25th July, 2023

1. NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) has announced the 2nd consecutive commercial space mission, to take-off aboard ISRO’s rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
2. HCL Technology (HCLTech) has joined the XR Startup Programme, an initiative between Meta and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
3. India’s first Cannabis Medicine Project is set to be launched in Jammu.
4. Rajasthan assembly has passed the Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, 2023.
5. Tamil Nadu’s Authoor betel leaves have been issued Geographical Indication certificate.
6. 14th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM14) and 8th Mission Innovation (MI8) has been held on the sidelines of 4th G20 Energy Transition Ministerial Meeting in Goa, India.
7. Govt has approved 15% interest rate on Employees’ Provident Fund for FY23.
8. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has partnered with Brookfield Infra and Digital Realty for developing data centers in India.
9. Chief Justices to High Courts have been appointed across the country.
10. July 22- National Mango Day
11. July 24- Income Tax Day (164th)
12. July 25- World Embryologist (IVF) Day
13. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty has won men’s doubles title in Korea Open 2023 badminton   tournament in Yeosu, South Korea.

National News

1. NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) has announced the 2nd consecutive commercial space mission, to take-off aboard ISRO’s rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
   • The mission PSLV-C56 will deploy 1 primary and 6 additional satellites as part of the mission’s entire payload.
   • Primary payload – Singapore government’s Defence Science and Technology Agency’s DS-SAR satellite, for imaging applications.
   • The six secondary payloads include-
   • 2 technology demonstrator satellites Velox-Am and Scoob-II,
   • An experimental satellite called Atmospheric Coupling and Dynamics Explorer (Arcade)
   • Private nanosatellite NuLIon
   • Galassia-2 and Orb-12 Strider.
   • Earlier this year, PSLV-C55 deployed two satellites from Singapore in orbit.
   • Singapore’s ‘TeLEOS-2’ was the primary payload, and Lumelite-4 as secondary payload.
   • Previously, it has been projected that India will become a $13 billion space economy by 2025, of which satellite launch services and applications would account for 36% or over $4.5 billion.
   • NSIL is the commercial space missions’ arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
     Source: Livemint
2. HCL Technology (HCLTech) has joined the XR Startup Programme, an initiative between Meta and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
   • The initiative aims to discover, nurture, and accelerate extended reality (XR) technology start-ups in India.
   • Extended reality is a broad term to refer to augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality.
     HCLTech will provide one-on-one mentorship to start-ups, leading thought leadership sessions and provide valuable business and industry perspectives.

3. India’s first Cannabis Medicine Project is set to be launched in Jammu.
   • Cannabis Research Project’ of CSIR-IIIM Jammu is a first of its kind in India in Private Public Partnership with a Canadian firm InsdusScan.
   • CSIR-IIIM is the oldest scientific research institute in India with the history of discovering mint way back in 1960s and the centre of purple revolution.
   • CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM) is pioneer in the Cannabis research and obtained the first license for cultivation in the country.
   • Following this, many other states like Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have started making the policy and rules for use of Cannabis for scientific purpose.
     Source: PIB

State News

1. Rajasthan assembly has passed the Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, 2023.

Features of the bill

• A welfare board, The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers Welfare Board will be formed.
• Members- To meet at least once in six months.
• Chairperson: Labour Minister
• 2 members, each from gig workers and aggregators to be nominated by the state government.
• 2 more representatives, including one from civil society, will also be nominated by the state government.
• One-third of the Board to consist of women.
• Purpose- The board will ensure registration of gig workers and aggregators operating in the state and establish a social security and welfare fund for gig workers.
• Registration of gig workers and aggregators:
• Aggregators will have to provide its database of all platform-based gig workers on-boarded or registered with them to the state government within 60 days of enforcement of this Act.
• The state government will maintain a database of the gig workers and generate a unique ID for every one of them.
• Aggregators too will have to get registered with the state government within 60 days of enforcement of the Act.
• Platform Based Gig Workers Fund and Welfare Fee –
• Under this, a social security and welfare fund will be established for gig workers. Apart from other sources, it will be made up of a Gig Workers Welfare Fee that will be levied from an aggregator.
• Provision for penalties– If any aggregator fails to pay the welfare fee within time, they will be penalised with an interest of 12% per annum from the date on which such payment is due.
• If any other clauses of the act are violated by the aggregators, the Bill empowers the state government to impose a fine up to Rs 5 lakh for the first contravention and up to Rs 50 lakh for subsequent contraventions.
  Source: IE

2. Tamil Nadu’s Authoor betel leaves have been issued Geographical Indication
   • The tag is registered in the name of Authoor Vattara Vetrilai Vivasayigal Sangam.
   • The betel leaves are locally known as Vettrilai, are nurtured by Thamirabrani river water. They also find a mention in the 13th-Century book ‘The Travels of MARCO POLO (The Venetian)’.
     Source: NIE

International News

1. 14th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM14) and 8th Mission Innovation (MI8) has been held on the sidelines of 4th G20 Energy Transition Ministerial Meeting in Goa, India.
   • Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) has adopted the Clean Energy Marine Hubs Initiative (CEM-Hubs), focussing on scaling up low carbon fuel production,
   • Theme for the event: ‘Advancing Clean Energy Together’.
   • The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) is a high-level global forum to promote policies and programmes advancing clean energy technology.
   • MI is a global initiative of 23 Countries and the European Commission to accelerate clean energy revolution.
     Source: ET

Banking and Economy

1. Govt has approved 8.15% interest rate on Employees’ Provident Fund for FY23.
   • In March 2022, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) reduced the interest rate on EPF deposits for 2021-22 to a four-decade low of 8.10% from 8.5% in 2020-21.

• Retirement fund body EPFO added 16.30 lakh members on a net basis in May this year, according to payroll data released last week.
• The data indicates that around 8.83 lakh new members enrolled during May, 2023 are highest during the last six months.
• Among the newly joined members, the age group of 18-25 years constitutes 56.42% of total new members added during the month.

2. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has partnered with Brookfield Infra and Digital Realty for developing data centers in India.
   • This three-way venture for setting up special purpose vehicles (SPVs) will be renamed Digital Connexion. RIL will hold a 33.33% stake in the SPVs.
   • Digital Realty is a cloud and data centre solutions provider.
   • The joint venture will develop high-quality, highly connected, scalable data centres to meet the critical infrastructure needs of enterprises and digital services companies in India.
   • The venture is currently developing data centres in Chennai and Mumbai.
   • Its first 20 megawatts (MW) greenfield data centre (MAA10), on a 100MW campus in Chennai, is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
     Source: Livemint

   
   

Appointments

1. Chief Justices to High Courts have been appointed across the country.
   • Justice Alok Aradhe – Telangana HC
   • Justice Ashish Jitendra Desai – Kerala HC
   • Justice Subhasis Talapatra – Orissa HC
   • Justice Sunita Agarwal– Gujarat HC, the only woman Chief Justice of a HC.
   • Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya– Bombay HC
   • Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur– Andhra Pradesh HC

Source: TH, IE

Important Days

1. July 22- National Mango Day
   • History- In 1987, the National Horticulture Board of India introduced the concept of the International Mango Festival to pay tribute to the beloved mango.
     Source: Livemint
2. July 23- National Broadcasting Day
   • History- On this day in 1927, the first-ever radio broadcast in the country went on the air from the Bombay Station under a private company, the Indian Broadcasting Company.
   • In June, 1936, the Indian State Broadcasting Service became All India Radio (AIR).
   • Purpose- To celebrate the journey of All India Radio and reflect on the influence it has on social integration as well as social change.
   • Motto of AIR- Bahujan Hitaya, Bahujana Sukhaya’.
     Source: NoA
3. July 24- Income Tax Day (164th)
   • Purpose– To spread awareness around the importance of taxes and encourage more and more people to pay taxes for the development of the nation.
     Source: Livemint
4. July 25- World Embryologist (IVF) Day
   • History- To commemorate the birth of first baby born through the process of IVF in 1978. Louise Joy Brown was the first baby to be born through In vitro fertilisation.
     Source: HT

Sports

1. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty has won men’s doubles title in Korea Open 2023 badmintontournament in Yeosu, South Korea.
   • The duo has defeated Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the final.
   • It was Chirag-Satwik’s seventh BWF World Tour title.
   • PV Sindhu is the only other Indian to win the Korea Open title in 2017.
     Source: Olympics.com

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