[CA/News] May 08, 2020 Headlines

MAY 07, 2020
vizag gas leak A gas leak, reminiscent of the 1984 Bhopal tragedy, has affected thousands of residents in five villages in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The source of the leak was a styrene plant owned by South Korean electronics giant LG, located at RRV Puram near Gopalapatnam, about 15 kms from the coast city. Styrene is a flammable liquid that is used in the manufacturing of polystyrene plastics, fiberglass, rubber, and latex. [Click for more details....] mustafa kadhimi Iraq parliament voted to choose Mr. Mustafa Kadhimi as the new prime minister of Iraq. In November 2019, the then Prime Minister, Mr. Adel Abdul Mahdi resigned due to massive anti-governmental protests. new currency for iran The Iran Government has recently come up with the decision of changing the name of its currency to Toman. The unit of Iranian currency if Rial. According to the Iranian Government, one Toman is 10,000 Rials. Gheran is another new denomination. 100 Gheran makes a Toman. The new system was authorized by the Iranian Parliament recently to manage high inflation in the country. In order to make Toman, the four zeros in the older currency notes are alone removed. Rial will still remain legal. [Click for more details....] mid – day meal ration Madhya Pradesh has become the first state in the country to provide a mid-day meal ration. Amidst Corona crisis, an amount of Rs. 117 crore has been transferred online by the state government in the bank accounts of the parents of total 66 lakh 27 thousand students of primary and secondary school. In addition, under door-to-door mid-day meal scheme, ration has also been provided to 56 lakh 87 thousand children. co-op banks come under sarafaesi act: sc The Supreme Court has held that the cooperative banks involved in the activities related to banking are covered within the meaning of ‘banking company’ and Parliament has legislative competence to provide for procedure for recovery of loan under the Sarfaesi Act. The judgment came in view of several conflicting decisions by high courts on the issues of: (1) Whether the Co-operative banks can be called ‘Banks (financial Institution)’ under the Banking Regulation Act of 1949. (2) Whether the Parliament has legislative competence to regulate financial assets of cooperative banks formed under state law.	vandhe bharat mission Government of India is to begin “Vandhe Bharat Mission”. The mission is considered as one of the biggest evacuation exercise. The Vandhe Bharat Mission aims at bringing stranded Indians from all over the world. More than 14,800 Indians are stranded abroad. The mission also aims at operating non-scheduled commercial flights. These commercial flights will carry people to London and Singapore and also selected places in USA. The flights are being operated based on the Standard of Procedure issued by Ministry of Home Affairs. The flights will fly from key cities of India such as Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. The entire Vandhe Bharat Mission is to be led by Air India. long march 5b China had launched a new rocket and a deep-space spacecraft to operate a permanent space station and also to send astronauts to moon. China launched the Long March 5B rocket from its Wenchang launch site that is located on the island of Hainan. The rocket is a massive vehicle and is being compared with deep space Orion capsule of NASA. The rocket in the future will help China transport astronauts to space station by 2022. The rocket launch will also aid China in its plans of building a huge space station called “Tiangong”. internet users in india: rural india outshines urban india The Internet and Mobile Association of India recently released a report according to which the active internet users in rural India has increased by 10% as compared to that of rural India. According to the report, rural India had 227 million active internet users and urban India had 205 million internet users. This is the first time in Indian history the number of rural internet users have surpassed urban internet users. . India has also become the second largest internet user after China. Among states, Delhi topped in internet penetration followed by Kerala. In terms of Internet penetration, India lagged behind US and China. It was 40% in India as compared to that of 61% in China and 88% in USA. Internet penetration is the percentage of the total population of a country that uses internet. [Click for more details....] ********************************* May 08: World Red Cross Day and Red Crescent Day May 08: World Thalassaemia Day; theme: "The dawning of a new era for thalassaemia: Time for a global effort to make novel therapies accessible and affordable to patients" *********************************
Prepared by K. M. Senthil Kumar