Daily Current Affairs, 01st September 2020

1) PM Narendra Modi announced September to be observed as “Nutrition month”

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced to celebrate September 2020 as “Poshan Maah” or “Nutrition Month” during the monthly radio broadcast programme “Mann ki Baat”. He stated that to increase the awareness of nutrition among the children, the schools must introduce Nutrition Monitor and Nutrition Cards.

•During the Nutrition Month, Food and Nutrition Quiz and meme competition will be organised by the MyGov portal. The month will be celebrated across India to educate everyone on the importance of optimum nutrition. The nutrition month was celebrated earlier in September 2018 and 2019.

2) Dept. of Fertilizers observes Swachhta Pakhwada from 1-15 September 2020

•Union Department of Fertilizers is observing Swachhta Pakhwada from 1st to 15th September 2020. All Public Sector Units as well as other Organizations under the Department are also participating in the Swachhta Abhiyan.

•Swachhta Pakhwada has become more relevant in year 2020 in view of the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic. The initiative was launched to bring a fortnight of intense focus on the issues as well as practices of Swachhata by engaging GOI Ministries/Departments in their jurisdictions. The Ministries observing Swachhata Pakhwada are monitored closely with the help of online monitoring system of Swachhata Samiksha.

3) Japan commits ODA of Rs 3500 crore to fight COVID-19 in India

•India will receive an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan of an amount of JPY50 billion (approx. Rs. 3,500 crore) from the government of Japan. Japan has committed the loan for the COVID-19 Crisis Emergency Response Support in order to fight the COVID-19 crisis.

•The ODA loan will support India’s efforts in its fight against COVID-19. It will also assist the country to prepare the health system to handle future epidemics. It will also increase the resilience of India’s health systems against infectious diseases.

•Japanese government has also committed Grant Assistance of an amount of JPY 1 billion (approx. Rs. 70 crore) for offering medical equipment to bolster the public health and medical system in India.

4) Committee set up to review effective utilisation of AFHQ CS cadre

•Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the setting up of 3-member committee headed by Lt. Gen. Shekatkar (retired) to review the effective utilisation of the Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Services (AFHQ CS) cadre. Two other members of the committee are R. Chandrashekhar, a retired AFHQ cadre officer, and AN Das from the MoD finance wing. The committee will enable the Defence Ministry to optimise the civil as well as military administrative appointments in the service headquarters.

•The 3-member committee will conduct a study and find out such appointments in Service HQs and Inter-Service Organisations (ISO) that may fall under the domains of AFHQ CS officers as recognised in the report by the committee of experts due to their longer tenures and expertise. It will also interact with various branches, directorates of service headquarters as well as ISOs for the study. The committee is expected to submit its report by November.




5) Ease of Doing Business report suspended by World Bank

•World Bank has stopped the publication of its “Doing Business” report to probe data collection irregularities in the annual ranking of countries’ business and investment climates. According to World Bank “A number of irregularities have been reported regarding changes to the data in the Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020 reports, published in October 2017 and 2019”.

•World Bank would conduct a systematic review of data changes in the last five Doing Business reports, and independent auditors will probe data collection and review processes. The last Doing Business report was published in October 2019 in which India was ranked 63rd while New Zealand was on top.

6) India withdraws from Russia military exercise Kavkaz 2020

•India has withdrawn its participation from the multilateral Military Exercise “Kavkaz 2020” to be held in Russia between 15th to 26th September 2020. Russia and India are privileged strategic partners. At Russia’s invitation, India has been participating in many international events. However, due to COVID-19 and consequent difficulties in exercise, India has decided not to send a contingent this year to Kavkaz-2020.

•Kavkaz 2020 would be held in Astrakhan province of Southern Russia where member countries of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Central Asian countries would be participating. Other countries that would participate in this exercise are China, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Belarus, Turkey, Armenia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

7) CSIR-CMERI develops World’s Largest Solar Tree

•World’s Largest Solar Tree has been developed by the CSIR-CMERI. The solar tree has been installed at the Residential Colony of CSIR-CMERI in Durgapur, West Bengal. The solar tree has the annual capacity to generate 12,000-14,000 units of Clean and Green Power while its installed capacity is above 11.5 kWp.

•The Solar Tree has been designed in such a way that it ensures maximum exposure of each Solar PV Panel to Sunlight. A single solar tree comprises of 35 Solar PV Panels each having a capacity of 330 wp each. The energy generation data of the tree can be monitored either real-time or on daily basis. This tree will also ensure minimum Shadow Area which will make it available for usage in Agricultural activities like High Capacity Pumps, e-Tractors and e-Power Tillers.

8) Indian economy contracted by 23.9% in Q1 of 2020-21

•The estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first quarter (April-June) Q1 of 2020-21 has been released by the National Statistical Office(NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. NSSO has released the GDP estimates at both Constant (2011-12) and Current Prices.

•According to the latest release, the GDP at Constant (2011-12) Prices in Q1 of 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 26.90 lakh crore. This value was Rs 35.35 lakh crore in Q1 of 2019-20. Hence, the Indian economy has experienced a contraction of 23.9% as compared to 5.2% growth in Q1 2019-20.

•While the GDP at Current Prices in the year Q1 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 38.08 lakh crore. This value was Rs 49.18 lakh crore in Q1 2019-20. Hence, it showed a contraction of 22.6% as compared to 8.1% growth in Q1 2019-20.

9) Rajiv Kumar takes charge as new Election Commissioner of India

•Rajiv Kumar has taken the charge as the new Election Commissioner (EC) of India. He has joined the Election Commission of India with Chief Election Commissioner Shri Sunil Arora and Election Commissioner Shri Sushil Chandra.

•Rajiv Kumar is a 1984 batch Indian Administrative Service Officer, with more than 36 years of Government of India service. He has a very rich work experience across various sectors namely Social Sector, Environment & Forests, Human Resources, Finance and Banking Sector. He retired in February 2020 as Finance Secretary, Government of India and later on served as the Chairman of Public Enterprises Selection Board from April 2020 to 31st August 2020.

10) MoD signs contracts worth Rs 2580 Cr with BEML, TPCL & L&T

•Acquisition Wing of Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a contract worth Rs 2580 Cr with M/s. Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. (BEML), M/s. Tata Power Company Ltd. (TPCL) and M/s. Larsen & Toubro (L&T). The contract has been signed for supply of six Pinaka Regiments to the Regiment of Artillery of the Indian Army and hence will enhance the operation preparedness of our Armed Forces.

•Induction of Six Pinaka Regiments which comprise 114 Launchers with Automated Gun Aiming & Positioning System (AGAPS); 45 Command Posts to be procured from M/s TPCL and M/s L&T and 330 Vehicles to be procured from M/s BEML, is planned to be completed by 2024. It will also provide further boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative of Government of India in the Defence Sector.