• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will launch e-RUPI, a person and purpose specific digital payment solution today.

e-RUPI

• It is a cashless and contactless instrument for digital payment.
• It has been developed by National Payments Corporation of India on its UPI platform, in collaboration with the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and National Health Authority.

Working

• It is a QR code or SMS string-based e-Voucher, which is delivered to the mobile of the beneficiaries.
• The users of this seamless one-time payment mechanism will be able to redeem the voucher without a card, digital payments app or internet banking access, at the service provider.
• e-RUPI connects the sponsors of the services with the beneficiaries and service providers in a digital manner without any physical interface.
• It also ensures that the payment to the service provider is made only after the transaction is completed.
• Being pre-paid in nature, it assures timely payment to the service provider without involvement of any intermediary.

Benefits

• It is expected to be a revolutionary initiative in the direction of ensuring a leak-proof delivery of welfare services.
• It can also be used for delivering services under schemes meant for providing drugs and nutritional support under Mother and Child welfare schemes, TB eradication programmes, drugs & diagnostics under schemes like Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, fertilizer subsidies etc.
• Even the private sector can leverage these digital vouchers as part of their employee welfare and corporate social responsibility programmes.

Controller General of Accounts (CGA)

• Deepak Das recently took charge as the new Controller General of Accounts.
• He is the 25th officer to hold the position of Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

• The office of Controller General of Accounts (CGA) works under the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.
• It is the Principal Accounting Adviser to Government of India and is responsible for establishing and maintaining a technically sound Management Accounting System.
• The Office of CGA prepares monthly and annual analysis of expenditure, revenues, borrowings and various fiscal indicators for the Union Government.

Kuthiran Tunnel

• Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari has recently instructed to open one side of the Kuthiran Tunnel in Kerala.

• It is a twin-tube tunnel, with three lanes in each tube, located at Kuthiran in Thrissur district of Kerala.
• It is Kerala's first-ever tunnel for road transport and South India’s longest 6-lane road tunnel.
• It will drastically improve connectivity to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
• The 1.6 km long tunnel is designed through Peechi- Vazahani wildlife sanctuary.
• The road will improve connectivity to important ports and towns in North – South Corridor without endangering wildlife.
• Kuthiran gradient is situated in the Kuthiran Hills, located in the western part of Anaimalai Hills 

Central Bank Digital Currency

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently said it will begin testing its own digital currency.
• Several economies, including the U.S., the European Union and China, have been working to issue their own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
• The Bahamas launched the world’s first CBDC last year.

CBDC

• A CBDC is no different from the cash that we hold in our wallets, except that it exists in a digital form in a digital wallet supervised by the central bank.
• Economically, the digital rupee is similar to rupee coins and notes.
• It is simply a form of fiat currency that is backed by the central bank and does not possess any intrinsic value.
• In fact, it is similar to private digital currencies in the sense that people accept these currencies merely because they believe that others will also accept them.
• The RBI’s digital rupee will not directly replace demand deposits held in banks.
• Physical cash will continue to be used by banks and people wishing to withdraw cash from banks can still do so.
• But they can also opt to convert their bank deposits into the new digital rupee.

Amagarh Fort

• The fort, located in Jaipur, Rajasthan, is at the centre of a conflict between the tribal Meena community and local Hindu groups.
• Members of the Meena community say the Amagarh Fort was built by a Meena ruler predating Rajput rule in Jaipur, and this has been their holy site for centuries where they worship Amba Mata.

Meena Community

• They are also known as Meos or Mewati.
• The tribal members accused Hindu groups of trying to appropriate tribal symbols into the Hindutva fold, and of changing the name of Amba Mata to Ambika Bhawani.

Amagarh Fort

• The present form of the Amagarh Fort was given in the 18th century by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, founder of Jaipur.
• It has always been believed that there was some construction at the place before Jai Singh II built the fort.
• Prior to Rajput rule by the Kachhwaha dynasty, Jaipur and its nearby regions were ruled by Meenas, who had political control.
• It is believed that the fort was built by a Meena Sardar from the Nadla gotra, now known as Badgoti Meenas.
• Sardars from the Meena community ruled large parts of Rajasthan till around 1100 AD.

All India Quota (AIQ) Scheme

• The AIQ was introduced in 1986 under the directions of the Supreme Court (SC) to provide for domicile-free merit-based opportunities to students from any State to aspire to study in a medical college located in another State.
• It comprises 15% of UG seats and 50% of PG seats in government medical colleges.
• Remaining chunk of the seats in state medical/dental colleges is reserved for students domiciled in their respective states.
• In January, 2007, in Abhay Nath v University of Delhi and Others, the SC directed that reservation of 15% for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes be introduced in the AIQ.
• Until 2007, no reservation was implemented within the All India Quota for medical admission.
• When the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act became effective in 2007, providing for uniform 27% reservation to the OBCs, the scheme was implemented in all the Central Educational Institutions.
• However, this was not extended to the AIQ seats of State medical and dental colleges.

Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA) Amendment Bill 2021

• Recently, the Lok Sabha passed the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA) Amendment Bill, 2021.
• It was first introduced in March 2021 and subsequently referred to a parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture, which approved it without any changes.
• It seeks to amend the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008.
• AERA 2008 Act designates an airport as a major airport if it has an annual passenger traffic of at least 35 lakh.
• Recent amendment will allow AERA to regulate tariff and other charges for aeronautical services for not just major airports with annual passenger traffic of more than 35 lakh, but also a group of airports.
• The government will be able to club profitable and non-profitable airports as a combination/package to bidders to make it a viable combination for investment under PPP (Public-Private Partnership) mode.

Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill

• Factoring business is a business where an entity acquires the receivables of another entity for an amount.
• Factor can be a bank, a registered non-banking financial company or any company registered under the Companies Act.
• Receivables is the total amount that is owed or yet to be paid by the customers (referred as the debtors) to the assignor for the use of any goods, services or facility.
• The bill amends the definitions of "receivables", "assignment", and "factoring business" to bring them at par with international definitions.
• The bill empowers Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to make regulations for granting registration certificates to a factor, filing of transaction details with the Central Registry and all other matters.

I-MESA Scheme

• Social audit is an audit of a scheme jointly by the Government and the people, especially by those who are affected by the scheme or its beneficiaries.
• Information-Monitoring, Evaluation and Social Audit (I-MESA) in FY 2021-22 is launched by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• The social audits will be done through Social Audit Units (SAU) of the States and National Institute for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

Sujal-Drink from Tap Mission

• ‘Sujal-Drink from Tap Mission’ is launched in the state of Odisha.
• It aims to provide quality drinking water that would be suitable for consumption from the tap.
• It had been launched to ensure quality tapped drinking water for more than 1.5 million people in more than 15 urban areas.
• The initiative has been launched under the ‘Jalsathi’ programme by partnering with women self-help groups (SHGs) of Mission Shakti in community-led water supply management.
• Odisha's Puri became the first Indian city to achieve citywide ‘drink from tap’ water for 24 hours with 100 per cent metered household connections.
• The project has been implemented under the 5T initiative of the State government.
• With this, Puri also joined the league of cities like London, Los Angeles, and Singapore to provide 24-hour clean drinking water.