Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 13 April 2021

::NATIONAL::

President Ram NathKovind appointed Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra to take over as Chief Election Commissioner from Sunil Arora, whose tenure ended on April 12.
In a statement, the Law Ministry said: “The President appointed ShriSushil Chandra the senior-most Election Commissioner, as the Chief Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India.”
The Ministry said Mr. Chandra would assume charge from Tuesday and that a notification to that effect had been issued by the Legislative Department.
Mr. Chandra took office as an Election Commissioner on February 15, 2019 after retiring as the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. A 1980 batch Indian Revenue Service officer, Mr. Chandra had worked in the areas of international taxation and investigation.

Kazakh Prime Minister AskarMamin and Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov launched the construction of the Central Asia International Center for Trade and Economic Cooperation located at the Kazakh-Uzbek border, according to the Kazakh Prime Minister’s press service.
The two countries seek to turn the centre into a major industrial, trade and logistics platform to implement joint investment projects between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, primarily in the manufacturing, agro-industrial and light industry sectors.
“The governments of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are working to bring the level of mutual trade up to $10 billion. The project launched today will serve to achieve this goal and further strengthen the all-round strategic cooperation between the two countries,” said Mamin.
The Kazakh side, he noted, is interested in creating a single commodity distribution system between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan by opening three wholesale distribution centres in Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya and Ferghana regions with a total investment of $22.5 million and a capacity of 67,000 tonnes per year.
The memorandum to establish the center was signed as part of President Kassym-JomartTokayev’s visit to Tashkent in April 2019.
The officials believe the center will give significant impetus to regional tourist flow and cross-border trade and contribute to developing the North-South and Central Asian transport and transit corridor.

Punjab farmers can look forward to direct online MSP payment from the upcoming procurement season after the Centre on Thursday rejected the state’s demand for yet another exemption from the DBT route.
“We have no option and choice,” Punjab finance minister ManpreetBadal said after a nearly two-hour meeting with Food minister PiyushGoyal who categorically told the state that the Centre will make procurements and reimburse related costs only if the state pays directly to farmers and not through arhtiyas.
“The minister has rejected our requests for exemption from the DBT route and we are now left with no choice. The minister said the state would have to make its own procurement arrangements if it wishes to pay farmers through arhtiyas. So we have no choice,” Badal said.
Meanwhile, the Centre has agreed to grant Punjab six month extension to link land record to the national e-procurement portal.
The Centre today said 15 procuring states had started DBT payments to farmers and no further exemption was possible for Punjab which had already got three exemptions in the past.

The Ministry of Power has issued a draft amendment to Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2021, which allows net metering for rooftop solar systems of loads up to 500 kW or up to the sanctioned load, whichever is lower and net billing (gross metering) or net feed-in for above 500 kW.
The MoP said that stakeholders can send their comments to the ministry by April 30, 2021. According to the draft amendment, for prosumers availing net-billing or net feed-in, the Commissions may introduce time-of-the-day (ToD) tariffs which would incentivize prosumers to install energy storage for later use or can be fed into the grid during peak hours.
In case of net metering/net-billing or net feed-in, the DISCOM may also install a solar energy meter to measure gross solar energy generated from the grid-interactive rooftop photovoltaic system for renewable energy purchase obligation (RPO) credit.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) granted permission to the Serum Institute of India (SII) to manufacture the Russian Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine in India for examination, test and analysis with certain conditions, according to official sources.
Pune-based SII has partnered with Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow, in Russia for developing Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in India at its licensed facility in Hadapsar.
"The DCGI has granted permission to the Serum Institute to manufacture the Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine in India for examination, test and analysis at its licensed Hadapsar facility with certain conditions," an official source said, according to PTI. Earlier, on Thursday, SII had submitted an application to the drug regulator for this purpose.
DCGI has set four conditions; as per these SII will have to submit a copy of the agreement between the firm and Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology for transfer of cell bank and virus stock and a copy of the agreement for technology transfer with Gamaleya.
"Further, the SII has to submit a copy of the RCGM permission to import cell bank and virus stock and a copy of the RCGM permission to initiate research and development of viral vector vaccine Sputnik V," the sources said.