Weekly CA Quiz: August 2021 3rd week

At a time when drones emerge as a major security threat in the country, the Kerala police launched a first-of-its-kind Drone Forensic Lab and Research Centre with an aim to address the rising concerns in this regard.

The Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNP &TR) of Assam, globally feted for being a sanctuary to the one-horned rhino, has become the first national park in the country to equip its forest guards with satellite phones as an anti-poaching measure. BSNL will be the service provider and the park authorities will bear the monthly expenses.

Union Minister Dr.Jitendra Singh released “IndiGau’, India’s first Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) based chip for the conservation of pure varieties of indigenous cattle breeds like Gir, Kankrej, Sahiwal, Ongole etc.
This indigenous chip was developed by the concerted efforts of scientists of National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NAIB), Hyderabad.
IndiGau is purely indigenous and the largest cattle chip of the world. It has 11,496 markers (SNPs) more than that placed on 777K Illumina chip of US & UK breeds.

Mohammad Azam from Karimnagar district in Telangana has been awarded the National Youth Award recently by the Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur in Delhi for displaying exemplary leadership qualities.

Godrej Industries Limited (GIL) Chairman Adi Godrej will step down from the board of Godrej Consumer Products Limited, the company said in a regulatory filing. Nadir Godrej, who is currently the GIL MD, will replace Adi Godrej as the new chairman. The changes will come into effect from October 1, 2021.

RuPay has launched strategic campaign to promote contactless payments, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said. The campaign titled #FollowPaymentDistancing asks consumers to start ‘payment distancing’ and switch to contactless digital payments with RuPay Contactless Cards.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched ‘Son Chiriya’ – a brand and logo – for marketing the products of Urban Self Help Groups (SHGs).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the National Hydrogen Mission (NHM) on India’s 75th Independence Day, saying that the aim is to make the country a global hub for the production and export of green hydrogen.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi released capitalization support funds to the tune of Rs. 1625 Crore to over 4 lakh Self Help Groups (SHG). In addition, he released Rs. 25 crore as seed money for 7500 SHG members under the PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme of Ministry of Food Processing Industries and Rs. 4.13 crore as funds to 75 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) being promoted under the Mission.

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated the world’s second-largest refurbished state-of-the-art National Gene Bank at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa in New Delhi.

Taking the process of decentralisation further in Chhattisgarh, four new districts will be created – namely Mohla-Manpur, Sakti, Sarangarh-Bilaigarh and Manendragarh, while 18 new tehsils will also be formed.

Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has defeated incumbent Edgar Lungu in Zambia’s presidential election, the electoral commission said when releasing the final results from 156 constituencies, barring one.

India and Vietnam navies have carried out bilateral maritime exercise in the South China Sea, the Indian navy said. Accordingly, Indian Naval Ship (INS) Ranvijay and INS Kora undertook bilateral maritime exercise with the Vietnam People’s Navy frigate VPNS Ly Thai To (HQ-012).

As part of its Persian Gulf deployment, INS Kochi is at Manama in Bahrain. The ship will participate in the four-day Maritime Partnership Exercise.

The book titled “Operation Trojan Horse: A Novel Inspired by True Events” coauthored by Abhishek Sharan and D.P. Sinha has been released recently.

An influential US lawmaker from New York reintroduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives to posthumously award the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal to Mahatma Gandhi in recognition of his promotion of peace and nonviolence. Gandhi would be the first Indian to receive a Congressional Gold Medal, an honour bestowed upon such great figures as George Washington, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, and Rosa Parks.

Kotak Mahindra Bank has deployed a secure, Do It Yourself Digital Repayment Platform for missed loan repayments, in a tie-up with Creditas Solutions.

universal Service Obligation Fund USOF has signed an Agreement with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited BSNL for hiring of 10 Gbps International Bandwidth for Internet Connectivity to Agartala from Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited BSCCL Bangladesh through Cox Bazar and Kuakata.

Chhattisgarh government launched Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Bhumihin Krishi Majdur Nyay Yojana, under which financial assistance of ₹6,000 per year will be given to the landless families in the state.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a Rs 77.45 crore package for the revival of state-run North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC).

India ranks second in the global cryptocurrency adoption index behind Vietnam, but ahead of countries such as the US, UK, and China, revealed a Global Crypto Adoption Index by blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is putting in place a Platform for Regulated Entities for Integrated Supervision and Monitoring (PRISM), a web-based end-to-end workflow automation system, to strengthen compliance by supervised entities (SEs).
PRISM will have various functionalities (inspection; compliance; incident functionality for cyber security; complaints; and returns functionalities), with built-in remediation workflows, time tracking, notifications and alerts, management information system (MIS) reports and dashboards.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Has come up with a draft rule amending the existing regulation relating to foreign investment to discourage Round-tripping.
As per the draft rule, any investment made outside India is an entity, in turn, investment in India will be considered round-tripping if the objective is to avoid tax. This is the same definition and logic used by the tax department: General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR).

The World Bank launched a new Cybersecurity Multi-Donor Trust Fund under its broader Digital Development Partnership (DDP) umbrella programme. The fund aims to better define and systematically roll out the cybersecurity development agenda, helping to ensure a more substantial reflection of cybersecurity considerations across World Bank programmes and financing.

1988 batch Maharshtra Cadre IAS officer Apurva Chandra has been appointed as Secretary in Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directed banks to maintain a branch-wise list of vacant lockers as well as a wait-list for the purpose of allotment of lockers and ensure transparency in allotment of lockers. Revised instructions will come into effect from January 1, 2022, the RBI said.

Facebook India announced a new programme called the “Small Business Loans Initiative”, in partnership with online lending platform Indifi, to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) that advertise on Facebook to get quick access to credit through independent lending partners.

NTPC Limited has commissioned the largest floating solar PV project of 25 MegaWatt on the reservoir of its Simhadri thermal station in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched an ambitious ‘Ubharte Sitaare Fund’ -USF for export-oriented firms and startups in a program at Lucknow. The Fund aims at arranging funds for promotion of micro, small and medium companies. The fund has been set up by Exim Bank and SIDBI.

The book titled ‘Mission Domination: An Unfinished Quest‘ — is co-authored by Boria Majumdar and Kushan Sarkar.

Mr N K Singh has been elected as the President of the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) society.

Shanti Lal Jain has been appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Indian Bank for three years, a Personnel Ministry order issued said. Jain is currently Executive Director (ED), Bank of Baroda.

Nitin Chugh, the managing director and chief executive officer (MD&CEO) of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, has resigned from his position sighting personal reasons, effective September 30, 2021.

The Union Heavy Industries Minister Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey inaugurated the country’s very first Solar Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Station at the Karnal Lake Resort. With the inauguration of the first solar electric vehicle charging station at the Karnal lake resort, the Delhi-Chandigarh Highway has become the first e-vehicle friendly highway in India.

The Centre has notified Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products- RoDTEP Scheme Guidelines and Rates. Ministry of Commerce and Industry in a statement said that the scheme for zero rating of exports will boost the country’s exports and competitiveness in the global markets .The rates of RoDTEP will cover 8555 tariff lines.

The Asian Development Bank will provide USD 500 million loans to expand the metro rail network in Bengaluru with the construction of two new metro lines totaling 56 kilometers.An agreement in this regard was signed between the Government of India and the ADB.

The highest altitude herbal park of India, situated at a height of 11,000 feet, was inaugurated at Mana village close to the Indo-China border in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated the country’s first smog tower at Baba Kharak Singh Marg in the Connaught Place area in the national capital. The tower will purify 1,000 cubic metres of air per second within a radius of around 1 km.
The tower, built at a cost of Rs 20 crore, has been funded by the Delhi government.

Assam Electronics Development Corporation Limited (AMTRON) has signed a MoU with Corsight AI, an Israel-based company to set up an Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence at a Tech City situated near Guwahati.

Malayalam actor Chithra, who has also acted in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi films, passed away. She suffered a cardiac arrest at her home in Chennai. She was 56.

Senior BJP leader from Tamil Nadu La Ganesan was appointed the new governor of Manipur. The post of the governor had fallen vacant after the retirement of Najma Heptulla earlier this month.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was appointed as the new Prime Minister of Malaysia. He will succeed Muhyiddin Yassin

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) re-appointed T M Bhasin as chairman of the Advisory Board for Banking and Financial Frauds (ABBFF), a panel constituted to examine bank frauds of over Rs 50 crore and recommend action.

Privatisation-bound Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), has launched Urja, a virtual assistant with AI/NLP (Artificial Intelligence/Natural Language Processing) capabilities and trained on more than 600 use cases.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) said they would jointly sponsor a $50 million loan portfolio guarantee to Kotak Mahindra Bank to support increased financial access to women borrowers, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India.

Union government has constituted a committee for doubling the production and quadrupling the exports of handlooms in a span of three years. It will be headed by Chairman of Fashion Design Council of India Sunil Sethi. The committee will submit the final report within 45 days from the day of constitution.

The second edition of the joint naval exercise, Zair-Al-Bahr, between the Indian Navy and Qatar Emiri Naval Force (QENF) was conducted in the Persian Gulf.

None of the Indian universities could make it to the top 100 spots in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) released by Shanghai Ranking recently. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore is the only Indian institute to have scored a rank in the top 500.
Harvard University tops the ranking list for the 19th year this time. Stanford University secured second place followed by University of Cambridge and MIT.