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Jitendra Singh has chaired 1st meeting with Sectoral Experts on Vision India@2047:
- Union Minister Jitendra Singh has chaired the first meeting with Sectoral Experts to have suggestions on structural and institutional reforms necessary to attain the envisaged Vision India@2047 on Governance.
- The meeting convened by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, DARPG, will also witness participation of experts from academics and science community.
- To improving efficiency in decision making in the central secretariat, reducing pendency, rationalizing working of Ministries and departments, ethics, transparency and accountability in 21st century governance, citizen centric governance, reforms in state secretariats, district collectorates, use of technology in governance and creation of institutions of excellence will be discussed in the meeting.
Nitin Gadkari to inaugurate Conference on PM-Gati Shakti for South Zone:
- Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is going to organize a conference on PM-Gati Shakti for the South Zone on 17 January 2022 to deliberate on its action plans and projects.
- The event, to be organized in virtual mode, will be inaugurated by Union RTH Minister Shri Nitin Gadkari and will be addressed by Karnataka Chief Minister S. Bommai, Puducherry Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy and officials from various Infrastructure Ministries of Govt. of India and State Governments.
- The participating State/UTs in the event are Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
- The day-long event will witness panel discussions on various aspects of the programme, involving Central & State officials and stakeholders.
- Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had launched the PM-Gati Shakti – National Master Plan (NMP) for multi-modal connectivity at a function in New Delhi.
PM calls startups backbone of New India; announces Jan 16 as National Start-up Day:
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that 2022 has brought several possibilities for the Start-up ecosystem in the country.
- India is celebrating 75th years of independence, and when India will achieve 100 years of independence, role of start-up will be significant in the nation’s progress.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi has interacted with Start-ups through video conferencing and announced 16th January will be celebrated as National Start-Ups Day.
- Startups from various sectors such as agriculture, health, space, industry 4.0, security, fintech and environment have taken part during the interaction.
- Over 150 start-ups have been divided into six working groups based on several themes.
- The event was organized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
- The event also marks the 6th anniversary of the launch of the Startup India initiative.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND ECONOMY
RBI authorises South Indian Bank to collect direct, indirect taxes:
- The Reserve Bank of India has authorised South Indian Bank to collect direct and indirect taxes on behalf of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC).
- The Kerala based bank signed an MoU with the CBDT and CBIC for collection of various taxes.
- The bank was earlier appointed as the Agency Bank of the RBI.
- Customers of the bank will soon be able to pay their direct and indirect taxes through its digital channels such as SIBerNet Internet Banking and SIB Mirror+ Mobile Banking, as well as through its branches.
Paytm Payments Bank becomes most preferred UPI beneficiary bank:
- Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL), an associate entity of Paytm, has become the first beneficiary bank in the country to achieve the landmark of over 926 million UPI transactions in a single month.
- This has cemented its position as the largest and fastest growing UPI beneficiary bank in India.
- Beneficiary banks are the banks of the account holder who is receiving money.
- This highlights customer preference to receive money in their Paytm Payments Bank account to further use it for everyday payments or for savings.
ICICI Prudential AMC joins hands with US-based First Trust Advisors:
- ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company has entered into a collaboration with the US-based First Trust Advisors, which is into actively-managed exchange-traded funds, to launch a slew of global fund of funds.
- Under the agreement, ICICI Prudential AMC will first launch a strategic metal and energy equity fund of funds, which will invest in an offshore fund managed by First Trust Advisors.
CURRENT AFFAIRS : APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS
RBI approves Ittira Davis’ appointment as Ujjivan SFB’s new MD & CEO
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Ittira Davis as the managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (SFB) for a one-year term effective January 14, 2022.
- The post had been lying vacant for three-months following the sudden exit of incumbent Nitin Chugh.
About Ittira Davis :
- Davis has been associated with Ujjivan since March 2015.
- He is a senior banker with over 40 years of rich experience having worked extensively in India, Middle East and Europe
- Prior to Ujjivan, Davis was the Managing Director with the Europe Arab Bank, London.
- He has also held leadership positions with Arab Bank plc, Bahrain and Citibank, India.
About RBI :
- Governor: Shaktikanta Das
- Deputy Governors : Mahesh Kumar Jain, M. Rajeshwar Rao, Michael Patra, T. Rabi Shankar.
- Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
- Founder: British Raj
- Founded: 1 April 1935
- Repo rate : 4.00%
- Reverse repo rate : 3.35%
- Bank rate : 4.25%
- Cash reserve ratio (CRR) : 4.0%
- Statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) : 18.00%
About Ujjivan SFB :
- Founded: 1 February 2017
- Headquarters: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
- Founder: Samit Ghosh
Raghuvendra Tanwar appointed chairman of ICHR
- Raghuvendra Tanwar, a professor emeritus and former registrar of the Kurukshetra University, has been appointed as chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), New Delhi for a period of three years by the Government of India (GOI) .
About Raghuvendra Tanwar :
- Prof Tanwar who joined KU as a lecturer in August 1977 has an outstanding academic record, with two gold medals in MA History & he was appointed an open selection professor.
- He has also worked as the KU’s dean of academic affairs and dean of academic affairs and dean of social sciences.
- He served as a UGC national fellow, a prestigious position in academia, from 2002-2005.
- He was appointed the director of Haryana Academy of History and Culture in 2016.
- He conducted a major research project on Jammu & Kashmir for the period 1947-53 in 2013-15.
- Tanwars most recent study is an illustrated story of Indias Partition, published by the Publication Division, Government of India in English and Hindi.
- He has several other major publications, including an illustrated biography of Bansi Lal and on Sir Chhotu Ram.
About ICHR :
- Founded: 27 March 1972
- Headquarters: New Delhi, Delhi, India
- Regional centers : Pune (Maharashtra), Bengaluru (Karnataka), and Guwahati (Assam).
Aim :
- To promote and give directions to historical research and to encourage and foster objective and scientific writing of history.
- Enhancing the academic standard of the output of ICHR activities has been foremost objective in its agenda.
CURRENT AFFAIRS : PERSON IN NEWS
David Bennett becomes First Human Receives a Pig Heart Transplant
- The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) announced a US man David Bennett, 57, has become the first person in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig.
- This organ transplant demonstrated for the first time that a genetically-modified animal heart can function like a human heart without immediate rejection by the body.
- He is being carefully monitored over the next days and weeks to determine whether the transplant provides lifesaving benefits.
- The possibility of using animal organs for so-called xenotransplantation to meet the demand has long been considered, and using pig heart valves is already common.
Indian-origin Ashok Elluswamy was first employee to be hired for Tesla’s Autopilot team
- Elon Musk, the creator and CEO of Tesla, has revealed that Indian-origin Ashok Elluswamy was the first person hired for the Autopilot team of the US-based electric vehicle energy company Tesla.
About Ashok Elluswamy :
- Ashok Elluswamy holds a bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the College of Engineering Guindy, Chennai and a Masters degree in Robotics System Development from Carnegie Mellon University.
- Before joining Tesla, Ashok Elluswamy was associated with Volkswagen Electronic Research Lab and WABCO Vehicle Control System.
- Elluswamy started working at Tesla in January 2014 as a software engineer for autopilot and was eventually promoted as director of Autopilot Software in 2019.
- As the Director of Teslas Autopilot Software, Elluswamy is responsible for leading the autonomy software team for the autopilot division and creation of large-scale automatic ground truth pipelines to train neural networks with massive amounts of diverse, high-quality data.
- He is also responsible for developing an accurate and detailed geometric and semantic understanding of the world using the best of both machine-learned and engineered models and building robust, causal, predictive models for other agents in both geometry and semantic state spaces
About Tesla :
- Founded: 1 July 2003
- CEO: Elon Musk
- Headquarters: Austin, Texas, United States
- Tesla, Inc is an American electric vehicle and clean energy company.
- It designs and manufactures electric cars, battery energy storage from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar roof tiles, and related products and services.
Daily CA On Jan 15:
- Union Minister Jitendra Singh has chaired the first meeting with Sectoral Experts to have suggestions on structural and institutional reforms necessary to attain the envisaged Vision India@2047 on Governance.
- Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is going to organize a conference on PM-Gati Shakti for the South Zone on 17 January 2022 to deliberate on its action plans and projects.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that 2022 has brought several possibilities for the Start-up ecosystem in the country.
- The Reserve Bank of India has authorised South Indian Bank to collect direct and indirect taxes on behalf of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC).
- Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL), an associate entity of Paytm, has become the first beneficiary bank in the country to achieve the landmark of over 926 million UPI transactions in a single month.
- ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company has entered into a collaboration with the US-based First Trust Advisors, which is into actively-managed exchange-traded funds, to launch a slew of global fund of funds.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Ittira Davis as the managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (SFB) for a one-year term effective January 14, 2022.
- Raghuvendra Tanwar, a professor emeritus and former registrar of the Kurukshetra University, has been appointed as chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), New Delhi for a period of three years by the Government of India (GOI) .
- The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) announced a US man David Bennett, 57, has become the first person in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig.
- Elon Musk, the creator and CEO of Tesla, has revealed that Indian-origin Ashok Elluswamy was the first person hired for the Autopilot team of the US-based electric vehicle energy company Tesla.