RBI panel moots change in timings for foreign exchange market

NATIONAL NEWS

India to host 14th conference of Parties, 197 countries expected to participate

• India is set to host the 14th conference of the parties (COP) from September 02 to 13. The global conference will be hosted at India Expo Mart Limited in Greater Noida. As many as 197 countries are expected to participate in the conference.
• “The 14th session of COP will stress on three crucial issues-desertification, land degradation and drought,”
• Ahead of COP-14, Minister also launched “Bonn Challange”, a maiden project to lay emphasis on India’s capacity for forest landscape restoration.

FACTS

National Museum of Indian Cinema launched NMIC Bulletin

• The National Museum of Indian Cinema launched a fortnightly bulletin named “NMIC Bulletin “
• It is located in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
• It brought out by the Films Division with veteran filmmaker Jahnu Barua.
• It is helpful to have a physical document to cherish and get relevant information for several educational institutions and students of media studies who visit Museum regularly.
• The Museum which made cinema possible as well as about narrating untold stories behind those cinemas.
• This museum will give several educational institutions and students of media studies.
• It was inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on 19th January 2019 
• It is at the Films Division Complex, Pedder Road, Mumbai. 
• The Museum is housed in two buildings – the New Museum Building and the 19th-century heritage building, Gulshan Mahal – both at the Films Division complex.
• The Museum showcases the history of India Cinema and has ample artifacts, digital elements including kiosks, interactive digital screens, information-based screen interfaces.

Worker safety code Bill gets Cabinet approval

• A Bill that seeks to merge 13 labour laws into one code on occupational safety, health and working conditions that would apply to all establishments with 10 or more workers was approved by the Union Cabinet, paving the way for its introduction in Parliament.
• The Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Bill, 2019, which would impact “40 crore unorganised workers”, was approved at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• While the code will be applicable to all trades, including IT establishments and service sector, where more than 10 workers are employed, it will be applicable to mines and docks that employ even one worker.
• The code makes it mandatory for employers to provide free annual medical check-ups and issue appointment letters to all employees. The multiple committees under five labour Acts would be replaced by the National Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board.
• The code also framed rules for women workers working night shifts.
• “Women permitted to work beyond 7 p.m. and before 6 a.m. subject to the safety, holidays, working hours or any other condition as prescribed by appropriate government in respect of prescribed establishments. However, only after taking their consent for night work (sic),”.

Human cell atlas: An initiative for holistic understanding of human body

• A new human atlas initiative has been launched to create a unified database of molecular network of all the tissues in the human body and to derive a holistic picture of working of human body.
• The project named Manav has been launched by the Department of Biotechnology and Persistent Systems, a biotechnology company.
• This mega project will collate and integrate molecular information on human tissues and organs that currently lies hidden in research articles in an unstructured and disorganized form.
• The project would utilize large biological community, both students and scientists, for extracting and adding the information from scientific literature at the level of cells and organs.
• The database would eventually help researchers in identifying gaps in current knowledge and help in future projects in diagnostics and disease biology.

India’s first cow sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh to be privatised

• Kamdhenu Gau Abhyaranya in Agar Malwa, 190 km north west of Bhopal, was developed by the MP Gau Samvardhan Board by spending about Rs 32 crore.
• Around 4,000 cows are living in the sanctuary which is spread across 472 hectares. The decision of privatisation is being taken due to financial crises.
• Soon, the department will issue a notification to invite interested organisations, said a higher officer of the Animal Husbandry department.

STATE NEWS

Madhya Pradesh to produce its own seeds soon

• In Madhya Pradesh, along with distribution and marketing of certified and high-quality seeds to farmers, the Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Seed Federation will produce seeds too. The decision has been taken in a Board of Directors’ meeting held under the chairmanship of the Minister for Cooperatives Govind Singh in Bhopal.
• The brand name of seeds will be ‘Sah-Beej’.  A plan has been made to produce seeds from the next Rabi season. A large number of seed committees present in the state, which will be linked to the seed federation and these committees will help in the marketing of seeds.

FACTS

Capital-Bhopal

Chief minister- Kamal Nath

Governor-Anandiben Patel

ECONOMIC AND FINANCE

RBI panel moots change in timings for foreign exchange market

• An internal committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which was set up to review timings of different financial markets, suggested that the foreign exchange market could function from 9 am to 9 pm At present, the currency market works from 9 am to 5 pm.
• “Calibrated extension of market hours, and to begin with, revised market timings of 9 am — 9 pm, may be considered to gauge demand and potential benefits,” the draft report of the committee said.
• The report noted that there are mixed views on the benefits of extension of market timing.

FACTS

RBI 25th Governor- Shaktikant Das

Headquarters-Mumbai

India Inc's FDI down over two times to $820 million in June, shows RBI data

• India Inc's foreign direct investment in June fell by over two times from a year ago to $820.36 million, data from the Reserve Bank of India showed Wednesday.
• The outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by the Indian firms stood at $2.29 billion in the year-ago same month, according to the RBI data on OFDI.
• In May, the Indian firms had invested over $1.56 billion in their overseas ventures.

DEFENCE

Indian Naval Ship Tarkash arrives in Morocco for 3-day visit

• Indian Naval Ship Tarkash arrived at Tangier, Morocco for a three-day visit. The visit is part of an ongoing Overseas Deployment by the Indian Navy to the Mediterranean Sea, Africa and Europe. The visit seeks to strengthen the bonds of friendship between India and Morocco.
• INS Tarkash, commanded by Captain Sathish Vasudev, is a state-of-the-art stealth frigate of the Indian Navy, equipped with a versatile range of weapons and sensors capable of addressing threats in all three dimensions.
•  The ship is a part of the Indian Navy's Western Fleet and is under the operational Command of Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command.
• During the port call, various dignitaries and government officials of Morocco including senior naval officers are scheduled to visit the ship. The ship would also take part in numerous professional, social and sporting interactions planned with the Royal Moroccan Navy.
• On departing the port, INS Tarkash will carry out a Passage Exercise at sea with ships of the Royal Moroccan Navy.

FACTS

Chief of the Naval Staff- Karambir Singh

APPOINTMENT

Arun Kumar appointed as DGCA chief

• Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved appointment of Arun Kumar, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, to Union Ministry of Civil Aviation as the new Director General (DG) in Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in rank and pay of Additional Secretary.
• He is 1989 batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre. He is currently serving as additional secretary in Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and will now be holding full-time charge as Chief of aviation regulator DGCA.
• He was heading DGCA as an additional charge between 31 May 31 and 9 July 2019.
• He will succeed B S Bhullar who was appointed as full-time DGCA chief in December 2016. He is an IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh (UP) cadre. In between June 2016 and December 2016, he was also heading DGCA as additional charge. During his tenure, his main role was as additional secretary in Ministry of civil aviation.

AWARDS

Global excellence award for Wipro Chairman Azim Premji and Mastercard Chief Ajay Banga

• Wipro Chairman Azim Premji and Mastercard Chief Executive Officer Ajay Banga would be honoured with the global excellence award for their contribution to strengthening economic ties between the US and India,
• “Premji and Banga will receive the 2019 global excellence award at the second annualleadership summit of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum in Washington on July 11 for their significant contribution to strengthening the economic ties between the two countries,”
• US President’s senior adviser Jared Kushner will present the awards to Premji and Banga at the summit.
• “Premji’s work to transform the Indian IT industry into a global powerhouse is a well-known fact. Our award recognises his philanthropic efforts, which reflect his mission to change lives through education,” said Forum board Chairman John Chambers in the statement.
• Banga had been a champion of the US-Indian partnership, advancing the bilateral ties across multiple transitions.

SPORTS

Dutee Chand wins 100m gold in World Universiade

• National record holder Dutee Chand became the first Indian woman track and field athlete to clinch a gold medal in the 30^th Summer Games in Naples, Italy after she won the 100m dash event in Napoli.
• The 23-year-old Dutee clocked 11.32 seconds to win the gold as she led the race from start to finish.
• Running at lane number 4, Dutee was the first one out of the eight athletes to blast off the starting blocks and she made most of it to fend of a late challenge from Del Ponte (11.33) of Switzerland.
• The Odisha runner, whose national record stands at 11.24 seconds, thus became the first Indian to win a 100m gold in a global event.
• She has now become only the second Indian sprinter to win a gold in a global event after Hima Das, who clinched the top spot in 400m in the World Junior Athletics Championships last year.
• Dutee, who had a silver each in 100m and 200m in the 2018 Asian Games, is also only the second Indian track and field athlete to win a gold in the World Universiade. Inderjeet Singh had clinched the top spot in men’s shot put event in the 2015 edition.

Commonwealth Senior Weightlifting Championship

• 4 Gold medals for India in Commonwealth senior Weightlifting Championships.

34th edition of Sailing Championship 2019 concluded in Telangana.

• The 34th edition of the national level sailing championship 2019, ‘Hyderabad Sailing Week’ was concluded at Secunderabad Club, Telangana.
• Event was held between July 2-July 7,2019 and it was jointly hosted by the EME Sailing Association, the Secunderabad Sailing Club and Laser Class Association of India.

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Population Day 2019-July 11

• Every year, July 11 is observed as World Population Day to draw urgent attention towards the growing population. Established by the United Nations Development Programme in 1989, World Population Day finds its inspiration from the interest raised by ‘Five Billion Day’ on July 11, 1987 — the day population reached five billion.
• The United Nations recognises World Population day as an important event to spread information regarding population-related issues across the globe.
• Unlike every year, this year there is no specific theme but the day aims to draw attention towards maternal health.