The renowned festival, Prayagraj Kumbh Mela 2019, has carved its name in the Guinness World Records by breaking records in three distinct sectors. The sectors include: The biggest sanitation and waste disposal mechanism, The largest traffic and crowd management plan, and The most extensive painting exercise of public sites under the “Paint my City” scheme.
Details about Kumbh Mela
Regarded as the largest peaceful congregation of pilgrims on earth, Kumbh Mela brings together millions of people who partake in a ritual bath in a sacred river. UNESCO has recognized Kumbh Mela in its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The festival takes place every four years in rotation at Prayagraj (where the Ganga, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati rivers meet), Haridwar (on the Ganges), Ujjain (on the Shipra), and Nasik (on the Godavari). It’s a culturally diverse festival given it is held in different parts of India, each with its unique social and cultural activities.
Kumbh Mela encapsulates various aspects such as astronomy, astrology, spirituality, ritualistic traditions, and social and cultural customs. Knowledge about the festival is passed on through religious manuscripts, oral traditions, historical travelogues, and texts from noted historians. A significant method of imparting and safeguarding knowledge about Kumbh Mela comes from the teacher-student relationships within the ashrams and akhadas.
National Company Law Tribunal
NTPC Ltd. intends to acquire only those stressed power projects that are undergoing insolvency proceedings in the National Company Law Tribunal. This strategy aims at ensuring fairer deals, given that all NCLT-insolvency deals so far have discounted up to 70% or more from secured creditors.
Established on June 1, 2016, under section 18 of the Companies Act, 2013, based on recommendations by the Justice Eradi Committee on the law relating to insolvency and winding up of companies, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is a quasi-judicial body. The tribunal adjudicates issues related to Indian companies.
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code introduced two tribunals to adjudicate insolvency resolution cases, namely the National Company Law Tribunal and the Debt Recovery Tribunal.
The NCLT has eleven benches, including two in New Delhi and one each in Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai.
Merchant Discount Rate (MDR)
Recent studies suggest that unauthorized surcharging and high Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charges hinder the growth of digital payments. MDR is a fee that a bank charges a merchant for accepting payments from customers through credit and debit cards.
| Fact | Description |
|---|---|
| MDR's Contribution | MDR compensates the card-issuing bank, the lender providing the PoS terminal, and payment gateways such as Mastercard or Visa. |
| MDR Charges | MDR charges are shared between the bank and a merchant in a pre-agreed proportion. They are expressed as a percentage of the transaction amount. |
To encourage digital transactions, the government decided to bear MDR charges on transactions up to Rs 2,000 made through debit cards, BHIM UPI, or Aadhaar-enabled payment systems until December 2020.
Space-X Dragon Crew Capsule
Space-X’s Dragon crew capsule successfully docked itself to the International Space Station (ISS) in a test flight. The docking process is something the capsule will have to perform regularly when it commences transporting astronauts to and from the ISS. This achievement makes SpaceX the first company to design, build, launch, and dock a commercial spaceship made for flying people to the International Space Station.
