Weekly CA Quiz: September 2020 4th week

Union Minister for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan has said that the Centre has sanctioned 8.2 crore rupees as collateral-free loans for the street vendors in Odisha under the PM SVANidhi Yojana.

Tamil Nadu became first state in the country to come out with policies on Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Cybersecurity policies.

Sebi set up a technical group on social stock exchange to develop a framework for onboarding non-profit organisations and for-profit enterprises as well as prescribe disclosure requirements on financials and governance.
The regulator has constituted the technical group under the chairmanship of Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, former chairman of Nabard.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country will aim to stop pumping additional carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, into the atmosphere by 2060.

The global economy is expected to contract by 4.3 per cent this year, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, which will wipe out global output worth over USD 6 trillion, a UN report said.
The UNCTAD ‘Trade and Development Report 2020 – From global pandemic to prosperity for all: Avoiding another lost decade’ report says, Output in India is expected to shrink by 5.9 per cent in 2020, before rebounding to 3.9 per cent the next year.

Historian Romila Thapar will come out with a historical essay next month, exploring dissent, including its articulation and public response to its particular forms, with a special focus on recent protests in the country.
The book titled “Voices of Dissent” to be published by Penguin Random House India and Seagull Books.

Every year on September 22, the world celebrates World Rhinoceros Day. The day intends to celebrate rhinos across the world in unique ways.
Theme for World Rhino Day 2020 is “Five Rhino Species Forever”.

International Day of Sign Languages is observed annually on September 23, along with the celebrations of International Week of the Deaf.
The theme for International Day of Sign languages 2020 is “Sign Languages Are for Everyone!”

Minister of State for Railways and Karnataka BJP MP Suresh Angadi passed away. He was 65.

Railways has planned for 100 per cent electrification of its broad gauge routes by 2023 said by the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.

Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima, who was abducted, tortured and sexually assaulted on her way to interview an infamous paramilitary warlord in Bogota in 2000 was awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom award by the World Association of News Publishers (Wan-Ifra).

Aleksandr G. Lukashenko was sworn in for a sixth term as president of Belarus after officially claiming 80 per cent of the vote in a secret ceremony.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed AK Dixit, former general manager at Union Bank of India, as the new administrator of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank.

India’s first Coast Guard academy will be established at Mangaluru, Defence Spokesperson (PRO) Bengaluru said.

Veteran Rabindra Sangeet exponent Purba Dam died of cardiac arrest at her Dhakuria residence in south Kolkata. She was conferred Sangeet Samman by West Bengal in 2013.

The Uttar Pradesh government has launched a unified portal called ‘U-Rise’ to guide students in learning, career counselling, and getting employment in the state.Uttar Pradesh was the first state to launch a unified portal along with the implementation of NEP.

The Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal launched the Mukhyamantrir Grammya Paribahan Achoni of the state transport department.
In the first phase of the scheme, 10,000 villages would be covered with financial outlay of Rs 100 crore.One vehicle would be provided to one beneficiary per village.

The Government of India has approved a total outlay of Rs.600.00 crores for the PM SVANidhi scheme.
The Prime Minister Street Vendor’s Amta Nirbhar Nidhi Scheme (PM SVANidhi) was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has on 01 June 2020 to facilitate collateral free working capital loans upto Rs 10,000 of 1 year tenure, to about 50 lakh street vendors across the country.

Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has appointed political newcomer Mohamed Hussein Roble as the country’s prime minister, hours after brokering an agreement with regional leaders for elections next year that abandons a promised one-person, one-vote model.

Shashank Nimkar from the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad) has won the James Dyson India Award 2020 for his invention- ‘Earth Tatva’.
Nimkar used ceramic rejects called ‘grog’ from the surrounding production cluster and clay to make new products.These products are also made under a zero-waste manufacturing process.

Kerala bagged a United Nations award for its “outstanding contribution” towards the non-communicable diseases-related sustainable development goals.

Kerala Tourism’s internationally-acclaimed ‘Human by Nature’ campaign bagged the prestigious PATA Grand Award 2020 for Marketing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been featured in TIME Magazine’s annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people for the fourth time since he took office in 2014.
PM Modi has been kept under the ‘Leaders’ along with US President Donald Trump, US attorney general William Barr, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, US NIAID chief Anthony Fauci and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Modi is the only politician from India who has made it to the coveted list. Other Indians on the list include Google CEO Sundar Pichai, actor Ayushmann Khurrana, HIV research researcher Ravinder Gupta and Bilkis, who emerged as the face of the Shaheen Bagh protests.

Award-winning actor Neena Gupta come out with her memoir titled ‘Sach Kahun Toh’,and it will be released in 2021.

Fauja Singh (109), the world’s oldest marathon runner, has created history as this ‘young athlete’ has been featured as a superhero in a children’s book titled ‘Fauja Singh Keeps Going’.
The book was written by New York-based professor Simran Jeet Singh, was released recently.

World Maritime Day is observed on the last week of September on Thursday annually. The event’s date varies by year and country, this year World Maritime Day was celebrated on September 24, 2020 to spread awareness about the importance of shipping safety, maritime security, and the marine environment.
“Sustainable shipping for a sustainable planet” has been selected as the World Maritime theme for 2020.

World Pharmacist Day is celebrated on 25 September every year to promote awareness about the importance and role of a pharmacist
The theme of World Pharmacist Day 2020 is “Transforming global health”.

Veteran playback singer SP Balasubramaniam passed away in Chennai hospital.He was 74.
Balasubramaniam won numerous awards over the span of his 50-year career. He sang more than 40,000 songs, a Guinness World Record, in 16 languages, including Tamil, Telegu and Hindi.

World Environmental Health day is celebrated on 26th September every year to shed the light on important work of environmental health around the world.
The Theme for the 2020 World Environmental Health Day is “Environmental health, a key public health intervention in disease pandemic prevention”.

The National Medical Commission (NMC), in place of the Medical Council of India (MCI), as the country’s apex regulator of medical education and profession has come into existence.
With the NMC coming into being, the Board of Governors (BoG) which superseded the MCI on September 26th, 2018, to perform its functions, has been dissolved and the nearly 64-year-old Indian Medical Council Act abolished.

Indian Institute of Technology Madras Researchers have successfully booted up MOUSHIK, an indigenously-made Microprocessor.
MOUSHIK is a processor cum system on chip that can cater to the rapidly-growing IoT devices, an integral part of Smart Cities of a Digital India.

Indian and Japanese navies began their three-day-long maritime military exercise in the North Arabian Sea. This is the fourth edition of Japan Maritime bilateral exercise (JIMEX).

Filmmaker Sreehari Dharman’s “Aavruthi” (Fence) won the best film trophy at the closing ceremony of IFFT-Orange Short and Documentary Film Festival which is jointly organised by the Orange Academy and the IFFT from Thrissur, Kerala.

Regulator IRDAI has identified LIC, GIC and New India Assurance as domestic systemically important insurers (D-SIIs) and subsequently decided to subject them to enhanced regulatory supervision.

The Manila-headquartered Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it has approved two loans totalling $570 million (about Rs 4,200 crore) for urban sector projects in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
The $300 million loan has been approved to finance inclusive water supply and sanitation infrastructure and services in secondary towns of Rajasthan.
It has approved a $270 million loan for construction of water supply and integrated storm water and sewage management infrastructure in Madhya Pradesh.

In order to check banking fraud, the Reserve Bank of India has decided to introduce from January 1, 2021, the ‘positive pay system’ for cheque, under which re-confirmation of key details may be needed for payments beyond Rs 50,000.
Availing of this facility would be at the discretion of the account holder. However, banks may consider making it mandatory in case of cheques for amounts of Rs 5 lakh and above.

World Rabies Day is observed every year on September 28 to raise awareness about rabies prevention and to highlight progress in defeating this horrifying disease.
14th World Rabies Day theme is ‘End Rabies: Collaborate, Vaccinate’.

The International Day for the Universal Access to Information (commonly known as Access to Information Day) is celebrated on 28th September every year.
The theme for International Day for the Universal Access to Information 2020 is “Access to Information – Saving lives, Building Trust, Bringing Hope!”

World Tourism Day (WTD) is commemorated each year on 27 September since 1980. The date marks the anniversary of the adoption of the UNWTO Statutes in 1970.
The theme of World Tourism Day this year is “Tourism and Rural Development”.

Jaswant Singh, former Union minister and one of the founding members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) passed away after a prolonged illness. He was 82.
He held multiple cabinet portfolios including Finance, External Affairs and Defence.

Eminent economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia, a recipient of India’s third-highest civilian award Padma Bhushan, passed away. She was 74.

L Adimoolam has been elected president of the Indian Newspaper Society, an apex body of the publishers of newspapers, magazines and periodicals in the country.

The Trade and Development Report 2020 by UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says, India’s economy is forecast to contract by 5.9% in 2020 and recover to 3.9% next year. The report warning that while growth will rebound next year, the contraction is likely to translate into a permanent income loss.

According to the World Risk Index (WRI) 2020, India ranked 89th among 181 countries and it was fourth-most-at- risk in south Asia on the index, after Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan.WRI has been developed in cooperation with the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNUEHS) and calculated by the International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV).
Vanuatu was the country with the highest disaster risk worldwide. It was followed by Tonga and Dominica.

Vakrangee Ltd said the Reserve Bank has granted in-principle approval to set up Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU) under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 to handle payment services related to bills.

The government unveiled the first look of India’s first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) train which can attain a top speed of 180 kilometres per hour and whose design is inspired by Delhi’s iconic Lotus Temple.
It will run on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor and reduce travel time between the two cities to about an hour.

Indian men’s team goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and women’s squad’s mid-fielder Sanju were declared the winners of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Footballer of the Year awards for the 2019-20 season.
Ratanbala Devi won the 2019-20 Emerging Women’s Footballer of the Year Award.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved a three-member committee of directors to run the day-to-day functioning of cash-strapped Lakshmi Vilas Bank.
The committee chairperson is Meeta Makhan with Shakti Sinha and Satish Kumar Kalra as members.

Union MoS for Home G Kishan Reddy and Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao inaugurated the World’s longest span concrete deck extra-dosed cable-stayed bridge at Durgam Cheruvu of Hyderabad.
The bridge was constructed at the cost of Rs 184 crore and it was built by Larsen & Toubro.
The cable-stayed bridge portion is 435 m long, including the approaches at both ends, 25.8 m wide with a total of 52 stay cables.

World deaf day or the international day of sign languages is celebrated every year on the last Sunday of September as a part of International Week of the Deaf. This year World deaf day is observed on 27th September.
The theme of the 2020 International Week of the Deaf is “Reaffirming Deaf People’s Human Rights”.

World Heart Day is annually observed on September 29 around the globe in an effort to raise public awareness about cardiovascular diseases, their prevention and global impact.
The theme for this year’s World Heart Day is “Use Heart To Beat Cardiovascular Disease”.

Lebanon’s prime minister-designate Mustapha Adib has announced his resignation after his efforts to line up a non-partisan cabinet ran into trouble, particularly over who would run the finance ministry.

Ratings agency ICRA revised downwards its forecast for the contraction in the gross domestic product (GDP) for 2020-21 to 11% from 9.5% earlier with fresh Covid-19 infections remaining elevated at the end of the second quarter of the year.

The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has projected the GDP growth for the Indian economy at -12.6% for 2020-21 (FY21).

Maharashtra government announced the Lata Mangeshkar Award for 2020-21 to veteran singer Usha Mangeshkar.

Amid the ongoing economic woes created by the coronavirus pandemic, the Reserve Bank has decided to extend by six months the enhanced borrowing facility provided to banks to meet liquidity shortage till March 31, 2021.

Syeda Anwara Taimur, the first and only woman Chief Minister of Assam, passed away in Australia because of cardiac arrest. She was 84-year-old.

IDBI Bank has become the first bank in India to have implemented the new feature of document embedding facility with ‘Letter of Credit’ (LC) or ‘Bank Guarantee’ (BG) messages over the SFMS platform of IFTAS which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India.
The process would be conducted via a middleware application “i@Connect-SFMS (CSFMS) developed by IDBI Intech.
Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS)
Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS).

Noted Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur has been named as the President of Film and Television Institute of India, FTII Society and Chairman of Governing Council of FTII.

World Rivers Day is a global celebration of rivers that occurs annually on the fourth Sunday of September. This year the day falls on 27th September 2020.
The theme for this year was “Day of action for rivers”.

International Translation Day is celebrated on 30th of September every year on the feast of St. Jerome, the Bible translator who is known as the patron saint of the translators.
The theme of International Translation Day, 2020 is “Finding the words for a world in crisis”.

Keeping the upcoming festive season and growing online frauds in mind, Flipkart announced a partnership with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company to offer ‘Digital Suraksha Group Insurance for customers in the country.