Current Affairs:
The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India (MoMSME) and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 20 July 2020. The MoU is aimed at the sharing of data by CBDT to MoMSME. The MoU comes into force from 20 July 2020, the date it was signed.
MoU Provisions:
♦ The MoU will facilitate the seamless sharing of certain Income-tax Return (ITR) related information by the Income Tax Department to MoMSME.
♦ The shared data will enable MoMSME to check and classify enterprises in Micro, Small, and Medium categories.
♦ Under the MoU, both the organizations will appoint Nodal Officer and Alternate Nodal Officers to facilitate the process of data exchange.
♦ It is expected that the MoU will mark the beginning of a new era of cooperation and synergy between the CBDT and MoMSME.
Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ is to launch virtually the Manodarpan initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) 21 July 2020. Manodarpan is an initiative under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, to provide psychosocial support to students for their Mental Health and Well-being.
World Chess Day was observed on 20 July. The day is to celebrate the founding day of Federation Internationale des Echecs (International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation). The day also celebrate the game of Chess and encourages more people to play and enjoy the game amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On 20 July 2020, Chess players, United Nations and governments officials, permanent missions to the UN, representatives of civil society, academia and other relevant stakeholders attended and participated in a High-Level Virtual Event title “Chess for Recovering Better”.
United Arab Emirates launches “Hope” mission to “Mars”A mission titled as “Hope” has been launched to “Mars” by the United Arab Emirates. With this mission, UAE aims to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere for the first time, studying daily and seasonal changes. An unmanned “Hope” Probe blasted off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center at 1:58 a.m. (UAE time) for a seven-month journey to the red planet and is expected to enter Mars orbit by February 2021, which also marks the 50th anniversary of the unification of the UAE, an alliance of seven emirates. The journey of “Hope” would be tracked by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai. The Hope probe constitutes three different instruments namely an imager and two spectrometers. The “Imager” will facilitate detailed images of the planet’s surface while all three will provide data to the scientists in order to track what ingredients are located where in the atmosphere of Mars.The probe will not land on the Red Planet, but instead orbit it for a whole Martian year i.e. for 687 days.The “Hope” mission to “Mars”, also called Emirates Mars Mission costed $200 million and is UAE’s first foray into interplanetary exploration.
UP Govt launches “Navin Rojgar Chhatri Yojana” for SCs Uttar Pradesh government has launched ”Navin Rojgar Chhatri Yojana” for all-round development of the Scheduled Castes. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath transferred financial assistance of 17.42 crore online to 3,484 people under the ‘Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Swarojgar Yojana’ and interacted with some beneficiaries from Rae Bareli, Gorakhpur, Basti, Meerut, Azamgarh and Moradabad districts through video conferencing.The state government has extended the financial help to make people self-dependent.
History on the Day:
After 13 years, the 4,607-mile Trans-Siberian railway is completed(1904)
(1969)Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to step on the Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT)
(1970) Aswan High Dam opens in Egypt, enables human control of the flooding of the Nile