BEL signs contract with Indian Navy for supply of Indigenously developed Laser Dazzlers

• Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) signed a contract with Indian Navy in New Delhi to supply 20 Indigenously developed Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation Dazzlers (Laser Dazzlers). The Laser Dazzlers have been developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and will be manufactured by BEL, Pune Plant.

• Laser Dazzler is a non lethal weapon for warning & stopping suspicious vehicles, boats, aircrafts, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

• The product has been designed & developed indigenously for the First Time for Armed Force.

About Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL):

• Chairman & Managing Director – M V Gowtama
• Headquarters - Bengaluru, Karnataka

Indian Army & Goa Shipyard signed to produce 12 patrol boats for Pangong Lake in Eastern Ladakh

• Indian Army has signed an agreement with Goa Shipyard Ltd to procure the 12 high-performance patrol boats to boost its surveillance of major water bodies like Pangong Tso or Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh and its surroundings including those in high altitude areas. All these patrol boats expect to be delivered from May 2021.

• The construction will be done at GSL, Goa under the program Atma Nirbhar Bharat

• India started its surveillance of the lake after the violent clash began in early May between India and China.

About Goa Shipyard Ltd(GSL)

• Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) - Cmde. Bharat Bhushan Nagpal

• Headquarters - Vasco da Gama, Goa

RuPay Partnered with RBL Bank to Launch 'RuPay PoS'

• RuPay partnered with RBL Bank to launch an innovative payment solution for Indian merchants "RuPay PoS" in association with PayNearby. The announcement for the same was made by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

• This collaboration will transform smartphones into merchant Point of Sale (POS) terminals for the retailers enabling the latter to accept contactless payments of up to Rs 5,000 through a simple tap and pay mechanism on his Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled mobile phones.

• The smartphones can be converted into payment acceptance terminals by updating the PayNearby app.

About RBL Bank:

• Managing Director (MD) & Chief Executive Officer (CEO)- Vishwavir Ahuja
• Headquarter- Mumbai, Maharashtra
• Tagline- Apno Ka Bank
• Chatbot- RBL Cares

About Nearby Technologies Pvt. Ltd.:

• Establishment- 2016
• Managing Director (MD) & Chief Executive Officer (CEO)- Anand Kumar Bajaj
• Headquarter- Mumbai, Maharashtra

Tripura – Bangladesh ‘Maitre Setu' will be Open Soon

• The Rs 128.69 crores Maitre Setu, which connects South Tripura with Ramgarh of Bangladesh and provides access to the Chittagong seaport, is all set to be opened in a few months. Its construction was started in 2017 but it got delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic

• The bridge has been taken over by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), the project execution authority which will recheck the safety standard of the work.

• 9 Km long Feni Bridge also known as Maitree Setu is build over River Feni.

• Currently, the only sea trade access point of Northeastern states is the Haldia port covering road distance of 600Km to 1200 Km but Maitri Setu will reduce this distance from 75Km to 600Km for all Northeastern States.

About Tripura:

• Chief Minister- Biplab Kumar Deb
• Capital- Agartala
• Governor- Ramesh Bais

About National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL):

• Managing Director (MD)- Keshav Kumar Pathak

• Headquarter-New Delhi
• Parent Ministry- Ministry of Road Transport & Highways

RBI Unveils Digital Payment Index: January 2021

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced the RBI-Digital Payments Index (DPI) to measure a growth in digital or cashless transactions across the country. It was released on the lines of the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies as part of the Sixth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement for 2019-20 dated February 06, 2020.

• For the index, the RBI has set the base year 2018, i.e. DPI score for March 2018 is set at 100. The DPI for March 2019 was 153.47 while for March 2020 it scored 207.84, representing growth. From March 2021, RBI will publish this DPI on its website on a semi-annual basis.

• It comprises of the following 5 parameters:
• Payment Enablers (25%)
• Payment Infrastructure - Demand-side factors (10%)
• Payment Infrastructure - Supply-side factors (15%)
• Payment Performance (45%)
• Consumer Centricity (5%)
• Each of the above parameters has sub-parameters which, in turn, consist of various measurable indicators.

• There was an increase in digital transactions in November 2020 including both wholesale and retail transactions.

• The growth in the value of NEFT transactions in November 2020 (27.9%) was higher than that recorded in October 2020(20.1%).

• In the retail segment, national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) transactions volume grew 24.6 percent in November 2020, much higher than the growth (13.9 percent) recorded in October 2020.

• In December 2020, there were Rs 3.9 lakh crore Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions while Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions was of Rs 2.76 lakh crore, RTGS transactions was worth Rs 79.8 lakh crore and NEFT was worth Rs 22.18 lakh crore.

• UPI transactions surged to approximately 2.2 billion in November 2020, maintaining momentum in both volume and value terms.

About Reserve Bank of India (RBI):

• Formation- 1 April 1935 Governor- Shaktikanta Das
• Headquarters, Mumbai, Maharashtra
• Deputy Governors, 4 (Bibhu Prasad Kanungo, Mahesh Kumar Jain, Michael Debabrata Patra, and M rajeshwar Rao)

IFSCA Becomes an Associate Member of International Organisation of Securities Commissions

• International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) became an associate member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions(IOSCO), an international organisation which sets the global standards for securities markets regulation.

• The membership will support IFSCA with a platform to exchange information at global level and regional level in the fields of common interest.

• The IOSCO, an international organisation which unites the securities regulators across the globe, covers more than 95% of the world's securities markets.

• ISO works with the G20 and Financial Stability Board(FSB) to set the standards for enhancing the security market.

• The first international financial services(IFSC) of India was established at the Gujarat International Finance Tec- city (GIFT) in Gandhinagar.

About IOSCO:

• Chair of the IOSCO Board- Ashley Lan Alder
• Secretary General, Paul P. Andrews
• Headquarters, Madrid, Spain

About IFSCA:

• IFSCA is a unified authority for regulating all the financial activities at IFSC's in India.
• Chairperson-Injeti Srinivas
• Established in - April 2020 (established under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019)
• Headquarters-Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

ADB, Gol sign USD 231 Million Loan Agreement to enhance Power Generation Capacity in Assam

• Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Government of India (Gol) signed a USD 231 Million Loan Agreement for the Assam Power Sector Investment Program (APSIP) for the construction of Lower Kopili Hydroelectric Power (LKHEP) plant. This is the 3rd Tranche Loan for the program which was approved by ADB board in July, 2014.

• The main purpose of the Loan agreement is for increasing the Electricity Generation Capacity in the State of Assam through construction of a 120 Megawatts (MW) hydroelectric power plant over Kopili River.

• A USD 2 Million grant from Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) is also associated with the project to finance equipment & consulting services.

• ADB & Gol signed USD 10 Million Project Readiness Financing (PRF) to help finance piloting activities, project for expanding horticulture production & farm household income in Himachal Pradesh.

• The project will support development of subtropical horticulture, cultivation of fruits & vegetables in the southern region of Himachal Pradesh.

• The project is lagging due to lack of access to perennial water sources, crops losses due to wild animal encroachment & limited access to high-value markets.

Bloomberg Billionaires Index 2021 & Hurun Global Rich List 2020

• India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries limited (RIL) dropped down to 12th spot in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index 2021 (as on 2nd January 2021). The net worth of Ambani dropped from 90 billion USD (around Rs. 6.62 lakh crore) (in early 2020) to 76 7 billion USD (around Rs. 5.6 lakh crore)

• Zhong Shanshan, referred to as "Lone Wolf, has replaced Ambani as Asia's richest person, he is one of the fastest in history to achieve the feat.

• Zhong Shanshan is chinese billionaire whose net worth is 78.2 billion USD, which is attributed to the listing of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprises Co and Nongu Spring Co, a bottled water firm.

• Hurun Global Rich List 2020:

• As Per Hurun Global Rich List 2020, India's Mukesh Ambani dropped to the eighth position in the Hurun global rich list 2020. However he retained as Asia's Richest person

• Amazon founder Jeff Bezos topped the charts with a net worth of $201 billion. Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk ($145 billion) moved into the second position. French multinational luxury goods conglomerate Louis Vuitton SE group head Bernard Arnault ($120 billion) came in third, followed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates ($111 billion) and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (5109 billion) in the fifth slot.

About Bloomberg Billionaires Index:

• Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking.
• CEO - Michael Bloomberg

Suneet Sharma Appointed as the New Chairman & CEO of Railway Board; Succeeds VK Yadav

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of Suneet Sharma as the New Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Railway Board under the Ministry of Railways. He takes over the charge from the incumbent VK Yadav upon the completion of his term as the Chairman and CEO of the board on 31st December 2020.

• Previously Suneet Sharma served as the General Manager of the Eastern Railway.

• He is also appointed as the ex-officio Principal Secretary to the Government of India.

About Railway Board:

• Chairman & CEO- Suneet Sharma

• Headquarters, New Delhi

Goa's 14-year old Leon Mendonca becomes India's 67th Chess Grandmaster

• 14-year old Leon Mendonca from Goa became India's 67th Chess Grandmaster (GM) after winning his third & Final norm at the Vergani Cup, Italy. Mendonca is only the 2nd GM from Goa.

• He became the 29th Youngest GM in the world. Sergey Karjakin of Russia holds the record for the World's Youngest ever GM having qualified for the title at the age of 12 years and 7 months (achieved the title in 2003).

• The 1st GM from Goa is Ivana Maria Furtado, she achieved it in 2011.

• GM is a title awarded by FIDE (International Chess Federation). It is the highest title a chess player can obtain apart from World Champion.

• In order to qualify for the title of GM, a player must achieve 3 Grandmaster norms in events covering a minimum of 27 games.

• Leon Mendonca achieved his first norm at the Rigo Chess GM Round Robin (October, 2020). Second at the 1st Saturday Budapest (November, 2020) & Final one at Vergani Cup, Italy on December 30, 2020.

• Gukesh D is India's Youngest GM & 2nd Youngest GM in the world. He achieved the feat in 2019 at the age of 12 years, 7 months & 17 days.

• The 1st GM from India is Vishwanathan Anand, who achieved it in 1988.

About International Chess Federation (FIDE):

• President - Arkady Dvorkovich
• Headquarters - Lausanne, Switzerland