Weekly CA Quiz: September 2020 1st week

India’s first toy manufacturing cluster to come up at Koppal, Karnataka, has the potential to create 40,000 jobs in five years and attract over Rs 5,000 crore investment, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, said.

During Corona crisis, apart from providing transport facilities and essential items like foodgrains to people, Indian Railways has also provided facilities for COVID-19 patients.
It has developed a remote-controlled medical trolley named ‘MEDBOT’ to help deliver food and medicines to COVID-19 patients.

The RBI announced a host of steps, including term repo operations totalling Rs 1 lakh crore in mid-September to ease pressure on the liquidity and maintain congenial financial conditions with a view to ensuring sustainable recovery of economic growth.

Vedanta Ltd said it has tied up with State Bank of India for a long-term syndicated loan facility worth Rs 10,000 crore.

Lewis Hamilton led from start to finish at the Belgian Grand Prix to clinch his 89th career win .The second place is secured by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The Gautam Adani-led Adani group has acquired a 74 per cent stake in Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), a joint venture between the Airports Authority of India and GVK Industries.

India’s government has approved Brookfield Asset Management Inc.’s proposal to acquire a 252 billion rupees ($3.4 billion) stake in a trust that manages the wireless infrastructure of the nation’s biggest mobile-phone service provider Reliance Jio Infratel Pvt. through Tower Infrastructure Trust.

A woman was appointed as ambulance driver in Tamil Nadu, claimed to be the first in the country, as Chief Minister K Palaniswami flagged off 118 as part of an initiative to strengthen emergency services in the state.
M Veeralakshmi was appointed driver of one of the newly launched ‘108’ ambulances and it is a ‘first’ in the country.

September would be celebrated as the “Poshan Maah” or “Nutrition Month”,Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in ‘Mann in Baat’ radio programme.

Aveek Sarkar, the Editor Emeritus and Vice Chairman of the Ananda Bazar Group of Publications, has been elected Chairman of Press Trust of India, the country’s premier news agency.
Sarkar’s election was ratified by PTI’s Board of Directors at their meeting. He succeeds Vijay Kumar Chopra, Chief Editor of the Punjab Kesari Group of newspapers.

Former bureaucrat Rajiv Kumar assumed charge as the new election commissioner.
He took over the place vacated by Ashok Lavasa who joined the Asian Development Bank as vice president.

The Cycling Federation of India (CFI) is all set to host the first-ever Cycling Summit in 2021, with an aim to promote the culture of cycling in the country.
The CFI said that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a marketing exploration firm, Contarctica, for the summit.
The Cycling Summit 2021 will be hosted in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore and is expected to be a unique confluence of cycling enthusiasts, renowned athletes, and businesses from all over the country.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched a life insurance scheme that will provide a cover of Rs five lakhs each to more than 10,000 employees working in cantonment areas across India.
‘Chhavni Covid: Yodha Sanrakshan Yojana’, a group life insurance scheme through the Life Insurance Corporation will benefit permanent and contractual employees, including doctors, paramedics and sanitation staff.

The Defence Ministry is set to optimise the civil and military administrative appointments in the service headquarters. A three-member committee has been set up to review the effective utilisation of the Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Services (AFHQ CS) cadre.
The committee headed by Lt. Gen. Shekatkar (retd). Other members are R. Chandrashekhar, a retired AFHQ cadre officer and AN Das from the MoD finance wing.

GDP contracted 23.9% in the quarter to June from a year ago. This is the sharpest contraction since India started publishing quarterly figures in 1996.

After the country’s economy contracted by a record 23.9 per cent in April-June quarter, real GDP for FY21 is expected to shrink by 10.9 per cent, according to State Bank of India’s research report – Ecowrap

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has introduced its customer service chatbot ‘LiGo’ on ‘Google Assistant’.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will invest €650 million into the construction of Kanpur’s first city metro line, enabling some 3 million people in the city of Kanpur, India, to benefit from green, safe, fast and affordable public transport.
This is the second metro rail project supported by the EIB in Uttar Pradesh, following the €450 million investment in the development of a metro rail system in the city of Lucknow.

In a bid to promote the usage of Solar energy, CSIR’s Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute have developed world’s largest ‘solar tree’ which is installed at its residential complex in Durgapur in West Bengal.

Government gave its nod to 27 projects under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana for development of integrated cold chains and value addition infrastructure in the country.
These 27 new projects will leverage a total investment of Rs 743 crore for the creation of modern, innovative infrastructure and effective cold chain facilities for the food processing sector across various states including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu.

Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) has become the world’s largest solar power generation asset owner in terms of operating, under construction and awarded solar projects, according to the latest rankings of global solar companies by Mercom Capital.

Andhra Pradesh, which is among the few States that have chosen to have their own crop insurance schemes, is in the process of establishing AP General Insurance Company (APGIC) to run the scheme. The State had begun implementing its own scheme from the rabi season.

Insurance regulator IRDAI has constituted a six-member working group on index-linked products following requests for permission from life insurers to introduce such products.
The working group will be led by Dinesh Pant, appointed actuary of LIC of India.

Federal Bank and Innoviti Payment Solutions have joined hands to offer convenient and affordable options of Federal Bank Debit Cards through Innoviti POS terminals.

The Govt has given one year extension up to September 1, 2021 to LC Goyal as Chairman and Managing Director, India Trade Promotion Organisation.

American actor Channing Tatum is a proud dad and wants to honor his 7-year-old daughter by writing his first children’s book titled ‘The One and Only Sparkella” (Feiwel & Friends).

September 2 is observed as World Coconut Day. The main objective of celebrating this day is to create awareness across the globe about the importance of the coconut and its benefits.
The theme of World Coconut Day 2020 this year is – “Invest in Coconut to save the world”.

India ranked in the top 50 countries for the first time in the Global Innovation Index, which was released recently. India jumped four positions to rank at 48th since 2019.
The index compiled by World Intellectual Property Index (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD Business School presented the latest global trends and annual innovation ranking for 131 countries.
Switzerland has topped the index.

The e Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its nod to Mission Karmayogi – National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building.
The scheme will lay the foundation for capacity building for Civil Servants so that they remain entrenched in Indian culture while they learn from best practices across the world.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of the current chairman of the Railway Board VK Yadav as the CEO, making him the first to hold such a post in the railway’s history.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has given its approval for the appointment of S Krishnan as Managing Director and CEO of Punjab & Sind Bank.
He will replace S Harishankar, the current MD and CEO of Punjab & Sind Bank.

The Reserve Bank has approved the appointment of Murali Ramakrishnan as Managing Director and CEO of South Indian Bank.
He would be succeeding incumbent VG Mathew, who will be retiring on September 30.

India’s GM P. Iniyan won the 48th annual world open chess tournament (online) recently. Usually held in Philadelphia, the USA, the tournament was conducted online following classical time control.

Under Ek Bharat Shresht Bharat, Goa is paired with Jharkhand. Lot of exchange activities are happening on this front.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has notified draft notification to seek comments and suggestions from the stakeholders on making FASTag mandatory for old vehicles sold before 1st December, 2017.
The amended provision in Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 is proposed to be put in force with effect from 1st January 2021.
It is also proposed to make having a valid FASTag mandatory while getting a new Third Party Insurance through an amendment wherein the details of FASTag ID will be captured. This is proposed to be put in force from 1st of April next year.

India has just two universities among the world’s top 400, as per World University Rankings 2021 released by the UK-based Times Higher Education (THE).
Among Indian institutions, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc in Bengaluru) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, are the two in the world’s top 400. While IISc has been placed in the 301-350 groupings, IIT Ropar is in the 351-400 bracket.
Globally, over 1,500 universities from 93 countries were ranked, with the Oxford University of UK topping the list.

An amount of Rs 601,12 crore annual plan has been approved for Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) in J & K for the year 2020-21.

Air Force Sports Control Board was conferred with ‘Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2020’ for the outstanding contribution in helping sportsperson to excel in their respective disciplines and implement robust sports welfare measures.

Uttar Pradesh government has decided to set up exclusive anti-electricity theft police stations in every district of state to address the problem of frequent cases of power theft.

Giving a push to the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ call by the Prime Minister, IIT Bombay has launched an alternative to Camscanner, a Chinese app mainly used for scanning documents, that was banned by the Government of India.
The new app launched by IIT Bombay students is called as AIR SCANNER and is available free of cost.

Infosys acquires US-based product design and development firm, Kaleidoscope Innovation, for $42 million.

The Union Minister of Education Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, launched ‘EnglishPro’, a free mobile app developed by the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad.
The App, developed under University Social Responsibility (USR) is the first-of-its kind initiative by any university in the country and will help learners develop Indian English Pronunciation in the unique “Indian” way.

The Assam government re-launched a scheme to provide self-employment to around 2 lakh youths of the state. Known as Swami Vivekananda Assam Youth Empowerment (SVAYEM), it would provide 50 thousand rupees each as seed money to selected youths to start business ventures.
The government is launching the redesigned SVAYEM with a budget of Rs. 1000 crore which will be spent in the next three months without any banking linkage.

Madhya Pradesh have been paired with Manipur and Nagaland for implementing the Centre’s ambitious scheme Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat Abhiyan.
The people of three States are involved in various activities for understanding art and culture, education, literature and traditions of each other.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released revised priority sector lending (PSL) guidelines to augment funding for COVID-19 impacted companies.
The Reserve Bank of India has included some fresh categories eligible for finance under priority sector. These include loans to farmers for installation of solar power plants; loans for establishment of Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) plants; and bank finance to start-ups of up to Rs 50 crore.

To further strengthen its drive to preserve and maintain the environment in Punjab and make people stakeholders in the process, the State Forest Department launched ‘I Rakhwali’ application to help netizens to become ‘Greenery Saviours’.

The Union Cabinet approved a bill under which Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi, apart from the existing Urdu and English, will be the official languages in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp said it has partnered Cyber Peace Foundation (CPF) to create awareness on cyber safety among students.
The partners aim to reach about 15,000 students in five Indian states Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra by the end of this year under the first phase of a pan-India programme.

The Central government has given approval for setting up a Medical college in Mon district of Nagaland.
This will be the second medical college in the state, after the Medical College in Kohima which is now under construction.

Andhra Pradesh retained its top position in ease of doing business ranking 2019, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, as per the State Business Reform Action Plan Ranking released by the commerce and industry ministry.

Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank has ceased to be a banking company within the meaning of the Banking Regulation Act, the Reserve Bank said.
The RBI said Westpac Banking Corporation has also ceased to be a banking company.

BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Anil Jain is set to be elected as the new president of All India Tennis Association (AITA) while Anil Dhupar will take over as the secretary-general at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the national federation.
Jain, who is also the ruling party’s national general secretary, will replace Praveen Mahajan as AITA president.

The Government of India has appointed Kshatrapati Shivaji, a 1986-batch Maharashtra cadre IAS officer, as secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) from September 1.

India will host a summit of the council of heads of government of the SCO on November 30 with a focus on contributing to the trade and economic agenda of the influential grouping, a senior official in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said.

The book titled “Breaking The Cocoon @ 40” authored by Radha Nair has been released recently.
“Breaking The Cocoon @ 40” is a delightful collection of select events from her life, which also holds a mirror to the time the incidents are set in.

Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare ministry has approved four crore rupees for up-gradation of Soil Testing labs across the Kashmir valley.

Bangladesh will host the 36th Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC) of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), for the first time in 2022 since joining the organization in 1973.
Due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, the 35th FAO Asia-Pacific regional conference, organised by Bhutan this year, was held through video conference.

Kerala, Goa, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Mizoram are among the top five States for well-being of children, according to a report brought out by non-governmental organisation Mobile Creches and launched by Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu.
It identifies eight States that have scores below the country’s average: they are Assam, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu, which houses a large number of small and medium enterprises, especially in the fire crackers and allied sectors, has been selected by the Central Government as the state’s first Fully Digital Economy district.

Veteran producer-director Johnny Bakshi passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest at a hospital here. He was 82.