ODISHA
- Odisha: New e-waste guidelines for govt depts, PSUs
- To ensure effective management of electronic waste, the forest and environment department has issued a guidelines to all departments and PSUs to safely dispose off electronic waste.
- The waste generated will then be channelised to the dealer through a buy-back arrangement under the extended producer responsibility. It will be the job of the manufacturer or the dealer to collect and dispose the items.
- As per the new e-waste management rules of the Union ministry, the departments have been identified as bulk waste generators.
INTERNATIONAL
- Saudi Arabia becomes the first Arab country to be granted full membership of FATF
- Saudi Arabia has become the first Arab country to be granted full membership of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
- It has gained this status following the group’s Annual General Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
- The Kingdom had obtained observer status in the Group in June 2015 and completed the mutual evaluation process in June 2018.
- The FATF now has 39 full members, including the permanent members of the UN Security Council and most countries of the G-20.
- The group is responsible for issuing international standards, policies and best practices to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation.
- Mexico became the first country to ratify the trade deal to replace NAFTA
- Mexico became the first country to ratify the trade deal to replace 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
- The trade deal is known as the United States- Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The USMCA (NAFTA 2.0) modified for automakers, stricter labor, and environmental standards, intellectual property protections, and digital trade provisions. - US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s and President Enrique Pena Nieto signed the deal in November 2018 need to ratified by all three governments.
NATIONAL
- Government to launch Universal Smart Card Driving License
- Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to modify the format of driving licenses to smart card type driving licences.
- Ministry has prescribed a common standard format and design of the Driving Licence for the whole of the country.
- This Ministry, through its flagship application called SARATHI developed by NIC, has a common countrywide database of all driving license holders.
- The SARATHI application has the feature to identify duplicate records online in real time and access information about the challans if any.
- The code name of Balakot strike: Operation Bandar
- The air strike by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on a terrorist training camp in Balakot, Pakistan, was code-named ‘Operation Bandar’.
- It was IAF’s first strike inside Pakistan since the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
- The airstrikes were conducted 12 days after the terror outfit claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Kashmir.
- IAF had deployed 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets for the attack.
- The two pilots launched Israeli-made Spice 2000 satellite-guided bombs at the target.
- RBI advises commercial banks to adopt Education Loan Scheme
- Reserve Bank of Indiaadvised all Scheduled Commercial Banks to adopt Education Loan Scheme.
- The schemes are formulated by the Indian Banks Association.
- The salient features are Collateral free loans up to Rs 7.5 Lakh under the Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Education Loans (CGFSEL).
- No Margin for a loan up to Rs 7.50 Lakh.Repayment period of 15 years
Loan up to Rs 10 lakh for study in India and up to Rs 20 lakh for study abroad. - One Year Moratorium for repayment after completion of studies in all cases.
Moratorium taking into account spells of unemployment/underemployment say two or three times during the life cycle of the loan.
- NSIC signs MoU with CSC e-governance services India
- National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) signed an MoU with Common Service Centres (CSC) e-Governance Services India to enhance new offerings for the MSME sector.
- This MoU enables CSCs to utilize a plethora of NSIC offerings through the NSIC portal.
- He facilitates VLEs and MSMEs through digital empowerment in accessing NSIC integrated support services encompassing Marketing, Finance, Technology.
- The MoU special focus on providing services to village level entrepreneurs (VLEs) to exponential growth of Village Entrepreneurs in the country.