Current Affairs Notes Daily

 1. The Foreign Ministers of Nepal and China jointly certified the elevation of Mount Everest at 8,848.86 metres above sea level 86 cm higher than what was recognised since 1954.  Everest is also known as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Mount Qomolangma in China. 2.National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT):Constituted under Companies Act, 2013. It hears appeals against the orders of: NCLT under Section 61 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC).Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India under Section 202 and Section 211 of IBC. The Competition Commission of India (CCI). The President of the Tribunal and the chairperson and Judicial Members of the Appellate Tribunal shall be appointed after consultation with the Chief Justice of India. 3. The cyber wing of the Maharashtra Police recently acquired software from Interpol that would help them track down child pornography uploaded online. ‘Operation Blackface’ is part of the larger actio...

 1.The Hampi chariot is one among the three famous stone chariots in India, the other two being in Konark, Odisha, and Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu. It was the last capital of the last great Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar.It was a part of the Mauryan Empire back in the third century BC. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. 2. NGT seeks action plan on elephant corridors: Necessary legal action against encroachers and those violating the Provisions of the Forest Conservation Act 1980 and the Indian Forest Act 1927 in the proposed corridors. ‘Gaj Yatra’, a nationwide campaign to protect elephants, was launched on the occasion of World Elephant Day in 2017. Project elephant was launched on 1992. Elephant is included in Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I,IUCN Red List: Endangered category. Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) Programme in 2003. 3. Himachal Pradesh wants GI status for five products: These include- Karsog Kulth, T...

 1.FATF recently held its annual joint experts’ meet. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7.It is a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in various areas. The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris. 2.A ‘Monthly Progress Report’ was recently submitted by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti on cleaning Yamuna. The river Yamuna is a major tributary of river Ganges. Originates from the Yamunotri glacier near Bandarpoonch peaks in the Mussoorie range of the lower Himalayas in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. It meets the Ganges at the Sangam in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh after flowing through Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi. Tributaries: Chambal, Sindh, Betwa and Ken. 3.Pres...

 1.NITI Aayog has released a review report on Poshan Abhiyaan. The programme seeks to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Launched in 2018 with specific targets to be achieved by 2022. The target of the mission is to bring down stunting among children in the age group 0-6 years from 38.4% to 25% by 2022. 2. China sold negative-yield debt for the first time. These are debt instruments that offer to pay the investor a maturity amount lower than the purchase price of the bond. Can be issued by central banks or governments.Here, investors pay interest to the borrower to keep their money with them. 3. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an order under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act blocking access to 43 mobile apps.Section 69A of the IT Act, empowers the Central Government to order that access to certain websites and computer resources be blocked in t...

 1. Hurricane Iota has made landfall in Nicaragua in Central America and has developed into a category five storm. Tropical cyclones or hurricanes use warm, moist air as fuel, and therefore form over warm ocean waters near the equator. Storms that form towards the north of the equator rotate counterclockwise, while those that form to the south spin clockwise because of the rotation of the Earth. 2.A Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde has observed that it is “trying to discourage” individuals from filing petitions under Article 32 of the Constitution. Article 32 deals with the ‘Right to Constitutional Remedies’, or affirms the right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the rights conferred in Part III of the Constitution. 3.Article 363-A was inserted in the Constitution (Twenty-sixth Amendment) Act, 1971. This amendment is best known for a...

1.National Education Day on November 11, the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to honor his contributions to education in India. He served as the first Minister of Education of independent India. Azad was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1992 for his contributions towards the field of education. 2. India is likely to press Biden Administration for early restoration of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade privilege for India. It is a U.S. trade program designed to promote economic growth in the developing world by providing preferential duty-free entry for up to 4,800 products from 129 designated beneficiary countries and territories. The objective of GSP was to give development support to poor countries by promoting exports from them into the developed countries. 3. Jharkhand government has passed a resolution to send the Centre a letter to recognise Sarna religion and include it as a separate code in the Cen...

 1.The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has allowed Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp to start its payments service in the country in a ‘graded’ manner. Unified Payments Interface or UPI is an immediate real-time payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI). It was introduced in April 2016 as a pilot project and is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). 2.National Monsoon mission Launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) in 2012. Aim to develop a state-of-the-art, dynamic monsoon prediction system for short, medium, and long-range forecasts. 3. Government weeds out 4.39 crore bogus ration cards under NFSA since 2013. National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013: The objective is to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity...

1.Rashtriya Ekta Diwas was Observed on 31st October across the nation. It marks the occasion of the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. 2. Typhoon Rolly or Goni has hit Philippines. In the North Atlantic Ocean and Northeast Pacific, they are called hurricanes. But if the same type of disturbance takes place in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, it is known as a typhoon. And in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, cyclone is the correct term. 3.Army Aviation Corps (AAC) celebrated its 35th Corps Day on November 1. It is the youngest Corps of the Indian Army. The AAC currently operates Chetak, Cheetah, Lancer, Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv, and ALH Weapon System Integrated (WSI), also known as Rudra.   4. Writer Paul Zacharia has been selected for the 28th Ezhuthachan Puraskaram. Instituted in 1993, it is the highest literary honour of the Kerala government. Given by the Kerala Sahitya Akadem...

 1.October 24 is observed as World Polio Day. World Polio Day was established by Rotary International on 24th October to celebrate the birth of Jonas Salk, who developed a vaccine against poliomyelitis. 2.India and the U.S. will sign the last foundational agreement, Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial cooperation (BECA) during the upcoming 2+2 ministerial dialogue. This agreement would facilitate exchange of geospatial information between India and United States for both military and civilian use. 3. IndiGen Program: Genomics for Public Health in India (IndiGen) , It aims to undertake whole genome sequencing of thousands of individuals representing diverse ethnic groups from India. The objective is to enable genetic epidemiology and develop public health technologies applications using population genome data. 4. The United Kingdom has entered into a strategic partnership to develop Indi...

 1.77th anniversary of the formation of Azad Hind Government on 21st October, 2020. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had announced the establishment of the provisional government of Azad Hind in occupied Singapore in 1943. Captain Lakshmi headed the women’s organization 2.The Centre on October 17 amended the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989, to facilitate the setting up of District Development Councils (DDC). A legislation to this effect was brought in by the Ministry of Home Affairs. This system effectively replaces the District Planning and Development Boards in all districts. 3. India’s first seaplane service in Gujarat is set to begin from 31 October, the anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The service will be operated by Spicejet Airlines. 4. National Supercomputing Mission (NSM): It is being implemented and steered jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of E...

 1. Saral Jeevan Bima: It is a standard individual term life insurance product unveiled recently by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI). It will be a non-linked, non-participating individual pure risk premium life insurance plan providing for payment of the sum assured in lump sum to the nominee in case of the insured’s death during the policy term. 2.India joins UK-led fight against encrypted online messages. The UK and India are joined by the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. It marks an expansion of the so-called “Five Eyes” group of nations, a global alliance on intelligence issues, to include India and Japan. The campaign is against end-to-end encryption of messages by social media giants such as Facebook, which they say hinder law enforcement by blocking all access to them. 3. Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP), The zoo has revived its innovative ‘Adopt-An-Animal’ programme to mobilise resources fo...

1.October 12 marks 15 years since the implementation of the Right to Information Act. This act was enacted in order to consolidate the fundamental right in the Indian constitution ‘freedom of speech’.  It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. 2.‘Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas’ (SVAMITVA) scheme: Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched the physical distribution of property cards under the scheme. This launch will enable nearly one lakh property holders to download their property cards through SMS on their mobile phones and pave the way for villagers to use property as a financial asset for taking loans and other financial benefits. 3. Feluda is the acronym for FNCAS9 Editor Linked Uniform Detection Assay. It is an accurate and low-cost paper-based test strip to detect Covid-19 and can deliver a result in 45 minutes. It has been approved for commercial launch by the Dru...

1.The initiative under PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi or PM SVANidhi Scheme will help these vendors grow their business which was severely hit and are still struggling due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a special micro-credit facility plan to provide affordable loan of up to ₹10,000 to more than 50 lakh street vendors, who had their businesses operational on or before 24 March 2020.Small Industries Development Bank of India is the technical partner for implementation of this scheme. 2. The Supreme Court recently asked the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India about the steps taken to implement the K.V. Kamath Committee report on recommendations to bail out sectors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In August this year, RBI set up a committee headed by K.V. Kamath on restructuring ofcorporate   loans impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. 3. Americans Harvey J Alter and Charles M Rice, and British scientist Michael Houghton have been awarded the Nobel Prize...

 1.Ambedkar Social Innovation & Incubation Mission (ASIIM) launched: launched by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Objective is to promote entrepreneurship among the SC Youth with special preference to Divyangs. 2.The Finance Ministry has said that the government will borrow Rs 4.34 lakh crore in the second half of the current fiscal to meet its expenditure requirement amid COVID-19 crisis afflicting the country”s economy. Govt Borrowing is a loan taken by the government and falls under capital receipts in the Budget document. Usually, Government borrows through issue of government securities called G-secs and Treasury Bills. 3. The new BrahMos missile Successfully flight tested. It is a surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile featuring indigenous Booster and Airframe Section. The missile was jointly developed by India and Russia and was first tested in 2001. 4. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has released the annual...

 1.State Bank of India has raised ₹7,000 crore by issuing Basel III compliant bonds. Basel guidelines refer to broad supervisory standards formulated by group of central banks- called the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS). The set of agreement by the BCBS, which mainly focuses on risks to banks and the financial system are called Basel accord. The purpose of the accords is to ensure that financial institutions have enough capital on account to meet obligations and absorb unexpected losses. 2.The Customs (Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements) Rules, 2020 (CAROTAR, 2020) came into force on September 21. They set guidelines for enforcement of the ‘rules of origin’ for allowing preferential rate on imports under free trade agreements. Under these rules, a country that has inked an FTA with India cannot dump goods from some third country in the Indian market by just putting a label on it. 3. The National Stock Exchan...

 1.Cabinet approves establishment of new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Darbhanga, Bihar under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). PMSSY was announced in 2003 with objectives of correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable/ reliable tertiary healthcare services and also to augment facilities for quality medical education in the country. The PMSSY is implemented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 2.RBI has released the draft version of Rupee Interest Rate Derivatives (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2020. Interest Rate Derivatives (IRD) are contracts whose value is derived from one or more interest rates, prices of interest rate instruments, or interest rate indices. 3.A Customized My Stamp on India’s First Anti Satellite Missile (A-SAT) launch was released by the Department of Posts on the occasion of Engineers Day. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)...

1.127th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s in Chicago. The Parliament of World’s Religions, held for the first time in 1893, from September 11 to September 27, saw eminent personalities from around the world at the same forum. 2. The Department of Posts has launched a scheme called Five Star Villages, to ensure universal coverage of flagship postal schemes in rural areas of the country. The scheme is being launched on pilot basis in Maharashtra. The scheme will be implemented by a team of five Gramin Dak Sevaks who will be assigned a village for marketing of all products, savings and insurance schemes of the Department of Posts. 3. ‘SAROD-Ports’ stands for Society for Affordable Redressal of Disputes – Ports. Launched by the Union Shipping Ministry. It is Affordable Dispute Redressal Mechanism for all kind of disputes of maritime sector. 4. Recently, the EASE (Enhanced Access and Service Excellence) 2.0 Banking ...