Current Affairs Key points

Current Affairs  

 Key points  

Railway

Tejas Express:

 After the successful run of Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express, the second premium Tejas train is ready to run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. 
 This will be yet another step of the Ministry of Railways in its endeavour to improve the overall traveling experience to rail passengers by providing state of the art facilities. 

 The train is fully air-conditioned and will have two executive class chair cars with 56 seats each and eight chair cars 78 seats each. The train will totally carry capacity of 736 passengers. 


 IRCTC will also pay a compensation of Rs. 100 in case the train is delayed by more than one hour and Rs. 250 in case of delay of more than 2 hours to every passenger as compensation.

Passenger Information System  The Passenger Information System provided at Anakapalle Station, modern technology adopted by which the estimated arrival of the trains at the station is taken based on the real-time location of the passengers.Indian Railways introduced a new Passenger Information System at Anakapalle Railway Station of Vijayawada
The system provides an electronic display of information about the passengers expected at the station in the next two hours in a Trilingual form. 
The system includes a facility for the operator to modify the data in case of any emergencies. 
 The cost of the equipment is Rs 10 lakhs consists of the supply, installation, commissioning, and onsite warranty of 3 years. They consist of 3 to 5 lines used for displaying information of upcoming trains at the station.

The Railway Board has approved works for provision of Video Surveillance System (VSS) which covers 983 stations under Nirbhaya funds. RailTel has been entrusted with the work of providing IP based VSS with video analytics and facial recognition system

Economy and Banking 
The deadline to link the permanent account number-PAN with Aadhaar was extended till 31st March 2020 by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) through an order. 
 The due date for linking of the PAN with Aadhaar as specified under sub-section-2 of Section-139AA of the Income-tax Act,1961 has now been extended from 31st December, 2019 to 31st March, 2020. 
 This is the 8th time that the CBDT has extended the deadline for individuals to link their PAN with Aadhaar. 
 Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act says that every person who is having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and is eligible to obtain Aadhaar, must intimate his Aadhaar number to tax authorities.

• Supreme Court, in September last year, had declared the Centre's flagship "Aadhaar scheme" as constitutionally valid and held that the biometric ID would remain mandatory for the filing of IT returns and allotment of PAN.

Science and Technology

PM Narendra Modi will be in Karnataka on January 2 and 3. He would be inaugurating 5 DRDO Young Scientists' Laboratories. This development would boost the indigenous research capabilities in the defence sector. 

The event shall be organised at the Aeronautical Development Establishment, DRDO at Bengaluru. Prime Minister shall unveil a plaque to mark the dedication, and address the Scientists. DRDO will also showcase some of its innovative products to the Prime Minister at an Exhibition on the occasion. Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa and DRDO Chairman Dr. G Satheesh Reddy will be present on the occasion.

The fellows were selected on the basis of their past work, innovative research idea and the potential to make an impact on R&D in the respective disciplines. • They will get a monthly fellowship of Rs 25,000 and an annual research grant of Rs 5 lakh, for the next five years, in addition to their salary.

 Mathematician Apoorva Khare, physicist Anindya Das and computational data scientist Yogesh Simmhan are the new SJ Fellows from the IISc. • The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay will have two new SJ fellows in chemist Gopalan Rajaraman and climate scientist Subimal Ghosh.

Commerce and Industry & Railways Minister Piyush Goyal today inaugurated the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Knowledge Hub in New Delhi. It is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered learning ecosystem that will assist banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector. Although India has developed as the second largest fintech hub in the world, a lot of work still needs to be done in the BFSI sector. The Knowledge Hub created by NSE will fill in these gaps and help the financial sector to move into the future.