PM Modi chaired Virtual Global Investor Roundtable 2020 conference

• In order to attract investments in India, the Global Investor Roundtable (VGIR) 2020 conference was held virtually which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• VGIR 2020 is organized by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund.
• The Indian side is being represented by business leaders, financial market regulators, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and RBI governor Shaktikanta Das. The conference was attended by the world's 20 largest pension and sovereign wealth funds, which have around $6 trillion assets under their management.

About National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited

• MD & CEO - Sujoy Bose
• HQ - Mumbai

MM Kutty → first Chairperson of the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas

• Appointments Committee of the Cabinet(ACC) approved the appointment of MM Kutty as the first Chairperson of the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas. The center has also appointed members of the commission for 3 year term, with effective from the date of assumption of charge of the post or until the attainment of age of 70 years.
• MM Kutty is a former secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
• Members - Arvind Kumar Nautiyal, joint secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change will serve as the full-time member of the commission.
• Full-time technical members - Professor Mukesh Khare of IIT, Delhi and KJ Ramesh, former director general of India Meteorological Department (IMD). will be the full-time technical members of the commission.
• Non-government members - Ajay Mathur, the director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute, and Ashish Dhawan of Air Pollution Action Group appointed as the non-government members of the commission.
• 9 ex-officio members - 9 ex-officio members of the commission will be appointed by the respective state governments.

Indian Railways + Indian School of Business → To improve Operational Efficiency

• Indian Railways (IR) has tied up with Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad to improve its operational efficiency using digital tools such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Analytics. Indian School of Business will analyze the data generated by the Indian Railways.
• IR will provide passengers-related data, train operations-related data, freight data and asset-related data to ISB for the analysis.
• After analysis, it will be used by IR in the Passenger Reservation System (PRS), introduction of new trains, and predictive asset maintenance.
• Railway Board will appoint a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in zonal headquarters to keep track of emerging technologies in analytics and Al and integrate them in the rail system.

One Rank One Pension Scheme completes five years

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the one rank one pension scheme of armed forces has completed 5 years of successful journey.
• The Government of India has disbursed Rs 42,700 crores to more than 20.6 lakh ex-servicemen in the last five years.
• Currently uniform pension is given to the retiring defense personnel irrespective of their rank and the length of service. This is 50% of their last drawn salary. The Armed personnel who retired on or after June 30, 2014 are covered under the scheme.
• One rank One pension - Under the scheme every retired personnel of the Indian Army will be getting the same amount of pension irrespective of the date he retires. The scheme was in practice since 1947. After 26 years, in 1973, the Indira Gandhi government terminated the scheme. Again the scheme was introduced in 2008 and ran till 2014.
• Rank pay - The concept of rank pay was introduced in 1986. The system affected thousands of retired officers of all the three-armed forces. It was recommended by the fourth Central Pay Commission.
• Koshyari Committee - The committee submitted its report in 2011. It was a 10 member committee formed under the chairmanship of Bhagat Singh Koshyari. The committee defined One Rank One Pension as a uniform pension to be paid to the armed forces personnel who are retiring in the same rank with same length of service. This is irrespective of their date of retirement.

ISRO launches all-weather Earth Observation Satellite and nine customer satellites

• The Indian Space Research Organization launched an all weather Earth Observation Satellite, EOS-01 using PSLV-C49 rocket along with nine customer satellites.
• About the Launch - The Earth Observation Satellite launched is a Radar Imaging Satellite. It is the third of the three-spacecraft constellation. The other two are RISAT-2B and RISAT-2BR1. These two satellites were launched in 2019. These three satellites in the constellation are to provide all weather round the clock service with high-resolution images.

About ISRO

• Founded - 15th Aug, 1969
• HQ - Bengaluru
• Chairman - Dr K Sivan

Yashvardhan K Sinha appointed as the new Chief Information Commissioner

• The President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind appointed Yashvardhan K Sinha as the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of India.
• The post of Chief Information Commissioner was lying vacant over two months after Bimal Julka completed his term in August, 2020. Sinha was short-listed for the post by a three-member committee headed by PM Modi. Besides the Prime Minister, the opposition party leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Home Minister Amit Shah were the members of the panel.
• The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) will hold office for three years. Earlier it was five years.
• Section 12(6) of the Right to Information Ac, 2005 says that the CIC and the Information Commissioners shall not be a Member of Parliament.
• Central Information Commission - It was constituted in 2005. It acts upon complaints from individuals those who are not able to submit information to a Central Public Information Officer or a State Public Information Officer.

China successfully launches 13 satellites in a single rocket

• China launched 13 satellites in a single rocket successfully.
• Of these 13 satellites, 10 were from Argentina. This is the biggest launch of foreign satellites by the country.
• The satellites were launched on the Long March 6 carrier rocket. This was the 351st satellite launch of the Long March series. China has been putting satellites of several countries in space including its close ally, Pakistan.

About China

• Capital - Beijing
• Currency - Renminbi
• President - Xi Jingping

WhatsApp Pay → NPCI approves WhatsApp to join UPI Payment

• National Payment Corporation of India approved the Facebook owned messaging Application, WhatsApp to "Go Live" on UPI.
• This is to be achieved through new feature of WhatsApp called "WhatsApp Pay".
• In order to achieve this, WhatsApp has partnered with five banks namely ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India. Apart from these five banks, Jio Payment Bank has also been included.
• Now, anyone can send money on WhatsApp to any other user using the UPI supported application.

About NPCI

• Founded - 2008
• Chief - Dilip Asbe
• HQ - Mumbai 

National Cancer Awareness Day → November 7

• Every year India observes National Cancer Awareness Day on November 7.
• Cancer is the second leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization.
• About National Cancer Day - The day was first observed in 2014. It coincided with the birth anniversary scientist Marie Curie. She won the Nobel prize for discovering radium and plutonium. She was the first woman to win Nobel prize. Marie Curie died as she was exposed to large amounts of radiation.
• World Cancer Day - The World Cancer Day is observed on February 4. It is marked by the World Health Organization and several other world organizations.
• Scheme of Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi - The scheme was launched to address financial needs of the people suffering from cancer. It also covers other specified rare diseases.
• The Rastriya Arogya Nidhi focuses on people living below poverty line. It addresses people suffering from life threatening diseases related to heart, liver, kidney.