Top Best Current Affairs 1 October 2020 (2)

The government has constituted five task forces to make India's micro, small and medium enterprises future-ready and formulate a concrete strategy towards making the country a leading exporter, a top government official said on Thursday.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has announced Shekhar Kapur as the new President of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Society and Chairman of FTII Governing Council. His tenure will be till March 3, 2023 Kapur, known for films like Masoom (1983), Mr India (1987), Elizabeth (1998) and Bandit Queen (1994), will replace television producer BP Singh. Singh's tenure had ended in March 2020 but he was given an extension owing to the coronavirus situation.

Ed-tech start-up Vedantu, that offers live online tutoring has appointed actor Aamir Khan as its brand ambassador. As part of its association, the platform has also launched ad films with the actor, that highlights the pros of the platforms. The film will be released on television across 46 channels, digital and OTT platforms, the company said.

Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) become the first to implement the new feature of document embedding facility with Letter of Credit (LC) / Bank Guarantee (BG) messages over SFMS (Structured Financial Messaging System) platform of Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS). The process would be conducted via a middleware application "i@Connect-SFMS (CSFMS) developed by IDBI Intech.

CRIF High Mark, a leading Indian credit bureau owned by CRIF has partnered with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the nation's apex financial institution for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), for the launch of sector-based insight reports called 'Industry Spotlight'. It will be a series of quarterly reports providing data and trends on key industry sectors in each edition. The first edition of the report will present a deep-dive analysis into the Indian drugs & pharmaceutical industry. The MSME sector plays a critical role in the economic growth of our nation. In India, more than 6 crore MSMEs contribute around 29.7% of the GDP and employ more than 11 crore persons. It is a vibrant sector and holds the promise of taking the GDP growth of the nation to the next level. Given the global trade tensions and the slowdown in demand affecting the large corporates, it becomes critical for policymakers to frame policies based on real-time data tracking.

To benefit the small and medium farmers who have no open water source for irrigation, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will launch YSR Jala Kala on Monday. Under the scheme, borewells will be dug free of cost to the needy farmers. The scheme is estimated to bring in five lakh acres under cultivation through groundwater irrigation.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh unveiled on Monday a new Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) that features steps to turn India into a global manufacturing hub of military platforms, reduce timelines for procurement of defence equipment and allow purchase of essential items by the three services through capital budget under a simplified mechanism.

BrahMos surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile featuring indigenous Booster and Airframe Section along with many other 'Made in India' sub-systems was successfully flight tested from ITR, Balasore in Odisha. It is one more major step in enhancing the indigenous content. The BrahMos Land-Attack Cruise Missile (LACM) was cruising at a top speed of Mach 2.8.