VISION

📰 States told to share intel on common grid

VISION IAS Mains 2021 Economy Printed Notes PDF

1)  World Braille Day Observed on 04 January 2022

•World Braille Day is observed globally on 4th January since 2019. The day aims to recognize the right of access to braille by blind people and raise awareness of the importance of braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and partially sighted people. The day is marked remembering the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille – for people with visual disabilities. Louis Braille was born on 4th January 1809 in the town of Coupvray in northern France.

2)  Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw launched “India Semiconductor Mission”

•Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has launched the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) to attract large investments for setting up semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities in India. The companies that are interested are invited by the Centre for the development of the semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem in India. ISM is a specialised and independent business division within the Digital India Corporation.

3)  France takes over EU Presidency for six months 2022

•France has assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union with effect from January 01, 2022. The country will continue to hold the EU presidency for the next six months till June 30, 2022. This is the 13th time that France has taken over the rotating presidency. The motto of France as EU President is “recovery, strength, belonging.”

•France will work to place the continent’s digitization and climate protection at the forefront. The presidency of the EU rotates every six months among the member states of the 27-nation bloc. Upon the completion of six months presidency, France will be replaced by the Czech Republic.

4)  Covid-19 new variant ‘IHU’ discovered in France

•Scientists and experts in France have reportedly identified a new variant of COVID-19 termed ‘IHU’. The new variant is said to be a more mutated strain than Omicron. The B.1.640.2 or IHU variant was first identified by the academics at institute IHU Mediterranee Infection and contains 46 mutations, which is more than Omicron. Nearly 12 cases of this new variant have been reported near Marseilles and has been linked to the African country Cameroon. But, the Omicron strain is still dominating in most parts of the world.

•This new variant can be a major threat, however, the cases have not been reported so far in countries other than France and is not labelled as ‘variant under investigation’ by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

5)  Sushmita Dev in 31-member Panel to examine bill on raising legal age of marriage

•The parliamentary standing committee constituted to examine “The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021” comprise of a total of 31 members, including only one women representative. Out of the total 31 members, TMC MP Sushmita Dev is the sole woman representative in the committee. The Bill seeks to raise the legal age of marriage for women in India from 18 to 21 to bring it at par with men.

6)  Russia’s test-fires new hypersonic Tsirkon missiles 2022

•Russia successfully test-fired around 10 new Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missiles from a frigate and other two missiles from a submarine. The Zircon missile would be capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound and have a range of 1,000 kilometres (620 miles). The Tsirkon Cruise Missile will join Avangard glide vehicles and the air-launched Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles in Russia’s hypersonic arsenal.

•Zircon is intended to arm Russian cruisers, frigates and submarines. It is one of several hypersonic missiles under development in Russia. The launch was the latest in a series of tests of Zircon, which is set to enter service next year.

7)  SEBI reconstitutes its primary market advisory committee

•Capital markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India has restructured its primary market advisory committee on data. The committee aims to measure pertaining to areas such as securities market data access and privacy. Sebi has appointed Professor at National Law University, Delhi and former chairperson, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India S Sahoo as Panel Head. Earlier this panel was headed by Madhabi Puri Buch, an ex-whole time member of Sebi.

8)  Exercise Milan 2022: India to host 46 nations mega naval wargames

•India has invited a total of 46 friendly foreign countries to participate in the multinational naval exercise Milan in Visakhapatnam, scheduled from February 25, 2022. The theme of this 11th edition of exercise Milan is camaraderie, cohesion and collaboration. This exercise was initiated in 1995 and held biennially and conducted with friendly navies.

9)  Vinod Kannan named as next CEO of Vistara airline

•Vinod Kannan took over as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vistara Airlines. He replaced Leslie Thng who was the CEO from July 16, 2017, to December 31, 2021. It added that Deepak Rajawat has been elevated to take up the role of Vistara’s Chief Commercial Officer. Vistara, is a 51:49 joint venture between Tata Sons Private Limited and Singapore Airlines.

•Kannan spent over two decades working with SIA and has held several senior positions in the airline’s head office in Singapore as well as overseas. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the National University of Singapore and the University of California, Los Angeles.

10)  Ex-UK PM Tony Blair joins top royal order

•Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Baroness Amos are to be appointed as members of the Order of the Garter, England’s oldest and most senior order of chivalry. The former prime minister now will be known as ‘Sir Tony’. The appointments are the personal choice of the Queen, who has up to 24 “knight and lady companions”. The ceremonial order, founded in 1348, is a recognition of significant public service and made without prime ministerial advice.

•Under Sir Tony’s leadership, the UK joined the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan – an official inquiry into the 2003 Iraq war was strongly critical of his government and UK military chiefs. He famously referred to Diana, Princess of Wales, as the “people’s princess” after her death.

📰 China constructing bridge on Pangong Tso

Vision IAS Prelims 2022 Test 7 With Solution PDF

VISION IAS Mains 2021 Art & Culture Printed Notes in Hindi PDF

1)  World’s longest Metro line opened in China

•Shanghai has opened two new metro lines, upholding its rank as the city with the largest Metro network in the world. With the new lines, the total length of Shanghai’s metro network has extended to 831 km, continuing to be the longest in the world. China’s Shanghai opened two new metro lines – Line 14 and Phase One of Line 18.

•The opening of the two new lines will bring the total number of fully automatic metro lines in Shanghai to five, with an operating length of 167 km, ranking first in the world for the first time. The city will now enjoy 20 metro lines with 508 stations, 83 of which are transfer ones.

2)  Nirmala Sitharaman chairs 46th GST council meet in Delhi

•The GST Council’s 46th meeting was held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. The GST Council has recommended deferring the decision to change the rates in textiles recommended in the 45th GST Council meeting. Consequently, the existing GST rates of 5 % instead of 12% in textile sector would continue.

•This convention attains special significance as it comes days ahead of Sitharaman presenting the much-anticipated Union Budget 2022-23 on February 1, for which she has been holding a series of pre-budget consultations with stakeholders.

•The 2022-23 Union Budget of India will be presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2022. This will be the fourth budget of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government in its second tenure. The 2021-22 budget, presented on 1st February this year, was the first one to be presented orally due to the ongoing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

3)  Odisha launched Digital Life Certificate system for pensioners 2022

•Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched an online service for the verification of identity and submission of life certificates for pensioners of the state government. The chief minister virtually launched the new initiative while attending the orientation programme for newly recruited 153 officers of Odisha Civil Services.

4)  Dharmendra Pradhan launches reading campaign ‘Padhe Bharat’

•Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has launched a 100-day reading campaign ‘Padhe Bharat. The launch of the 100 Days Reading Campaign is in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which lays emphasis on the promotion of joyful reading culture for children by ensuring the availability of age-appropriate reading books for children in local/mother tongue/regional/tribal language.

•The Minister while launching the campaign has underlined the importance of reading that children need to develop to ensure continuous and lifelong learning. He also reinforced that the habit of reading, if inculcated at an early age, helps in brain development and enhances imagination and provide a conducive learning environment for children.

5)  PM Modi to lay foundation stone of Major Dhyan Chand Sports University

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of Major Dhyan Chand Sports University in Meerut. The University will be established at Salawa and Kaili villages of Sardhana town in Meerut at an estimated cost of about 700 Crore rupees. The University will have the capacity of training 1080 sportspersons including 540 female and 540 male sportspersons.

6)  Government approved 19th Tranche of Electoral Bonds

•The government has approved the issuance of the 19th tranche of electoral bonds, which will be open for sale from January 1 to 10, 2022, ahead of assembly elections in five states Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Goa. In the 19th tranche of sale, the State Bank of India (SBI), has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through its 29 specialised branches. There is no limit on the number of bonds an individual or company can purchase. An electoral bond will be valid for 15 days.

7)  Baldev Prakash named as MD & CEO of J&K Bank

•Baldev Prakash has been appointed as the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) of Jammu & Kashmir Bank for three years. His appointment will be effective from the date of taking charge or April 10, 2022, whichever is earlier. Apart from him, R K Chhibber has been appointed as an additional director on the board of the bank.

•Prakash has over 30 years of experience in banking. He had joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1991 and was the Chief General Manager (Digital and Transaction Banking Marketing Department) at SBI, Mumbai. The appointment is effective from the date of taking charge or April 10, 2022, whichever is earlier.

8)  Vinay Kumar Tripathi named as Chairman and CEO of Railway Board

•1983 Batch of Indian Railway Service, Vinay Kumar Tripathi has been appointed as new Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Railway Board. He is presently working as General Manager, Northeastern Railway to the post of Chairman of Railway Board. Indian Railway Board is the apex body of the Indian Railways, which reports to parliament through the Ministry of Railways. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has not only approved the appointment of Tripathi for six months from January 1 but also further granted an extension of his tenure till 31 December in 2022.

•Vinay Kumar Tripathi has attended higher Management training programmes in Switzerland & USA. Tripathi had played a key role in commissioning of state-of-art three-phase locomotives and their indigenization, which are now the workhorse of Indian Railways. Tripathi holds wide experience in railway management and administrations.

9)  LIC inaugurates Digi Zone to sell policies online

•Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India has inaugurated “Digi Zone”, at Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai, as part of its effort to enhance its digital footprint. LIC’s Digi Zone can be used by the customers to purchase policies online, pay the premium and avail of other services. As a part of its efforts to become a tech-driven life insurer, LIC will offer information related to its products and services through kiosks installed on the Digi Zone premises.

•Customers can use LIC’s Digi Zone to buy policies online, pay the premium and avail of other services. LIC plans to undertake the next wave of digital transformation to unlock several benefits of accelerating growth, driving customer satisfaction and improving intermediary productivity and loyalty.

10)  RBI extended deadline for Periodic KYC Update till March 31, 2022

•The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it has extended the deadline for periodic KYC updates by 3 months till March 31, 2022. Extension in view of prevalent uncertainty due to a new variant of COVID-19 – Omicron. Earlier the deadline for periodic KYC updates was December 31.

•Meanwhile, the government has also extended the deadline for businesses to file GST annual returns for the 2020-21 fiscal ended March 2021 by two months till February 28. GSTR 9 is an annual return to be filed yearly by taxpayers registered under the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It consists of details regarding the outward and inward supplies made or received under different tax heads.

11)  V.S Pathania takes over as Director-General of Indian Coast Guard

•V.S. Pathania took over as the 24th Director General (DG) of the Indian Coast Guard from Krishnaswamy Natarajan who retired from service. He is an alumnus of Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and National Defence College, New Delhi. He was elevated to the rank of Additional Director General in Nov 2019 and took over the reins as Coast Guard Commander (Eastern Seaboard) at Visakhapatnam.

12)  GST Collection Stood At Rs 1.29 Lakh Crore in December 2021

•GST revenue collected in December 2021 was over Rs 1.29 lakh crore, 13 per cent higher than the same month in 2020. The gross GST revenue collected in the month of December 2021 is ₹ 1,29,780 crore, of which CGST is ₹ 22,578 crore, SGST is ₹ 28,658 crore, IGST is Rs 69,155 crore (including Rs 37,527 crores collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 9,389 crore.

•Though the collection was lower than Rs 1.31 lakh crore mopped up in November, December is the sixth month in a row when revenue from goods sold and services rendered stood at over Rs 1 lakh crore. The average monthly gross GST collection for the third quarter (October-December) of the current year has been Rs 1.30 lakh crore against the average monthly collection of Rs 1.10 lakh crore and Rs 1.15 lakh crore in the first and second quarter, respectively.

13)  India defeat Sri Lanka in U-19 Asia Cup 2021 finals

•India has lifted the under-19 Asia cricket Cup by defeating Sri Lanka by nine wickets in a rain-interrupted One-Day International final in Dubai through the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. In the match, Sri Lanka opted to bat first and scored 106 for nine in the stipulated 38 overs. India, who have won a record seven Asia Cup titles, looked a far superior team.

•Rasheed and Harnoor ended the competition as the top-two leading scorers with 133 and 131 runs in four matches, respectively. India’s only loss in the competition came against Pakistan.