Tamil Nadu gets SEBI approval to launch State Shelter Fund

  • Tamil Nadu has received the nod from the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch its State Shelter Fund.
  • The aim is to attract investment in the affordable housing segment.

NBCC makes agreement with Health Ministry for HSCC buyout

  • State-owned NBCC (India) Limited (formerly National Buildings Construction Corporation Limited) has signed an agreement with the Health Ministry to acquire Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation (HSCC).
  • HSCC, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, provides consultancy services in healthcare and other social sectors in India and abroad.
  • Earlier NBCC had intended to buy out the government’s stake in HSCC for Rs 285 crore.

RBI cancels registration of 31 NBFCs

  • The RBI has cancelled the certificate of registrations of 31 NBFCs, but the reasons for the same have not been specified.
  • This comes at a time when the NBFCs sector is facing difficulties.

Bangalore ranked India’s most congested city by NBER

  • The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has rated Bangalore the most congested city.
  • Mumbai is second and Pune is seventh on the list.
  • Researchers studied the current status of mobility in urban India using Google maps.
  • In the index of traffic speed, Kolkata has been found to be the slowest city.

S. S. Deswal appointed DG of ITBP

  • The ACC has approved the appointment of S. S. Deswal, IPS as Director General, Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
  • Deswal takes charge from R K Pachnanda, the outgoing DG of ITBP.
  • Deswal will hold the additional charge of the post of DG, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

Ashok Kumar Gupta appointed new CCI Chairperson

  • Former IAS Officer Ashok Kumar Gupta has been appointed as the Chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
  • Gupta has replaced Sudhir Mittal and will hold the position till October 25th, 2022.

World’s largest brain-like supercomputer ‘SpiNNaker’ switched on

  • The world’s largest supercomputer designed to work in the same way as the human brain has been switched on for the first time.
  • The Spiking Neural Network Architecture (SpiNNaker) machine has a million-processor-core.
  • It is capable of completing more than 200 million million actions per second.
  • Each of its chips contains 100 million transistors.
  • The SpiNNaker machine is designed and built in The University of Manchester in the UK.
  • It can model more biological neurons in real time than any other machine on the planet.

World’s first AI news anchor debuts in China

  • Xinhua, China’s state-run press agency, has unveiled virtual newsreaders, a world first.
  • Making use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the virtual newsreaders use images and voices of human anchors.
  • Xinhua unveiled two AI newsreaders, one that speaks in English and one in Chinese.

Palau becomes first country in world to ban reef-killing sunscreen

  • Palau has become the first country to issue a ban on sunscreen that is toxic to coral reefs.
  • By 2020 all such sunscreen will be banned in Palau.
  • The aim is to protect coral reefs that are coming under attack from chemicals in the seas.
  • The “reef-toxic” sunscreens are those containing any one of 10 chemicals, including oxybenzone and octinoxate.

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