DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

By admin: Jan. 6, 2022

Six One District One Product brands launched under the PMFME scheme

Tags: National News

Union Minister for Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Shri Pashupati Kumar Paras and Minister of State, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel launched six, One District One Product (ODOP) brands under the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme at New Delhi.

• The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has signed an agreement with NAFED for developing 10 brands of selected ODOPs under the branding and marketing component of the PMFME scheme. Out of these, six brands namely Amrit Phal, Cori Gold, Kashmiri Mantra, Madhumanthra, Somdana, and Whole Wheat Cookies of Dilli Bakes were launched on 5 january 2022.

 Launched Brands  :-

• Amrit Phal :  It is an Amla juice extract exclusively developed under the ODOP concept for Gurugram, Haryana. 
• Cori Brand: It has been  developed for coriander powder which is the identified ODOP for Kota, Rajasthan
• Kashmiri Mantra Brand : It is a spice brand of Kulgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
• Madhu  Mantra Brand: It has been  developed under the ODOP concept for honey from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
• Whole wheat cookies: It is the second product developed under the brand Dilli Bakes for Delhi. 
• Somdana Brand has been developed under the ODOP concept of millets from Thane, Maharashtra.

All the products will be available at National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India  (NAFED)  Bazaars, E-commerce platforms, and prominent retail stores across India.

For more information about PMFME Scheme click here.

To know more about One District One Product Scheme click here.

Government of India launches SAAR

Tags: National News

As part of the Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav (AKAM) celebrations across the country, the Smart Cities Mission,  Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs ( MoHUA) has launched “Smart cities and Academia Towards Action & Research (SAAR)” program’

•  It is a joint initiative of MoHUA, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) and  15 leading Indian academic institutions of the country.
• Under the program, 15 premier architecture & planning institutes of the country will be working with Smart Cities to document landmark projects undertaken by the Smart Cities Mission. 
• The compendium will act as a first point of reference for future research in the field, help disseminate learnings from projects under the Mission, act as a repository for Urban Projects, and contribute to dissemination of best practices and peer-to-peer learning. 
• The 75 projects covered in the compendium are distributed across 47 Smart Cities. The partner institutes documenting the projects include inter alia Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Center for Environment Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi, and School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal.

The SAAR project includes 75 urban projects distributed across 47 Smart cities. 

The cities include: Agra, Ajmer, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Dharamshala, Faridabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Saharanpur, Shimla, Srinagar, Belgavi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Erode, Kakinada, Kochi, Manguluru, Shivamogga, Thanjavur, Thiruchirapalli, Thiruvananthapuram, Tumakuru, Ahmedabad, Dahod, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, Surat, Thane, Vadodara, Bhubaneswar, New Town Kolkata, Ranchi, Vishakhapatnam, Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, Raipur, Sagar, Ujjain, Jabalpur, Agartala, Gangtok, and Namchi.

Logo and Mascot of the 25th National Youth Festival unveiled

Tags: National News

Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Shri Anurag Thakur and Lt. Governor of Puducherry Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan unveiled the Logo and Mascot of the 25th National Youth Festival on 5 January 2021 in Puducherry.

• The 25t  National Youth Games will be held  in Puducherry from 12th -16th January 2022. 
• The festival will be inaugurated by Prime Minister  Narendra Modi .
• The  tag-line or theme  of the National Youth Festival is , Shaksham Yuva Shashakth Yuva meaning Capable Youth- Forceful Youth, Able Youth- Strong Youth.

 National Youth Festival 

• National Youth Festival is organized by the Government of India every year in collaboration with one of the States from January 12th to 16th to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda i.e. 12th January.
• It was started in 1995 as a major activity under the programme of National Integration Camp (NIC)
• The 24 th National Youth Festival was held in Virtual mode due to Covid. 

Swami Vivekananda's birthday on January 12 is always celebrated as National Youth Day and the week commencing from that day is known as the National Youth Week

Tamil Nadu to oppose the construction of Mekedatu dam

Tags: State News

Tamilnadu government has again reiterated its stand that it is opposed to the construction of Mekedatu dam  by Karnataka.

• In 2019 Karnataka Government  submitted a proposal to the Central government for construction of a reservoir at Mekedatu in Ramanagara district, 90 km from Bengaluru and 4 km from the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border.
• The project is proposed at the confluence of Cauvery with its tributary Arkavathi.
• The project aims to ensure adequate drinking water supply to Bengaluru and produce 400 MW of hydro electricity .

Tamilnadu is opposed to this project as it will reduce the flow of water to Tamilnadu. It has approached the Supreme Court on this issue. 

English is the Court Language : Gujarat High Court

Tags: State News

A Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court has asked a journalist facing contempt of court proceedings to speak only in English as that was the language in the higher judiciary.

• The Bench comprising Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and A.J. Shastri made the directive to  local journalist Vishal Vyas, who runs Samna Bhrashtachar Ka, against which contempt of court proceedings was initiated in 2014.
• Vishal Vyas insisted on speaking in Gujarati.
• In the High Court, there is a rule that even if any party who does not hire a lawyer appears in person, he has to speak and argue in English only.

Language to be used in Courts 

• The Bench also underlined that the Article 348 of the Constitution mandates that the language of the High Court would be English.
• However under clause 2 of the article provides that the governor can authorise the use of Hindi or any other language with the consent of the President for the proceedings of the High Court.
• In the Supreme Court it is English only.

Russia-led military alliance CSTO to send peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan

Tags: International News

 The Russian Led military alliance ,Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), has said that it will dispatch peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan after the country’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked for help in controlling protests that escalated into violence in various parts of Kazakhstan and  rioting in its largest city Almaty.

•  The protest started after the government doubled the cost of liquefied petroleum gas which is used in vehicles  as it was cheaper than other fuels .
• The protest later spread to many parts of the country with broader demands for increased political representation and improved social benefits.
•  Prime Minister Askar Mamin resigned amid the protestand the government has imposed an emergency in the country . 
• Alikhan Smailov has been appointed acting Prime Minister.
• Kazakhstan is an oil rich country but its rulers are considered to be corrupt and autocrats .

 Kazakhstan

The capital of Kazakhstan  is Nur-Sultan 

Currency Tenge 

President : Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation )

• It is a military alliance of the former Soviet Union countries .
• It was set up in 1992  as Unified Armed Forces , which was later renamed as CSTO in 2002. 
• At present the member countries are  Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
• The Headquarter of CSTO is  Moscow, Russia 

US records million daily new cases of Covid

Tags: International News

The United States  became the first country in the world to report more than a million new cases of covid .

• It reported 1,080,211 cases on 3 January 2022.
• The Omicron variant of the coronavirus , accounts for the majority of cases in the US.
• The Covid-19 case was first detected in Wuhan, China .

RBI releases the list of Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) 2021

Tags: Economics/Business

The Reserve Bank of India has retained SBI,ICICI bank and HDFC bank in the list of Domestically Systemically Important Banks(D-SIB) list for the year 2021.

• RBI started disclosing the name of the bank in the D-SIB list from 2015 and SBI was included in the list.
• ICICI Bank was included in 2016 and HDFC bank was included in 2017.

D-SIB (Domestic Systemically Important Banks )

• The concept behind D-SIB is that there are certain banks in India which cannot be allowed to fail as its failure may  badly affect the Indian economy .
• RBI selects banks on their size  and their overall contribution in the Indian economy.
• These banks have to keep an additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1)  apart from their capital conservation buffer .
•  SBI has to maintain an additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) of 0.80% as a percentage of their Risk Weighted Assets .
• HDFC Bank and ICICI banks have to  maintain an additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) of 0.20% as a percentage of their Risk Weighted Assets .

Foreign Banks having branches in India are called as Global-Systemically Important Bank(G-SIB).At present no  foreign bank has been put in the G-SIB category by RBI.

Hughes, Bharti form JV for VSAT services

Tags: Economics/Business

Hughes Communication India Private Limited (HCIPL) and Bharti Airtel announced the formation of a joint venture to provide satellite broadband services in India through Very Small Aperture Terminal(VSAT).

New Variant of Corona virus identified in France

Tags: Science and Technology

The World Health Organization said that ‘IHU’, a coronavirus variant found in France, hasn't become much of a threat since it was first identified in November.

• The variant was identified in 12 people in the southern Alps around the same time that omicron was discovered in South Africa last year.

Freedom fighter K. Ayappan dead

Tags: Person in news

Veteran freedom fighter, eminent lawyer and one of the early leaders of the BJP in Kerala, K Ayyappan Pillai died in Thiruvananthapuram at the age of 107 years.

An ardent admirer of the 'Father of the Nation", Mahatma Gandhi, he had actively participated in the Quit India movement