Madhya Pradesh govt launches urban street vendor welfare programme

1.World Accreditation Day: 9 June

The World Accreditation Day (WAD) is celebrated globally on 9th June every year to highlight and promote the role of accreditation in trade & economy.Accreditation has an important role in food safety, by ensuring competent and impartial inspection, certification and testing services in all parts of local, national and international food chains.Accreditation can be applied to a wide variety of assessment, approval or evaluation tasks and is used by business, government and regulators to help deliver a safer world.2020 theme: “Accreditation: Improving Food Safety”.

2.Myanmar military to use Facebook to counter ‘misinformation’

Myanmar military ‘Tatmadaw’ has decided to use Facebook again to provide ‘accurate’ news to people.This was announced by the Tatmadaw spokesperson Zaw Min Tun in Myanmar.The military has decided to use the popular social media platform to counter fake news and misinformation and provide accurate news to people swiftly, reports Irrawady.Facebook had removed several accounts linked to the Myanmar military in 2018.While removing the accounts on August 28, 2018 the Facebook had said that they removed 425 Facebook pages, 17 groups and 135 Facebook accounts and 15 Instagram accounts linked to the Myanmar military as evidence suggested that they had committed serious human rights violations in Myanmar.

3.IIT Guwahati students’ startup Flyzy develops mobile application for contactless travel

Students of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati have developed a mobile application, called ‘Flyzy’, to provide a seamless air travelling experience to passengers during the pandemic.The mission is to build Flyzy into India’s finest aviation IT technology company for providing a stress-free and safe journey to flyers.The aim of the application is to provide contactless boarding keeping in mind the easier baggage drop, manageable parking, a better shopping experience and providing necessary updates during the whole journey.They plan to install this in the airports.This a hybrid software which will support face-biometric recognition in the future, without changing the complete software system of the airport.IIT stated the idea is not only relevant during the present pandemic situation but also during the non-crisis time.

4.DIAT Pune develops Nano-technology based disinfectant spray to combat COVID-19

Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, a Deemed University, Pune has developed a Nano-technology based disinfectant spray to combat COVID-19 by disinfecting all types of surfaces.It has been named “ANANYA”. This can be used by anyone, from a common man to a healthcare worker, for individual as well as large scale use.This spray can be used on masks, PPEs, hospital linens, as well as other likely contaminated surfaces such as medical instruments, elevator buttons, door knobs, corridors and rooms.This Nano-technology assisted formulation will not only stop the novel coronavirus from entering the human body, but it will also kill the virus when the virus comes in contact with this formulation layer on masks and PPEs.This is a water based spray and will be effective for more than 24 hours after spray.

5.Madhya Pradesh govt launches urban street vendor welfare programme

Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has started Street Vendor Registration Portal http://www.mpurban.gov.in/ and “Mukhyamantri Shahri Path Vyavsayi Utthan Yojana” and transferred Rs 300 crore to urban local bodies.Prime Minister Narendra Modi for starting Pradhan Mantri Path Vikreta Aatmanirbhar Nidhi Karyakram along with this Shehri Path Vyavasayi Utthan Yojana will commence in order to benefit the state’s urban businessmen under which small businessmen or vendors will be given Rs 10,000 in the form of working capital.The current COVID-19 situation, for development purposes, the Government has provided Rs 1,555 crore to 22,800 Gram Panchayats.

6.World Bank lends Rs. 1,950 crore loans to W Bengal Govt for tackling COVID situation

The World Bank has given Rs. 1,950 crore loans to the West Bengal Government for tackling COVID situation and developmental work in the State.Out of it, Rs. 1,100 crore will be spent for creating Industrial infrastructures.Remaining Rs. 850 crore have been allocated for spending on various Social-Welfare schemes.

7.CBIC launches its flagship programme ‘Turant Customs’ at Bengaluru & Chennai

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, CBIC launched its flagship programme Turant Customs, at Bengaluru and Chennai.This is a giant leap forward to leverage technology for faster Customs clearance of imported goods.Importers will now get their goods cleared from Customs after a faceless assessment is done remotely by the Customs officers located outside the port of import.Now, the goods imported at Chennai may be assessed by the Customs officers located at Bengaluru and vice versa, as assigned by the Customs’ automated system.Turant Customs is a mega reform for the ease of doing business.The start of Turant Customs at Bengaluru and Chennai will be the first phase of the All India roll out which will get completed by 31st December this year.

8.RIL to sell 1.16% in Jio to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for Rs 5,684 cr

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) announced 1.16 per cent stake sale in Jio Platforms, its digital services subsidiary, to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for Rs 5,683.50 crore.This is the eighth investment in Jio Platforms in seven weeks and values the company at Rs 4.91 trillion on equity value basis.So far, RIL has raised Rs 97,885.65 crore through 21.06 per cent stake sale to seven marquee investors, including Facebook and private equity firms like KKR and General Atlantic.RIL had a net debt of Rs 1.6 trillion as of March end.The company has advanced its debt reduction target and plans to make the firm debt free by December end through a mix of stake sale in Jio, cash profit through operations, rights issue, and divestment of 49 per cent share in fuel retailing business to BP.Earlier this week, the company announced a successful closure of Rs 53,124 crore rights issue and would raise 25 percent of it (Rs 13,281 crore) this year.

9.Renjith Kumar honoured by NASA Distinguished Service Medal

Renjith Kumar, an aerospace entrepreneur, has been bestowed with NASA Distinguished Service Medal.‘Renji’, as he is popularly called, belongs to the prominent Elankath family and is only the second Indian after R K Chetty Pandipati to win the coveted award. During his 30-year long association with the US space agency, Kumar had helped redesign the International Space Station(ISS), He was a member of the Class of 85 at the Central Engineering College Trivandrum and won a gold medal in mechanical engineering.

10.The Ramon Magsaysay awards cancelled

The Ramon Magsaysay awards, regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, have been cancelled this year due to the global pandemic.This is the only third time the annual awards were disrupted in six decades.The awards were also cancelled due to a financial crisis in 1970 and a disastrous earthquake that hit the Philippines in 1990.The Ramon Magsaysay awards are named after Ramon Magsaysay, the third president of the Republic of the Philippines after World War II.

11.Gomathi Marimuthu gets four-year doping ban

Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has banned athlete Gomathi Marimuthu for 4-years after testing positive for banned substances.Her ban starts from 17th May 2019 to 16th May 2023.All of Gomathi’s competition results between March 18 and May 17, 2019, stand annulled.The Gold Medal she bagged in the 2019 Asian Championship that was held in Doha, Qatar with the timing of 2 minutes and 2.70 seconds has been stripped by the Athletics Integrity Unit(AIU) when the B sample of Gomathi returned positive.

12.Former union minister Arjun Charan Sethi dies

Former Union minister Arjun Charan Sethi died in a hospital following a brief illness.An eight-time MP from Bhadrak Lok Sabha constituency, Sethi was the Union Water Resources Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government from 2000 to 2004.Active in social and political spheres since his youth, soft-spoken Sethi was also elected to the Odisha Assembly twice.During his long stint as an MP and an MLA, the late Arjun Sethi had earned the goodwill of the people for his dedicated service and commitment.