Daily Current Affairs 22nd October, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 22 October 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Surat becomes the city with the longest BRTS corridor in the country
Chief Minister Vijaybhai Rupani virtually unveiled projects worth Rs 201.6 crore of Surat Manpa and Suda, including the expansion of BRTS Corridor. With this, Surat became the city with the longest BRTS corridor in the country.

  • After the unveiling of the seven km long BRTS corridor from Kumbharia to Kadodara, the BRTS corridor in the city has become 108 running km.

Uttar Pradesh becomes top tourist destination for Indians, third for foreigners in 2019
Uttar Pradesh, which is one of the historically rich places, has become the topmost visited state across the country, announced the Tourism Department of the Yogi Adityanath-led government.

  • The Indian Tourism Statistics (ITS), 2020, has announced that as many as 53.6 crore domestic tourists visited Uttar Pradesh in 2019 which was much higher as compared to 2018 when the state had got the second position after Tamil Nad.UP witnessed the third most number of footfalls in terms of foreign visitors in India in 2019.Surprisingly, Goa came last on the list with over 9 lakh foreign tourist visits in 2019.
  • List of states with domestic tourist visits in 2019-Uttar Pradesh – 23.1%, Tamil Nadu – 21.3%, Andhra Pradesh – 10.2% and Karnataka – 9.8%.

AAI Plans To Develop 100 Airports, Waterdromes, Heliports Under UDAN By 2024
Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to develop at least 100 airports, waterdromes and heliports by 2024 under the regional air connectivity scheme.

  • The scheme is aimed at providing affordable, economically viable and profitable air travel on regional routes. “50 unserved and underserved airports (including five heliports) with 285 routes have been added under UDAN across the length and breadth of India.


BANKING & FINANCE

Indian Bank partners IIT-Madras to set up incubation cell for startups
State-owned Indian Bank in collaboration with IIT-Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) launched an initiative for funding start-ups.

  • Under the initiative IND Spring Board — IITMIC will refer start-ups with proven technology and established cash flows to the bank and also extend advisory to the bank on the business model.
  • The lender will extend loans of up to Rs 50 crore to these start-ups for their working capital requirements or purchase of machinery and equipment, among others.

Zenpay, RBL Bank join hands to digitalise Salary Accounts for SMEs, MSMEs
Zenpay Solutions y announced its partnership with RBL bank and YAP to drive financial inclusion to issue salary cards to its customers across India.

  • The corporate expense and salary payment solution will help blue collared employees working with SMEs and MSME to receive digital payments via a salary account.
  • Zenpay will also offer customers a digital salary card and mobile application, which will help them manage their finance efficiently with the help of the interactive dashboard.

IRDAI sets up panel to examine need for Standard Cyber Insurance Product
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India(IRDAI) has set up a panel to explore possibility of a basic standard product structure to provide insurance cover for individuals and establishments to manage their cyber risks.

  • The panel, headed by P Umesh, has been asked to study various statutory provisions on information and cybersecurity, and to evaluate critical issues involving legal aspects of transactions in cyber space.
  • It will also examine various types of incidents involving cybersecurity in the recent past and possible insurance coverage strategies for those, and the cyber liability insurance covers available in Indian market and in other developed jurisdictions.

ADB to Provide $346 Million Loan for Power Supply Project in Rural Maharashtra
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India signed a USD 346 million loan pact to help provide efficient and reliable power supply to rural agriculture customers in Maharashtra.

  • The program aims to provide efficient and reliable power to agricultural customers in Maharashtra’s rural areas through adoption of HVDS that will help reduce distribution losses, and improve agricultural productivity and farmer incomes.
  • The program will be implemented until March 2022, by which time about 1.50,000 metered HVDS connections are expected.


BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Global trade likely to fall by 7 to 9% in 2020: UNCTAD
UNCTADThe United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has said that the value of global trade is set to fall by seven to nine per cent in 2020 from the previous year.

  • The UNCTAD’s new global trade update said that global trade recorded a 5 per cent drop in the third quarter of 2020 compared with the same period last year.
  • India’s export growth saw a decline of 6.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2020 as compared to third quarter of last year. However India recorded export growth of four per cent in September


APPOINTMENTS

Tata Communications Names Former Microsoft Executive Kabir Ahmed Shakir as CFO
Tata Communications was announced appointment of Kabir Ahmed Shakir as Chief Financial Officer with effect from October 21.

  • Shakir will take charge from Pratibha K Advani who has resigned from the company after a stint of over 5 years.
  • Until recently, Shakir was CFO at Microsoft India.


AWARDS

MD of TRIFED Pravir Krishna bags CEO of the year and visionary leadership award
Managing Director of TRIFED Pravir Krishna (IAS) has been awarded CEO of the Year and Visionary Leadership Award in the virtual edition of National Awards for Excellence in PSU for Investment in Start-UPS.

  • The team of TRIFED Warriors led by Krishna has actually won three awards. The third one is a collective award in the Investment in Start-Ups Category.
  • The awards are a recognition of Pravir Krishna’s contribution towards livelihood generation of the entire tribal community and making them self-reliant – a mission right from his days as a district collector in Bastar, Madhya Pradesh and of the commitment of the team of TRIFED Warriors.

Indian-origin Plastic Surgeon Named Outstanding Young Person 2020
Dr Jajini Varghese, a UK-based Indian-origin plastic surgeon, has been named an ‘Outstanding Young Person of the World 2020’ by a non-profit NGO for her “incredible” scientific contributions to diagnosing and treating breast cancer.

  • The 39-year-old Consultant in Oncoplastic Breast Surgery at Royal Free Hospital and University College London is one of 10 nominations from the UK for the international award, which honours outstanding young people under the age of 40 every year from across 110 countries for extraordinary accomplishments in various fields.
  • Varghese has been recognised in the “Medical Innovation” category for making it her personal mission to attempt to restore the lives of millions of women affected by breast cancer and will be presented with the award at a ceremony at the 2020 Junior Chamber International (JCI) World Congress in Yokohama, Japan.


SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Indigenously Built Stealth Corvette INS Kavaratti Commissioned into Navy
Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane commissioned the Anti-Submarine Warfare stealth corvette INS Kavaratti into the Indian Navy at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam.

  •  INS Kavaratti is the last of the four indigenously- built ASW stealth corvettes under Project 28 (Kamorta class) and has been designed by the Directorate of Naval Design, the Indian Navy’s in-house wing.
  • INS Kavaratti has a state-of-the-art weapons and sensor suite capable of “detecting and prosecuting” submarines.In addition to its anti-submarine warfare capability, the ship also has a credible self-defence capability and good endurance for long-range deployments.
  • Ships of this class have a displacement of 33,000 tonnes (as a comparison a Kalveri class submarine is 1,565 tonnes), with a span of 109m lengthwise and beam of 13.7m.

Harsh Vardhan launches CuRED, CSIR partnered clinical trials website
Union Health and Science and Technology Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan launched CuRED, a website that gives comprehensive info about the numerous COVID-19 clinical trials that the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) is engaged in partnership with industry, other government departments and ministries.

  • CSIR Ushered Repurposed Drugs (CuRED) provides information about the drugs, diagnostics and devices including the current stage of the trials, partnering institutions and their role in the trials and other details.

IIT Kharagpur’s ‘COVIRAP’ Gets ICMR Certification
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has validated the efficacy of ‘COVIRAP‘, a diagnostic machine developed by IIT Kharagpur researchers to detect coronavirus.

  • With ICMR’s approval, several business houses have approached the institute for technology licensing.
  • The ICMR granted the certification for ‘COVIRAP COVID-19 Diagnostic Test Kit’. It is affordable, easy to use and can produce results in a custom-developed mobile phone application within an hour.
  • The kit has made high-quality and accurate COVID testing affordable for common people, with the testing to cost around Rs 500. He said the machine can be developed at a cost of less than Rs 10,000.


ENVIRONMENT

India recorded highest air pollution exposure globally in 2019: Report
India recorded the highest annual average PM 2.5 concentration exposure in the world last year, according to the State of Global Air 2020 (SOGA 2020) report which was released by US-based Health Effects Institute and Global Burden of Disease (GBD).

  • India was followed by Nepal, Niger, Qatar and Nigeria in high PM 2.5 exposures. This means people in India are exposed to the highest PM 2.5 concentrations globally.
  • Out of the 20 most populous countries, 14 have recorded a gradual improvement in air quality but India, Bangladesh, Niger, Pakistan and Japan are among those that have recorded a modest increase in air pollution levels
  • India is also among the top ten countries with highest ozone (O3) exposure in 2019. Qatar recorded the highest O3 exposure followed by Nepal and India. Among the 20 most populous countries, India recorded the highest increase (17%) in O3 concentrations in the past ten years.On average, global exposure to ozone increased from about 47.3 parts per billion (ppb) in 2010 to 49.5 ppb in 2019


OBITUARIES

Former Telangana Home Minister Narasimha Reddy passes away
Senior TRS leader and Former Telangana home minister Nayini Narsimha Reddy passed away at the age of 76, at a private hospital in Hyderabad.

  • Reddy has served as the first Home Minister of Telangana after its formation in 2014. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly in undivided Andhra Pradesh for three terms in 1978, 1985 and 2004.

Indian Air Force’s First Woman Commissioned Officer passes away 
Wing Commander (Retd) Dr Vijayalakshmi Ramanan, the first woman commissioned officer of the Indian Air Force, has died at the age of 96.

  • Ramanan, a recipient of Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM), was commissioned in the Army Medical Corps on August 22, 1955 and was seconded to the Air Force with effect from the same day.
  • She was promoted to the rank of Wing Commander in August 1972, and honoured with the Vishist Seva Medal five years later. She had retired in February,1979.


IMPORTANT DAYS

Police Commemoration Day 
Police Commemoration Day is observed on October 21 every year to remember and honour the brave policemen who have laid down their lives in the line of duty.

  • The  day traces its history back to 21 October 1959, when twenty Indian soldiers were attacked by Chinese troops in Ladakh.

International Stuttering Awareness Day
International Stuttering Awareness Day is observed annually on October 22 to raise public awareness of the millions of people who have a speech disorder of stuttering or stammering.

  • This year’s theme is “Journey of Words – Resilience and Bouncing Back”.

World Iodine Deficiency Day
World Iodine Deficiency Day, also known as Global Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) Prevention Day, is observed on 21 October every year

  • The main objective of World Iodine Deficiency Day is to spread awareness about that essential micronutrient everyone needs for proper thyroid function, brain development and overall growth – iodine.


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