Daily GK Updates - 14th June, 2020

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Third Phase of SAUNI Scheme, to fill Saurashtra Dams, to be completed by March 2021: Gujarat Govt: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has announced that the Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (SAUNI) scheme is set to be completed by 15 August 2020 and 31 March 2021, respectively. SAUNI scheme was launched by PM Modi in 2016, to fill 115 major dams in Saurashtra region of the state by diverting floodwaters overflowing from the Sardar Sarovar Dam across the Narmada river to the drought areas. The first phase of the scheme is completed and now filling of 16 dam reservoirs is possible. The second phase to fill the 57 water reservoirs through laying pipeline networks of 547 kilometres is on the verge of completion. In the third phase, 42 dam reservoirs needs to be filled through 457 kilometres of pipeline through 3 links. The state government has spent Rs 14,707 crore for four links of all the three phases of SAUNI Yojana.

2. Government Constitutes Empowered Group of Secretaries to facilitate investment in country: The Union Government  has constituted a seven-member ‘Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS)’, headed by Cabinet Secretary, for attracting investments in India. Rajiv Gauba is the current Cabinet Secretary of India. The initiative will reinforce India’s vision of becoming a US$ 5 trillion economy by 2024-25. The members of the EGoS include:

(1) Cabinet Secretary (Chairperson)

(2) CEO, Niti Aayog (Member)

(3) Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (Member Convenor)

(4) Secretary, Department of Commerce (Member)

(5) Secretary, Department of Revenue (Member)

(6) Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (Member)

(7) Secretary of Department concerned (to be co-opted).

3. Central Railways Installs Body Screening Facility ‘FebriEye’ in Mumbai’s CSMT & LTT Stations to screen Passengers: The Central Railway zone of the Indian Railways has launched a body-screening facility “FebriEye thermal cameras” at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, to scan passengers for COVID-19 symptoms and ensure contactless entry. FebriEye is an Artificial Intelligence-based thermal screening system for real-time and automated, non-intrusive monitoring of the passengers at the entry point, to ensure that a person entering does not have a high fever. When passengers pass before the cameras, anyone with temperature above the set range will be shown in a different colour pattern than the rest, on the computer screen connected to the cameras. FebriEye thermal cameras can cover large areas which mean it can detect the temperature of multiple people entering at once at a premise and record temperature automatically while passengers keep on moving.

4. Bihar Government Ropes in Actor Pankaj Tripathi as Brand Ambassador of Bihar Khadi: Well known Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi has been chosen by the Bihar government to promote the Khadi of Bihar. He has been appointed as the brand ambassador of India’s first and largest Khadi Mall, set up in Patna, Bihar. The Khadi Village Industries Board has instructed all Khadi institutions to produce new designs of Khadi garments to increase production and sales.

Note: Governor of Bihar: Phagu Chauhan, Chief Minister: Nitish Kumar.

5. MP gives corona warriors status to Divyang Anganwadi workers: Madhya Pradesh Government conferred the status of corona warriors to the Divyang Anganwadi workers. They are playing an important role by distributing nutritious food from house to house of the beneficiaries. They are also spreading awareness regarding social distancing and the ways to protect from the infection. Kanchan Gayari, Saroj Shukla, Babulal Rathore are few of them working in this area.

6. Attorney General of India KK Venugopal term extended for a year: Attorney General of India, KK Venugopal will get the 1-year extension of service. His tenure is coming to an end on 30th June 2020. He was appointed as Attorney General and had succeeded Mukul Rohatgi on June 30, 2017. Mr. Venugopal was appointed the 15th Attorney General of India and continued in the post after the Narendra Modi government won a second term in 2019. He has defended the government in cases like Aadhaar, CAA, Article 370 and Rafale. He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2002 and Padma Vibhushan in 2015.

7. Madhya Pradesh farmers created unique grain bank to help needy:

Madhya Pradesh's Affluent farmers have created unique grain bank to help the needy people like migrant labourers with food. The initiative is started by Patwari Rajesh Chaurasi and Parasia development block of Chhindwara district, Madhya Pradesh. In the grain bank, 23 quintals of wheat has been stored which will work as a boon to the needy. This initiative has been appreciated by the district residents.

Note: Chief Minister of MP: Shivraj Singh Chouhan; Governor: LaljiTandon; Capital: Bhopal

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. World Blood Donor Day: 14th June: World blood donor day is observed globally on June 14th every year to create awareness about the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for their voluntary, life-saving gifts of blood. The campaign theme for this year’s World donor Day is “Safe blood saves lives”. It would be promoted with the slogan ‘Give blood and make the world a healthier place.’ It was first celebrated in 2004 by World Health Organization (WHO), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. In May 2005, WHO officially established with its 192 Member States, World donor Day at the 58th World Health Assembly.

Note: Headquarters of WHO: Geneva, Switzerland; Director-general of WHO: TedrosAdhanom.

2. SpaceX Launches Fresh Batch of 58 Starlink internet satellites in a Rideshare mission: On 13 June 2020, the private spaceflight company, SpaceX successfully launched its latest batch of 58 Starlink internet satellites into the orbit, in a rideshare mission. With this launch, the total number of operational Starlink broadband internet satellites on orbit comes to 538. The launch of the rideshare mission took place on Falcon 9 rocket, which carried 58 internet-beaming Starlink satellites along with three small Earth-observation satellites, SkySat, owned by PlanetLabs. This is the first time that SpaceX Starlink mission shared the ride with Planet Skysat spacecrafts.

3. India-ASEAN Youth Dialogue 2020 held online: The 3rd India-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) youth dialogue 2020 was held virtually and focusing on coronavirus pandemic. The meet has regarded the youth as “vehicles of change” that are playing a pivotal role by leading the fight against the pandemic. During the dialogue, India and ASEAN enhanced cooperation constructively in skill development, youthful energy and education. These areas were identified as strategic partnership between the two countries at the dialogue.

Note: 2020 Chairmanship: Vietnam; Chairman: Nguyen Xuan Phuc; Secretariat: Jakarta, Indonesia; Secretary General: H.E. Dato Lim Jock Hoi

Membership: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam; 1 Observer: Papua New Guinea.

4. Exim Bank extends $216 million credit line to Malawi govt: Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) said it has extended a line of credit (LOC) worth USD 215.68 million to the Malawi government for drinking water supply schemes and other development projects. With the signing of this agreement, Exim Bank, so far, has extended five LOCs to Malawi, on behalf of the Indian government, taking the total value of LOCs extended to USD 395.68 million. Projects covered under the LOCs extended to Malawi includes supply of irrigation network, tobacco threshing plant, cotton processing facilities, green belt initiative, sugar processing equipment, fuel storage facility and construction of a new water supply system from Likhubula river in Mulanje to Blantyre

Note: Capital: Lilongwe; Currency: Malawian kwacha; President: Peter Mutharika

Exim Bank Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra; Managing Director (MD) & Chief Executive Officer (CEO): David Rasquinha.

5. Europe's Inclusive Vaccine Alliance signed contract with AstraZeneca: Europe's IVA have signed contract with British pharma company ‘Astrazeneca’ to supply 400 million vaccine doses against the COVID-19. It is the first contract signed by Europe's Inclusive Vaccines Alliance (IVA), a group formed by France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands to secure vaccine doses for all member states. The vaccine is developed by Oxford University whose experimentation is already being started. Deliveries of the vaccine will start by the end of 2020.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS

1. Sports to be the part of curriculum in India’s new education policy: Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju announces that India's new education policy will have sports as part of the curriculum and not just as an extra-curricular activity. High-level committee to shape the National Sports Education Board will be established to bring the national sports education board into shape. The announcement was made during the inaugural session of ‘International Webinar on Olympism and Olympic Education in the 21st century’.

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. SBI relaunches Aadhaar-based online savings account opening facility: The State Bank of India (SBI) relaunched its Aadhaar-based instant digital savings account facility for customers who want to open an online account using the Yono platform. Yono is the lender’s integrated banking and lifestyle platform. The ‘insta savings bank account’ will offer a complete paperless and instant digital savings account opening with just PAN and Aadhaar number.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

1. Govt infuses Rs 5,298 cr into IIFCL to boost infrastructure spending: India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL) said the government infused equity share capital of Rs 5,297.60 crore in the company. This infusion has increased the paid-up equity share capital of IIFCL to Rs 9,999.92 crore against the authorized share capital of Rs 10,000 crore. The increased paid-up equity share capital enables IIFCL to create requisite headroom to provide finance to more number of infrastructure projects in the country.

2. Global goods trade to fall 27% in Q2 after 5% decline in first quarter: UNCTAD: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that the value of international trade in goods declined around 5% in the first quarter of 2020 and is expected to decline further by 27% in the ongoing quarter with trade in many developing countries projected to nosedive due to the “unprecedented effects of the pandemic”. UNCTAD’s estimates are in line with those of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which expects global merchandise trade to decline 13-32% in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

                                    

OBITUARIES

1. Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput passes away: Noted Bollywood actor and television star Sushant Singh Rajput, has passed away, after he commited suicide at his home in Mumbai. He was only 34. Reason for suicide is yet to be known. Rajput came to fame after portraying the role of Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the legendary cricketer’s biopic, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. He was noticed in the famous soap on Zee TV's 'PavitraRishta' in 2009, for which he received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. Sushant made his film debut with Kai Po Che in 2014 and had starred in a number of films such as PK, Kedarnath, Shudh Desi Romance.