 Uttarakhand has become the 1st state in the country where the government has made a policy to lease agricultural land. In lieu of giving land on a 30-year lease, the concerned farmer will get the rent for the land. In the hilly areas of the state, the obstacles of leasing land for farming, agriculture, horticulture, herbs, off-season vegetables, milk production, tea plantation, fruit hybridization and solar energy has been removed with this step. Now any institution, company, firm or NGO can take farmland on lease in villages, leasing a maximum of 30 acres of land on lease for 30 years. There is a provision to take more land in special circumstances. If there is government land around farmland, then it can be leased by paying the fee with the permission of the District Magistrate. The state government has made this policy in the wake of difficulties in the consolidation of land. |
 Indian Oil has signed an MoU with Ghana’s National Petroleum Authority for proper execution of the Ghana’s National LPG Promotion Policy. According to the MoU, Indian Oil will provide its technical expertise and assistance to Ghana’s National Petroleum Authority. The MoU is expected to strengthen the ties between India and Ghana in the field of Petroleum as Indian Oil will help Ghana in the successful execution of its plan of Re-circulation Model (CRM) of LPG. The MoU will also provide for administrative support to Indian Oil in case it decides to take part as a commercial participant in Ghana’s downstream petroleum sector. |
 The United Nations has lowered India’s GDP growth rate to 5.7% for the Fiscal Year 2019-20 in its World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2020 report. UN has lowered the growth rate to 5.7% from 7.6% which it projected in its WESP 2019 report. UN has also projected India’s growth rate at 6.6% for FY 2020-21 and 6.3% for FY 2021-22. According to the UN, India’s growth rate for FY 2018-19 was 6.8%. |
 The Union Minister of State for Shipping (I/C) Mansukh Mandaviya participated in the High-level roundtable of United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) programme at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. The theme of the programme is “Access for all: Leveraging Innovations, Investments and Partnerships for Health”. The main objective of the programme is to coordinate global action on the AIDS disease and alleviate its impact. It was established in 1994. |
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 The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched a blockchain-technology based payment system ‘Vajra Platform’. The newly launched platform, which is based on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has been designed for automating payment clearing and settlement processes of NPCI products such as unified payments interface (UPI) and Rupay card. |
The platform has three types of nodes:
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 The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet has appointed Challa Sreenivasulu Setty as the Managing Director of the State Bank of India. Department of the Financial Services proposed his name to the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet for the position of Managing Director of the State Bank of India. Setty’s appointment has been done for 3 years. Challa Sreenivasulu Setty is presently serving in the State Bank of India as its Deputy Managing Director. |
 The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind presented the 14th Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in New Delhi. These awards are one of the most prestigious awards in India in the field of journalism, held annually since 2006. These are awarded to honour journalists across the country from print, broadcast and digital media who have maintained the highest standards of their profession and, despite immense challenges, produced work that sustains public trust in the media and impacts the lives of people. The award is named after Ramnath Goenka, who was an Indian newspaper publisher and founder of “The Indian Express” and Indian Express Group. |
 France will train Indian flight surgeons for the ambitious human space mission Gaganyaan. The training is a critical aspect of the Gaganyaan project that is aimed at sending three Indians to space by 2022. The flight surgeons, who will be Indian Air Force doctors specialising in aviation medicines and responsible for the health of astronauts before, during and after the flight. France has a well-established mechanism for space medicine. It also has the MEDES space clinic, a subsidiary of CNES, where space surgeons undergo training. The four shortlisted astronauts all test pilots from the Indian Air Force are currently in Russia for an 11-month training programme. |
 On January 23, 2020, Ghana announced that the country will replicate the Ujjwala model of LPG connection under the guidance of India (represented by Indian Oil Corporation). |
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 On January 23, 2020, India celebrated 123rd birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose. He was born on January 23, 1897. In order to commemorate Netaji’s birth anniversary, GoI is inaugurating a temple at Varanasi in the name of the leader with a Dalit woman as a chief priest. The prayers are to be performed to Bharat Mata at the temple. |
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