Addapedia Odisha | Daily Current Affairs | 29 November 2023 | Download PDF

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is making raw data from Indian cities available on a single platform for academics, researchers, and stakeholders to help data-driven policymaking

Key points

• The Amplifi 2.0 (Assessment and Monitoring Platform for Liveable, Inclusive and Future-ready urban India) portal was launched recently.
• All 3,739 municipal corporations will eventually be made available on the portal. 
• The website provides data on a range of information for several cities, including total consumption; number of samples tested for water quality; average annual expenditure on healthcare; number of slum dwellers; and road accident fatalities.

• The board of the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approved a regulatory framework for Index Providers.
• Objective: fostering transparency and accountability in governance and administration of financial benchmarks in the securities market.

Who are Index Providers?

• Index Providers are companies that create, calculate and manage indexes to support all types of investment needs. 
• They have the responsibility of setting the rules that determine which securities to include in each index, how the index will be managed, and how securities will be added or removed from that index over time creating a benchmark for those that track and follow it.
• The most prominent indices in India are the Nifty50 by NSE Indices and Sensex provided by a venture of S&P Dow Jones Indices and BSE Lied.

Key points

• The regulations will provide a framework for registration of Index Providers which license ‘Significant Indices’ that shall be notified by SEBI based on objective criteria.
• SEBI stipulated that any fresh investment made by an AIF(Alternative Investment funds) beyond September 2024 would be held in dematerialised form.
• Amendments to SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014 have been approved.
• A regulatory framework is established for Small & Medium REITs (SM REITs) with a minimum asset value of ₹50 crore, contrasting with the ₹500 crore requirement for existing REITs.
• The board also approved flexibility in the framework for Social Stock Exchange (SSE) to provide impetus to fundraising by Not for Profit Organisations (NPOs) on the Social Stock Exchange.
• The board approved changing the nomenclature of “Social Auditor” with “Social Impact Assessor” to provide comfort to NPOs and convey a positive approach towards the social sector.

• Air India is set to become the first Indian airline to add an Airbus A350 aircraft to its fleet , a move that will enable it to compete better with its West Asian rivals by flying more Indian passengers non-stop on long-haul international routes.
• The A350-900ULR has a maximum take-off weight of 280 tonnes and can fly more than 20 hours non-stop.
• The A350 can carry up to 325 passengers in a three-class configuration, and fly up to 15,000 km without refueling. 
• The A350 also offers a more comfortable and quieter cabin, with larger windows, mood lighting and lower cabin altitude.

• India will start blending compressed biogas with natural gas to boost domestic demand and cut reliance on natural gas imports.
• The mandatory phased introduction will start at 1% for use in automobiles and households from April 2025
• The share of mandatory blending will then be increased to about 5% by 2028.

The Union government has decided to rename the existing Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) as ‘Ayushman Arogya Mandir’ with the tagline Arogyam Parmam Dhanam.

Key points

• The funds required for renaming the existing facilities have been proposed at ₹3,000 per facility.
• India currently has more than 1.6 lakh AB-HWCs.
• Aim: to provide comprehensive primary healthcare, including both maternal and child health services, and free essential drugs and diagnostic services close to people’s homes through AB-HWCs. 
• The Centre offers screenings for hypertension, diabetes, oral, breast and cervical cancer.

Key facts:

• If scripts other than Devanagari (Hindi) or English are to be used for branding, then the full and exact title can be translated into the State language(s), but the tagline must be transliterated in the State language(s).

Meeting for the first time in about four years, the top diplomats from South Korea, Japan and China agreed to revive cooperation among the Asian neighbours and resume their leaders’ trilateral summit

Key points

• the three countries together account for about 25% of the global GDP
• The three also agreed to push for diverse cooperation projects in areas such as people-to-people exchange, trade, technology, public health, sustainable development and security. 

The Chief Minister launched ‘Ama Bank’ scheme for providing banking services through CSP(Customer Service point)  Plus banking outlets in all unbanked Gram Panchayats in Odisha.

Key points

• The state government in collaboration with six public sector banks namely SBI, PNB, UBI, UCO Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda has come up with the ambitious scheme ‘Ama Bank’ for providing banking services through CSP Plus banking outlets to every unbanked GP
• Senior citizens, differently-abled people and pregnant women will get door step banking services and avail Direct Benefit Transfer in a timely and hassle free manner
• The scheme will be implemented in a phased manner to cover all 4,373 unbanked GPs of the state during the current financial year.

• Dileswar from Kalahandi district is awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for his book ‘Seranra’, a collection of short stories.

Key Points:

• The book was chosen based on the recommendations of a jury consisting of three eminent litterateurs from the state: Bibhuti Pattnaik, Gobinda Chandra Chand, and Dash Benhur.
• Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar includes a copper plaque and a cash prize of Rs 50,000.

Leading steelmaker Jindal Steel & Power (JSP) has been honored with the highly coveted Greentech CSR India Award 2023 for its outstanding contributions in the field of rehabilitation and empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

Key points

• JSP, through its CSR arm, JSP Foundation, runs Jindal Asha (formerly known as Asha the Hope) in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand since 2009. 

• Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest producer of aluminium, triumphed big at the Grow Care Awards, further solidifying its reputation as an employer of choice in the Indian manufacturing industry. 
• The company’s mega smelting operations at Jharsuguda, Odisha, won twin accolades in the categories of Employee Engagement and Best HR Strategy.

Key points

• The awards underscore its efforts in fostering a dynamic and engaging workplace environment as well as the innovative and effective strategies being deployed by the organization, respectively. 
• Grow Care India is a non-profit organization established in 2016 and headquartered in New Delhi
• It is dedicated to recognizing outstanding performances in Human Resources, Environment, and Occupational Health and Safety

Odisha Government is to come up with a new film policy by March 2024 by making necessary amendments to the existing Odisha State Film Policy-2019.

Key points

• Plans are afoot to incentivise to increase the number of single-screen cinema halls in rural and semi-urban areas in the State. 
• About 40 single-screen cinema halls were closed in the last 3 to 4 years after several multiplexes came up in urban areas
• The existing policy introduced new schemes with incentives to promote the production of films in Odia language, including the distribution and construction of new single-screen cinema halls. 

With 47,000 houses to be constructed in the state under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) within 12 months, the government has rolled out a ‘100 days challenge’ for the urban local bodies (ULBs) to ensure completion of maximum number of dwelling units within the given deadline. 

About PMAY-U

• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) falls under the Government’s mission – Housing for All by 2022 for urban housing being implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
• It makes home loans affordable for the urban poor by providing a subsidy on the Interest Rate of a home loan during repayment by way of EMI (Equated Monthly Installments).

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