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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 November 2020

::NATIONAL::

Ministry of Commerce and industry notified Export of Milk and Milk Products (Quality Control, Inspectionand Monitoring) Rules, 2020.
The order takes place of the Export of Milk Products (Quality Control, Inspection and Monitoring) Rules, 2000.
According to new rules, the exporters of milk and milk products would have to obtain a certificate of export worthiness from agovernment agency for the shipments.
Milk and milk products shall be subjected to quality control or inspection or both prior to export.

The government approved the revamped viability gap funding (VGF) scheme.
It envisaging a total outlay of ₹8,100 crore for encouraging investment in social as well as economic infrastructure projects.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved continuation and revamping of the scheme for financial support to public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure VGF scheme till 2024-25.
The revamped scheme will provide financial support to PPP projects in the infrastructure sector spread over a period of five years ending 2024-25.

About:

Of the total amount of ₹8,100 crore, ₹6,000 crore has been earmarked for PPP projects in the economic infrastructure segment and remaining ₹2,100 crore for social infrastructure projects.
The earlier VGF scheme was limited to projects concerning economic infrastructure.
The revamped VGF scheme will attract more PPP projects and facilitate private investment in the social sectors (health, education, waste water, solid waste management and water supply, among others).
Creation of new hospitals and schools will create many opportunities to boost employment generation.
The new scheme will have two components.

Sub-scheme-1:

The sub-scheme-1 would cater to social sectors such as waste water treatment, water supply, solid waste management, health and education sectors, which often face bankability issues on account of poor revenue streams.
The projects eligible under the sub-scheme-1 should have at least 100 per cent operational cost recovery.
The central government will provide a maximum of 30% of the total project cost (TPC) of the project as VGF. State government, sponsoring central ministry or statutory entity may provide an additional support up to 30% of TPC.

Sub scheme-2:

The sub scheme-2 will support demonstration or pilot social sectors projects. The projects may be from health and education sectors where there is at least 50% operational cost recovery.
In such projects, central and state governments together will provide up to 80 per cent of capital expenditure and up to 50 per cent of operation and maintenance (O&M) costs for the first five years.
The Centre will provide a maximum of 40% of the TPC of the project.

Bahrain’s Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, the world’s longest-serving Prime Minister who had held the post since Independence in 1971, died on Wednesday at the age of 84.
Prince Khalifa was a controversial figure during his five decades in office — and deeply unpopular with the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s Shia population.
When Shia-led protesters occupied Manama’s Pearl Square for a month in 2011, before being driven out by Saudi-backed security forces, their main demand was for the prince to step down.
Bahrain Island also known as al-Awal Island and formerly as Bahrein, is the largest island within the archipelago of Bahrain, and forms the bulk of the country's land mass while hosting the majority of its population.

The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) approved draft banking regulations for banking operations at IFSCs.

Salient features:

Laying down the requirements for setting up IFSC Banking Units (IBUs)
Permitting persons resident outside India (having net worth not less than USD 1 Million) to open foreign currency accounts in any freely convertible currency at IFSC Banking Units (IBUs)
Permitting persons resident in India (having net worth not less than USD 1 Million) to open foreign currency accounts in any freely convertible currency at IFSC Banking Units (IBUs) to undertake any permissible current account or capital account transaction or any combination thereof under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) of the Reserve Bank of India.
Laying down the permissible activities of IBUs including credit enhancement, credit insurance, and sale, purchase of portfolios, engage in factoring and forfaiting of export receivables and undertake equipment leasing, including aircraft leasing.
Permitting the Authority to determine business that a Banking Unit may be permitted to conduct in INR with persons resident in India and persons resident outside India, subject to settlement of the financial transaction in relation to such business in freely convertible foreign currency.

It is a low-cost, paper-based test strip for detecting COVID-19.
It is developed byCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research - Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology and Tata Group.
It is world’s first viral diagnostic kit based on FELUDA CRISPR Cas-9 platform.
Feluda test uses CRISPR gene-editing technology to identify and target the genetic material of SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is used in correcting genetic defects and treating and preventing the spread of diseases.

Collins Dictionary has declared “lockdown” as the word of the year.
Lexicographers said they picked the word because it had become synonymous with the experience of populations across the world as governments look to curb the coronavirus pandemic.