VISION

 Why in news?

The Madhya Pradesh government is set to follow Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh in passing an anti-conversion law that outlaws religious conversion solely for the purpose of marriage.

What are the key features?

 Why in news?

The telecom industry moves to a new regime from 1 January 2021 with the interconnect usage charge (IUC) becoming zero.

What does this mean?

• A termination charge was paid to the operator on whose network the call terminated by the originating network.
• The new regime, where zero termination rate is payable, is known as bill and keep.
• With this, the operators will no longer have to pay the termination charge of 6 paise per minute to each other.

What impact will this have?

ORIENT IAS Ethics Class Notes by ATUL GARG PDF

1)  DRDO Celebrates 63rd Foundation Day on 1st January 2021

•The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) observed the 63rd Foundation Day of its establishment on January 01, 2021. DRDO was established in 1958 with just 10 laboratories to enhance the research work in the Defence sector. At that time, it was tasked with designing and developing cutting edge defence technologies for Indian Armed Forces.

•As of now, DRDO is working in multiple cutting edge military technology areas, which include aeronautics, armaments, combat vehicles, electronics, instrumentation, engineering systems, missiles, materials, naval systems, advanced computing, simulation, cyber, life sciences and other technologies for defence.

2)  PM Modi lays foundation stone of Light House projects (LHPs)

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Light House projects (LHPs) at six sites across six States through video conference on 1st January 2021. The LHPs will be implemented at Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Rajkot (Gujarat), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh).

3)  ISRO Chairman K Sivan gets one year extension up to 2022

•The Central Government has approved the extension of the term of ISRO Chairman K Sivan, for a period of one year. He was due to retire on January 14, 2021. Sivan will now continue as ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space up to January 14, 2022. He joined ISRO in 1982, has been the chairman of the space agency since January 2018.

•ISRO chief has imminent knowledge in Aerospace engineering, Space Transportation Systems Engineering, Launch vehicles, mission simulation software design and many other operations related to Space programs. He is also the main architect of 6D trajectory simulation software, SITARA which is the foundation of both the real-time and non-real-time trajectory simulations of all vehicles developed in the space agency.

4)  UNDP and PCMC join hands for ‘first social impact bond’

•Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Pune has recently signed an MoU with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India to co-create India’s first Social Impact Bond (SIB). This is the first time that a government body will act as the ‘outcome funder’ in a bond, whereas traditionally most government-funded public projects require large and early investments by the government with a substantial gestation period of outcomes and involve various kinds of risks.

5)  GoI extends Deadline to file Income Tax Returns to January 10, 2021

•The Central government has further extended the deadline to file an income tax return (ITR) for FY 2019-20 by 10 days, up to January 10, 2021. Earlier this deadline was December 31, 2020.

•This extension of the deadline is for those individuals whose accounts are not required to be audited and who usually file their income tax return using ITR-1 or ITR-4 forms, as applicable. This is the third extension of the deadline to file a tax return. The first extension was given from the normal deadline of July 31 to November 30, 2020, and then to December 31, 2020.

6)  Soma Mondal takes charge as new SAIL Chairman

•Soma Mondal has taken over as the new Chairman of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) with effect from January 01, 2021. She is the first-ever women-head of the body. She replaces Anil Kumar Chaudhary, who superannuated on 31 December 2020. She joined SAIL in 2017 as the director (commercial).

7)  Umesh Sinha named deputy election commissioner

•Umesh Sinha has been named as the deputy election commissioner in the Election Commission of India. Sinha, a 1986-batch IAS officer (retired) is at present serving as secretary-general in the commission.

•The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet cleared the extension in the term of reemployment of Sinha as deputy election commissioner on contract basis for a period of six months beyond December 31, 2020. His term will end on June 30, 2021. At present Sinha is also part of a committee set up by the Election Commission to look into the issue of revising the election expenditure of candidates during campaigning.

8)  Suneet Sharma takes over as new Chairman & CEO of Railway Board

•The appointments committee of the Cabinet has approved Suneet Sharma appointment as Chairman & CEO of Railway Board, Ministry of Railways and ex-officio Principal Secretary to Government of India. He took over in his new role with effect from January 01, 2021. The extended one-year tenure of Sharma’s predecessor, Vinod Kumar Yadav, who also became the restructured Board’s first CEO, ended on December 31, 2020.

•Prior to this, Suneet Sharma worked as General Manager, Eastern Railway.

9)  IFSCA becomes Associate Member of IOSCO

•The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has become an Associate Member of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). The Headquarter of IOSCO is at Madrid, Spain.

10)  A book titled “Vahana Masterclass” launched by Italian Writer Alfredo Covelli

•Alfredo Covelli, an Italy based author has launched his new book Vahana Masterclass for children and Young Audience. The books will be illustrated and published by Scholastic India. Alfredo had a keen interest in our Indian culture and mythology which inspired him to write a story on Lord Ganesh for children.

11)  ADB and India sign $10 million loan to support horticulture in HP

•The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India have signed a $10 million project readiness financing (PRF). This agreement aims to help finance piloting activities, and design and capacity building for an ensuing project that aims to expand horticulture production and farm household income in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh.

12)  ADB to provide $231 mn loan to enhance power generation capacity in Assam

•The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a $231 million loan with the Government of India to augment electricity generation capacity in the state of Assam. This is the third tranche loan for the ‘Assam Power Sector Investment Programme’ that was approved by the ADB Board in July 2014.

•Under the project, 120 megawatts (MW) hydroelectric power plant would be constructed. The programme focuses on enhancing the capacity and efficiency of the energy generation and distribution systems in Assam to improve the availability of electricity service to end-users. The programme, including its two previous tranches, focuses on enhancing capacity and efficiency of the energy generation and distribution systems in Assam to improve electricity service to end-users.

📰 PM unveils project for affordable housing