The Daily Brief – 9th November 2016

The Reserve Bank of India has issued improved and newer sizes series of notes for the denomination of 500 rupees and 2,000 rupees. The announcement was made by the Prime Minister who also added that the current Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes will no longer be legal tender. The 2,000 rupees note will be called as the ‘Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series’ and the base colour will be magenta. On the reverse side, the motif of Mangalayan will be printed while Mahatma Gandhi’s picture will continue to don the front side. On the other hand, the 500 rupee note will be stone grey in colour and will have the motif of the Red Fort in Delhi on the reverse side and the front side will be the same as the 2000 rupee note.

Narendra Modi will be named as the new mascot of the Incredible India campaign by the Tourism Ministry after the position was lying vacant after amir Khan was ousted as the brand ambassador in January 2016 for his remarks on how intolerant India is.

The 7th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was launched in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. It was launched by the Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda in the presence of Maithripala Sirisena, the President of Sri Lanka. India is hosting the COP meeting of FCTC for the first time and was the 7th country to ratify the convention in 2004. This convention is said to be the first global evidence-based public health treaty.

The High Court of Uttarakhand has ordered all the hill stations and glaciers in the state to be declared as eco-sensitive within three months. This order will demand the banning of all constructions within 25km radius of the glaciers.

At the Tata Literature Live!’s awards ceremony to be held later this month in Mumbai, author Amitav Ghosh will be awarded the Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016. His popular works are critically acclaimed and have also won him several awards as well: The Circle of Reason won the Prix Medicis etranger, The Shadow Lines won both the Sahitya Akademi Award as well as the Ananda Puraskar and the Sea of Poppies was among the novels shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Price.

The Supreme Court has given the Union Government 48 hours to respond to devising a common minimum programme to deal with the rising pollution

The 9th Annual Meeting of International Regulatory Cooperation for Herbal Medicines (IRCH) was inaugurated in New Delhi. This meeting has been organised by the AYUSH Ministry and was inaugurated by Sripad Naik who is the Minister of State for AYUSH.

Psyche, the largest metallic asteroid in our solar system is said to have water present on its surface after scientists from NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii made new observations. However, the source of these hydroxyl or water molecules remains a mystery. Psyche is made of almost pure nickel-iron metal and is 300 kilometres across.

Praveen Kumar Sharma has been appointed as the Central Registrar (CR), Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India (CERSAI). He was appointed by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) for a tenure of 3 years. CERSAI is a central online security interest registry of India and is headquartered in New Delhi. It is a Government company that was created to check frauds in lending against equitable mortgages, in which people would take multiple loans on the same asset from different banks.

A total of 31 students were awarded for their ideas and innovations the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The awards were presented on the basis of a competition organised by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF).