24th-25th November, 2022

1. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, the first of its kind in the country, with time-bound action plans and multi-sectoral collaborations to achieve a reduction in suicide mortality by 10% by 2030.
2. The 4th edition of the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD) will start in Delhi.
3. The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), in association with the Jammu & Kashmir govt, will organize the 25th National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) in Katra, Jammu & Kashmir.
4. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has launched Biourja and Biogas portals.
5. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Karmayogi Prarambh module – an online orientation course for all new appointees at Rozgar Mela via video conference.
6. The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) has released a working paper titled ‘Why India does poorly on global perception indices: Case study of three opinion-based indices’.
7. RH200, the versatile sounding rocket of ISRO, has been launched from the shores of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), Thiruvananthapuram.
8. Tamil Nadu has issued a notification declaring Madurai district’s Arittapatti and Meenakshipuram villages as the state’s first biodiversity heritage site.
9. Sangai Festival is being organized from November 21 to 30 by Manipur.
10. India carried out a successful training launch of an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile, Agni-3 from APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha.
11. Ferry Craft ‘Manjula’ (Yard 786) was launched by Shri Binod Kumar, IAS, Principal Secretary Transport, West Bengal at M/s Shalimar Works Ltd, Kolkata, West Bengal.
12. An Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Multi-stakeholder Partnership Platform (MSPP) was established to mark the beginning of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (November 18-24).
13. QatarEnergy announced a 27-year natural gas supply deal (“longest” deal ever) with China.
14. SEBI has mentioned that the deadline for implementation of T+1 or (trading + one day) settlement for all futures and options (F&O) stocks of the stock exchanges and depositories will be January 2023.
15. Life Insurance Corporation has increased its shareholding in Tech Mahindra to 6.874%.
16. Hindustan Zinc Ltd is ranked as the 3rd Globally Sustainable Company in the Metal and Mining Sector by the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2022.
17. Payment software company Flywire has partnered with HDFC Bank to help students in India pay their education fees to institutions around the world.
18. Bank of Baroda has opened its first mid-corporate Branch at Kochi in Kerala.
19. BillBox, one of the leading customized solution providers in the payments & merchant ecosystem in India, has launched a wearable contactless payment device named TapTap – in association with NSDL Payments Bank and Visa.
20. Federal Bank has launched a deposit scheme for NRIs titled ‘Deposit Plus’, which offers higher interest than the existing Non-Residential External (NRE) NRE fixed deposits.
21. Airtel Payments Bank has launched face authentication-based savings bank account opening for customers.
22. Flipkart has partnered with Axis Bank to launch the co-branded Super Elite Credit Card for the Flipkart’s SuperCoins reward program.
23. Axis Bank hosted the “Evolve” summit across 20 cities for MSMEs on the theme of ‘Indian SMEs: Shifting Gears for Next Level Growth’.
24. The Australian parliament has passed the “India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (AI-ECTA)”. Now, it will become operational on a mutually-agreed date.
25. Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has launched a call for startup applications for registration on the MAARG portal, the National Mentorship Platform by Startup India.
26. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI Life Insurance will acquire 10% stake each in a proposed joint venture of Indian Oil Corporation and Chennai Petroleum.
27. According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows into India fell to $10.3 billion in the September quarter from $13.6 billion a year earlier.
28. Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has been included in the list of financial information providers under the Account Aggregator framework by RBI to facilitate cash flow-based lending to MSMEs.
29. On its 117th Foundation Day, Canara Bank launched an Electronic Bank Guarantee, in partnership with National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL), launched Electronic Bank Guarantee (e-BG).
30. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released the ‘OECD November Outlook 2022- Confronting the Crisis’
31. S&P Global Market Intelligence has projected India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to average 6.3% annually between the financial years 2021 and 2030.
32. Vinit Kumar has been appointed as the CEO of Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVlC).
33. November 18 – World COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Day; Theme – Your Lungs for Life
34. Asia Cup (of Asian Cricket Council) 2023 is expected to be organized in Pakistan

National News

1. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, the first of its kind in the country, with time-bound action plans and multi-sectoral collaborations to achieve a reduction in suicide mortality by 10% by 2030.
   • Objectives –
     • To establish effective surveillance mechanisms for suicide within the next three years,
     • To establish psychiatric outpatient departments that will provide suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme in all districts within the next five years,
     • To integrate a mental well-being curriculum in all educational institutions within the next eight years,
     • To develop guidelines for responsible media reporting of suicides, and restricting access to means of suicide.
   • In India, more than 1 lakh lives are lost every year to suicide, and it is the top killer in the 15-29 years category.
   • In the past three years, the suicide rate has increased from 10.2 to 11.3 per 1,00,000 population.
   • The most common reasons for suicide include family problems and illnesses, which account for 34% and 18% of all suicide-related deaths.
2. The 4th edition of the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD) will start in Delhi.
   • IPRD is an apex-level international annual conference of the Indian Navy.
   • The National Maritime Foundation is Indian Navy’s knowledge partner and chief organizer of each edition of the event.
   • The theme of IPRD-2022 is the ‘Operationalising the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative’.
3. The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), in association with the Jammu & Kashmir govt, will organize the 25th National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) in Katra, Jammu & Kashmir.
   • Theme – “Bringing Citizens, Industry and Government closer”
   • 26th November is celebrated as the Constitution Day.
   • UGC has announced the theme of Constitution Day as “India: The Mother of Democracy”.
4. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has launched Biourja and Biogas portals.
   • Biourja Portal – It is single window platform to register and submit online applications for grant of Central Financial Assistance (CFA) under National Bio Energy Programme.
     • It will help Waste to Energy projects, Biomass Briquette/Pellet manufacturing plants and Biomass (non-bagasse) based cogeneration projects to register and submit their applications.
     • It also enables registered users to track the status of their submitted application.
   • Biogas Portal – It will enable individual beneficiary setting up Small Biogas Plants and Medium Size Biogas Plants under National Bio Energy Programme to submit their application.
     • This application will be further processed by implementation agency after allocation of targets and then take action for the installation of biogas plants at the beneficiary site.
5. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Karmayogi Prarambh module – an online orientation course for all new appointees at Rozgar Mela via video conference.
   • The module is an online orientation course for all new appointees in various government departments.
   • It will include a code of conduct for government servants, workplace ethics and integrity, human resource policies and other benefits and allowances that will help them to get acclimatized to the policies and transition smoothly into the new roles.
   • The Rozgar Mela is organized under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) to provide employment opportunities to the youth of the country.
   • Under the Rozgar Mela Scheme, 10 lakh jobs will be available for candidates to apply in Group A and B Gazetted Posts, Group B Non-Gazetted and Group C Non-Gazetted posts.

6. The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) has released a working paper titled ‘Why India does poorly on global perception indices: Case study of three opinion-based indices’.
   • It has been authored by economist Sanjeev Sanyal and Aakanksha Arora.
   • According to the working paper, the common thread in all these indices is that they are derived from the “perceptions or opinions of few experts”.
   • The decline in India’s rankings on a number of global opinion-based indices are due to the “serious problems” with the methodology used in these perception-based indices.
   • In the report, the authors conducted a case study of three opinion-based indices: Freedom in the World index, EIU Democracy index and Variety of Democracy.
   • These institutions do not provide any transparency on how the experts were chosen or even their expertise or nationality.
7. RH200, the versatile sounding rocket of ISRO, has been launched from the shores of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), Thiruvananthapuram.
   • It is ISRO’s 200th consecutive successful launch.
   • Usage – The rocket is used for carrying out experiments on meteorology, astronomy and similar branches of space physics.

State News

1. Tamil Nadu has issued a notification declaring Madurai district’s Arittapatti and Meenakshipuram villages as the state’s first biodiversity heritage site.
2. Sangai Festival is being organized from November 21 to 30 by Manipur.
   • It celebrates Manipur’s state animal, Sangai Deer, which is found only in floating Keibul Lamjao National Park in Loktak Lake.

Defence News

1. India carried out a successful training launch of an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile, Agni-3 from APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha.
2. Ferry Craft ‘Manjula’ (Yard 786) was launched by Shri Binod Kumar, IAS, Principal Secretary Transport, West Bengal at M/s Shalimar Works Ltd, Kolkata, West Bengal.

International News

1. An Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Multi-stakeholder Partnership Platform (MSPP) was established to mark the beginning of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (November 18-24).
   • It was launched globally by a quadripartite comprising the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the UN Environment Programme, the World Health Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health.
   • The platform is expected to drive multidisciplinary action at global, regional and national levels through action groups and forming action plans.
   • It will also build global momentum and high-level advocacy to combat AMR, besides generating global commitment to use antimicrobials in a responsible and prudent way to ensure antimicrobials keep their efficacy.
   • Separately, the WHO has launched Antimalarial Drug Resistance Strategy in Africa to fight the disease.
   • Malaria is caused by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito.
2. QatarEnergy announced a 27-year natural gas supply deal (“longest” deal ever) with China.
   • Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea are the main market for Qatar’s gas.
   • Qatar’s gas is increasingly being sought by European countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Banking and Economy

1. SEBI has mentioned that the deadline for implementation of T+1 or (trading + one day) settlement for all futures and options (F&O) stocks of the stock exchanges and depositories will be January 2023.
   • Earlier, the implementation was starting from December 2022.
2. Life Insurance Corporation has increased its shareholding in Tech Mahindra to 6.874%.
3. Hindustan Zinc Ltd is ranked as the 3rd Globally Sustainable Company in the Metal and Mining Sector by the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2022.
   • The company ranked 3rd globally in the Metal and Mining Sector.
   • Hindustan Zinc Ltd is a Vedanta Group company based in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
4. Payment software company Flywire has partnered with HDFC Bank to help students in India pay their education fees to institutions around the world.
5. Bank of Baroda has opened its first mid-corporate Branch at Kochi in Kerala.
   • The Bank of Baroda has also partnered with Aerem Solutions Pvt Ltd (ASPL) and its subsidiary, Aerem Finance Pvt Ltd (AFPL) for the financing of rooftop solar power projects of MSMEs.
6. BillBox, one of the leading customized solution providers in the payments & merchant ecosystem in India, has launched a wearable contactless payment device named TapTap – in association with NSDL Payments Bank and Visa.
7. Federal Bank has launched a deposit scheme for NRIs titled ‘Deposit Plus’, which offers higher interest than the existing Non-Residential External (NRE) NRE fixed deposits.
   • The maximum interest rate offered in this scheme is 7.5% for a tenure of 700 days.
8. Airtel Payments Bank has launched face authentication-based savings bank account opening for customers.
   • Purpose – to ease the account opening process for customers
   • Airtel Payments Bank is the first payment bank in the country to offer this facility.
   • In the Airtel Payments Bank, a maximum of 10,000 transactions are allowed per account in a month.
   • MD & CEO of Airtel Payments Bank – Anubrata Biswas
9. Flipkart has partnered with Axis Bank to launch the co-branded Super Elite Credit Card for the Flipkart’s SuperCoins reward program.
   • SuperCoins are rewards that consumers can earn on each purchase across Flipkart, Myntra, and Cleartrip.
10. Axis Bank hosted the “Evolve” summit across 20 cities for MSMEs on the theme of ‘Indian SMEs: Shifting Gears for Next Level Growth’.
11. The Australian parliament has passed the “India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (AI-ECTA)”. Now, it will become operational on a mutually-agreed date.
    • The FTA will provide duty-free access to the Australian market for over 6,000 broad sectors of India.
    • These include textiles and apparel, some agricultural and fish products, leather, footwear, furniture, sports goods, jewellery, machinery, electrical goods and railway wagons.
    • Under the FTA, Australia will provide zero-duty access to India for about 96.4% (by value) of its exports. Many of these products currently attract 4-5% customs duty in Australia.
    • India exported goods worth $8.3 billion to Australia in 2021-22. India’s imports from Australia, on the other hand, stood at $16.75 billion during the period.
12. Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has launched a call for startup applications for registration on the MAARG portal, the National Mentorship Platform by Startup India.
    • MAARG portal – Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience and Growth – is a one-stop platform to facilitate mentorship for startups across diverse sectors, functions, stages, geographies, and backgrounds.
    • The objectives of the MAARG portal are –
      • To provide sector-focused guidance, handholding, and support to start-ups throughout their lifecycle
      • To establish a formalized and structured platform that facilitates intelligent matchmaking between the mentors and their respective mentees
      • To facilitate efficient and expert mentorship for start-ups and build an outcome-oriented mechanism that allows timely tracking of the mentor-mentee engagements
13. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI Life Insurance will acquire 10% stake each in a proposed joint venture of Indian Oil Corporation and Chennai Petroleum.
    • The target entity which will be incorporated through seed capital of ₹5 lakh each will see ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and SBI Life Insurance each to buy 10% stake for ₹50,000.
14. According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows into India fell to $10.3 billion in the September quarter from $13.6 billion a year earlier.
    • In the first half of FY23, FDI equity inflows shrank 14% to $26.91 billion from $31.5 billion a year earlier while total inflows were 8.8% lower at $39.09 billion in the April-September period from $42.86 billion in the year earlier.
    • Top investors in India – Singapore emerged as the top investor with $10 billion FDI, followed by Mauritius ($3.32 billion), UAE ($2.95 billion) and the US ($2.6 billion).
    • Top investment destinations for Indians – Cayman Islands and Cyprus
    • Among states, Maharashtra was the top FDI destination followed by Karnataka and Gujarat.
    • FDI equity inflows into India have reduced marginally to $58.8 billion in FY22 from $59.6 billion in FY21.
15. Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has been included in the list of financial information providers under the Account Aggregator framework by RBI to facilitate cash flow-based lending to MSMEs.
    • An Account Aggregator (AA) is a type of RBI-regulated entity (with an NBFC-AA license) that helps an individual securely and digitally access and share information from one financial institution they have an account with to any other regulated financial institution in the AA network.
16. On its 117th Foundation Day, Canara Bank launched an Electronic Bank Guarantee, in partnership with National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL), launched Electronic Bank Guarantee (e-BG).
    • This platform offers several advantages such as greater transparency, better monitoring triggers, secured transmission of Bank Guarantee to beneficiary which shall lead to a higher degree of compliance.
    • Recently, Canara Bank launched Canara ai1, mobile banking superapp with more than 250 features with the futuristic vision of “One Bank, One App”.

GDP Forecasts

1. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released the ‘OECD November Outlook 2022- Confronting the Crisis’
   • GDP forecasts –

2. S&P Global Market Intelligence has projected India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to average 6.3% annually between the financial years 2021 and 2030.
   • Now, India has overtaken Japan and Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy in nominal US dollar terms.
   • Real income per capita is projected to achieve significant average growth of 3%, with Indian households becoming the greatest spenders among G20 economies.

Appointments

1. Vinit Kumar has been appointed as the CEO of Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVlC).
   • Based in Mumbai, KVIC is under the aegis of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

Important Days

1. November 18 – World COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Day; Theme – Your Lungs for Life

Sports

1. Asia Cup (of Asian Cricket Council) 2023 is expected to be organized in Pakistan.

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