Daily GK Updates - 15th December, 2019

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. FASTags becomes mandatory for all vehicles from 15th December 2019: FASTags or prepaid rechargeable tags for toll collection have become mandatory for all vehicles from 15th December 2019. The FASTags or prepaid rechargeable tags allows automatic payment of toll. The government launched the National Electronic Toll Collection System which provides for the collection of user fee through FASTag to save fuel and time, curb pollution and ensure seamless movement of traffic. National Highways Authority of India has equipped all fee plazas with Electronic Toll Collection System. With the help of a FASTag, drivers will not have to stop their vehicles at toll plazas to pay tax. A FASTag uses radio frequency identification technology to enable direct toll payments from a moving vehicle.

2. India’s First Pashu Kisan Credit Cards Distributed in Haryana’s Bhiwani: Haryana has become the first state in India to launch Animal Farmers Credit Card Scheme (Pashu Kisan Credit Cards Schme) to promote animal husbandry and agribusiness. As a part of the occasion, the First Pashu Kisan credit cards in India were distributed to 101 animal farmers in Bhiwani. This means that now cow-buffalo and other animals would also be purchased with credit cards and as a result farmers and youth will get employment across the state. The State Government has set a target to issue 10 lakh Pashu Kisan Credit cards by March 2021.

3. Kerala launches two welfare schemes ‘Vijayamritham’ and ‘Sahachari’ to support differently-abled persons: The state government of Kerala has launched two social welfare schemes named ‘Vijayamritham’ and ‘Sahachari’ to honour differently-abled people as well as NSS, NCC and Student Police Cadet (SPC) units who work for their care and welfare.

Vijayamritham scheme: The scheme will provide onetime cash award to meritorious differently abled students who have secured high marks in Degree/ Equivalent courses, Post Graduate & Professional courses.

Amount of Assistance

Sr. No.	Category	Eligibility	Amount	No. of students per district
1	Degree / Equivalent courses	60% marks for Arts subject, 80% marks for Science subject	8000/-	10 students
2	Post-Graduation & Professional courses	60 % and above	10,000/-	5 students

Sahachari Scheme: This scheme will honour NSS, NCC and Student Police Cadet (SPC) units that assist people, with over 40% disability, in their studies and other tasks. The Department of Social Justice has earmarked an amount of Rs. 40,000/- for each district.

4. Transforming Education Conference for Humanity (TECH) 2019 Held in Visakhapatnam: The third edition of the TECH 2019 (Transforming Education Conference for Humanity) was held in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. TECH 2019 was organised by UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) in partnership with the State Government of Andhra Pradesh, India and supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The conference aimed at showcasing the role of digital technologies in enabling a shift from “transmissive pedagogies” to “transformative pedagogies” to create more peaceful and sustainable societies. It was based on 3 themes: (1) Transformative Pedagogies for SEL (Social and Emotional learning); (2) Reimagining Learning Spaces for Planetary Citizenship; (3) Data, Learning & Education – Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

5. 36th International Geological Congress to be Held in India in March 2020: India will host the 36th International Geological Congress (IGC) in New Delhi in March 2020. The theme of the conference will be ‘Geosciences: The Basic Science for a Sustainable Development’. Popularly known as the Olympics of Geosciences, IGCs are a prestigious global geoscientific events held once in four years and participated by around 5000-6000 geoscientists from all across the world.

6. 3rd Edition of Military Literature Festival Held in Chandigarh: The third edition of coveted Military Literature Festival (MLF), was held at Lake Club, Chandigarh from December 13 to 15, 2019. The military literature extravaganza was inaugurated by Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore. The event provides a healthy platform of discussions in various aspects of military and share experiences of serving the country in armed forces. It also provides platform for children to acquaint themselves with the war stories besides an opportunity to interact with the veterans and serving officers.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. United States Surpasses Kuwait as India’s 6th biggest oil supplier; Iraq remains on top: According to data furnished by the oil ministry to parliamentary committee, United States has surpassed Kuwait to become India’s sixth largest oil supplier. US supplied 5.4 million tonnes of crude oil to India during the first six months of 2019-20 (April-September). This is 70 percent more as compared to about 3.1 million tonnes of oil sourced from the US in the same period a year back. Iraq continues to be top crude oil supplier of India with 26 million tonnes of crude oil supplied during April to September, meeting India’s one-fourth oil need alone. India bought 111.4 million tonnes of crude oil from overseas during April-September of 2019-20. India is the world’s third largest energy consumer and is 83 percent dependent on imports to meet its oil needs.

2. International Tea Day: December 15: The International Tea Day is observed annually on December 15 to draw global attention of governments and citizens towards the impact of the global tea trade on workers and growers and also to request for price supports and fair trade. The day has been celebrated since 2005 in tea producing countries like India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia,Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Uganda and Tanzania. India is the second largest producer of tea in the World after China.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS

1. Australia’s Ashleigh Barty Wins WTA Player of the Year 2019: The WTA Awards are given by the Women’s Tennis Association to players for outstanding achievements during the season or their career. The winners of 2019 WTA Awards are given below:

Sr. No.	Awards	Name/Country
1	WTA Player of the Year 2019	Ashleigh Barty (Australia)
2	WTA Doubles Team of the Year	Timea Babos (Hungary) / Kristina Mladenovic (France)
3	WTA Most Improved Player of the Year	Sofia Kenin (United States)
4	WTA Newcomer of the Year	Bianca Andreescu (Canada)
5	WTA Comeback Player of the Year	Belinda Bencic (Switzerland)
6	WTA Jerry Diamond ACES Award	Kiki Bertens (Netherlands)

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. Mastercard Joins Hand With Federal Bank to Offer Identity Check Security for Digital Transactions:             Global payments technology major Mastercard has tied up with Private Sector, scheduled commercial bank, Federal Bank, to provide an additional layer of identity check security called ‘Mastercard Identity Check’ for digital transactions by bank’s cardholders. ‘Mastercard Identity Check’ is a global authentication program which makes use of the latest authentication standards of EMV 3-D Secure. It provides banks with a secure and user-friendly way to authenticate cardholders without the use of static passwords, and facilitate higher approval rates, improving the authentication experience for merchants, issuers and cardholders.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

1. Infosys wins 2019 UN Global Climate Action Award: The Indian IT services major Infosys Ltd has been awarded with the United Nations Global Climate Action Award in the ‘Climate Neutral Now’ category at the ongoing 2019 UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid, Spain. The Bengaluru-headquartered company is the first Indian corporate of its kind to receive the honour. Infosys has been honored for its carbon neutral program, which delivers scalable, innovative and practical climate actions that address climate change and help drive progress on many other sustainable development goals

2. Deepika Padukone Wins WEF’s Crystal Award For Raising Mental Health Awareness: Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone has been honoured with the World Economic Forum’s 26th Annual Crystal Award for raising mental health awareness. She is the only Indian actress to feature in Davos 2020 winners list which includes total four winners. The winners will be honoured at the opening session of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 on 20 January 2020.       The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting will take place in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland from 21-24 January 2020, under the theme, “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.”

Other Winners include:

Theaster Gates (US), for his leadership in creating sustainable communities

Jin Xing (China), for her leadership in shaping inclusive cultural norms

Lynette Wallworth (Australia), for her leadership in creating inclusive narratives

3. Jamaica’s Tony-Ann Singh crowned as ‘Miss World 2019’: The Miss World title for the year 2019 has been won by Toni-Ann Singh of Jamaica, at the annual beauty pageant in London, UK. The 23-year-old Toni-Ann Singhis a women’s studies and psychology student at US’ Florida State University. She was crowned by her predecessor Miss World 2018 Vanessa Ponce from Mexico. France’s Ophely Mezino came second. Suman Rao, who represented India in the annual beauty pageant, came in third. Miss World 2019 was the 69th edition of the contest and contestants from 120 countries competed for the title.

OBITUARIES

1. New Zealand three-times Olympic champion Peter Snell passes away: Sir Peter George Snell, New Zealand’s legendary middle distance runner has passed away. He was 80. Snell is the only male athlete since 1920 to have won the 800 metres and 1500 metres double at the same Olympics in 1964 in Tokyo. The former 800m and mile world record holder was voted New Zealand’s athlete of the century in 2000.