International - CivilServiceIndia€¦ · Blockchains They are a new data structure that is secure, cryptography-based, and distributed across a network. The technology supports cryptocurrencies

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France

The country where the meeting of G7 finance

ministers was held recently where all fully

supported two-pillar taxation for large tech

companies to be adopted by 2020. They agreed on

a plan for taxing digital companies such as

Facebook, Google and Amazon in the countries in

which they make money, even without any physical

presence in the country. They also agreed that a

minimum level of effective taxation would contribute to ensuring that companies pay their

fair share of tax. The plan would have to be further developed by the G20 group of top 20

economies and then implemented under the aegis of the Organisation for Economic

Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Group of Seven (G7) is a group consisting of

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Ursula von der Leyen

She was recently elected as the President of the

next European Commission by the European

Parliament elected. She will succeed Jean-Claude

Juncker. She is set to take office on 1 November

2019 for a five-year term. Out of 733 votes casted,

383 members voted in favour of her. Earlier, she

served in the federal government of Germany from

2005 to 2019 as the longest-serving member of Angela Merkel’s cabinet. She is a member of

the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Tiangong 2

The space station launched by China. It is part of

China’s plan to establish a manned space station

around 2022. It is placed at 380 kilometres above

Earth. There are two astronauts on board. Tiangong

2 will be used to test space technology and conduct

medical and space experiments.

International


Russia and Germany

These are the two countries which together

launched Spektr-RG which is a high-energy

astrophysics space observatory launched recently. It

follows on from the Spektr-R satellite telescope

launched in 2011. The Spektrum-Röntgen-Gamma

mission, also known as Spektr-RG, is a joint project

between the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, and

the German space agency, DLR. Spektr-RG will be placed in a stable orbit in space called a

Lagrange point (specifically, L2), where the gravitational forces of two large objects — in this

case, the sun and the Earth — balance each other out.

UDAN

Launched in April 2017, is a flagship scheme of the

Union Government to enable air operations on

unserved routes, connecting regional areas, to

promote balanced regional growth and to make

flying affordable for masses. The UDAN Scheme is a

key component of the National Civil Aviation Policy

(NCAP) which was launched in June 2016.

National

https://www.concerninfotech.com/


Chandipura virus

It is the name of brain damaging virus which has

been named after the Maharashtra village where

the virus was first discovered. The likely vector

(carrier) of the virus is the female phlebotomine

sandfly. It has been detected in sand flies in Senegal

and Nigeria, apart from India. The virus is known to

cause inflammation of the brain, and progresses

rapidly from an influenza-like illness to coma and death. Chandipura virus (CHPV) belongs to

the Rhabdoviridae family in the order Mononegavirales of the genus Vesiculovirus.

Interestingly, its continuing mutating trend has enhanced its lethality to cause human

infections, unlike its genetic cousin, the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV).

Amazon

An e-commerce and tech giant, launched an Indian

Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination

(IIT-JEE) preparation app called JEE Ready. It is

Amazon’s first product in the edtech sector in India.

It helps the students to prepare for entrance tests

by allowing them to take an All India Mock Test for

free. It is currently in its beta phase and is available

only on Android devices.

PRASAD

It stands for the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and

Spiritual Augmentation Drive is a government

scheme that focuses on identifying and developing

the pilgrim sites across the country to enrich the

religious tourism experience. It was launched by

Union Ministry of Tourism in 2015. It aims at

integrated development of pilgrimage destinations

in planned, prioritised and sustainable manner to provide complete religious tourism

experience. Under it, Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to

State Governments for promoting tourism at identified destinations. For components within

public funding under this scheme, Central Government will provide 100% fund. For

improved sustainability of project, it also seeks to involve Public Private Partnership (PPP)

and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as well.


DDU-GKY

It stands for Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen

Kaushalya Yojana whose vision is to “Transform

rural poor youth into an economically independent

and globally relevant workforce”. It aims to target

youth, in the age group of 15–35 years. DDU-GKY is

a part of the National Rural Livelihood Mission

(NRLM), tasked with the dual objectives of adding

diversity to the incomes of rural poor families and cater to the career aspirations of rural

youth. Its objective is Guaranteed Placement for at least 75% trained candidates.

PMBJP

It stands for Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi

Pariyojana’ is a campaign launched by the

Department of Pharmaceuticals, Govt. Of India, to

provide quality medicines at affordable prices to the

masses through special kendra’s known as Pradhan

Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendra. Under

Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana

(PMBJP), a total of 5440 dedicated retail outlets selling affordable generic medicines are

functional in the country as on 15.07.2019.

Nag

It is the name of Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM)

whose successful trial was done recently by Indian

Army. The NAG missile is a third-generation anti-

tank guided missile, which has top attack

capabilities that can effectively engage and destroy

all known enemy tanks during day and night. It is

launched from NAG missile carrier (NAMICA) which

is capable of carrying up to 6 combat missiles. The range is from Minimum-500 metres to

Maximum- 4 kilometres and has been developed by DRDO.


Find the Incredible You

The campaign released globally by the Ministry of

Tourism during 2018-19 has been declared winner

of the PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Gold

Award 2019 in the “Marketing – Primary

Government Destination” category. The campaign

strategy was to shift the focus from the external

experience of tourist destinations to the internal

experience of travellers themselves. PATA Gold Awards are given to tourism industry

organizations and individuals making outstanding contribution towards the successful

promotion of the travel industry throughout the Asia Pacific Region.

1st April 2015

The date from which the Government of India is

implementing One Stop Centre (OSC) scheme for

setting up One Stop Centre to support women

affected by violence. Popularly known as Sakhi,

Ministry of Women and Child Development

(MWCD) has formulated this Centrally Sponsored

Scheme. It is a sub – scheme of Umbrella Scheme

for National Mission for Empowerment of women including Indira Gandhi Mattritav Sahyaog

Yojana. Under the scheme, One Stop Centres are being established across the country to

provide integrated support and assistance under one roof to women affected by violence,

both in private and public spaces in phased manner.

1st May 2016

The date from which the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala

Yojana (PMUY) has been launched which is set to

meet the next big milestone of achieving 80 million

household connections within the first hundred

days of the government. Till date, the scheme has

garnered 72 million connections, with the

government fueling the process of achieving the

original target in the next 100 days. In other words, about 93 to 94 per cent households now

have access to cooking gas. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana aims to provide LPG (liquefied

petroleum gas) connections to poor households. Under the scheme, an adult woman

member of a below poverty line family identified through the Socio-Economic Caste Census


(SECC) is given a deposit-free LPG connection with financial assistance of Rs 1,600 per

connection by the Centre.

Paramarsh scheme

This is a University Grants Commission (UGC)

scheme launched by the Union Ministry of Human

Resource Development. The scheme is for

Mentoring National Accreditation and Assessment

Council (NAAC) Accreditation Aspirant Institutions

to promote Quality Assurance in Higher Education.

The scheme will be a paradigm shift in the concept

of mentoring of institution by another well performing institution to upgrade their academic

performance and enable them to get accredited by focusing in the area of curricular

aspects, teaching-learning & evaluation, research, innovation, institutional values &

practices etc. The Scheme will be operationalized through a “Hub & Spoke” model wherein

the Mentor Institution, called the “Hub” is centralized and will have the responsibility of

guiding the Mentee institution through the secondary branches the “Spoke” through the

services provided to the mentee for self-improvement.

A whip

In parliamentary parlance is a written order that

party members be present for an important vote, or

that they vote only in a particular way A one-line

whip, underlined once, is usually issued to inform

party members of a vote, and allows them to

Indian polity

http://www.masproindia.com/


abstain in case they decide not to follow the party line. A two-line whip directs them to be

present during the vote. A three-line whip is the strongest, employed on important

occasions such as the second reading of a Bill or a no-confidence motion, and places an

obligation on members to toe the party line. A whip in parliamentary parlance is a written

order that party members be present for an important vote, or that they vote only in a

particular way. The term is derived from the old British practice of “whipping in” lawmakers

to follow the party line. In India all parties can issue a whip to their members. Parties

appoint a senior member from among their House contingents to issue whips — this

member is called a Chief Whip, and he/she is assisted by additional Whips.

Blockchains

They are a new data structure that is secure,

cryptography-based, and distributed across a

network. The technology supports cryptocurrencies

such as Bitcoin, and the transfer of any data or

digital asset. Spearheaded by Bitcoin, blockchains

achieve consensus among distributed nodes,

allowing the transfer of digital goods without the

need for centralized authorisation of transactions.

AFRS

It stands Automated Facial Recognition System use

by police officers across the country was

recommended on June 28,2019 by the National

Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). AFRS works by

maintaining a large database with photos and

videos of peoples’ faces. Then, a new image of an

unidentified person — often taken from CCTV

footage — is compared to the existing database to find a match and identify the person. The

artificial intelligence technology used for pattern-finding and matching is called “neural

networks”. NCRB has proposed integrating this facial recognition system with multiple

existing databases. The most prominent is the NCRB-managed Crime and Criminal Tracking

Network & Systems (CCTNS). Facial recognition has been proposed in the CCTNS program

since its origin.

Science & technology


Bhabha Kavach

It is the name of India’s first Lightest and indigenous

Bullet Proof Jacket ‘from Ordnance Factory Board

which recently received the nod of MHA. Developed

by OFB and MIDHANI this state-of-the-art jacket can

withstand 7.62mm hard steel core or bullets fired

from an AK-47 rifle, 5.56mm INSAS bullet and even

the recently decommissioned 7.65mm bullet of self-

loading rifle (SLR). It is half KG lesser than the prescribed weight of MHA along with the 360

Degree Protection and has achieved the protection level of NIJ III+. Bhabha Kavach only

weighs 9.2kg and is a major breakthrough for the Indian armed forces.

ETPBS

It stands for Electronically transmitted Postal Ballot

System is developed by Election Commission of

India with the help of Centre for Development of

Advanced Computing (C-DAC), for the use of the

Service Voters. It is a fully secured system, having

two layers of security. Secrecy is maintained

through the use of OTP and PIN and no duplication

of casted Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot (ETPB) is possible due to the unique QR

Code. Persons working in paramilitary forces and the military and government officials

deployed in diplomatic missions outside India are classified as Service Voters. In the seven

phases Lok Sabha polls, a record 18,02,646 eligible personnel were enrolled and 10,84,266

voted through the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) or e-postal

ballots.

NavIC

It stands for Navigation with Indian Constellation is

an independent regional navigation satellite system

designed to provide position information in the

Indian region and 1500 km around the Indian

mainland. IRNSS would provide two types of

services, namely Standard Positioning Services

available to all users and Restricted Services

provided to authorised users. ISRO is in talks with processing chip manufacturers such as

Qualcomm to substitute the existing Global Positioning System (GPS) with the Indian version

of satellite navigation. It is a regional system and so its constellation will consist of seven


satellites. Three of these will be geostationary over the Indian Ocean, i.e., they will appear

to be stationary in the sky over the region, and four will be geosynchronous – appearing at

the same point in the sky at the same time every day. This configuration ensures each

satellite is being tracked by at least one of fourteen ground stations at any given point of

time, with a high chance of most of them being visible from any point in India.

Urban Haats

It is an initiative of the Ministry of Textiles of the

Government of India. The objective of the scheme

“Infrastructure and Technology Support” is to setup

a permanent marketing infrastructure in big towns/

metropolitan cities to provide direct marketing

facilities to the handicraft’s artisans/handloom

weavers. The scheme is implemented through State

Handicrafts/Handlooms Development Corporations/Tourism Development Corporations/

Urban Local Bodies with sufficient financial resources and organizational capacity to

implement the project. The financial ceiling for Urban Haat is Rs. 300 lakh for each unit. 80%

of the admissible amount is borne by the Office of the Development Commissioner

(Handicrafts) and 20% contributed by the implementing agency.

Geography

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India

This country will be the first recipient of local

currency financing by the Asian Infrastructure and

Investment Bank (AIIB). The objective of local

currency financing is to provide more options to

borrowers. India is the second-largest shareholder

of AIIB with a 7.5% stake. It has received about $2-

billion funding for various projects so far. China

holds 20.06% and Russia holds 5.92%.

Standard Chartered

It will be the first foreign bank to launch operations

at International Financial Service Centre (IFSC). The

bank has received in-principle regulatory approvals

to set up its IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) in Gujarat

International Finance Tec-city (GIFT city). Gift city

was one of the dream projects of Shri. Narendra

Modi when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. It has been set up by the Gujarat

government in joint partnership with Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS).

The recent budget has laid special emphasis on aircraft financing and leasing which would

make GIFT City, help build a hub for aircraft financing and leasing with the help of Standard

Chartered and other organizations in the future.

Zappfresh

India’s first fully-integrated Fresh Meat brand, was

conferred with the ‘Best Farm to Fork Fresh Meat

Brand’ accolade at the 6th edition of ‘CMO Asia

National Awards for Marketing Excellence’ which

were held at Taj Lands End, Mumbai, Maharashtra

on July 4, 2019. It was awarded for its innovative

solutions in transforming the meat buying

experience of consumers through its farm-to-fork model and for disrupting the fresh meat

brand market in the country. Zappfresh is currently present across 8 cities- Delhi, Gurugram,

Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula.

Economics


GeM

It is a state-of-the-art national public procurement

platform of Ministry of Commerce and Industries,

that has used technology to remove entry barriers

for bonafide sellers and has created a vibrant e-

marketplace with a wide range of goods and

services. GeM aims to enhance transparency,

efficiency and speed in public procurement. It

facilitates online procurement of common use Goods & Services required by various

Government Departments / Organisations / PSUs. It provides the tools of e-bidding, reverse

e-auction and demand aggregation to facilitate the government users, achieve the best

value for their money.

CCTNS

It stands for Crime and Criminal Tracking Network

and Systems is a project initiated in June 2009

which aims at creating a comprehensive and

integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and

effectiveness of policing at the Police Station level.

This will be done through adoption of principles of

e-Governance, and creation of a nationwide

networked infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system

around “investigation of crime and detection of criminals”. CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project

(MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan of Govt. of India. The Project will interconnect

about 15000 Police Stations and additional 5000 offices of supervisory police officers across

the country and digitize data related to FIR registration, investigation and charge sheets in

all Police Stations. It will not only automate Police functions at Police station and higher

levels but will also create facilities and mechanism to provide public services like registration

of online complaints, ascertaining the status of case registered at the police station,

verification of persons etc.

DoT and ICRIER MoU

It stands for Indian Council for Research on

International Economic Relations have signed a

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop

a Broadband Readiness Index (BRI) for Indian states

and Union Territories (UT). The index will include

indicators such as percentage of households using


computers/ laptops with internet connection, percentage of households with fixed

broadband connection, internet users as a percentage of the population, smartphones

density, percentage of households with at least one digitally literate member, etc.

28,388 species

These are threatened with extinction as per the

latest update to the International Union for

Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of

Threatened Species. The IUCN Red List assesses

1,05,732 species. The current update breaks the

1,00,000 species barrier, making it the largest such

assessment of species. The IUCN Red List of

Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation

status of plant and animal species.

MOVCDNER & PKVY

These are the schemes which the Government of

India has been encouraging/ promoting for organic

farming. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers

Welfare has launched this Central Sector Scheme

named “Mission Organic Value Chain Development

for North Eastern Region” (MOVCDNER) for

implementation in the States of Arunachal Pradesh,

Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. The scheme aims at

Environment & Climate News



development of certified organic production in a value chain mode to link growers with

consumers and to support the development of entire value chain starting from inputs,

seeds, certification and creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing,

marketing and brand building initiative. Organic Farming has also been supported under

other Schemes viz Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and Mission for Integrated

Development of Horticulture (MIDH), Network Project on Organic Farming under ICAR. Third

party certification of organic farming is promoted by Agriculture Processed Food and Export

Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce.

Haryana

It is the state where on July 16, 2019, The Cabinet of

Haryana under the chairmanship of chief minister

Manohar Lal Khattar approved the setting up of

Haryana Sports University at Rai, Sonepat which will

be the third sports university established by a state

government in India after Swarnim Gujarat Sports

University (Gandhinagar) and Tamil Nadu Physical

Education and Sports University (Chennai).

It will have powers to conduct academic and training programs in physical education and

sports sciences including sports technology, sports medicine, sports management, sports

infrastructure engineering, sports psychology, sports nutrition, sports journalism, and sports

marketing.

Sports News


Kalraj Mishra

The former Union Minister of Micro, Small and

Medium Enterprises & a veteran Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP) leader, was sworn in as the 26th

governor of Himachal Pradesh replacing Acharya

Devvrat, who has been transferred and appointed

as the Governor of Gujarat. Acharya Dev Vrat (60)

sworn in as the 20th governor of Gujarat. He took

the oath in Sanskrit. He succeeded Om Prakash Kohli.

PT Usha

India’s track and field legend has been nominated

for the IAAF’s ‘Veteran Pin’ for her outstanding

service to the sport. The International Association

of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) Chief Executive

Officer (CEO) Jon Ridgeon informed about this

recently. She has been invited to participate in the

award ceremony which will be held during the

opening ceremony of the 52nd IAAF Congress at the Qatar National Convention Centre in

Doha on the eve of September 24, 2019. She had won five gold medals in 100m, 200m,

400m, 400m hurdles, and the 4x400m relay and a bronze medal in the 1985 Asian Athletic

Championships which were held in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she

became the first Indian to reach the finals of the 400m hurdles, but lost the bronze by one-

hundredth of a second.

Sunil Mishra

He is the author of the book ‘Who Stole My Job’

whose second print was announced by India’s

leading publishing house Srishti publishers and

distributors. The book was first released in April

2019 and has received a very positive response

from readers across the globe.“Who Stole My Job”

is a work of business fiction that relates to new

People in News


technological disruptions in the age of Artificial Intelligence and their impact on daily and

work lives.

Amit Shah

India’s Home Minister who will head the Union

Government reconstituted the Group of Ministers

(GoM) called the Air India Specific Alternative

Mechanism (AISAM) on Air India disinvestment. The

3 other ministers are finance minister Nirmala

Sitharaman, commerce, and railway minister Piyush

Goyal and civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The panel will work out modalities for

sale of Air India

Pune

It is the Indian city where the Singapore based

Global Indian International School (GIIS) will launch

the concept of SMART Campus at Hadapsar and

Balewadi campuses. It will be India’s first Smart

campus which is a part of Singapore’s Rs 420 crore

investments in education in India over the coming

years. It is aimed to provide students with NextGen learning to sharpen 21st-century skills.

The Smart Campus will provide Digital and Virtual Classrooms for global student exchange,

facial recognition for student attendance and campus security, innovation, artificial

intelligence, robotics and entrepreneurship studios

Lucknow

It is the city where the defence ministry will hold its

11th biennial arms exhibition ‘DefExpo 2020’ next

year from February 5-8 in line with Modi

government’s big push to develop Uttar Pradesh as

one of the two major defence manufacturing hubs.

It will focus on India’s emerging manufacturing

corridors with special focus on digital

transformation of the industry. The theme of DefExpo will be “India: the emerging defence

Places in News


manufacturing hub’’. Defexpo is a land, naval systems and Homeland security exhibition

which used to be held only in New Delhi until the Modi government decided to take it

around the country.

Sriharikota

It is the place from which GSLV-MkIII, Earth’s only

natural satellite carried the Chandrayaan-2 to its

space on 22nd July 2019. This was just two days

after the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of

human landing on Moon.

Arunachal Pradesh

It is the state in which the Cabinet recently

approved 2880 MW Dibang Multipurpose Project

with expected expenditure of Rs. 1600 crore. It is

envisaged as a storage-based hydro-electric project

with flood moderation as the key objective. This is

the largest ever Hydro Electric Projects to be

constructed in India. The dam is 278 metres high and will be the highest dam in India once

completed. The Project is located on river Dibang, in Lower Dibang Valley District of

Arunachal Pradesh.


Documents

International - CivilServiceIndia€¦ · Blockchains They are a new data structure that is secure, cryptography-based, and distributed across a network. The technology supports cryptocurrencies