemic. BRICS Countries are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Russia:

• Capital: Moscow
• Currency: Russian Rouble
• President: Vladimir Putin
• Prime Minister: Mikhail Mishustin

Avaada Energy receives USD 15 million fund from ADB to Expand Renewable Energy Capacity in India:

• Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed an agreement to invest $15 million equivalent in Avaada Energy Private Limited (AEPL) to help the company to scale up photovoltaic solar energy generation capacity in India. This is ADB’s second investment in AEPL after a first round of $50 million invested in April 2019.
• The project will contribute to the Government of India’s strategy to increase the share of renewable energy generation capacity from about 20% in 2018 to 40% by 2030. It reflects ADB’s commitment to provide cumulative climate finance of $80 billion from 2019 to 2030.

Asian Development Bank (ADB):

• Founded: 19 December 1966
• Headquarters: Mandaluyong, Philippines.
• President: Masatsugu Asakawa.

• Chief Economist: Yasuyuki Sawada
• Membership: 68 countries

Banking and Economy

SEBI Introduces ‘Very High-Risk Category’ in Mutual Fund Schemes:

• Markets regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) revamped the product labelling on Mutual Fund schemes under the risk-o-meter by introducing “very high risk” category to warn investors. The existing five categories to measure risks are – low, low to moderate, moderate, moderately high and high.
• Based on the scheme characteristics, mutual funds will assign a risk level for schemes at the time of launch of scheme/new fund offer, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI):

• Headquarter: Mumbai, Maharshtra
• Chairman: Ajay Tyagi.

Axis Bank and Vistara strengthen partnership to launch a co-branded forex card:

• India’s third-largest private sector bank Axis Bank strengthens partnership with Vistara to launch a co-branded forex card – ‘Axis Bank Club Vistara Forex Card’. This is also the first-ever collaboration by a bank and an Indian airline for a co-branded forex card.
• The card can load up to 16 currencies & has emergency assistance services like loss of passport assistance through Trip-Assist & insurance cover of up to Rs 3 lakhs.

Axis Bank:

• Headquarters: Mumbai 
• MD & CEO: Amitabh Chaudhry.
• Tagline: “Badhti Ka Naam Zindagi”.

Indian Bank launches its first Customer Acquisition and Processing Centre in Chennai:

• Chennai-headquartered public sector lender Indian Bank opened its first centralised Customer Acquisition & Processing Centre (CAPC) in Chennai.
• Tamil Nadu and Puducherry branches will be brought under CAPC before December 2020 and other branches across the country will be brought under the CAPCs in a phased manner.

ICICI becomes the first Bank to offer debit card to customers availing Loan Against Securities (LAS):

• ICICI Bank partnership with Visa to introduced a Debit Card facility for customers availing the Loan Against Securities (LAS) from the Bank.
• The card is available on the Visa platform. The card offers a maximum daily transaction limit of Rs. 3 lakhs each for POS and online transactions.
• The debit card can be used by customers across all domestic merchant establishments to make seamless POS and online transactions like payments on e-commerce portals among others, using their sanctioned LAS amount. It will be automatically renewed upon renewal of the LAS account.

ICICI (Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India):

• Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
• MD and CEO: Sandeep Bakhshi
• Tagline: Hum Hai Na, Khyal Apka.

BFSL partners with ICSI to launch co-branded credit card for Company Secretaries:

• BOB Financial Solutions Ltd (BFSL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda (BoB) partners with Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) to launch an exclusive co-branded credit card for Company Secretaries (CS).
• The BoB-ICSI Diamond credit card will bring exclusive benefits and conveniences to Company Secretaries, who are influencers and opinion leaders in their own right, and are contributing in building a modern and Atmanirbhar (self-reliant) India.

Acquisitions and Mergers

Reliance General partners with SatSure Analytics for crop insurance business:

• Reliance General Insurance has partnered with SatSure for satellite-based crop monitoring and predictive analytics support to better risk management and improve efficiency of its crop insurance business operations. It will help address the key areas of crop health, soil moisture, crop sown area, crop yield estimation and crop loss estimation.
• The partnership will supply extensive ground observation data and generate timely reports through SatSure Analytics’ SAGE platform, combining the analysis of Earth Observation data.

Prasar Bharati and IFFCO sign MoU to broadcast and promote Agri technology and innovations for growth of Indian agriculture:

• World’s biggest fertiliser cooperative, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) and Prasar Bharati signed a MoU to broadcast and promote new agriculture technology and innovations.
• The agreement was signed at a program organised in Prthivi Bhavan, New Delhi.
• DD Kisan will broadcast various innovative technology being adopted in agriculture field through 30minutes program series for the benefit of farmers.

Science and Technology

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to commission India’s fastest HPC-AI Supercomputer ‘PARAM Siddhi – AI’ with NVIDIA:

• Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will be commissioning India’s largest HPC-AI supercomputer ‘PARAM Siddhi – AI.’ This initiative will place India among the top countries in global AI supercomputing research and innovation. This high-performance Computing-Artificial Intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer is a machine with 210 AI Petaflops (6.5 Petaflops Peak DP).
• It is built on the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD reference architecture comprising of 42 NVIDIA DGX A100 systems, connected with NVIDIA Mellanox HDR InfiniBand networking along with C-DAC’s indigenously developed HPC-AI engine, Software Frameworks, Cloud Platform.

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode to launch e-learning hub for villagers:

• Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode will launch an e-learning hub and library as a pilot project for villagers in Mavoor.
• Mavoor village is one of the five villages that has been adopted by the institute under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA).
• The programme aims to create a virtuous cycle between society and academic system by providing knowledge and practices for the emerging professions.

IIT Kharagpur Launches Telemedicine Technology IMedX for Homecare:

• IIT Kharagpur researchers have launched a telemedicine system ‘iMediX’ to help patients receive assistance from doctors without having to go to hospitals or clinics.
• The system has been conceptualized and designed by researchers at IIT Kharagpur’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering. 

• The technology basically integrates homecare with healthcare services from the hospital.
• The device highlights the Digital Healthcare System and promotes Social Distancing Protocol.

Appointments

Senior IPS officer M A Ganapathy appointed Director-General of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security:

• Senior IPS officer M A Ganapathy has been appointed as director-general of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.
• The 1986 batch, Uttarakhand cadre IPS officer is currently CISF special director-general and head of the airport sector.
• The post of BCAS chief fell vacant after Rakesh Asthana was appointed as the Director-General of Border Security Force in August.
• PM Modi headed appointments committee of cabinet approved the aviation ministry’s proposal to appoint Ganapathy as DG BCAS till his superannuation on February 29, 2024, or until further orders, whichever earlier.

Sports tech start-up HUDLE ropes in Ajinkya Rahane as brand ambassador and advisor:

• Delhi based sports tech & events startup HUDLE has announced the appointment of current Indian Test cricket vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane as brand ambassador & advisor.
• Rahane will also be able to guide the team with strategic inputs through his wealth of experience in professional sport.

Obituary News

Afghanistan cricketer Najeeb Tarakai Passed away at 29:

• Afghanistan’s top-order batsman Najeeb Tarakai has died from injuries sustained in a road accident.
• Tarakai played 12 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) for Afghanistan, after making his international debut in the 2014 T20 World Cup.
• He played his only one-day international against Ireland in 2017.

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