Current Affairs 2020

Current Affairs October 2020

International Day of Rural Women 2020 International Day of Rural Women is celebrated on 15 October. From agriculture to food security, nutrition, land and natural resource management, domestic care and work, rural women are at the forefront and are taking charge by being in the driver's seat. The International Day of Rural Women was created in 1995 by Civil society organizations at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and was declared an official UN Day in 2007 by the UN General Assembly. From agriculture to food security, nutrition, land and natural resource management, domestic care and work, rural women are at the forefront.

The theme for this International Day of Rural Women is “Building rural women’s resilience in the wake of COVID-19,” to create awareness of these women’s struggles, their needs, and their critical and key role in our society.

Cabinet approved Special Package for UT of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh Union Cabinet has approved a Special Package worth Rs. 520 crore in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh for a period of five years till FY 2023-24 and ensure funding of DeendayalAntyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) in the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir & Ladakh on a demand driven basis without linking allocation with poverty ratio during this extended period. This will ensure sufficient funds under the Mission, as per need to the UTs and is also in line with Government of India's aim to universalize all centrally sponsored beneficiary-oriented schemes in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh in a time bound manner. Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) is a centrally sponsored programme that was launched in 2011 to eliminate rural poverty through promotion of multiple livelihoods for the rural poor households across the country.

DAY-NRLM seeks to reach out to all rural poor households, estimated at about 10 crore households. It aims at organizing one-woman member from each rural poor household into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and enabling them to implement their livelihoods plans through accessing financial resources from their own institutions and the banks. It is implemented in a Mission mode by special purpose vehicles (autonomous state societies) with dedicated implementation support units at the national, state, district and block levels.

Union Cabinet approved World Bank supported Strengthening Teaching-Learning The Union Cabinet has approved World Bank supported Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States -STARS project. The Project seeks to support States in developing, implementing and evaluating interventions with direct linkages to improved education outcomes.

The total project cost is 5,718 crore rupees with the financial support of World Bank amounting to 500 million US dollar. STARS project would be implemented as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme under Department of School Education and Literacy. Current Affairs 2020

It will cover six States, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari initiated Asia's longest ZojiLa Tunnel works virtually In Ladakh Union Territory, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Mr Nitin Gadkari initiated Asia's longest ZojiLa Tunnel works virtually, by igniting ceremonial blasts. The tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity between Srinagar valley and Leh on NH-1 and will bring about an all-round economic and socio-cultural integration of Jammu and Kashmir. It involves construction of a 14.15-kilometre long tunnel at an altitude of about three thousand metres under Zojila pass on NH-1 connecting Srinagar and Leh through Dras and Kargil. Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) has been awarded with the contract of construction of ZojiLa Tunnel between Baltal and Minamarg within six years and nearly 19-KM approach roads on both sides in two and half years.

Both on the east portal of ZojiLa Tunnel at Meenamarg on Kargil side in UT Ladakh and the west portal of Nilagrar tunnel in Ganderbal district of UT Jammu & Kashmir, tunnel works would begin with simultaneous blasts.

India and France re-elected as President and Co- President of the International Solar Alliance India and France were re-elected as the President and Co- President of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) for a term of two years at the virtual meeting of the Third Assembly held on 14 October. The Third Assembly of the International Solar Alliance has been attended by 34 ISA Members ministers. 53 Member countries and 5 Signatory and Prospective Member countries participated to the Assembly.

The assembly also approved the initiatives of the ISA Secretariat in institutionalizing ISA’s engagement with the private and public corporate sector through the Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action (CSCA). The assembly witnessed the conferment of the Visvesvaraya award which recognizes the countries with maximum floating solar capacity in each of the four regions of ISA. The awards went to Japan for the Asia Pacific region and the Netherlands for Europe and Others region. In the wake of the global pandemic, ISA set up ISA CARES, an initiative dedicated to deployment of solar energy in healthcare sector in LDC/SIDS ISA Member countries. The initiative aims to solarize one primary health sector in each district of the target Member countries.

The ISA is an initiative that was launched by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France on 30 November 2015 at Paris, France on the side-lines of the COP-21. The First Assembly of the ISA was held in October 2018 in Greater Noida, India The Second Assembly of the ISA was convened in 2019 at New Delhi.

The Third Assembly of the ISA will be convened from 14 to 16 October 2020 in virtual mode.

Power Grid Corporation director bags Gold Stevie Award Mrs. Seema Gupta, Director (Operations), Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, has been named the winner of Gold Stevie Award in the Lifetime Achievement- Business category in the 17th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Current Affairs 2020

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honour women executives, entrepreneurs, employees, and the companies they run– worldwide. The Stevie Awards have been hailed as the world’s premier business awards. They were created in 2002 to honour and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and working professionals worldwide. POWERGRID, one of the largest power transmission companies globally, is a Maharatna CPSE under the administrative control of Ministry of Power, Govt. of India and is the Central Transmission Utility of India.

New wheat variety MACS-6478 in Maharashtra A new wheat variety MACS-6478 is helping farmers in a village in Maharashtra to double their yield. The wheat variety was developed by Scientists from Agharkar Research Institute, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology.

The farmers of the village in Koregaon tehsil of Satara district in Maharashtra are now getting a yield of 45 to 60 quintal per hectare with the new variety as against earlier average yield ranging 25 to 30 quintal per hectare. The newly developed common wheat or bread wheat, also called high yielding Aestivum, matures in 110 days and is resistant to most races of leaf and stem rust.

PM to release commemorative coin of Rs 75 denomination to mark the 75th Anniversary of FAO Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will release a commemorative coin of Rs 75 denomination to mark the long- standing relation of India with FAO on the occasion of 75th Anniversary of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 16th October 2020.

Prime Minister will also dedicate to the Nation 17 recently developed biofortified varieties of 8 crops. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, fiat panis, translates to "let there be bread". It was founded in 1945. The FAO is headquartered in Rome, Italy.

Composed of 197 member states, the FAO is governed by a biennial conference representing each member country and the European Union, which elects a 49-member executive council. FAO and the World Health Organization created the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 1961 to develop food standards, guidelines and texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/ WHO Food Standards Programme.

Cabinet approved demerger of Nagarnar Steel Plant from NMDC Ltd The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its ‘in-principle’ approval to the demerger of Nagarnar Steel Plant (NSP) from National Minerals Development Corporation (NMDC) Ltd. The Cabinet also approved strategic disinvestment of the demerged company (NSP) by selling the entire Government of India stake in it to a strategic buyer.

NSP is a three million ton per annum (mta) Integrated Steel Plant being set up by NMDC at Nagarnar, Bastar District, Chhattisgarh. Current Affairs 2020

NMDC is a listed CPSE under the Ministry of Steel and Government of India has 69.65 % shareholding in the Company. The process of demerger and disinvestment will be initiated in parallel and disinvestment of demerged company (NSP) is expected to be completed by September 2021. The proposal to demerge the NSP into a separate company before its disinvestment has the following advantages:

 With demerger, NMDC can focus on its core activities of mining;  After demerger, NSP shall be a separate company and the managements of NMDC and NSP shall be accountable for their respective operations and financial performance.

Second phase of “Thalassemia Bal Sewa Yojna” for underprivileged Thalassemic patients Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan has launched the second phase of “Thalassemia Bal Sewa Yojna” for the underprivileged Thalassemic patients, virtually from Nirman Bhawan.

Launched in 2017, this scheme is a Coal India CSR funded Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) program. It aims to provide a one-time cure opportunity for Haemoglobinopathies like Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell Disease for patients who have a matched family donor. The CSR initiative was targeted to provide financial assistance to a total of 200 patients by providing a package cost not exceeding Rs. 10 lakhs per HSCT.

Haemoglobinopathies, such as Thalassemia and sickle cell disease are inherited disorders of red blood cells and are preventable. People with thalassaemia are not able to make enough haemoglobin due to which oxygen cannot get to all parts of the body, thereby organs are unable to function properly. There are two major types of thalassaemia, alpha and beta, which are named for the two protein chains that make up normal haemoglobin.

In India, Thalassemia Major (TM) and the severe form of Thalassemia Intermedia (TI) constitute the major burden of disease.