Daily Current Affairs, 07th February 2020

1) Janasevaka scheme launched by Karnataka Government

•To ensure the home delivery of the government services, Karnataka Government has launched a scheme “Janasevaka“. The scheme is initially launched in a few municipal corporation wards to ensure home delivery of various services. The services includes senior citizen identity and health cards, and ration cards and other 53 services. The scheme will be successfully implemented with the help of 11 departments. Through the launch of the “Janasevaka” scheme, Karnataka government aims to make the lives of the citizens of Karnataka easy.

•The scheme aims to ensure the timely delivery of government services to the people of Karnataka with the help of innovative and efficient management systems.

2) ‘Pink City’ becomes certified UNESCO World Heritage City

•Jaipur “The Pink City” has been certified by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as the World Heritage site. The certification was done by the UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay during an event held in Jaipur, Rajasthan. As part of certification, the World Heritage City certificate was handover by UNESCO Director General to Minister of Urban Development Shanti Dhariwal.

•The certification of Jaipur “The Pink City” as the World Heritage site is expected to boost the tourism sector of the state of Rajasthan and also intends to the development of Western Rajasthan for tourism with the support of UNESCO.

3) Britain’s Prince unveils children’s protection fund for India

•Britain’s Prince Charles has unveiled a new children’s protection fund for India as part of British Asian Trust. The charity founded by him in 2007 to fight poverty in South Asia. American singer Katy Perry as the ambassador of the new fund.

•Indian philanthropist Natasha Poonawalla has made a multimillion-pound pledge in support of the fund, which she will chair, and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIIF) is set to match fund everything raised up to GBP 25 million to develop the largest anti-trafficking fund in South Asia.

•The main areas of focus for the British Asian Trust’s Children’s Protection Fund will cover child sexual abuse, child labour and trafficking, and its aim would be to develop school safety nets through child-friendly village models.

4) “Central Asia Business Council” launched in New Delhi

•The “Central Asia Business Council” was launched in New Delhi. The event was organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and addressed by India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar. This was the first instance when the business chambers of all five Central Asian states i.e. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, were brought together by India to push trade and investment partnership.

•The Central Asia Business Council is a common platform for the sharing of ideas and the transformation of goodwill into practical outcomes and seeks to form a India-Central Asia Development Group. The India-Central Asia Development Group will work to boost the trade by assessing the feasibility of air corridors between India and Central Asia. On the basis of mutual interest, the council has prioritized sectors to work upon. These sectors include pharmaceuticals, agro-processing, energy, urban infrastructure and transport, education and many other sectors.

5) Lucknow hosts 5th India-Russia Military Industrial Conference

•Lucknow hosted the 5th India-Russia Military Industrial Conference. The India-Russia Military Industrial Conference was attended by over 100 Russian and over 200 Indian industry leaders. The conference was held on the sidelines of the Defence Expo 2020 taking place in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Indian & Russian companies signed Memorandum of Understanding under the Make in India initiative and will boost the high level strategic and real technological partnership between the two countries.

•The MoUs were signed for the production of different defence equipment like parts of T-72, T-90, ASW Rocket launchers, radar systems and 3D modeling. The Indian companies includes BHEL, Bharat Dynamics Limited and the Russian companies include Vista control from Indian side and INVERSIA, UVZ and BEML Ltd. signed the MoU.

6) 22nd International Seafood Show begins in Kochi

•The 22nd edition of India International Seafood Show (IISS) begins in Kochi, Kerala. The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, in association with the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), is organized this event.

•The theme of this year’s seafood show is “Blue Revolution- Beyond Production to Value Addition”.

•IISS 2020 will highlight the technological advances and sustainable practices followed in the seafood processing sector in India. Indian seafood processors have to make their mark in the sustainable league with the cooperation from the fishing and farming sectors. Over 200 exhibitors, 350 stalls and more than 5000 delegates, including foreign delegates, are expected to attend the event. The biennial show returns to Kochi after 12 years and will provide a platform for Indian exporters and overseas importers of Indian marine products to interact. The 21st edition of IISS was held in Goa in January 2018.

7) RBI to conduct “Financial Literacy Week 2020”

•The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will conduct the “Financial Literacy Week 2020” from February 10 to February 14, 2020. The theme of the Financial Literacy Week 2020 is “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)”. This year India’s central bank is focusing on the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. The Financial Literacy Week 2020 will aim to aware people about the formalisation, collateral free loan, discounting of receivables, rehabilitation of stressed units and timely repayment.

•RBI has advised the banks to circulate the information and create awareness among its customers and general public. A centralized mass media campaign will also run by the RBI during the month of February 2020 to broadcast essential financial awareness messages to MSME Entrepreneurs.

•Financial Literacy Week (FLW) is being conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) every year since 2016 to disseminate financial education messages on a particular theme across the country.

8) Rishabh Pant becomes brand ambassador of JSW Steel

•Jindal South West (JSW) Steel has appointed Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant as its brand ambassador. Pant will help promote JSW’s steel products which include Colouron+ colour-coated sheets and JSW Neosteel TMT bars, for a three year period.

9) IOC signs 1st term contract for Russian crude oil

•Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Russian Rosneft signed 1st term contract for importing 2 Million Metric Tonnes of Urals grade crude oil to India for the year 2020. India is the 3rd largest Energy Consumer in the world, India imports globally 83% of oil to meet its oil need. India has to enlarge its sources for oil imports away from the Middle East oil-producing countries.

•India made a strategy to expand its oil source India’s strategy for Diversification (Importing crude oil from non-OPEC countries) and the term contract is also under the part of the strategy.