Daily Current Affairs 2nd September, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 2 September 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

CFI all set to host First-Ever Cycling Summit in 2021
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.

Rajnath Singh Launches Life Insurance Scheme For Over 10,000 Cantonment Employees
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. 

Odisha CM launches two citizen-centric mobile phone apps on Local Self Government Day
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched two citizen-centric mobile phone applications- AMA SAHAR and SWACHHA SAHAR ODISHA at the Lok Seva Bhawan on the occasion of Local Self Government Day.

  • With the launching of web app, the urban local bodies (ULBs) will be able to submit utilisation certificate online which will bring better fiscal management.
  • A Handbook on sanitation, which is a compendium of imported notifications, letters and guidelines issued by the Department was also released by the Chief Minister.
  • On this occasion, the Chief Minister dedicated 100 Functional Micro Composite Centres and 50 Functional Material Recovery Facilities in the various urban local bodies of the state. He also laid the foundation stone for establishment of 51 Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant to ensure larger coverage of this facility across all cities and towns.

Panel set up to optimise utilisation of civilian cadre in Service HQs
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.

  • This is in line with the recommendation of the Lt. Gen. DB Shekatkar (retd) committee on enhancing the military’s combat potential and rebalancing defence expenditure.
  • 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.

Govt. gives nod to 27 integrated cold chain development projects under PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana
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.

  • The new integrated cold chain projects will generate direct and indirect employment for over 16,000 people and benefit nearly 2,57,000 farmers.
  • 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 and Uttar Pradesh.


BANKING & FINANCE

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance introduces AI-powered voice chatbot on Google Assistant
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has introduced its customer service chatbot ‘LiGo’ on ‘Google Assistant’.

  • This would enable the Company’s policyholders to have their queries addressed by simple voice commands such as “Ok Google, I want to speak to ICICI Prudential Life LiGo” or “May I talk to ICICI Prudential Life LiGo”.
  • Extending LiGo functionalities to Google Assistant is part of the company’s strategy to be present on platforms preferred by customers and to offer them an immersive experience.

European Investment Bank To Invest €650 Million Into Kanpur’s First City Metro Line
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.

  • The new metro rail system aims to reduce commuting hours and unlock new employment and education opportunities in Kanpur, the industrial capital of Uttar Pradesh.
  • 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.

DSCI and PayPal launched a report on ‘Fraud & Risk Management in Digital Payments’
Data Security Council of India and PayPal India, today released a study report on Fraud & Risk Management in Digital Payments.

  • The report attempts to discuss about the sophisticated online payment fraud mechanisms, threats in the payment ecosystem, incorporating better fraud prevention strategies, role of upcoming technologies, and recommendations for various stakeholders involved in the payment ecosystem.
  • The e-commerce market in India is expected to grow to USD 200 bn by 2026 from USD 50 bn in 2018. UPI transactions in India have crossed 1.49 bn in volume and USD 41bn in transaction value, in July 2020.
  • The internet userbase is expected to grow to 835 million by 2023 from 560 million in 2018.


BUSINESS & ECONOMY

India’s GDP contracts by record 23.9% in Q1
India’ witnessed its steepest quarterly decline in gross domestic product as the country emerges to be the global hotspot for coronavirus infections.

  • 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.
  • Data released by National Statistical Office showed manufacturing, construction and trade sectors saw massive contraction at 39.3%, 50.3%, 47% respectively. Surprisingly, government expenditure as represented by the public administration services also contracted 10.3%.

Real GDP likely to contract by 10.9% in FY21: SBI Ecowrap
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.

  • It had earlier estimated real gross domestic product (GDP) at (-) 6.8 per cent for the current fiscal.
  • According to the research report, there is a need to revive sectors such as construction, trade and hotels, aviation.

India-Japan-Australia decide to launch resilient supply chain initiative in the Indo-Pacific region
India-Japan-Australia decided to launch an initiative to build a resilient supply chain in the Indo-Pacific region later this year, as they seek to reduce dependence on China following its hostile political and military conduct.

  • The trio aims to create a free and transparent trade and investment environment. The initiative, first proposed by Japan, is now taking shape.


APPOINTMENTS

Aveek Sarkar elected new Chairman of Press Trust of India
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.

Rajiv Kumar takes over as new Election Commissioner of India
Former bureaucrat Rajiv Kumar assumed charge as the new election commissioner.

  • Rajiv Kumar, a retired 1984-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre, will have a five-year tenure and retire in 2025.
  • He takes the place vacated by Ashok Lavasa who joins the Asian Development Bank as vice president.

Hemant Khatri takes over as CMD of Hindustan Shipyard
Cmde Hemant Khatri (Retd) assumed charge as the Chairman and Managing Director of state-owned defence shipbuilder, Hindustan Shipyard Ltd. 

  • Prior to taking over as Chairman and Managing Director of HSL, he was also Project Director of fleet solid support (FSS) programme and concluded an important contract for collaboration with a foreign yard earlier this year.

CBDT chairman Pramod Chandra Mody gets six-month extension
Pramod Chandra Mody was given a six-month extension till February next year as the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

  • The decision was taken by the appointments committee of the cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The extension is for six months with effect from 1 September till end of February 2021 or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

Vice Admiral S R Sarma assumes charge as Chief of Materiel of the Indian Navy
Vice Admiral S R Sarma assumed charge as the Chief of Materiel of the Indian Navy.

  • Admiral Sarma during his illustrious career spanning over three and a half decades has served onboard Indian Naval ships Vindhyagiri, Rana, Krishna and Mysore in various capacities.


SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Indian astronomers discover one of the farthest Star galaxies in universe
Indian astronomers have discovered one of the farthest Star galaxies in the universe in a landmark achievement. India’s first Multi-Wavelength Space Observatory ‘AstroSat’ has detected extreme-UV light from a galaxy located 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth.

  • The galaxy called AUDFs01 was discovered by a team of Astronomers led by Dr Kanak Saha from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune.


SpiceJet launches portable ventilator SpiceOxy for patients with breathing issues
In the wake of coronavirus outbreak, the budget airlines SpiceJet introduced a portable ventilator for patients with mild-to-moderate breathing issues. Dubbed as ‘SpiceOxy’, the compact ventilator was designed by engineers of SpiceJet Technic, a subsidiary of SpiceJet.

  • This light weight device can be used at home, in an ambulance, on hilly terrain like army base camps, hospitals, and portable applications like wheelchairs and gurneys.
  • SpiceOxy is intended to provide non-invasive ventilator support to treat adult and paediatric patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) or respiratory insufficiency.

CSIR-CMERI develops world’s largest solar tree
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.

  • The solar tree has been designed in a manner to ensure maximum exposure of each solar photovoltaic (PV) panel to sunlight and also creation of the least amount of shadow area beneath.
  • The installed capacity of the Solar Tree is above 11.5 kWp (kilowatts peak). It has the annual capacity to generate 12,000-14,000 units of Clean and Green Power. There are a total of 35 Solar PV Panels in each tree with a capacity of 330 wp (watts peak) each.


OBITUARIES

‘Scooby Doo’ Co-Creator Joe Ruby passes away
Animator and Scooby Doo co-creator Joe Ruby has died at at his home in California’s Westlake Village due to natural causes.He was 87.

  • Ruby, an American animator, television editor, writer, and producer, created the much-loved characters of beloved kids show Scooby-Doo, along with his creative partner Ken Spears.


BOOKS

Karan Johar writes his first children’s book ‘The Big Thoughts of Little Luv’
Filmmaker Karan Johar said that he has penned a children’s book, titled “The Big Thoughts of Little Luv”, which is inspired from his own experiences as a parent.

  • The picture book will be published by Juggernaut Books.
  • The book will narrate the story of twins, Luv and Kusha.


IMPORTANT DAYS

National Nutrition Week 2020
National Nutrition Week is celebrated from September 1 to September 7 since 1982 to spread knowledge about Nutrition and its importance for the human body.

  • The objective of the National Nutrition Week is to create awareness on the importance of nutrition which is the focal point of health and well-being which is directly linked to human resource development, productivity and national growth.


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