NATIONAL NEWS

Odisha Government Announces Relief for Farmers

• Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on 15 November 2022 announced an input Assistance of Rs 200 crores for the distressed farmers of the drought-affected areas of the state.
• The entire expenditure would be borne by the State Government.
• To help the farmers of the state the Chief Minister has decided to provide assistance out of the state’s own resources.

International Travelling Exhibition ‘Vaccines Injecting Hope’

• Union Minister of State for Culture and Parliamentary Affairs Ajun Ram Meghwal inaugurated an international travelling exhibition “Vaccines Injecting Hope” at the National Science Center, New Delhi on 15 November 2022.

• The exhibition “Vaccines Injecting Hope” has been organised by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) and Science Museum Group, London.

• The exhibition tells the story of the global effort to develop covid vaccine started on 15 November 2022 and will tour five cities of Delhi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata till September 2025 and is expected to reach out to more than 2 million people.

• NCSM is an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Culture. It is a premier body in the field of science communication.

Contingency Fund for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana -Gramin

• The Union Finance Ministry has authorized release of Rs 13,000 crore from the Contingency Fund of India to meet the additional financial demand for implementing the Government of India's flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna-Gramin (PMAY-G) programme in 2022-23.

• This amount is in addition to the Rs 20,000 crore allocated for the programme in the Union Budget 2022-23.

• Under the PMAY-G scheme, the government provides financial assistance of Rs 1.20 lakhs per beneficiary for construction of houses in rural areas in plain areas and in the North East and Hilly areas the assistance amount is Rs 1.30 lakhs per beneficiary.

• Article 267 of the constitution provides for a Contingency Fund of India for the central government and for each state government.

First Indian Biological Data Center

• Union Minister of state for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh dedicated India’s first national repository for life science data ‘Indian Biological Data Center’ (IBDC) to the nation at Faridabad.
• In this data centre Indian researchers will store biological data from publicly funded research.
• The digitised data will be stored on a four-petabyte supercomputer called ‘Brahm’. A petabyte equals 10,00,000 gigabytes.
• The bio-bank now has 200 billion base pair data, including 200 human genomes sequenced under the '1,000 Genomes Project', an international effort to map genetic variations in people.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

India Hosts Leadit Summit with Sweden

• India and Sweden hosted the LeadIT (Leadership for Industry Transition) Summit, on 15 November 2022 on the side-lines of Conferences of Parties (COP 27) being held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from 6-18 November 2022.
• The initiative focuses on low carbon transition of the industrial sector which is a major source of carbon emission in the world.
• Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav co-hosted the summit with the Swedish Minister for Climate and the Environment Romina Pourmokhtari.
• The Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) was launched by the governments of Sweden and India at the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019 at New York City, United States of America.
• It brings together countries and companies that are committed to action to achieve the 2016 Paris Agreement on reduction of carbon emission.

BANKING

HDFC Bank Partners with Arzooo

• HDFC Bank (India’s largest Private sector Bank) partners with Arzooo (India’s fastest-growing Retail Tech Platform) to launch Purchase cards that have been exclusively designed for offline retailers.

• The card offers interest-free credit for up to a month and a credit limit of up to Rs 1 crore.

• It is also integrated with the Arzooo mobile application for ease of use during checkout.

• Over 40,000 retail partnerswho are already on the Arzooo platform will now be able to manage their working capital much more efficiently.

• The Purchase Card will play a pivotal role in mobilizing the economy by providing support to small and mid-sized retailers with easy access to capital.

SPORTS

IOA Athletes Commission

• Olympic medalists MC Mary Kom, PV Sindhu, Mirabai Chanu and Gagan Narang are among 10 eminent sports persons selected as members of the Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) Athletes Commission on 14 November 2022.
• The other seven members of the apex body are Tokyo Olympics silver medallist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, 2012 Olympics bronze winner shooter Gagan Narang, veteran table tennis player Achanta Sharath Kamal, hockey player Rani Rampal, cyclist Bhavani Devi, rower Bajrang Lal and former shot putter OP Karhana.
• All the 10 elected members of the apex body, five men and five women were elected unopposed in the election.
• Under the new constitution of the Indian Olympic Association, the commission should have an equal number of female and male representatives.

AWARDS & PRIZES

Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award

• Spanish film director and writer Carlos Saura will be honoured with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 at the upcoming 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India in Goa.

• The 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be held in Goa from 20 November to 28 November 2022.

• France is the 'Spotlight' country in 2022 and 8 of its films will be screened under the Country Focus package.

• Austrian film 'Elma and Oscar' directed by Dieter Berner will open the festival, while Christoph Zanussi's 'Perfect Number' will be the closing film.

‘Eat Right Station’ Certification

• The Food Safety and Standard Association of India (FSSAI) awarded Bhopal Railway Station a 4-star ‘Eat Right Station’ certification for providing high-quality, nutritious food to passengers.
• The ‘Eat Right Station’ certification is awarded by FSSAI to railway stations that set benchmarks in providing safe and wholesome food to passengers.
• Its tagline is ‘Sahi Bhojan, Behtar Jeevan’.
• The station is awarded a certificate upon a conclusion of an FSSAI-empanelled third-party audit agency with ratings from 1 to 5.
• The 4-star rating indicates full compliance by the station to ensure safe and hygienic food is available to passengers.

DEFENCE NEWS

Exercise ‘YUDH ABHYAS 2022’

• The 18th edition of Indo-US joint training exercise "Yudh Abhyas 22" will be held in Auli, Uttarakhand in November 2022.
• The 'Yudh Abhyas' between India and the US is held annually with the aim of exchanging best practices, strategies, techniques and procedures between the armies of the two countries.
• The previous edition of this exercise was conducted in October 2021 at Joint Base Elmdorf Richardson, Alaska (USA).
• The US Army soldier from the 2nd Brigade of the 11th Airborne Division and Indian Army soldier from the Assam Regiment will participate in the exercise.
• The training program will cover all functions related to peacekeeping and peace enforcement.

Defence Exercise 'Sea Vigil-22'

• The third edition of the two-day 'Sea Vigil-22' is commencing on the eastern seaboard from 15 November 2022 as part of an all-India coastal defence exercise.

• The exercise will be conducted along the country's 7,516 km long coastline covering India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

• The exercise will involve all coastal states, union territories and other maritime stakeholders including fishing and coastal communities.

• The exercise is being conducted by the Indian Navy in coordination with the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the ministries tasked with maritime activities.

• This exercise is a build-up towards the major Theatre Level Readiness Operational Exercise (TROPEX), which is conducted by the Indian Navy every two years.
• 'Sea Vigil' and 'TROPEX' together will cover the entire spectrum of maritime security challenges.
• The exercise will provide a realistic assessment of India's strengths and weaknesses, which will help further strengthen maritime and national security.

OBITUTARY

Telugu Film Superstar Krishna Garu

• Veteran actor Ghattamaneni Krishna, famous as Krishna Garu and known in the Telugu film industry as ‘superstar’ died in Hyderabad. He was at the age of 80.

• He was the father of the Telugu film superstar Mahesh Babu.

• He starred in over 350 movies during his long career in the film industry.

• His first film was Thene Manasulu released in 1965.
• In 2009, he received the Padma Bhushan.

Renowned Indian Mathematician Shri RL Kashyap

• Renowned Indian mathematician and Padma Shri Awardee, Shri Rangasami Lakshminarayan Kashyap passed away in Karnataka. He was at the age of 84.
• He worked as a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computers for three decades at Purdue University in America.
• He was the founder of a spiritual organization called Sakshi Trust.
• Kashyap is the only person in the world to translate all the 4 vedas.
• He has translated around 25,000 Shlokas/Mantras of Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda into English.
• He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2021 by the central government for his considerable service in the field of studying the Vedas.