Daily Current Affairs : 27th and 28th June 2020 | Daily GK update Quiz

Exp. In a bid to attract fresh industrial investments in Maharashtra, the state government announced a new plan called ‘Maha Parwana’, which will offer several incentives and offer a single-window clearance system for project execution.

Aims: The state has assured that under the Maha Parwana system, such industries would get all the 25 odd statutory permissions and clearances from other state departments within a prescribed time (30 days). In case, these industries don’t get these clearances within the stipulated time, it would be deemed cleared automatically.

Exp. The Union Ministry of Culture has announced on 27th June 2020 that on the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the Ministry has decided to celebrate a 2-week long tree plantation campaign called ‘Sankalp Parva’ from 28th June to 12th July 2020. This was informed by the Union Minister of State for Culture (Independent Charge) Prahlad Joshi.

Under the Sankalp Parva, the Ministry of Culture has recommended planting 5 tress:  Bargad, Awla, Pepal, Ashok and Bel.

Sankalp Parva will be celebrated across all the Subordinate Offices, Institutions affiliated & attached to the Ministry and academies. For the success of the campaign, the Ministry has urged Institutions to ensure that employees must take care of the sapling that they have planted until it survives and flourishes.

Exp. Indian Railways has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RailTel, a miniratna PSU under Ministry of Railways, for providing Video Surveillance System (VSS) work at 6049 stations of Category A1, A, B, C, D & E of Indian Railways. The scope of work also includes integration of existing standalone CCTV network of Railway into VSS system for centralized monitoring and management.

RailTel has already installed VSS at 215 stations across country. And another 85 stations will be commissioned by Sep’20. Railtel has also provided CCTV cameras at entry and exit of 54 Railway Stations to facilitate running of Shramik Specials.

These cameras at station will help keeping tab of all the activities at station premises 24X7 ensuring better security of passengers at stations and Railway property.

Exp. India has retained and consolidated its position as the third-largest economy after China and the US in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) for 2017, said the government quoting the World Bank data.

PPP of the rupee per dollar at the gross domestic product (GDP) level rose to 20.65 in 2017 from 15.55 in 2011, while the exchange rate of a dollar to a rupee rose to 65.12 from 46.67 during the period.

Exp. National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) said the Indian economy could be growing at 1.3% in FY21 as a base case scenario. This projection is based on an incorporation of the monetary and fiscal stimulus measures undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the central government. It is also inclusive of the additional government borrowing of ₹4.2 trillion for the current fiscal year & additional borrowing headroom of up to 2% of GDP provided to states.

Exp. Private lender Yes Bank has joined hands with UDMA technologies to unveil digital wallet solution ‘Yuva Pay’. This new product from the lender will help the customers with contactless payments. The digital wallet is issued under minimum KYC regulations to Yes Bank.

Exp. India has moved down three places to 77th rank in terms of money parked by its citizens and enterprises with Swiss banks at the end of 2019, while the UK has retained its top position, as per the latest data from Switzerland’s central bank. India was ranked 74th in the previous year.

The top-ranked UK accounted for close to 27 per cent of the total foreign funds parked with Swiss banks at the end of 2019.

According to the latest SNB data, funds parked by Indian individuals and enterprises in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches, fell by 5.8 per cent in 2019 to 899 million Swiss francs (Rs 6,625 crore).

Exp. Energia Space Corporation in Russia announced on June 25 that it is planning on taking the first tourist on a spacewalk in 2023, under the terms of a new contract with a United States partner.

Energia has signed a contract with Space Adventures. The contact promises to take two space tourists to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023.

Energia, which is a part of Russia’s Space Agency, Roscosmos informed that there is a plan that one of the participants of the expedition will do spacewalk from the Russian segment, together with a Russian cosmonaut.

Exp. NASA announced Wednesday that its headquarters will be named after one of its history-making engineers. In a news release, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters building will be named after Mary W. Jackson, its first African American female engineer.

Exp. The National Green Tribunal has imposed an interim penalty of Rs 25 crore on PSU major Oil India over its failure to stop fire in Assam’s Baghjan oil well resulting in damage to the environment. Well number 5 at Baghjan in Tinsukia district, has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 27 days and it caught fire on June 9, killing two of OIL’s firefighters at the site.

A bench comprising Justice S P Wangdi and expert member Siddhanta Das constituted a committee headed by former high court judge B P Katakey to look into the matter and submit a report in 30 days.

Exp. The UN General Assembly, recognizing the need to improve small business development, decided to designate 27 June as Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day. The goal is to encourage member states to facilitate observance of the day by increasing awareness and actions to support small business.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda recognized the importance of MSMEs and call for action to improve their access to finance, value chains and markets.

Exp. On June 28th each year, National Insurance Awareness Day encourages us to review our insurance policies. While the origin of this day is a mystery, what’s widely known is how important insurance is in many aspects of our lives. From car insurance, to life insurance, to home insurance and more, these policies offer a layer of protection to guard us from feeling the harshest of blows by unfortunate events.

Exp. Sqn Ldr Parvez Jamasji (retd), who was awarded the Vir Chakra for gallantry during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, has died, He was 77. Jamasji, who used a walking stick due to the injuries he sustained as a helicopter pilot while conducting heli-borne operations during the war. The former pilot was commissioned in 1965 and retired in 1985.

Exp. Prashant Kumar, former Chief financial officer of SBI, is the present MD & CEO at Yes Bank.