Daily GA Updates COVID-19 vaccine could be 90% effective: Pfizer A vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 infections in ongoing Phase 3 trials, the companies announced. According to preliminary findings, protection in patients was achieved seven days after the second of two doses, and 28 days after the first. The companies said they expect to supply up to 50 million vaccine doses globally in 2020, and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021. While the Pfizer-BioNTech trial has yet to be peer-reviewed by experts, scientists reacted positively -- if cautiously to the results. India welcomes removal of Sudan from list of State Sponsors of Terrorism India has welcomed the removal of Sudan from the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism and Sudan’s normalisation of relations with Israel. The Indian External Affairs Ministry said in a statement that India’s relations with Sudan are historic and special, and forged on the basis of shared values and close people-to-people contacts. Daily GA Updates Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari releases special anthology on Mahatma Gandhi Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has released a special anthology on Mahatma Gandhi- 'My understanding about Gandhi' - during a ceremony at Kathmandu in the presence of Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra. The book has been brought out by the Embassy of India along with the BP Koirala India-Nepal Foundation to cherish the values of the Mahatma's universal teachings with Nepali friends. The pictorial anthology in Nepalese has been released to celebrate 151st Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and to mark the culmination of the two years long celebrations of '150 years of Mahatma'. US: Joe Biden announces 12 member task force to deal with COVID-19 US President-elect Joe Biden has announced a 12-member coronavirus task force to mount an effective response to the pandemic that has infected millions and damaged the US economy. The task force will be co-chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Daily GA Updates The virus has infected 9.8 million people in the US and killed more than 2 lakh 37 thousand people as daily case counts continue to rise. FM Nirmala Sitharaman attends 1st BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the 1st BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' Meeting under the Russian Chairmanship to discuss the BRICS Economic and Financial Cooperation agenda for 2020. Finance Ministry said, Ms. Sitharaman talked about outcomes and initiatives of G-20 Saudi Arabia in 2020 on the Finance Track and highlighted role of BRICS members in reflecting Emerging Market Economies concerns in these initiatives. During the meeting, the Finance Minister also presented India’s views on discussions related to infrastructure investments and New Development Bank membership expansion. India, Maldives sign four MoUs to boost ties India and Maldives signed four agreements, including a $100 million Indian grant for an ambitious connectivity project, during Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla’s visit to the Maldives . The four Daily GA Updates MoUs include the Greater Male Connectivity Project, cooperation in youth and sports affairs, setting up soil and plant testing laboratories, and establishing a drug detox facility. The two sides also launched a cargo ferry service connecting Tuticorin and Cochin ports with Male in September to cut costs and time taken to transport goods. Govt approves 21 projects under Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain & Value Addition Government has approved 21 projects, leveraging investment worth 443 crore rupees supported with a grant of 189 crore rupees under the Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition. The approval in this regard was given during the inter-Ministerial Approval Committee meeting chaired by Minister for Food Processing Industries Narendra Singh Tomar. Mr Tomar said that these projects will benefit farmers and consumers and urged the officers to expedite the implementation of approved projects. He said, 21 projects are likely to generate employment for nearly 12 thousand 600 people and benefit over two lakh farmers. First tranche of commercial coal mine auction to generate revenue of Rs 7000 cr Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi has said that the result of the first tranche of commercial coal mine auction has been historic. He said, 19 mines were auctioned which will generate revenue of seven thousand crore rupees and it has total peak rated capacity of 51 million tonnes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the auction process of 41 coal blocks for commercial mining through video conference from New Delhi on 18th of June this year. Daily GA Updates Oil regulator gives up to 251 days more to IOC, Adani Gas, others to complete work Oil sector regulator PNGRB has given up to eight-and-a-half months of extra time to companies such as Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), GAIL and Adani Gas to fulfil their city gas project roll-out commitments that had been impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns. The extra time is to make up for the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the pandemic and for the restrictions in States. PNGRB said it has given licences to retail CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to household kitchens and industries in 230 geographical areas across the country. CCI to probe Google’s ‘abuse’ of position The Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered a detailed probe against Google for ‘abuse’ of its dominant position, primarily with regard to its digital payments application GPay. The order follows a complaint by an ‘informant’ alleging multiple instances of abuse of dominant position by Google, with CCI deciding to carry forward the investigation into two of these instances — pre-installation of GPay on Android OS smartphones and use of Google Play’s in-app billing as the method of payment by developers. Daily GA Updates 15th Finance Commission submits report for 2021-26 to President Ram Nath Kovind Fifteenth Finance Commission submitted its report for the period of 2021-26 to President Ram Nath Kovind. The Finance Commission led by its Chairman N.K. Singh called on the President and submitted the report. The Finance Commission will also present a copy of the Report to the Prime Minister. The report will be tabled in the Parliament by the Finance Minister along with an Action Taken Report of the government. The Fifteenth Finance Commission was constituted by the President with N.K. Singh as its Chairman. The other members of the commission include Ajay Narayan Jha, Prof. Anoop Singh, Dr. Ashok Lahiri and Dr. Ramesh Chand. Equitas Small Finance Bank Q2 net profit jumps over 2-fold to Rs 103 cr Equitas Small Finance Bank reported a more than twofold jump in net profit to Rs. 103 crore in the quarter ended September on healthy core income and a fall in bad assets. It had posted a net profit of Rs. 49 crore a year earlier. The small finance bank, which got listed on the capital markets last week, witnessed a 32% growth in net interest income to Rs. 461 crore. Prestige group to sell commercial projects to Blackstone for Rs 9,160 cr Daily GA Updates Realty firm Prestige Estates Projects Ltd. had agreed to sell a large portfolio of office, retail and hotel properties to global investment firm Blackstone for an enterprise value of Rs. 9,160 crore. The Bengaluru-based Prestige signed term sheets with the Blackstone group, and the deal is likely to be closed next month. TCS to acquire Postbank Systems from Deutsche Bank Tata Consultancy Services Netherlands BV, and Deutsche Bank AG have entered into an agreement under which the TCS subsidiary will acquire 100% of the shares of Postbank Systems AG (PBS) from Deutsche Bank AG for a symbolic cash payment of €1. PBS and about 1,500 staff would become part of TCS. PBS had reported a revenue of £530 million in 2019. PBS has been the internal IT provider for Postbank AG, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, catering for the German retail banking market. Equity mutual funds continue to see outflow Daily GA Updates Equity mutual funds witnessed an outflow of Rs. 2,725 crore in October, making it the fourth consecutive monthly withdrawal, on profit booking by investors. All the equity schemes, barring large- and mid-cap and sectoral funds, have seen outflows, data from the Association of Mutual Funds (AMFI) in India showed. However, investors put in over Rs. 1.1 lakh crore from debt MFs last month after pulling out over Rs. 51,900 crore in September. Overall, the MF industry witnessed a net inflow of Rs. 98,576 crore across all segments during the period under review, against an outflow of a little over Rs. 52,000 crore in September. Trailblazers won title clash of T20 Challenge In Women's Cricket, Trailblazers have won title clash of T20 Challenge at Sharjah after beating defending Champions Supernovas by 16 runs. Bating first, Trailblazers scored 118 for 8 in stipulated 20 overs. Chasing the winning target, Supernovas just managed to made 102 for seven in 20 overs. .