Current Affairs 2021: Today’s News Headlines: April 1, 2021
India
- SC-appointed committee submits report on agricultural laws; its members were P. K. Mishra, Anil Ghanwat and Ashok Gulati
- DCGI (Drugs Controller General of India) extends shelf life of Covishield vaccine from six to nine months
- No charging of electronic devices on board trains between 11 pm and 5 am: Railways
- Cruise service starts between Surat and Diu; 13 hours one-way journey, 900 Rs. ticket
- Punjab: Women can travel for free in all govt.-run buses within the state from April 1
- UP: New excise policy to cut price of beer by Rs. 20/bottle from April 1
- Army shutting down its 39 military cattle farms across the country; had annual maintenance cost of Rs. 300 crores
Economy & Corporate
- MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) inflation target band retained at 2%-6% for next 5 years: Govt.
- At 4.6% in February 2021, core industries show sharpest contraction in six months
- Auto-debit payments: RBI extends timeline for implementation of new rules till Sept 30 as banks missed April 1 deadline
- Government mops up Rs 32,835 crore from disinvestment of CPSEs in 2020-21
- approves production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for food processing sector entailing an outlay of Rs 10,900 crore
- Covid impact: Govt extends deadline for PAN-Aadhaar linkage till June 30
- World Bank raises India’s 2021-22 GDP growth forecast to 10.1% from 5.4% earlier
- extends Rs 3-lakh-crore emergency credit line guarantee scheme (ECLGS) by till June 30
- Atal Innovation Mission launches ‘AIM-PRIME’ in partnership with BMGF & Venture Center
- SBI inks $1-bn loan agreement with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to extend loans to supply chain of Japanese automobile industry in India
- India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) to come into force from April 1, 2021
- Pakistan to resume import of sugar and cotton from India after 2 years
World
- World Health Organisation & China release report on coronavirus origin, say virus transmission was from bats to another animal and subsequently to humans
- China refutes assertions of WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus that it did not provide necessary access to the team of international experts and withheld data from them
- Google to contribute 25 million euros towards the European Media and Information Fund to strengthen media literacy skills and fight misinformation
- Hitachi to buy US software developer GlobalLogic for $9.6 billion
Month: Current Affairs - April, 2021