Current Affairs in Short: 2 October 2020

PM Modi to inaugurate VAIBHAV summit today

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Vaishwik Bharatiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Summit at 6.30 pm on October 2, 2020. The virtual summit will be organised October 2-31, 2020.
• The VAIBHAV summit is a virtual summit of overseas and resident Indian Researchers and Academicians. The summit will bring together scientists as well as researchers from the Indian diaspora. 
• The key aim of the summit is to bring Indian origin luminaries in academic institutes and research and development (R&D) organizations across the world on a single platform to debate upon collaboration mechanisms to strengthen academic and a Science and Technology base in India for global development.
• The initiative involves multiple levels of interactions among overseas experts and Indian counterparts over a month-long series of webinars and video-conference. 
• Over 3,000 overseas Indian origin academicians and scientists from 55 countries and more than 10,000 resident academicians and scientists are taking part in the summit.

PM Modi to inaugurate global summit on AI on Oct 5

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a global virtual summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI), RAISE 2020 - 'Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020' on October 5, 2020. This was announced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
• The summit will be held from October 5 to October 9, 2020 and is being organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NITI Aayog.
RAISE 2020 will have a dedicated session on building inclusive Artificial Intelligence that empowers one billion-plus Indians. 
• The session will have a keynote from Anita Bhatia, Assistant Secretary-General, Deputy Executive Director, UN Women. It will also have an all-women panel, curated by UN Women.
• Over 15,000 stakeholders from across academia, the research industry and government representatives from across the world have registered to participate in RAISE 2020. According to Industry analysts, AI could add up to USD 957 billion to India's economy by 2035.

DRDO test-fires Laser-Guided ATGM

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation successfully test-fired the indigenously developed Laser-Guided Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) on October 1, 2020. 
• The Anti Tank Guided Missile is capable of firing a tandem HEAT warhead to defeat Explosive Reactive Armour protected armoured vehicles in ranges from 1.5 to 5 kilometres. 
• The missile has been developed with multiple-platform launch capability and is currently undergoing technical evaluation trials from 120 mm rifled gun of MBT Arjun.
• It has been developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment, Pune in association with High Energy Materials Research Laboratory, Pune and Instruments Research and Development Establishment, Dehradun.

Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh get additional borrowing limit of Rs 7,106 crore

• The states of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Uttar Pradesh (UP) have been granted an additional borrowing limit of Rs 7,106 crore based on reforms in the public distribution system (PDS) and the ease of doing business (EoDB).
Andhra Pradesh has been allowed to undertake open market borrowings of another Rs 2,252 crore to make the state more investor friendly and business-friendly. 
• Uttar Pradesh has also been allowed to borrow Rs 4,851 crore on account of One Nation One Ration Card System (ONORCS) reforms under the PDS.
• The department of food and public distribution has been assigned as the nodal body to assess and confirm if states have undertaken these reforms.
• This makes Andhra Pradesh the first state to achieve the second tranche of the additional borrowing limit of 0.25% of gross state domestic product (GSDP)
• On September 24, five states including AP, Telangana, Goa, Tripura and Karnataka were granted the additional borrowing limit after implementing the PDS-related reforms.

BCCI conducts Continuous Professional Development seminars for women coaches

• The National Cricket Academy (NCA) recently conducted a seven-week series of CPD (Continuous Professional Development) seminars for women coaches across the country. 
• The first-of-its-kind initiative was conducted by the Coach Education department of the NCA, led by Sujith Somasundar and supported by Atul Gaikwad, Apurva Desai and Rajib Dutta.
• The 24 BCCI Level 2 certified coaches and former India cricketers with BCCI level 1 certifications were part of the seminar. BCCI President Saurav Ganguly thanked the team at the NCA led by veteran Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid for taking the initiative. He stated that women's cricket is on the rise in India and our women's team has performed exceptionally well in the last couple of ICC tournaments.
• NCA head Rahul Dravid feels that the seminar will support women coaches in their development. He said that women's cricket has been growing at a very fast pace and one of the aims of the BCCI is to continue supporting our women coaches in their development. 

Punjab CM orders end of night curfew

• Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on October 1, 2020 announced relaxations in lockdown including the lifting of night curfew as well as an end to Sunday lockdown due to a decline in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
• The state has increased the limit for attending marriage functions and funerals to 100. Under new relaxations, three persons can now travel in a car and the capacity of buses to carry passengers has been increased to 50 percent subject to the condition that windows remain open.
• However, the decision regarding the reopening of schools and educational institutions in the state will be taken after deliberations between the Home Secretary and the state's Education Department.