'National Portal for Transgender Persons'

• Union Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MOSJE) has e-launched a "National Portal for Transgender Persons" and e-inaugurated a "Garima Greh: A Shelter Home for Transgender Persons in Vadodara, Gujarat.

• The National Portal for Transgender Persons has been launched on the lines of Notification of Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020 released on September, 29 2020 to provide pan India online applying facility of a Certificate and Identity card (1-Card) to transgender persons without visiting office or any physical interface.

• Notably, 1-Card as per their self-perceived identity is an important provision of The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019

Garima Greh

• Garima Greh is launched by MOSJE and will be run in association with Lakshya Trust, a Community based organisation entirely run by the Transgenders to provide shelter to Transgender persons with basic amenities like shelter, food, medical care and recreational facilities.

• MOSJE is a nodal ministry for improving the conditions of Transgender persons and has identified 10 cities to set up the 13 Shelter Homes on pilot basis, in association with selected 13 Community based organizations (CBO's on pilot basis. The cities include Vadodara, New Delhi, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Kolkata, Manipur, Chennai, Raipur, Mumbai, etc.

27th edition of India-Singapore Bilateral Maritime Exercise (SIMBEX-20) Held in Andaman Sea

• Indian Navy (IN) hosted the 27th edition of India - Singapore Bilateral Maritime Exercise SIMBEX-20 in Andaman Sea. It is an annual exercise between IN and Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN).

• The Indian Navy was represented by INS (Indian Naval Ship) Rana with its integral Chetak helicopter in addition to INS Kamorta, INS Karmuk, Submarine INS Sindhuraj and P8l maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

• Bold Kurukshetra is a joint military exercise between India and Singapore.

About Singapore:

• Prime Minister (PM) - Lee Hsien Loong Currency - Singapore Dollar (SGD)

PM Narendra Modi Chaired 33rd PRAGATI interaction

• Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi chaired the 33rd PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation) meeting which reviewed the multiple projects, grievances and programmes in the presence of concerned Secretaries of the Union Government and Chief Secretaries of the State Governments.

• The projects that reviewed were of the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Ministry of Power.

• These projects worth Rs 1.41 lakh crore, were related to 10 states and union territories including Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

• Launched in 2015, PRAGATI is a multi-purpose and multi-modal platform aimed at addressing common man's grievances, and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India as well as projects flagged by State Governments.

• Under this, the PM holds a monthly programme where he will interact with the Government of India Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries through Video-conferencing enabled by data and geo-informatics visuals.

India and Finland sign MOU for developing cooperation in the field of environmental protection and biodiversity conservation

• India and Finland signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for cooperation and strengthening of technological, scientific and management capabilities in the field of Environment protection and biodiversity conservation. It was virtually signed by Union Minister Prakash Keshav Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on behalf of India and Krista Mikkonen, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change on behalf of Finland.

About Finland:

• Capital- Helsinki

• Currency- Euro

• Prime Minister (PM) -Sanna Mirella Marin (World's youngest serving state leader and the youngest Prime Minister in Finland's history.)

NITI Aayog releases 'Mitigation and Management of Covid-19: Practices from India's States & UTs'

• The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog released a compendium titled "Mitigation & Management of Covid-19- Practices from India's States & Union Territories". It was released by NITI Aayog Member Dr Vinod K Paul, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant and Additional Secretary Dr Rakesh Sarwal.

• The report contains information about various initiatives implemented by states, districts, and cities in India for containing and managing the Covid-19 outbreak.

• The practices in the compendium have been disaggregated under six sections:

• Public health and clinical response

• Governance mechanisms

• Digital health

• Integrated model

• Welfare of migrants and other vulnerable groups

• Other practices

• About National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog:

• Chairman-Prime Minister (Narendra Damodardas Modi)
• Headquarter- New Delhi

Israel Committed its Partnership with India for future with Low Carbon, Pollution Levels

• A digital conference of the India-led International Solar Alliance (ISA) was held where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has committed his partnership with India for lowering carbon and pollution levels in future.

• He expressed his confidence that in Israel solar energy would constitute over 25% of energy supply by 2030.

• The ISA was jointly launched by Modi and then French President Francois Hollande at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015. It seeks to harness the power of the sun to reduce pollution and carbon footprint by rapid deployment of solar energy units.

• In October 2020, India was re-elected as president of the ISA for a term of two years.

About Israel:

• Jerusale
• Capital, Jerusalem
• Currency-Israeli Shekel

MOES to Launch Deep Ocean Mission in 3-4 months for Underwater Exploration in Indian Ocean

• The Ministry of Earth Sciences is all set to launch an ambitious 'Deep Ocean Mission in the next 3-4 months that envisages underwater exploration of minerals, energy and marine diversity and also enhance India's presence in the Indian Ocean. Its expected outlay is over Rs 4,000 crore.

• The stakeholders in this multi-disciplinary work will be Defence Research and Development Organisation, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

• In September 2016, India signed a 15-year contract with the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for exploration of Poly-Metallic Sulphides (PMS) in the Indian Ocean. For this, it approved 10,000 sq. km for India along the Central Indian Ridge (CIR) and Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) region of the Indian Ocean.

Ministry of Environment Approves Rs 1100 crore for Song Dam drinking water project

• The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has announced a Fund allocation of Rs 1100 crore towards the construction of Song Dam drinking water project in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. This project is aimed at providing 24 hours drinking water to the city of Dehradun and will help the revival of River Rispana a tributary of River Song. The dam is about 148 m high and has the capability to generate power up to 6 MW.

• Song is one of the largest rivers that drain the Doon Valley traversing 190 km

• It is a tributary of Sooswa river, which in turn is a tributary of the Ganges, it originates as spring-fed stream in the southern slopes of the Radi Top of Mussoorie ridge of the Himalayan range and runs from Dhanaulti towards Narendranagar.

About Uttarakhand:

• Capital- Gairsain (summer) Dehradun (winter)

• Chief Minister- Trivendra Singh Rawat
• Governor- Baby Rani Maurya

7th Meeting of the Joint Trade Committee between India and Myanmar

• Piyush Goyal, Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry along with Dr. Than Myint, Union Minister for Ministry of Commerce, Myanmar co-chaired the 7th Meeting of the Joint Trade Committee between India and Myanmar Virtually. India will host the 2021 Joint Trade Committee meeting between India and Myanmar.

• Both the country examined multiple sector ranging from trade, investment, banking, connectivity, oil, gas, capacity building and upgradation of border infrastructure during the meeting.

• About Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Tamu (Phase I):

• Both the countries acknowledged the establishment of a modern Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Tamu (Phase I) which is built with Indian's assistance.

• The Indian State besides to this Myanmar's ICP Tamu is Manipur.

• About Myanmar:
• Capital - Naypyidaw
• Currency - Kyat
• President - Win Myint

YES Bank in Partnership with Worldline

• YES Bank in partnership with Worldline launched SMS Pay functionality on PoS(Point of Sale) Terminals. This allows merchants to accept contactless and remote payments from their customers and also enables customers to transact safely.

• SMS Pay provides an alternative channel of payment acceptance for the merchants at zero incremental cost.

• It enables the shopkeepers and merchants to request payments against invoices by entering the amount and contact details of customers on their POS machines

About YES Bank:

• HeadQuarters- Mumbai, Maharashtra

• Managing Director(MD) and Chief Executive Officer(CEO)- Prashant Kumar
• Tagline- Experience our expertise

About Worldline:

• HeadQuarters- Bezons, France
• Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer(CEO)- Gilles Grapinet Managing Director, Worldline South Asia and Middle East- Deepak Chandnani

Razorpay in Partnership with Visa Launches first of its kind card, 'RazorpayX Corporate Cards

• Razorpay in partnership with Visa launched the 1st of its kind card, 'RazorpayX Corporate Cards' for Indian entrepreneurs. The card provides business owners with access to secure payments and financing and improved cash flows.

• The bank-issued cards help to provide relief and stabilize the financial operations of the business owners of startups and SMES(Small and Medium sized Eneterprises) who are severely affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

• It offers a credit limit of up to Rs 20 lakhs

• Business owners get a benefit of interest free loan for 45 days and they get the option of flexible repayment.

Malayalam Film 'Jallikattu' Selected as India's official entry for Oscars 2021

• A Malayalam film "Jallikattu" directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery, has been selected as India's official entry for the International Feature Film category at the 93rd Academy Awards or 2021 Oscars. It was unanimously chosen from 27 entries across Hindi, Marathi and other languages by the 14-member jury headed by Rahul Rawail, Chairman, Jury Board, Film Federation of India (FFI).

• The film name is derived from the popular-yet-controversial bull-taming event from the South.

• It features actors Antony Varghese, Chemban Vinod Jose, Sabumon Abdusamad and Santhy Balachandran.

• The jury was comprised of directors Abhishek Shah, Atanu Ghosh, writer Shrinivas Bhanage, costume designer Sabarni Das, editor Vijay Khochikar, among others.

• Lijo Pellissery also won the best director trophy at the 50th International Film Festival of India (FFI) in 2019 for "Jallikattu".

National Milk Day 2020 – November 26 -

• National Milk Day is annually celebrated across India on 26th November to celebrate the importance of milk in the life humans. The day honours the birth anniversary of padma awardee Dr Verghese Kurien, who is known as the Milkman of India and Father of India's White Revolution.

• The National Milk Day 2020 marks the 99th Birth Anniversary of Dr Verghese Kurien.

• The National Milk Day was initiated by the Indian Diary Association (IDA) in 2014 and the first National Milk Day was celebrated on 26th November 2014 in which National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), IDA and the milk producers across 22 states participated.

• Dr Verghese Kurien who played a major role in enabling India to have its own milk production centres and the architect of the Operation Flood, which enabled India to become the largest producer of milk.

• He was the Chairman and Founder of Amul who was named as the Chairman of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) by former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

• He has received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1963 for his creative coordination of Government and Private enterprise to improve food and sanitation in India.

About National Dairy Development Board (NDDB):

• Chairman- Dilip Rath
• Headquarters- Anand, Gujarat

About Indian Diary Association (IDA)

• President - Dr. G. S. Rajorhia Head Quarter - New Delhi

• ID is the apex body of the dairy industry in India,