Current Affairs Daily Digest – January 31 2020
1. Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO held in New Delhi
Indian Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO (INCCU) was chaired by the Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank”. UNESCO is United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Along with the UNESCO commission, the event was also attended by the sub commissions namely Social Sciences, Culture, Education, Natural Sciences and Culture.
2. Indian Railways to roll out Automatic Identification and Data Collection
The Indian Railways is to implement plans for RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification). The railways is to tag around 3,50,000 rolling stocks by 2021. Under the programme, around 3,500 coaches have been fitted with RFID so far. This will help the Indian Railways in early identification of rolling stock. A rolling stock includes carriages, locomotives, wagons and other vehicles used in Railways.
3. SAMPRITI-IX: India-Bangladesh Joint Military Exercise to be held in Meghalaya
A Joint Military Exercise between India and Bangladesh is to be held at Umroi, Meghalaya between 3rd February, 2020 and 16th February, 2020. The exercise is called “SAMPRITI”.
During the joint exercise, Command Post Exercise and Field Training Exercise is to be conducted according to United Nations Charter. The troops of both the armies will also practice Counter Terrorist operation.
4. Transparency International: Assam tops in budget formulation
According to the survey conducted by Transparency International, Assam tops in terms of budget formulation followed by Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The states that were ranked lower in terms of budget formulation are Goa, Maharashtra and Punjab.
The survey was conducted by the organization based on four parameters such as budgetary process, public disclosure, post budget fiscal management and efforts to make budget citizen friendly.
5. UN Development Programme: Telangana tops sustainable growth goals performer list
According to the United National Development Programme (UNDP), Telangana has emerged the best performing states in terms of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). It is to be noted that in December 2019, India released SDG India Index. India was the first country to release SDG index. The index was launched by NITI Aayog.
Telangana topped the UNDP ranking of Indian states based on their progress in achieving SDGs. The state of Telangana scored 82. It was followed by states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka together with a score of 72. However, Kerala followed by Himachal Pradesh lead the list.
6. Surajkund Mela-International Crafts Fair organized by Haryana with HP as theme state
President Ram Nath Kovind will inaugurate the 34th Surajkund International Crafts Fair. The fair is being organized by the Haryana Government in Faridabad. Around 20 countries and the states of India are participating in the fair.
The partner country of the fair is Uzbekistan. The theme state of the fair is Himachal Pradesh. This year the state of Himachal Pradesh will showcase its handicrafts, heritage and tourism potential.
7. Rani Rampal becomes first ever hockey player to win World Games Athlete of the Year’ award
Indian women’s team captain Rani Rampal became the first-ever hockey player to win the prestigious ‘World Games Athlete of the Year’ award. The World Games announced the winner last night after 20 days of polling in January this year by sports fans worldwide.
8. India beat New Zealand in 4th T20 International at Wellington
India beat New Zealand via Super Over in the fourth T20 International after a second successive tie at Wellington today. Chasing the target of 166 set by India, New Zealand were coasting at one stage before the hosts were restricted to 165 for 7.
9. Arvind Krishna appointed CEO of global tech giant IBM
Indian-origin Arvind Krishna has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of American IT giant IBM, succeeding Ginni Rometty. The 57-year-old will take over on April 6. “I am thrilled and humbled to be elected as the next Chief Executive Officer of IBM, and appreciate the confidence that Ginni and the Board have placed in me,” Krishna said in a press statement released by IBM.
10. Ficci survey projects FY20 GDP growth at 5%, to improve to 5.5% in FY21
Industry body Ficci said its Economic Outlook Survey has projected the country’s annual median GDP growth for 2019-20 at 5 per cent, in line with the projections made by the National Statistical Organisation (NSO).
The survey has put the median growth forecast for agriculture and allied activities at 2.6 per cent for 2019-20, the industry and services sector at 3.5 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively, during the current year.
11. Kotak Mahindra Bank gets RBI nod to cap promoters’ voting rights at 20% till March
Kotak Mahindra Bank and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seem to have reached a truce on the long standing battle to bring down promoter shareholding, and withdrew the writ petition filed by the bank in Bombay High Court against the regulator.
On January 30, Kotak Mahindra Bank wrote to exchanges stating that the banking regulator has agreed ‘in-principle’ to cap promoters’ voting rights to 20 percent of the paid up voting equity share capital until March 31, 2020.
12. Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala steps down
Wipro said its CEO Abidali Neemuchwala has resigned due to family commitments, a year before his term was scheduled to end, but that he would stay on until a successor was appointed. Analysts say a slew of internal candidates could be in the running.
Neemuchwala joined Wipro from TCSNSE in April 2015 as Group President and COO. He was elevated to CEO in February 2016. Neemuchwala’s term at Wipro was due to end on Jan 31, 2021.
13. Railways on-track with RFID tech implementation
Keeping on track the implementation of latest Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, to accurately track and trace Railway movement across the country with focus on safety, the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS, the IT arm of the Indian Railways), GS1 India and the Indian Industry have come joined hands under the government’s flagship ‘Make in India’ programme.
14. OPPO collaborates with IIT-H for multiple projects
OPPO, a global smartphone brand, is collaborating with IIT Hyderabad to promote research in the field of science and technology. An MoU was signed by Tasleem Arif, Vice President and Head (R&D), OPPO India and Dr. Sumohana S. Channappayya, Dean (Research and Development), IIT Hyderabad.
It envisages joint research and development for multiple projects over a period of two years for the development of new technologies in areas specific to camera and image processing, battery, networks (5G), system performance and Artificial Intelligence, among other areas.
