NATIONAL

More than a lakh receiving pensions through SAMPANN project

• The Communication ministry have revealed that more than one lakh pensioners are being serviced and benefited by the ‘System for Accounting and Management of Pension’(SAMPANN).
• Through this scheme the beneficiaries registered receive their pension directly into their accounts.
• It has also settled 9,360 Grievances enabling faster settlement of pension cases and easy settlement.
• It has ensured recurring monthly savings to the Government of India on account of Commission being paid to Banks/Post Offices for payment of Pension which approximately amounts to Rs 11.5 Crores as of June, 2021.

Additional Fact-

1. ‘System for Accounting and Management of Pension’(SAMPANN ) is an ambitious project of Government of India being implemented by Controller General of Communication Accounts, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications.
2. It helps in timely settlement of pension cases.
3. It enables provision of e-Pension Payment Order.
4. It also enables login for each pensioner enables access to key information like payment history.
5. It enables online submission of grievances and timely SMS alerts.

First census of water bodies launched

• The Ministry of Jal Sakthi Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has launched the first census of water bodies in convergence with the Sixth round of Minor Irrigation Census with the objective of census of water bodies and to develop a national database of all water bodies in the country.
• Alongside he has informed that a total of 276 Jal Kendras have been set up in various States and Union Territories as a part of Jal Sakthi Abhiyan- catch the Rain campaign.
• These Jal Sakthi Kendras will act as Knowledge Hubs to spread information related to water conservation techniques and provide technical guidance to people.
• The Government of India in partnership with states is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission-Har Ghar Jal which aims at providing potable water in adequate quantity and of prescribed quality on regular and long term basis to every rural household through tap water connection by 2024 with an estimated cost of 3.60 lakh crore rupees.

PLI approved for Domestic Manufacturing of Medical Devices

• The Department of Pharmaceuticals had launched a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Promotion of Domestic Manufacturing of Medical Devices
• Aimed to ensure a level playing field for the domestic manufacturers of medical devices with a total financial cost of Rs.3,420 cr. for the period 2020-21 to 2027-28.
• Under the scheme 28 applications were received from 23 applicants. Out of which, 13 applications with committed investment of Rs 798.93 crore by the Companies were approved which is expected generate employment of around 3,812 persons.

INTERNATIONAL

Summit For Democracy

• The United States have hosted the 2day virtual Summit For Democracy, inviting more than 100 countries to make concrete commitments.
• US president Joe Biden has inaugurated the two day summit, he also launched the Presidential initiative for democratic renewal, where US would commit $224 million towards various democracy related projects including transparency in election and free independent media.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took part in the summit representing India.
• India was one of the only three south Asian countries to attend the summit along with Nepal and Maldives.

ISA becomes the Observer at UN

• India’s Permanent Representative to united states T.S Tirumurti has informed that The United General Assembly has granted Observer status to the International Solar Alliance.

Additional Fact-

1. International Solar Alliance is an alliance of 24 countries lying partly between the tropic of cancer and tropic of capricon, which are also termed as sun shine countries formed on Nov 30 2015.
2. The alliance is an initiative of India, the alliance is a treaty based intergovernmental organization, focused on solar power utilization and to reduce emissions.

IMO awards Indian Navy and Indian Coast guard

• International Maritime Organisation has awarded Certificate of Commendation to Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and Master along with crew members of tugboat Ocean Bliss.
• The award has been given for exceptional and courageous efforts towards rescue operation of M/T New Diamond.
• Indian Coast Guard and the master and crew of tugboat Ocean Bliss, carried out sustained and effective fire- fighting operations.
• They had skilfully towed the vessel away from the coast, thereby preventing loss of life at sea and averted a serious marine pollution incident.

BANKING, FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

Retail Inflation kicks up in Nov

• India’s retail inflation has moved above the RBI’s target range, The consumer price inflation forecast for November 2021 has climbed up to 5.1% faster than the previous month of Oct 4.48%
• The major cause for rise in value was attributed to rise in prices of Vegetables and Fruits along with the rise in price of Liquefied petroleum gas.

Paytm gets Scheduled payments bank status

• The Reserve bank of India has inked approval for the Paytm Payments bank to operate as scheduled payments bank.
• By the approval, now Paytm can participate in Fixed rates and variable repo rates and reverse repo rates, it can also participate in Marginal standing facility and primary auctions.
• It can also partner in government run financial inclusion schemes.

World Gold Council Report released

• The World Gold Council released ‘Bullion Trade in India’ report, which revealed that India’s imports made up 86% of Indian Gold Supply between 2016-20.
• Report also revealed that India has imported nearly 6,581 tonnes of gold, In 2020 alone India has imported 377 tonnes of gold bars from 30 countries, among this the major share of 44% were imported from Switzerland and 11% from UAE.
• The report showed that, because of lower duty on gold raised its import from 11% in 2014 to 29% in 2020.

SEBI proposes Algorithm based retail trading

• Securities and Exchange board of India has proposed a new regulatory framework for algorithm trading by retail investors.
• The alogorithm basd trading system will monitor live stock prices automatically.
• It has also proposed a framework of Application Programming Interface(API) access.

SPORTS

Gold and Silver for India in commonwealth

• Sanket Mahadev Sargar bagged the gold medal in the men's 55kg category. He lifted the weight of 113kg. Sargar created the new snatch national record with this win.
• Indian weightlifter Jhilli Dalabehera has won the gold medal in the women's 49kg category at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
• Dalabehera lifted the total weight of 167kg with 73kg in snatch and 94kg in clean and jerk to win the Gold in the 49kg category.
• S Bidyarani Devi bagged silver at the women's 55kg category at the ongoing Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships held at Tashkent, Uzbekistan, She would also get a gold for having lifted the highest weight in the clean and jerk category with her 114kg effort, as per Commonwealth Championship rule.

India shines with Gold at IKMF

• Shivani Agarwalla, from Kolkata becomes the first woman to snatch a gold medal in the International Kettlebell Marathon Federation(IKMF) world championship, held at France.
• She lifted 16kg kettlebell for 30 minutes nonstop performing 369 repetitions.
• She has previously won International Gira Sports Federation kettlebell world championship twice in 2018 and 2019.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Dec 10^th is observed as the Human Rights Day.
• Dec 10^th is observed as the Nobel Prize Day, celebrated to honour the achievements of Alfred Nobel