Weekly CA Quiz: November 2021 4th week

Union Cabinet has approved the extension of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana for another four months.

The 1st International Conference on Hydrogen Energy – Policies, Infrastructure Development and Challenges is being organized by Central Board of Irrigation and Power in New Delhi.

With a newly formed defence alliance with Britain and the United States, Australia has formally embarked on a hotly contested programme to equip its naval forces with nuclear submarines.

Renewable wood-based products can help combat climate change and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, according to a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

India and the Asian Development Bank have signed 300 million dollar loan to strengthen and improve access to comprehensive primary health care in urban areas of 13 states.

ICICI Bank has announced the launch of its online platform, ‘Trade Emerge’, to offer comprehensive digital banking and value-added services to exporters and importers across India.

State Bank of India (Chennai circle) has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Puducherry Cooperative Milk Producers Union (PONLAIT) to provide loan to individual dairy farmers.

Inching closer to resolving the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank issue, the Reserve Bank came out with a draft scheme for takeover of the crisis-hit bank by the Delhi-based Unity Small Finance Bank (USFB).

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has nominated Defence Minister Nicolae Ciuca to form a new government as Prime Minister.

Sudan’s removed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was reinstated after he and Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, general commander of the Sudanese Armed Force, signed a political declaration to end the current political crisis.

The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2021 has been awarded to civil society organisation Pratham for its pioneering work in improving the quality of education for underprivileged children in India and across the world.

The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here has become the first airport in South Asia to commission a Rosenbauer Tactical Simulator which allows firefighters to train in a realistic environment and be battle-ready for extreme aircraft fire emergencies.

The book titled “Resolved: Uniting Nations in a Divided World” written by Former UN Secretary General – Ban Ki-moon has been released recently.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its approval for the continuation of the umbrella scheme, Ocean Services, Modelling, Application, Resources and Technology, O-SMART of Ministry of Earth Sciences for implementation during the period from 2021-26 at an overall cost of 2 thousand 177 crore rupees.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman handed over credit sanction letters of Rs 306 crore to beneficiaries in Jammu and Kashmir and announced a host of initiatives, including a Rs 200 crore cluster development fund for the Union territory.

NITI Aayog under the Indo-German Cooperation has released the inaugural Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Urban Index and Dashboard 2021-22. In its journey towards localizing the SDGs and instituting robust SDG progress monitoring systems at the national, State and UT and local levels, NITI Aayog has achieved yet another milestone with the launch of the inaugural SDG Urban Index and Dashboard (2021-22).

Government has approved the proposals for Construction of three lakh 61 thousand housesunder Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). These houses have been approved in the 56th meeting of Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Durga Shanker Mishra.

Indian Army’s Pune-based Southern Command concluded a four-day multi-agency exercise ‘Sagar Shakti’ involving army, navy, air force, coast guard, Border Security Force and Gujarat state security in Kutchs’s Creek sector.

The 15th edition of the Maldives, India, and Sri Lanka biennial Trilateral Exercise ‘Dosti’, held in the Maldives is set to concluded. This year marked 30 years since the initiation of the exercise.

India and United States have agreed on a transitional approach on Equalisation Levy 2020.India and United States have agreed that the same terms that apply under the October 21 Joint Statement shall apply between the two countries with respect to India’s charge of two per cent equalisation levy on e-commerce supply of services and the United States’ trade action regarding the Equalisation Levy.

World Bank will provide USD 250 million loan for a school education project in Andhra Pradesh, which will cover over 50 lakh students in the southern state.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) has once again been named the world’s most important bank to the health of the wider financial system, according to the latest annual ranking of top lenders by global regulators.

 Indian GDP will grow at 8.5 per cent in 2021-22, and the rate will accelerate further to 9.8 per cent in 2022-23, a foreign brokerage said.

Just hours after being installed as Sweden’s first ever female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson dramatically resigned after suffering a budget defeat in parliament and then losing her coalition partner in a two-party minority government.

Kuwait’s Emir has reappointed Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid as prime minister and tasked with forming a cabinet that would be the Gulf OPEC oil producer’s third this year in a domestic political standoff.

 Dr S K Sohan Roy from Kerala, CEO, and founder of Aries Group of Companies has become the first Indian to be honoured with the Knighthood of Parte Guelfa for his humanitarian and Environmental protection efforts in business and movies.

INS Vela, the fourth Scorpene-class submarine was commissioned into the Indian Navy, a short while ago, in the presence of Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh, at the naval dockyard in Mumbai.

Telangana was adjudged best performer in inland fisheries, while Andhra Pradesh was named the best marine state in the country by the Centre.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for adoption of future technologies for grass root policing requirements and development of inter-operable technologies which would benefit Police forces across the country.

Indicating a demographic shift, the number of women surpassed men for the first time in India with the sex ratio being 1,020: 1,000, according to findings of the National Family and Health Survey-5.

Union Cabinet has approved the Privatization of Electricity Distribution and Retail Supply Business in the Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.

The 13th edition of the ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) Summit held in a virtual platform, which was hosted by Cambodia as ASEM The Indian delegation is being led by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu through the virtual platform.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has announced that the country is planning to build the world’s first “Bitcoin City”.

NPCI Bharat BillPay – the wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced its integration with Tata Power, the country’s largest integrated power utility on ClickPay – making it the first power company to go live on the newly launched platform.

Minister of State for Fisheries and Information & Broadcasting Dr. L. Murugan said that the government has targetted to increase marine exports from the country to one lakh crore rupees by 2024-25 fiscal.

Garbine Muguruza made light work of Anett Kontaveit to register a 6-3, 7-5 victory over the Estonian star to win the WTA Finals title for the first time in her career and improve her record playing in Mexico at 14 wins and two losses.

Himachal Pradesh’s Kamdhenu Hitkari Manch, Namhol in district Bilaspur has been selected as ‘Best Milk Cooperative Society’ and is being awarded ‘Gopal Ratna’ Award by the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Government of India.

The Delhi airport will become a net zero carbon emission facility by 2030, said its operator DIAL.

The fifth World Congress on Disaster Management on the overarching theme of “Technology, Finance and Capacity for Building Resilience to Disasters in the Contexts of Covid-19” was organised the IIT Delhi campus.

As a 5T initiative, the Department of Water Resources and the UNICEF signed a Letter of Agreement (LoA) in a ceremony presided over by department Principal Secretary Anu Garg for collaboration on communication and policy initiatives of the department.

Ministry of labour released a new series of Wage Rate Index (WRI) with base year 2016, being compiled and maintained by the Labour Bureau, an attached office of the ministry. The new series of WRI with base 2016=100 will replace the old series with base 1963-65, a labour ministry statement said.

India is among the six countries countries in South and South-East Asia that attracts most investments in the domestic seed sector from the global seed industry.

 Collins Dictionary announced that its Word of the Year is “NFT” — digital assets that exploded in popularity this year along with the rise of cryptocurrencies.

External affairs minister (EAM) S Jaishankar attended the 20th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government (CHG).The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Kazakhstan. The meeting was held in Nur-Sultan in a virtual format.

Union Bank of India has entered into a co-lending partnership with Capri Global Capital, under which they will disburse loans to MSMEs.

BOB Financial Solutions Ltd (BFSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda (BoB), has partnered with OneCard, to launch a co-branded mobile-first credit card.

its latest note, Moody’s Investors Services said that India’s economic growth is seen to rebound strongly in the next fiscal year. Moody’s forecasts the country’s GDP at 9.3% in 2022.

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated Project SWADESH. The project SWADESH is a first of its kind large-scale multimodal neuroimaging database designed specifically for the Indian population.

The Shiyan-11 satellite was launched aboard a Kuaizhou-1A carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia.

India now ranks third in the world in organ donation and transplantation as the total number of organ transplants done per year in the country has increased to 12,746 in the year 2019, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) Mansukh Mandaviya said.

India’s candidate, Praveen Sinha, Special Director of Central Bureau of Investigation was elected as Delegate for Asia on the Executive Committee of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL).

Skyroot Aerospace, a Hyderabad-based space technology startup, has test fired India’s first privately developed fully cryogenic rocket engine, successfully demonstrating the technology that will power the upper stages of its upcoming Vikram-2 orbital launch vehicle.

A retired Indian Army officer, Mr Maroof Raza has released his new book titled “Contested Lands: India, China and the Boundary Dispute”.

Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said about Rs 64,000 crore will be invested by the Centre in creating health infrastructure in the country over the next five years.

The Finance Ministry has allocated additional funds of ₹10,000 crore as an interim measure for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme after it ran out of funds allocated in the budget, according to the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).

The Centre has constituted a Central Vista Oversight Committee to directly oversee the Rs 20,000 crore project for a period of two years, informed an official statement issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

quarter of India’s population is still poor, according to the first National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released by the NITI Aayog, but the situation has improved since then, officials said.

 Madhya Pradesh, the ‘Kranti Surya Gaurav Kalash Yatra’ is being launched from the birthplace of freedom fighter Jannayak Tantya Mama, Barod Ahir village of tahsil Pandhana in Khandwa district.

The 7th India International Science Festival (IISF) 2021 will be held in Panaji, Goa from 10th to 13th of December.

Indo-German Science and Technology Centre, IGSTC has launched a first-of-its-kind programme called Women’s Involvement in Science and Engineering Research, WISER.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on State Bank of lndia (SBI) for contravention of provision of sub section (2) of Section 19 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

An internal working group of the Reserve Bank on the ownership and corporate structure of private sector banks has favoured allowing promoters to maintain any percentage of holding in the first five years– more than the present minimum of 40 per cent now favoured — and then capping it at 26 per cent after 15 years of operations.

 Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited announced the launch of Model Retail Outlet Scheme and a Digital Customer Feedback Program called Darpan@petrolpump.

Parmjeet Kumar became the first Indian para-powerlifter to win a medal in World Championships as he claimed a bronze at the ongoing edition in Tbilisi, Georgia.

 Indian tennis player Ramkumar Ramanathan won his maiden Challenger level singles title, 12 years after turning a Pro, when he outplayed Evgeny Karlovskiy in the summit clash of the ATP80 Manama event.

Czech President Milos Zeman appointed the leader of a centre-right alliance Petr Fiala as prime minister in a ceremony he performed from a plexiglass cubicle after testing positive for COVID-19.

 The three-day Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival 2021 was inaugurated by Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Conrad K Sangma, and Ambassador of Japan to India, Satoshi Suzuki. It was celebrated from November 25 to 27.

The ships and aircraft of the Indian Navy participated in the first-ever Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) Focused Operation to enhance maritime security in the Indian Ocean region,along with Sri Lanka and the Maldives, a statement from the Indian Navy said.

Life Insurance Corporation of India has received approval from the RBI to raise its stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank to up to 9.99%, the bank informed the stock exchanges. LIC held 4.96% stake in the private lender as on 30 September 2021.

India’s forex exchange reserves increased by USD 289 million to USD 640.401 billion for the week ended November 19, the Reserve Bank said.

 Leading rating agency India Ratings expects the economy to grow 8.3 per cent in Q2 and close the year with 9.4 per cent in FY’22, which is 10 bps lower than the consensus forecast.

commerce giant Amazon, Asian Paints and Tata Tea have been named as the “most purposeful” brands in India 2021 in tech, non-FMCG and FMCG categories, the latest BrandZ India report by insights and consulting firm Kantar shows.

Squash star Saurav Ghosal made history as he became the first Indian to win the Malaysian Open Championships after beating Miguel Rodriguez in the men’s singles final.

 Social media platform Twitter went through a major organisational change as the company’s co-founder Jack Dorsey resigned as the chief executive officer (CEO), paving the way for Indian origin Parag Agrawal to the top post.

Admiral R. Hari Kumar assumed charge as the 25th Chief of the Naval Staff. He received Guard of Honour at the South Block lawns in New Delhi as the new Chief of Naval Staff.

Hero Motocorp said that Rajnish Kumar, former chairman of State Bank of India (SBI), has been appointed as an independent non-executive director on the board of the company.

1985-batch Indian Revenue Service officer Vivek Johri has been appointed as the chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs CBIC.

Kerala-based medical technology start-up has been adjudged the winner of Startup India Grand Challenge 2021 in the medical device category of the Government of India.