Important Current Affairs 6th October 2021

NATIONAL

PM Modi visits Lucknow for “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ Events 

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated ‘Azadi@75 – New Urban India: Transforming Urban Landscape’ Conference-cum-Expo in Lucknow at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan as a part of Azadi@75 celebrations. The theme of the three-day event is “New Urban India”. It will culminate on October 07, 2021. The Conference-cum-Expo is organised by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

•The Conference-cum-Expo is a platform to showcase the prospective transformative urban missions and highlight the achievements and the flagship urban development missions undertaken in the past 7 years of the Modi government.

GI-tagged 'Mihidana' batch from West Bengal exported to Bahrain

•The first consignment of Geographical Indication (GI) tagged sweet dish Mihidana, from Bardhaman, West Bengal has been exported to the Kingdom of Bahrain. This initiative is part of the effort to promote indigenous & Geographical Identification (GI) tagged products of India globally. The product was exported by APEDA registered M/S DM Enterprises, Kolkata.

•West Bengal’s Bardhaman got the GI tag for the Mihidana sweetmeats in 2017. A GI tag is a sign denoting a specific geographical origin and possesses qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.

India joins Seychelles' Tax Inspectors Without Borders program

•The Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) has launched its programme in Seychelles. India has been chosen as the Partner Administration for this programme. The country will be providing its Tax Expert in support of the initiative. The focus of the 12-month programme will be on Transfer Pricing cases of tourism and financial services sectors.

•TIWB is a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), since its launch in 2015.

•The aim of the initiative is to aid countries in strengthening their tax administration by transferring technical know-how and skills to the tax auditors through sharing of best audit practices.

•This is the sixth TIWB programme in which India has supported by providing Tax Expert.

ICMR's drone-based vaccine delivery model launched

•The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya, launched ‘i-Drone’, a drone-based vaccine delivery model for Northeast states. The i-Drone has been developed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). i-Drone stands for ICMR’s Drone Response and Outreach in North East.

•The main objective of this tool is to facilitate vaccine delivery to tough and hard-to-reach terrains of India, and to improve healthcare accessibility to the last mile. Currently, the drone-based delivery project is being implemented in Manipur, Nagaland, and the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Island. ICMR collaborated with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur for conducting an initial study to test the capacity of drones to carry and transfer vaccines safely.

M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre

•Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has inaugurated the Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre in the presence of Governor Jagdish Mukhi and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati in the state of Assam. The centre was originally served as the residence of the British deputy commissioner of Kamrup. Nearly 150 years after it was constructed, the iconic DC Bungalow of Guwahati was opened to the public as a heritage centre.

•After the British annexed Assam in 1826 (after the Treaty of Yandaboo), the post of DC was created for Guwahati in 1839.

•Several sites were surveyed for DC residence before Barphukanar Tilla on the banks of the Brahmaputra, where cannons used in the Battle of Saraighat lay scattered, was chosen. Post-independence, it continued to be the DC’s bungalow until 2011.

APPOINTMENT & RESIGNATION

Haier''s Eric Braganza appointed as CEAMA president

•The Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) has appointed Eric Braganza as its president for a two-year term. He succeeds Godrej Appliances Business Head and Executive Vice-President Kamal Nandi for the CEAMA chair. Braganza, an alumnus of Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi, has over 35 years and has held senior management positions in the consumer electronics and appliances industry in various companies.

•Established in 1978, CEAMA represents the consumer electronics and home appliances industry and aims to enhance the development of the industry and its components manufacturing.

CoinDCX ropes in Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador to raise crypto awareness

•Crypto exchange CoinDCX has roped in Amitabh Bachchan as a brand ambassador to spread awareness about cryptocurrencies. Through this collaboration, CoinDCX wants to increase awareness around crypto and popularise it as an emerging asset class. CoinDCX wants to ensure that crypto is accessible to everyone.

•The crypto industry in India is on an exponential climb, rising gradually over the previous few years, with millions of Indians emerging as early adopters of the crypto asset class.

OBITUARY

Shakti Sinha former bureaucrat, and academician passed away

•Shakti Sinha, former bureaucrat, and academician who was private secretary to late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, passed away. Sinha, an IAS officer of the 1979 batch, was also former Director of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML).

•He worked closely with Vajpayee between 1996 and 1999 and had written a memoir titled Vajpayee: The Years That Changed India.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Pratham's Rukmini Banerji And Eric Hanushek Get Yidan Prize 2021

•Professor Eric A. Hanushek and Dr Rukmini Banerji have been awarded the 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Development for improving learning outcomes in schools at scale. Yidan Prize is the world’s highest education accolade, in recognition of their ground-breaking work addressing a crucial piece of the education puzzle: improving quality of education and outcomes for learners at scale.

•The Yidan Prize was founded by Charles Chen Yidan in 2016 to create a better world through education. Yidan Prize Laureate receives a gold medal and a sum of $3.9 million.

BANKING AND ECONOMIC

SBI, Indian Navy Launch NAV-eCash Card For Online, Offline Transactions

•State Bank of India (SBI) has announced the launch of SBI’s NAV-eCash card on INS Vikramaditya, the largest naval aircraft carrier of India. The new journey envisioned for the card is set to change the payment ecosystem, while the ship is sailing with no dependency on utilisation of any form of cash to avail any of the services on board.

•The new NAV-eCash card will facilitate both online and offline transactions. The card will obviate the difficulties faced by personnel onboard in handling physical cash during deployment of the ship at high seas. The new journey envisioned in the form of a NAV-eCash Card will change the payment ecosystem while the ship is sailing with no dependency on cash for utilization of any of the services on board.