Current affairs notes on July 21-23

 1.    The Maharashtra government has claimed it has waived off loans of 83% out of total eligible farmers under the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule crop loan waiver scheme amounting to ₹17,646 crore. In 1873, Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj, or the Society of Seekers of Truth, for the rights of depressed classes, to denounce the caste system and to spread rational thinking.

2.    The audit regulator, National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), has constituted a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) under the Chairmanship of R Narayanaswamy, Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru. National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) was constituted on 1st October, 2018 under section 132 (1) of the Companies Act, 2013.  They Recommend accounting and auditing policies and standards to be adopted by companies for approval by the Central Government.

3.Zoram Mega food park launched in Mizoram. Mega Food Parks scheme: Ministry of Food Processing Industries is implementing Mega Food Park Scheme in the country since 2008. It aims at providing a mechanism to link agricultural production to the market by bringing together farmers, processors and retailers.  Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Sikkim has already been declared as an organic state.

 4.ChAdOx1 COVID-19 was jointly developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. The vaccine belongs to a category called non-replicating viral vector vaccines.

5. “Retrofit of Air-conditioning to improve Indoor Air Quality for Safety and Efficiency” (RAISE) national programme has been launched. Poor air quality has been a concern in India for quite some time and has become more important in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

6. Manodarpan initiative has been launched under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. This initiative will provide psycho-social support to students, teachers and parents and address their issues related to mental health and emotional well being.

7. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 has come into effect from July 20, replacing the earlier Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The central government will set up CCPA (Central Consumer Protection Authority) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers. The act was briefed by Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan through video conference with media.

8. Madhubani paintings in news: Madhubani means ‘forest of honey’. It is also known as Mithila, for its origin, is said to be the Mithila region in Bihar.

9. Maharashtra’s Lonar Lake had turned Pink in June this year. It was due to a salt-loving bacteria (red-coloured archaeal strains classified as halophilic archaea or haloarchaea). It is associated with high salinity and alkalinity (pH).

10. Uttar Pradesh government has launched "Navin Rojgar Chhatri Yojana" for all-round development of the Scheduled Castes. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath transferred financial assistance of 17.42 crore online to 3,484 people under the 'Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Swarojgar Yojana'.

11. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat launched "Arun Jaitley Financial Assistance for Group C Employees", an Employees Welfare Scheme in the name of former Union Minister of Finance, Arun Jaitley .The Scheme will be funded by the pension his family receives.

12. Lalji Tandon, who passed away recently, was Governor of Madhya Pradesh.

13. Men's T20 World cup, 2020 will hold in Australia.

14. Indian Navy has conducted a Passage Exercise (PASSEX), a high-end joint naval exercise with the US Navy in the Indian Ocean. 

15. Recently, the third unit of the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project (KAPP-3) in Tapi district of Gujarat achieved its first criticality. Criticality is the first step towards power production. A nuclear reactor is said to be critical when the nuclear fuel inside a reactor sustains a fission chain reaction.