Weekly CA Quiz: December 2020 4th week

Former Union minister Jairam Ramesh’s new book will uncover and narrate the story of phenomenal poem The Light of Asia that has shaped people’s thinking of the Buddha and his teachings, announced publishing house Penguin.

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis released the book ‘Ayodhya’ written by BJP’s State Vice President Madhav Bhandari in Mumbai.

The Karnataka government has unveiled the Farmer Registration and Unified beneficiary Information System (FRUITS), an e-governance portal, to create a repository of farmland information and farm loan details on a single platform.

Managing Director of logistics major Transport Corporation of India Limited Vineet Agarwal has taken over as the new President of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), the industry body said.

A mega leather park will come up in Ramaipur village of Kanpur with an investment of Rs 5,850 crores. With the mega leather cluster at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh will become the first state in the country to establish a leather park.

Uttar Pradesh has become the first state to launch blockchain-enabled solar power trading in India and South Asia in a project led by India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) with Australian technology company Power Ledger.

State Bank of India (SBI), Axis Bank Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd. and Paytm Payments Bank Ltd. (PPBL) have led the pack in November among the top remitter banks, initiating close to half or 1.1 billion of the total Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions processed in November, according to latest data released by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

The Union Cabinet approved revision in guidelines for providing direct to home (DTH) services in the country under which licenses would be issued for 20 years. The change in guidelines would also allow 100 per cent FDI in the DTH sector.

The government has decided to constitute a high-level committee, headed by Home Minister Amit Shah, to decide on activities for a year-long commemoration of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary starting next year.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will establish a Regional Academic Centre for Space at IIT (BHU) to facilitate short and long term projects at the institute.
ISRO and the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) and the move can help propel the culture of research and development among students.

The Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Prakash Javadekar announced that India will hold a Global Media and Film Summit in 2021. Javadekar said that the year 2022 will mark 75 years of independence and 75 years of Cannes Film Festival, and the occasion will be celebrated in a different scale with a special pavilion at the International Film Festival.

Niti Ayog has launched a cloud storage service called DiggiBoxx as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. Like Google Drive and Apple’s iCloud service, DiggiBoxx will enable both individuals and enterprises to store, manage, collaborate, organise and share all their data online. You can use a free account or subscribe to its monthly or yearly plans starting at Rs. 30 per month.

Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s new book titled ‘Covid-19: Sabhyata ka Sankat aur Samadhan’ has been launched by former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and Rajasthan government have signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a data-driven system approach to road safety.

A 12-year-old Indian boy in the UAE has entered into the Guinness Book of World Records by identifying the most aeroplane tails in a minute.
Siddhant Gumber, an Abu Dhabi-based homeschooled boy who identified 39 aeroplane tails in 60 seconds, is also the youngest Indian to identify top 100 tallest buildings.

The prestigious Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize is jointly awarded to Mobilizing the Marginalised: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements by Amit Ahuja, and A Chequered Brilliance: The Many Lives of VK Krishna Menon by Jairam Ramesh

India has added Tso Kar Wetland Complex in Ladakh as its 42nd Ramsar site, which is a second one in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launched E-Sampada, a new web portal and mobile app on Good Governance Day.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced the construction of a new world class hockey stadium in Rourkela.
The proposed stadium, being built as the largest one in the country, will host the Men’s World Cup Hockey World Cup in 2023 with a seating capacity of 20,000 spectators.

The Odisha government in collaboration with UNICEF has launched a ‘Career Portal’ for secondary and higher secondary students.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh launched Mobile Application and web portal called ‘PR Insight’ to improve the delivery of citizen centric services, based upon the feedback of its citizens on government policies.

Romanian lawmakers have approved a new center-right pro-Western coalition government headed by U.S.-educated banker Florin Citu, a former finance minister who has pledged to overcome the coronavirus crisis and the economic woes it has caus. ed

HDFC Bank has emerged as the top player among the 100 Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) companies in the country. The country’s largest private lender topped because of its customer service, monetary management, and innovative offerings amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The ICICI Bank became the most preferred bank in terms of moratorium rules, new loan policy, as well as discounts, offers on credit cards. It became the first in India to use satellite data to assess farmer loans.
In the wallet and UPI segment, Google Pay emerged as the number one mover and shaker, followed by Phone Pe. While Whatsapp stayed behind all other players like Paytm (3) and Amazon Pay (4).
In the payments bank category, the Airtel Payments Bank emerged as the leader, followed by Paytm Payments Bank and Jio Payments Bank.

SBI Life Insurance said it had acquired 8.99 per cent stake in Paisalo Digital.

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) revised its expectation for India’s FY21 gross domestic product (GDP) growth to negative 7.8 per cent from negative 11.8 per cent due to easing of Covid-19 headwinds and better-than-expected 2Q FY21 GDP numbers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) SEHAT scheme via video-conferencing to extend health insurance coverage to all residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

India’s first Lithium refinery is soon going to be set up in Gujarat.The company will import Lithium ore from Australia and will be processing in Gujarat. Manikaran Power Limited, one of the country’s largest power trading and renewable energy company will incest around Rs 1,000 crore to set up this refinery.

India, which appears to have been pushed back to being the world’s sixth biggest economy in 2020, will again overtake the UK to become the fifth largest in 2025 and race to the third spot by 2030, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said in an annual report.
India had overtaken the UK in 2019 to become the fifth largest economy in the world but has been relegated to 6th spot in 2020.
The CEBR forecasts that the Indian economy will expand by 9 per cent in 2021 and by 7 per cent in 2022.

The Assam cabinet approved the Assam Official Language Amendment Bill for making Bodo (in Devanagari script) an associate official language of the state.

Autobiography ‘In Pursuit Of Justice’ By Justice Rajindar Sachar

The Bihar government’s initiative to transfer financial assistance directly to the accounts of beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic has made its departments winners of the Digital India Awards, instituted by the central government, this year for innovative steps in e- governance.
More than 21 lakh stranded workers outside Bihar were provided financial assistance through the “Bihar Sahayata Mobile App”.

The Bureau of the FIFA Council canceled the 2021 editions of men’s U-20 and U-17 World Cup due to the ongoing pandemic and decided to give the hosting rights to Indonesia and Peru for the 2023 editions.
The two host countries, Australia and New Zealand will automatically qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

An Indian Navy warship undertook a “passage exercise” with the Vietnamese Navy in the South China Sea as part of efforts to boost maritime cooperation between the two countries.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the flagship programme of Navaratnalu ‘Pedalandariki Illu,’ (housing for poor) at Komaragiri layout of Pithapuram Assembly constituency in East Godavari district.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 100th “Kisan Rail” from Sangola in Maharashtra to Shalimar in West Bengal via video-conferencing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the country’s first ever driverless train on the Magenta Line of Delhi Metro along with the fully operational National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) service on Airport Express Line virtually.
PM Modi also launched the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) services on the Airport Express Line. Named ‘One Nation One Card’, the inter-operable transport card will allow users to pay for bus travels, toll taxes, parking charges, retail shopping and even withdraw money besides utilizing metro services across India.

In a major fillip to the call for greater ease of doing business in the nation, the government is set to launch the proposed Centralised “Investment Clearance Cell” by 15 April next year.
This facility would serve as a a single window system which would aim to facilitate the businesses through a one-stop digital platform.

The country’s first hot air balloon wildlife safari in a tiger reserve was launched in the world famous Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve by Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Vijay Shah. It is the first in any tiger reserve in the country.

Union Minister of state (I/C) for AYUSH and Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik released a Konkani book “Sutranivednachi sutra- ek anbav”, by Dr Roopa Chari, which is published by Sanjana Publications.

Russian doubles badminton player Nikita Khakimov has received a five-year ban after being found guilty of offences relating to “betting, wagering and irregular match results.

Manav Kaul presented his first novel Antima to Ruskin Bond and the iconic author said he hopes the book earns the actor “lots of royalties and readers”.

Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurated India’s first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, PCV.
The vaccine named Pneumosil has been developed by the Serum Institute of India Private Limited, SIIPL in collaboration with partners like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Kerala government said the Gender Park in partnership with UN Women will organise the second edition of the International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE-II) at Kozhikode in February 2021.
The focal theme is ‘Gender in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Business: The Mediating Role of Empowerment’.

INCOIS, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), has launched a web based application Digital Ocean to share information on marine data and forecast services. Harsh Vardhan, Union Health, Science & Technology, Earth Sciences Minister, inaugurated Digital Ocean, during a Virtual Meeting.

ICICI Bank has announced a partnership with Google which will allow users to issue FASTag using Google Pay. The announcement makes ICICI Bank the first bank to join hands with Google Pay for the issuance of FASTag.

Fintech firm Cashaa and United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society launched a crypto bank that allows users to transact in cryptocurrency and fiat from one account.
The bank named as Unicas is initially opening its services online and through 14 branches across NCR, Rajasthan, and Gujarat by January 2021, and plans to expand to 100 branches by the end of 2022.

Markets regulator Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) has granted the go-ahead to small lender Suryoday Small Finance Bank to float its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan released a book titled “Element of Quantitative Genetics” by Prof. Dr. Stuti Sharma of Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur at his official residence.

Businesses with monthly turnover of over Rs 50 lakh will have to mandatorily pay at least 1% of their Goods and Services Tax liability in cash, the Finance Ministry said as it moved to curb evasion by fake invoicing.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has been nominated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) as a member on the GAVI Board, said a release by the Ministry.

Union Minister of Earth Sciences, Dr Harsh Vardhan, virtually inaugurated India’s highest Meteorological Centre in Leh.
After Itanagar Centre in Arunachal Pradesh, Leh Met centre at 3500 meters highest from mean sea level is the highest in the Himalayan region.

The Dr. Narendra Dabholkar Memorial Award for this year has been conferred upon Dravidar Kazhagam president K. Veeramani.

Shri V.K. Yadav, Chairman & CEO, Railway Board, Ministry of Railways has been conferred with the prestigious “Eminent Engineer Award for the Year 2020’ by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for his outstanding contribution towards modernization and reforms over Indian Railways.

The Uttarakhand forest department dedicated the newly built Pollinator Park to the public, claiming it to be the country’s first such park, spread over 4 acres in Haldwani in Nainital district.