Daily Current Affairs and GK | 30 November 2024

Topic: National News

1. India's largest science festival is being hosted by IIT Guwahati from November 30.

• The International Science Festival (IISF) is being celebrated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam, from November 30 to December 4, 2024.
• For this year, the nodal department is the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
• IISFF and the National Institute of Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR-NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram), a constituent laboratory of CSIR, are coordinating the entire festival.
• IISF is a unique festival of science-society interaction that was started in the year 2015, and the first IISF was held at IIT Delhi.
• This science festival has been conceptualized by Vigyan Bharati, a science movement in India. This festival is being celebrated for the first time in Northeast India.
• The theme of this 10th edition of IISF is "Transforming India into an S&T-driven Global Manufacturing Hub."

Topic: Government Schemes and Initiatives

2. CII's Ease of Doing Business and Regulatory Affairs Portal launched by Union Minister Piyush Goyal.

• On November 28, the CII Ease of Doing Business (EODB) and Regulatory Affairs Portal was launched to receive and monitor information on India's business environment and suggestions for improvement.
• The portal was launched at the 2nd Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)-Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Conference on Ease of Doing Business in New Delhi.
• The portal seeks to provide status and updates on major Ease of Doing Business initiatives undertaken by both the Government and CII.
• With a dedicated members-only dashboard, users can track progress and submissions on a real-time basis, ensuring transparency, accountability, meaningful and timely resolution of concerns.

Topic: Defence

3. Indian Army launched ‘Eklavya' Digital Platform for Officers' Training.

• The Eklavya software platform has been developed under the aegis of Headquarters Army Training Command with Army War College.
• This initiative is in line with the Indian Army’s vision of the "Decade of Transformation" envisioned by the COAS.
• Indian Army has declared 2024 as the "Year of Technology Absorption".
• This platform has been developed at zero cost through "The Bhaskaracharya National Institute of Space Applications and Geoinformatics" (BISAG-N), Gandhinagar.
• This platform has been hosted on the Army Data Network.
• There are three categories of courses hosted on the Eklavya platform.
• 'Pre-Course Preparatory Capsules', ‘Appointment or specific assignment-related courses’ and ‘Professional Development Suite’ are the three courses on this platform.
• Eklavya also has the function of a searchable "Knowledge Highway", wherein various journals, research papers and articles are uploaded under a single window.

Topic: Banking System

4. HDFC Bank, a private sector bank, has launched a ‘Pragati’ savings account.

• Through the ‘Pragati’ savings account, the bank is targeting semi-urban and rural (SURU) people pan-India.
• HDFC Bank has 51% of its branches in semi-urban and rural areas.
• The Pragati Savings Account by HDFC Bank aims to develop a comprehensive banking ecosystem for the agricultural sector of India.
• The Pragati Savings Account has industry-first features, such as a partnership with BigHaat.
• The account has low maintenance requirements. It offers special benefits for SURU customers.