Daily Current Affairs, 23rd January 2020

1) Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya participate at UNAIDS Programme

•The Union Minister of State for Shipping (I/C) Mansukh Mandaviya participated in the High-level roundtable of United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) programme at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. The theme of the programme is “Access for all: Leveraging Innovations, Investments and Partnerships for Health”. The main objective of the programme is to coordinate global action on the AIDS disease and alleviate its impact. It was established in 1994.

What is UNAIDS?

•UNAIDS provides the strategic direction, advocacy, coordination and technical support needed to catalyse and connect leadership from governments, the private sector and communities to deliver life-saving HIV services. UNAIDS is leading the global effort to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Role of India

•Government of India is changing the scenario of health-sector, and the policy changes driven by Government for Affordable and Quality Health Access to All. The health needs, technologies and solutions to bridge economic inequalities in the health sector were discussed. The AIDS programme in India is implemented by NACO (National AIDS Control Organization). It formulates policy and implements prevention and control programmes of AIDS in the country. According to UNAIDS India is the third-largest country with the HIV epidemic in the world.

•NACO is the nodal organization to implement AIDS programmes of the Indian Government. Apart from this, it also conducts HIV estimation biennially along ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research). The first round of such estimation was conducted in 1998 and the last was done in 2017.

2) Agricultural land leasing policy will be implemented in Uttarakhand

•Uttarakhand has become the 1st state in the country where the government has made a policy to lease agricultural land. In lieu of giving land on a 30-year lease, the concerned farmer will get the rent for the land. In the hilly areas of the state, the obstacles of leasing land for farming, agriculture, horticulture, herbs, off-season vegetables, milk production, tea plantation, fruit hybridization and solar energy has been removed with this step.

•Now any institution, company, firm or NGO can take farmland on lease in villages, leasing a maximum of 30 acres of land on lease for 30 years. There is a provision to take more land in special circumstances. If there is government land around farmland, then it can be leased by paying the fee with the permission of the District Magistrate. The state government has made this policy in the wake of difficulties in the consolidation of land.

3) UN lowers India’s GDP growth rate to 5.7% for FY 2019-20

•The United Nations has lowered India’s GDP growth rate to 5.7% for the Fiscal Year 2019-20 in its World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2020 report. UN has lowered the growth rate to 5.7% from 7.6% which it projected in its WESP 2019 report.

•UN has also projected India’s growth rate at 6.6% for FY 2020-21 and 6.3% for FY 2021-22. According to the UN, India’s growth rate for FY 2018-19 was 6.8%.

4) Gaganyaan Mission’s Flight Surgeons will be trained by France

•France will train Indian flight surgeons for the ambitious human space mission Gaganyaan. The training is a critical aspect of the Gaganyaan project that is aimed at sending three Indians to space by 2022. The flight surgeons, who will be Indian Air Force doctors specialising in aviation medicines and responsible for the health of astronauts before, during and after the flight.

•France has a well-established mechanism for space medicine. It also has the MEDES space clinic, a subsidiary of CNES, where space surgeons undergo training. The four shortlisted astronauts all test pilots from the Indian Air Force are currently in Russia for an 11-month training programme.

5) ACC appoints Challa Sreenivasulu Setty as MD of SBI

•The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet has appointed Challa Sreenivasulu Setty as the Managing Director of the State Bank of India. Department of the Financial Services proposed his name to the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet for the position of Managing Director of the State Bank of India. Setty’s appointment has been done for 3 years.

•Challa Sreenivasulu Setty is presently serving in the State Bank of India as its Deputy Managing Director.

6) Greenpeace India Report: Jharia most polluted city in India

•The coal-belching town of Jharia in Jharkhand to be the most polluted city in India according to a Greenpeace India Report. Jharkhand’s Dhanbad, known for its rich coal reserves and industries, is the second-most polluted city in India.

•Delhi is the 10th-most polluted city in India, according to the report.  As per the report, 6 of the top-10 polluted cities are in Uttar Pradesh comprising of Noida, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Allahabad, Moradabad and Firozabad. Lunglei in Mizoram is the least polluted city in the country. The report is based on analysis of PM10 data from 287 cities across the country.

7) Ramnath Goenka Excellence Awards presented by President Kovind

•The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind presented the 14th Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in New Delhi. These awards are one of the most prestigious awards in India in the field of journalism, held annually since 2006.

•These are awarded to honour journalists across the country from print, broadcast and digital media who have maintained the highest standards of their profession and, despite immense challenges, produced work that sustains public trust in the media and impacts the lives of people. The award is named after Ramnath Goenka, who was an Indian newspaper publisher and founder of “The Indian Express” and Indian Express Group.

8) IMF has lowered India’s growth rate to 4.8% for FY 2019

•The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated India’s growth rate for the fiscal year 2019 as 4.8%. IMF has lowered India’s growth rate stating weak income growth in rural areas and the increasing stress in the non-bank financial sector. IMF has also projected India’s growth rate as 5.8% in 2020 and 6.5% in 2021.

9) Blockchain-Based “Vajra Platform” launched by NPCI for secure payments

•The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched a blockchain-technology based payment system ‘Vajra Platform’. The newly launched platform, which is based on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has been designed for automating payment clearing and settlement processes of NPCI products such as unified payments interface (UPI) and Rupay card.

The platform has three types of nodes:

•Clearing House node (CHN) for NPCI.
•UIDAI node for Aadhaar authentication.
•Participant node (PN) for all banks.

10) Indian shooters Divyansh & Apurvi wins gold medal at Meyton Cup

•Indian shooters Apurvi Chandela and Divyansh Singh Panwar have won the gold medal in Meyton Cup held in Austria. Apurvi Chandela clinched the gold medal while Anjum Moudgil won the bronze medal in 10m air rifle women’s category. Divyansh Singh Panwar clinched the gold medal while Deepak Kumar won the bronze medal in the men’s 10m air rifle event.