current affairs 29 December 2022

IIT Guwahati, Bombay, European join hands to check Indian water quality.

• IIT Guwahati and Bombay have joined hands with European universities to develop a technology to check the quality of potable and other water in India.
• The LOTUS Indo-European project is an initiative of the Dept of Science and Technology and the European Commission.
• Aim: To provide solutions for issues related to the quality of water supplied across Indian households.
• The LOTUS project is built around a novel water quality sensor developed at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris.

Home Ministry gives NOC for name change of two places in Uttar Pradesh.

• The Uttar Pradesh government has received the no-objection certificates from the ministry of home affairs to change the names of two places in state.
• With this consent, Mundera Bazaar municipal council in Gorakhpur district has been renamed to Chauri Chaura and Telia Afghan village in Deoria district to Telia Shukla.
• MHA gives a no-objection certificate to change the name of any place after taking consent from ministry of railways, department of posts and Survey of India.

Meity becomes nodal ministry for India's online gaming sector.

• The govt of India has designated the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as the nodal ministry to oversee the online gaming industry in India.
• The ministry will soon release rules for online gaming intermediaries and start public consultation on these rules
• In May 2022, the govt set up a seven-member inter-ministerial task force, chaired by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MoS, IT.
• Aim: To work on online gaming regulations and identify a nodal ministry.

Santosh Kumar Yadav appointed as chairman of NHAI.

• Senior bureaucrats, Santosh Kumar Yadav has been appointed as chairman of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
• He is a 1995-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre.
• He is currently serving as an additional secretary in the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education.
• Subhasish Panda has been appointed as vice chairman of Delhi Development Authority.
• Ganji Kamala V Rao has been named CEO of FSSAI, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Indian Bank launched "MSME Prerana" programme in Rajasthan.

• Indian Bank has launched its flagship business mentoring program for MSME entrepreneurs named MSME Prerana in Rajasthan.
• Aim: To empower MSME Entrepreneurs through skill development and capacity building training in their local languages.
• This program will also assist them in acquiring necessary financial and managerial skills, capacity to handle crisis in business.
• The training program will be provided in collaboration with M/s Poornatha & Co.