Weekly CA Quiz: August 2021 4th week

The last book of author Subhadra Sen Gupta, who lost her life to COVID-19 in May 2021, was released by Puffin Books, the children’s imprint of Penguin Books. The book is titled ‘Let’s Go Time Travelling Again’ and has illustrations by Tapas Guha, a well-known illustrator for children.

The government launched e-Shram portal – National Database on Unorganized Workers (NDUW). Unveiling the logo for the E-Shram portal, Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav said that targeted identification of the unorganized workers was a much-needed step. He said the portal will be the national database of nation builders, the ‘Shram Yogis’, and help take welfare schemes to their doorstep.

Karnataka government has selected Sri Basavaliga Pattaddevaru, senior seer of Bhalki Hiremath, for the prestigious Sri Basava International Award. Minister for Kannada and Culture V. Sunil Kumar will present the award at Ravindra Kalakshetra in Bengaluru.

Abhay Kumar Singh has been appointed as joint secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation which was recently formed with an aim to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country, according to a Personnel Ministry order issued.

The total loans and advances extended by NABARD during 2020-21 registered a growth of 25.2 per cent year-on-year to reach Rs 6 lakh crore, with half of it going into production and investment, the bank said in its annual report.

The Economist Intelligence Unit has published its 2021 Safe Cities Index, ranking 60 major global cities across 76 indicators based on digital, health, infrastructure, environmental and personal security. Copenhagen tops the rankings this year with a score of 82.4 out of 100.It was followed by Toronto and Singapore. New Delhi and Mumbai have found a place in the index. New Delhi is placed at 48th position with a score of 56.1, while Mumbai is at 50th place with a score of 54.4.
Yangon is at the bottom of the index, as least safe city, with a score of 39.5.

As part of military diplomacy and to strengthen the growing strategic relation with Kazakhstan, the fifth edition of Indo- Kazakhstan Joint Training Exercise, KAZIND-21 will be conducted at Aisha Bibi in Kazakhstan, from August 30 to September 11.

NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute (WRI), India, jointly launched the ‘Forum for Decarbonizing Transport’ in India as part of the NDC-Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA) project.

India is among four South Asian countries where children are most at risk of the impacts of climate change threatening their health, education, and protection, according to a new UNICEF report. ‘The Climate Crisis Is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index’ [CCRI] is UNICEF’s first focussed on children.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and India are among four South Asian countries where children are at extremely high risk of the impacts of the climate crisis, with a ranking of 14th, 15th, 25th and 26th respectively.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya took over charge as the Chairperson of Stop TB Partnership Board. He will hold the responsibility until 2024.

India’s top paddler G Sathiyan beat Yevhen Ryshchepa of Ukraine comprehensively and in straight sets 11-9, 11-6, 11-6,14-12 in the final of the Czech International table tennis tournament at Olomouc in the Czech Republic.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the re-appointment of Sandeep Bakhshi as the managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank, the private lender said in a regulatory filing on August 24.

Ohmium International, a US-based renewable energy start-up, said it has launched India’s first green hydrogen electrolyzer gigafactory at Bengaluru through its India subsidiary.

India has overtaken the US to become the second-most sought-after manufacturing destination globally, driven mainly by cost competitiveness, according to real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield. China remains at number one position, the consultant said in its 2021 Global Manufacturing Risk Index.

US-based multinational technology company Microsoft has teamed up with India’s national investment promotion and facilitation agency Invest India to support tech startups in the country.

Infosys became the fourth Indian company to touch a market valuation of $100 billion. The IT services major has joined the league of TCS, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank for crossing the $100 billion-mark in terms of market capitalisation (m-cap).

Bajaj Finserv will be the latest entrant to the Rs 35-trillion mutual fund (MF) industry after the company received in-principle approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

The world’s largest and tallest observation wheel will open in the UAE on October 21, the latest landmark to join Dubai’s long list of record-breaking attractions. At nearly twice the height of the London Eye, Ain Dubai will take visitors to a height of 250 metres from where they could enjoy a majestic view of Dubai’s picturesque skyline.

With an aim to boost the start-up ecosystem in the country, the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology (MeitY) launched Start-up Accelerators of MeitY for pRoduct Innovation, Development and growth (SAMRIDH). The SAMRIDH programme will focus on accelerating the 300 start-ups by providing customer connect, investor connect, and international immersion in the next three years.

Former Union Minister, K J Alphons has presented his book ‘Accelerating India: 7 Years of Modi Government’ to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Pakistan successfully test launched a indigenously developed guided multi-launch rocket system, Fatah-1.

The Sahitya Akademi named authors Yashodhara Mishra and Omcherry N.N. Pillai as the winners of the 2020 awards for their works in Odia and Malayalam, respectively.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Hitendra Dave as Chief Executive Officer, HSBC India for a period of three years with effect from August 24, 2021, the bank said.

India’s first sectoral index in the Agri commodities basket i.e. GUAREX was launched by the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX).

India and Maldives will sign a contract on the mega Greater Male Connectivity project (GMCP), the largest infrastructure project in the country. The project, funded by an Indian grant of $100 m and a Line of Credit of $400 m is also the biggest new development project by India in its neighbourhood in recent years.

The Reserve Bank of India has extended the scope of permitted devices for undertaking tokenised card transactions to include consumer devices such as laptops, desktops, wearables (wrist watches, bands, etc.), and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The Kerala based private sector lender South Indian Bank has been empanelled as an ‘Agency Bank’ by Reserve Bank of India to undertake general banking businesses of Central and State government on behalf of the RBI.

East Sikkim has topped in terms of meeting sustainable development goals in the Niti Aayog’s North Eastern Region (NER) District SDG Index Report 2021-22 and Nagaland’s Kiphire featured at the bottom, as per the specified parameters.

The Centre has announced Drone Rules-2021 which reduced the Yellow Zone from 45 kilometres to 12 kilometres from the airport perimeter. No permission is required for operating a drone in Green Zones and upto 200 feet in the area between eight and twelve kilometres from the airport perimeter.

Union Cabinet has also approved the signing Memorandum of Understanding between Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Institute of Professional Accountants of Russia.

Union Minister of Women & Child Development, Smt. Smriti Irani addressed the First ever G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment which was held at Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy in a hybrid format.

India has won the elections for membership of two key bodies of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), during the 27th UPU Congress in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
India got elected to the Council of Administration (CA) with 134 votes, out of 156 countries. The country received the highest votes in CA elections from South Asia and the Oceania region.
Apart from this, India has also been elected to the Postal Operations Council (POC) with 106 votes. India will now work with all to strengthen cooperation in the Universal Postal Union.

President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit, to discharge the functions of the Governor of Punjab and Union Territory of Chandigarh, in addition to his own duties from the date he assumes charge of the office of the Governor of Punjab.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh commissioned the state-of-the-art Indian Coast Guard Ship Vigraha in Chennai Harbour. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh commissioned the state-of-the-art Indian Coast Guard Ship Vigraha in Chennai Harbour.

Fintech firm Decimal Technologies, and Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (USFB) Limited, a mass market bank, has entered into a partnership through which Ujjivan SFB and its channel partners will use Decimal’s digital lending platform – Saarathi.

Jana Small Finance Bank (Jana SFB) will provide its digital infrastructure and payments services to HCBL Co-operative Bank and Mysore Merchants Co-operative Bank under the bank sponsorship programme.

The book titled ‘An Invitation to Die: A Colonel Acharya Mystery’ book written by Tanushree Podder has been released recently.

Noted agricultural scientist and recipient of Padma Shri award, B.V. Nimbkar, died at Phaltan in Maharashtra’s Satara district due to his age-related ailments, sources close to his family said. He was 90.

Indian Grandmaster SP Sethuraman won the Barcelona Open chess tournament title in Barcelona while compatriot Karthikeyan Murali finished third in the tournament.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has promoted three new officials to the post of executive directors (EDs), the central bank said in an internal circular. According to this circular issued by RBI’s human resources department, Ajay Kumar, A.K. Choudhary and Deepak Kumar are the three officers in Grade F who have been promoted as executive directors for the year 2021-22.

The Government introduced a new registration mark for new vehicles under the “Bharat series (BH-series)” to facilitate seamless transfer of vehicles, informed Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman promised that a Rs 1300-crore project for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure Development for Tripura’s Tribal areas would be cleared within the next 10 days.

The Centre has formed a committee to streamline revenue litigation pending before the Supreme Court, solicitor general Tushar Mehta told the top court after the judges sought reduction in long delays in filing tax appeals.

 Navies of India and Germany carried out a joint exercise, which included helicopter landings and search and seizure operations, in Gulf of Aden near Yemen.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased incentives for banks for the distribution of coins to the general public to Rs 65 per bag with effect from September 1.Currently, the incentive is Rs 25 per bag.

 Reserve Bank of India has announced issue price for Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2021-22 – Series VI. RBI has fixed price of 4,732 Rupee per gram for bonds which will be available for subscription from August 30,2021 and will remain open till 3rd September 2021.

The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has launched the mobile application of its digital paperless solution, “ANANDA” for LIC agents. ANANDA stands for Atma Nirbhar Agents New Business Digital Application.

India has attracted total FDI inflow of 22.53 billion dollars during April to June, this year which is 90 per cent higher as compared to first three months of 2020-21 which was 11.84 billion dollars.

DeFi or decentralised finance represents one of the fastest growing and most innovative sectors of the cryptocurrency economy, and India ranks sixth in terms of DeFi adoption, according to the 2021 Global DeFi Adoption Index by blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), an Indian Public Sector Undertakings, has appointed Amit Banerjee as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD).

worldwide COVID-19 study led by UK experts and conducted at Indian hospitals among others around the world has been awarded the ‘Guinness World Records’ title for the world’s largest scientific collaboration, involving over 140,000 patients in 116 countries.

 The Ministry of Coal in India launched the Vriksharopan Abhiyan 2021, as a part of the Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav. Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs will launch the Abhiyan via video conference.

Payments major PhonePe has received an insurance broking licence from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai), the Bengaluru-based company.

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at around 18.5 per cent with an upward bias in the first quarter of the current financial year, according to SBI research report Ecowrap.

Reserve Bank extended the scheme for encouraging deployment of Point of Sale (PoS)infrastructure to street vendors covered under the PM SVANidhi programme in tier 1 and 2 centres.

Nine new judges, including three women, were administered oath of office as judges of the Supreme Court, taking its strength to 33. It is for the first time in the history of the apex court that nine judges took oath of office at one go.

Pankaj Kumar Singh, a 1988-batch Indian Police Service officer, was appointed as director general of the country’s largest border guarding force BSF.