Wednesday 9 December 2020

CURRENT AFFAIRS 7 DECEMBER 2020

 

BITA (Banking Institute & TNPSC Academy)

                              CURRENT AFFAIRS

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

Vice President releases postal stamp in honour of late IK Gujral         

  • Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu virtually released a commemorative postage stamp in honour of late Prime Minister IK Gujral to mark his 101st birth anniversary.
  •  I K Gujral was the 12th Prime Minister of India, he served as the Prime Minister from April 1997-March 1998.
  •   During his tenure as India’s External Affairs Minister, I K Gujral laid a set of five principles – ‘Gujral Doctrine’ to guide the conduct of foreign relations with India’s immediate neighbours.

West Bengal CM announces ‘Swasthya Sathi’ health scheme

  • West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently extended the Swasthya Sathi health insurance scheme to cover the entire population of the state, starting December 1, 2020.
  • The scheme was launched by Banerjee in 2016. It is a basic health cover for secondary and tertiary care up to Rs five lakh per annum per family. It is quite popular among rural and economically deprived sections of the state’s population.
  •  Under the scheme, a smart card and is being issued in the name of a female family member.

INTERNATINAL AFFAIRS

China becomes second nation to plant flag on the Moon

  • China has become the second country in the world to unfurl its national flag on the moon surface.
  • Earlier this feat was achieved only by the USA when it planted its flag on the Moon during the Apollo mission in 1969.
  • China achieved the historic feat when ‘Chang’e 5‘ probe of China, which was launched to collect soil and rock samples of the lunar surface, took off from the moon to return to earth after planting the national flag on 3rd December 2020.

AWARDS

Shantanu Narayen, Ajay Banga named among Fortune Businessperson of the Year 2020

  • Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen and Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga have been named by Fortune among the Businessperson of the Year 2020, a list topped by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The Fortune 2020 Businessperson of the Year is Musk for a second time.
  • Narayen, ranked 8th on the list, while Banga, ranked 9th on the list.
  •  The Fortune list of 20 people also includes Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su, ranked 2nd, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings (4), Fortescue Metals Group CEO Elizabeth Gaines (5), Bezos (7) and Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi (16).

British Indian author Anita Anand’s Jallianwala Bagh story wins history prize


           ·         British Indian journalist and author Anita Anand’s book that tells the story of a young man caught up in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar has won a prestigious history-literary prize in the UK.

  • ‘The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj’ beat six other titles for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History 2020, awarded annually for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content.

BANKING & FINANCE

ADB approves $190 mn loan for upgradation of Bengaluru power distribution system

  • Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a USD 190 million (over Rs 1,400 crore) loan for modernisation and upgradation of power distribution system in Karnataka’s capital city of Bengaluru.
  • The funding for the Bengaluru Smart Energy Efficient Power Distribution Project by ADB includes a USD 100 million sovereign loan and a USD 90 million without sovereign guarantee loan to Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM).
  •  This features an innovative financing arrangement, the first of its kind for ADB, combining public and private sector loans to a state government-owned enterprise.

Fiscal deficit for Apr-Oct at 119.7% of budget target

  • The fiscal deficit for April-October touched a massive Rs 9.53 lakh crore, accounting for 119.7% of the full year’s budgeted target as tax collections remained under pressure because of the Covid-19 crisis.
  • Revenue receipts were Rs 6.71 lakh crore, or 34.2% of the budgeted target during the period, compared with 46.2% last year. Total expenditure was Rs 16.61 lakh crore, or 54.6% of the budgeted estimate, less than the 59.4% a year ago, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts.
  • The Centre has retained this year’s fiscal deficit target at 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) but experts believe it will be a much higher 7.5-9.25%.

PNB launches loan management solution ‘LenS-The Lending Solution’

  • Punjab National Bank (PNB) has launched a tech-based loan management solution ‘LenS-The Lending Solution’, to speed up and maintain accuracy in online loan processing and sanctioning of credit proposals.
  • It is envisaged to be implemented in a phased manner for all kinds of loans.
  • Under the Mudra scheme, the processing and sanction of credit proposals up to Rs 10 lakh including Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises ( MSME) loans (fresh, renewal, enhancement and review) will be done by LenS.

SPORTS AFFAIRS

New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson retires from all forms of Cricket

  • New Zealand all-rounder, Corey Anderson has announced his retirement from international cricket.
  • Anderson has played 13 Tests, 49 ODIs and 31 T20Is for New Zealand, scoring 2277 runs with two hundred and 10 half-centuries and 90 wickets.
  • Anderson has signed a 3-year contract with Major League Cricket (MLC) in the USA, where he will serve in the Major and Minor League Cricket and coaching ventures at the cricket academies that come under the MLC.

FIFA extends 7-team Club World Cup to 2021; Japan to host

  •   Japan was chosen to host a traditional, seven-team Club World Cup in December 2021.
  •  FIFA wanted a December 2020 edition in Qatar to be the last with seven teams, six continental champions and the host nation’s domestic league winner.
  • The format often attracts little interest and is routinely won by the European club.

OBITUARIES

VSSC former director Dr S Ramakrishnan passes away

  •    Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre’s former director S Ramakrishnan died in Thiruvananthapuram. He was 71.
  • A recipient of Padma Shri in 2003, Ramakrishnan served as Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre director from June 2010 to December 2012 and as VSSC director from January 2013 to June 2014.He also served as Project Director of PSLV, GSLV Mk-III and Director (Projects).
  • He had received ASI Award-1998, Dr. Biren Roy Award-1999 from Aeronautical Society of India, and ISRO Performance Excellence Award-2006. He held a masters degree in Aerospace Propulsion from IIT, Madras with first rank in the year 1972.

Veteran Actor Ravi Patwardhan passes away 

  • Veteran actor Ravi Patwardhan, known for his powerful character roles in over 250 Marathi and Hindi theatre plays, TV shows and films, passed away at a private hospital in Thane following a heart attack. He was 84.
  • Ravi Patwardhan had also acted in several plays and featured in around 200 films, including Yeshwant (1997) in Hindi, and Marathi features like Asha Asavya Sun (1981), Umbartha (1982), Jhanjaar (1987), and Jyotiba Phule, a 2019 Marathi langauge show.
  • He was last seen on the popular TV series Aggabai Sasubai.

 Father of Fibre Optics Narinder Singh Kapany passes awa

  • Narinder Singh Kapany, also known as the father of fibre optics, passed away.
  • The India-born American physicist was named as one of the seven “Unsung Heroes” by Fortune in their ‘Businessmen of the Century’ issue of November 1999.
  • Kapany was the first to transmit images through fibre optics back in 1954 and laid the foundation for high-speed internet technology.
  • He not only founded fibre optics but also used his own invention for the business. He founded the Optics Technology Incorporation and Kaptron Incorporation in 1960 and 1973 respectively.
  • He studied at Agra University and then moved to Imperial College in London. He received his PhD from the University of London in 1955.

                                                                         IMPORTANT DAYS

International Civil Aviation Day: 07 December

  •  The International Civil Aviation Day is celebrated every year on December 7 to recognize the importance of aviation to the social and economic development of the world.
  •  The purpose of International Civil Aviation Day is to help generate and reinforce worldwide awareness of the importance of international civil aviation to the social and economic development of States, and of the unique role of ICAO in helping States to cooperate and realize a truly global rapid transit network at the service of all mankind.
  •  The Council has decided that from now until 2023, the theme will be: “Advancing Innovation for Global Aviation Development”.

 

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