NATIONAL NEWS

India’s First Biomass-Based Hydrogen Plant

• Biomass-based hydrogen plant is to be set up in the Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh.

• This commercial plant will produce a tonne of hydrogen per day using 30 tonnes of biomass feedstock.
• It is a joint venture between Watomo Energies Ltd and Biezel Green Energy with an investment of ₹24 crore, in which Biezel Green Energy own 50 percent in the joint venture and remaining 50 percent will be under interested farmers.
• To produce hydrogen from the biomass the company owns the technology for a ‘thermally accelerated anerobic digestion (TAD) reactor’.
• It will also produce methane and biochar from biomass.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

One Ocean Summit in France

• France organized one Ocean Summit from 9th to 11th February in Brest, in cooperation with the United Nations and the World Bank.
• The objective of the Summit is to prepare the international community to take action on preserving and supporting healthy and sustainable ocean ecosystems.
• Several Heads of States and Governments including Germany, United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan and Canada will participate in the summit.

4th India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue

• The 4th edition of India-UK Home affairs dialogue was held virtually.

• Union home secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, from India and the permanent secretary, home office, Mathew Rycroft from United Kingdom led the meeting.

• During the dialogue, it was agreed to maintain enhanced security cooperation between the two countries and to deepen security-related bilateral engagement.
• The dialogue also covered a wide range of issues relating homeland security, cyber security, extradition cases, migration and mobility.

BANKING

JIVA Progamme

• The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) launched an agroecology-based programme named JIVA Programme that will promote natural farming under its existing watershed and wadi programmes in 11 states.

• The main objective of this programme is to use the principles of agroecology long-term sustainability and transform the pre-existing social and natural capital, and emphasizing the farming community towards natural farming where commercial farming cannot be done.

• The JIVA programme will be implemented on a pilot basis in 25 projects across 11 states covering five agroecological zones under this programme investment per hectare will be Rs 50,000.

BSE Gets Approval for Trading Electronic Gold Receipts

• Capital markets regulator SEBI has given approval to BSE for introducing Electronic Gold Receipt (EGR) on the stock exchange's platform a form of shares in Demat accounts.

• SEBI came out with a framework for operationalizing the gold exchange, where the yellow metal will be traded in the form of EGRs.
• Under the rules, the entire transaction has been divided into three tranches -- creation of EGR, trading of EGR on stock exchange and conversion of EGR into physical gold.
• The gold can be bought and stored in vaults until physical delivery is required.
• The Finance Ministry has specified EGR as securities under the securities Regulation Act 1956.

6^th Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy

• Six members Monetary Policy Committee organized by the Reserve Bank of India had released its sixth Bi-Monthly Monetary policy for FY21-22.

• The unchanged policy rates are

• RBI kept the rates unchanged for the 10th consecutive time.

Ranks, Reports & Indices

NITI Aayog’s Delta Ranking

• As per NITI Aayog’s Delta Rankings, Malkangiri in Odisha tops the list of the five most improved among 112 aspirational districts in the Agriculture and Water Resources sector for December 2021.

• It is followed by Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh, Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir, Ramgarh in Jharkhand and Begusarai in Bihar.

• This ranking is based on the progress made on 49 key performance indicators under 5 board socio-economic themes.
• They are Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development and Infrastructure.

US Green Building Council 2021 (Report / Ranking)

• India secured 3^rd rank in the world in the 9^th annual ranking of “The US Green Bulding Council (USGBC)” of top 10 nations and areas outside of the United States for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) in 2021

• It has 1,649 LEED certified projects.

• India has seen a 10% rise in LEED certified space from 2020.

• The list has been topped by China with 1,077 LEED projects certified in 2021 followed by Canada in 2^nd place.
• The ranking is based on countries outside the US that are doing good in healthy, sustainable, resilient building design and construction.

World Gold Council Report

• As per Goldhub, the official website of the World Gold Council (WGC), The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) emerged as the second largest buyer of Gold among the world’s Central Banks in 2021.
• RBI bought 77.5 metric tonnes taking its total gold reserve to 754.1 tonnes at the end of December 2021 which amounts to 6.22 per cent of India’s forex reserves.
• The Central Bank of Thailand, which is first among the world’s Central Banks bought 90 metric tonnes of gold.
• Goldhub, that maintains all the data about precious metals, reports that India’s official gold reserves are ninth-largest in the world.

AWARDS

5th National Award for Innovations and Good Practices in Educational Administration

• To improve the function of the public system of education from ground level, The National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) launched National Award for Innovation in Educational Administration for District and Block Level Education Officers in 2014.

• Dr Subhas Sarkar, Minister for State for Education, presented 5th National Award for Innovations and Good Practices in Educational Administration virtually.

• The National Award were presented to the selected District and Block level education officers from 29 states/ UTs of the country.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

DFS Secretary in Finance Ministry

• IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, Sanjay Malhotra has been appointed as Secretary in the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance.

• Sanjay Malhotra succeeds Debashish Panda, who completed his term on January 31, 2022.

• Prior to this appointment he served as Chairman and Managing Director of REC Ltd.

IMPORTANT DAY

National Deworming Day

• National Deworming Day 2022 is observed on February 10.

• The aim of this day is to eradicate intestinal worms among children of age 1-19 years.
• 10^th February and 10^th August are observed as the National Deworming Day.
• It is an initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.