Daily GK Updates - 21st Oct, 2020

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. Asan Conservation Reserve becomes Uttarakhand’s 1st Ramsar site: Asan Conservation Reserve has become Uttarakhand’s first Ramsar site, making it a ‘Wetland of International Importance’, announced the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The Reserve is located on the banks of Yamuna River near Dehradun district in Garhwal region of the Himalayan state. “Asan Conservation Reserve cleared five out of the nine criteria needed to be declared as a Ramsar site and get identified as a Wetland of International Importance. It cleared the category on species and ecological communities, one on water-birds and another on fish. Ramsar declares Asan Conservation Reserve as a site of international importance. With this, the number of Ramsar sites in India goes up to 38, the highest in South Asia and Uttarakhand gets its first Ramsar site.

About Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty: Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty was adopted on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar, on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. The name of the Convention is usually written “Convention on Wetlands’’. The Convention on Wetlands came into force for India on February 1, 1982. Those wetlands which are of international importance are declared as Ramsar sites.

Note: Uttarakhand Chief Minister: Trivendra Singh Rawat; Governor of Uttarakhand: Baby Rani Maurya.

 

2. India’s first-ever seaplanes likely to take flight in Gujarat from October 31: The Gujarat state government has announced that the seaplane service that will be providing air connectivity from Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad to Statue of Unity in Kevadia is scheduled to start from October 31, i.e., on the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel. A meeting on the same was organised in Gandhinagar to review the progress of the water aerodrome operation in Gujarat. Reportedly, this will be India’s first ever seaplane service and its inaugural flight will very likely take to the skies on the said date.

As per the release, the seaplane service will be operated by Spicejet from Sabarmati. The release further added that the inaugural flight will likely happen on October 31 and that there will be four flights per day from thereon (four arrivals and four departures). The ticket price would be around INR 4800 per person, as per the release.

 

3. UP govt decides to set up women help desk in every police station of state: In a major decision related to women security in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has ordered to establish women help desks in each and every police station of state. The women police personnel deputed on helpdesk will not only listen to the complaints of women but will always be ready to help them anytime. The Chief Minister has also directed the state police force to personally visit the site of crime against women and children and ensure timely investigation. This decision coincides with the launch of ‘Mission Shakti’ campaign to empower women and sensitise the public towards the security of women and girls.

 

4. Aim of the govt is to make India Trans Fat free by 2022: Health Minister: Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the aim of the government is to make India Trans Fat free by 2022, a year ahead of target set by World Health Organization. Dr Harsh Vardhan said, due to the unprecedented challenges faced by the world on account of the Covid pandemic, there has been a renewed focus on food, nutrition, health, immunity and sustainability. He said, focus this year is on elimination of Trans Fats from the food supply chain.

 

5. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari initiates Asia’s longest ZojiLa Tunnel works virtually: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari launched the first blasting for construction related work at the 14.15 km Zojila tunnel, one of the longest in Asia that will provide all-year connectivity between Srinagar valley and Leh. Initiating the blast through a virtual ceremony, Road Transport, Highways and MSME Minister Gadkari said it was a ‘moment of pride’ for India. The project was re-awarded this year to Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) which had emerged as the lowest bidder quoting ₹4,509.5 crore for the project.

 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. India and Kazakhstan held webinar for defence cooperation: India and Kazakhstan hold a webinar for defence cooperation under the aegis of Dept of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence through FICCI. The Theme of webinar was “Make In India For The World, India – Kazakhstan Defence Cooperation: Webinar and Expo”. This webinar is the part of the series of webinars which are being organized with friendly foreign countries in order to boost defence exports and achieve defence export target of $5 billion in the next five years.

Ambassadors of both countries and senior MoD officials from both sides participated in the webinar and spoke about need to leverage opportunities not only for co-development and co-production but also to meet each other’s requirements. Various Indian companies such as L&T Defence, Ashok Leyland Limited, Bharat Forge, Zen Technologies, Elcom Innovations, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Alpha Design Technologies and Bharat Electronics Limited. made company and product presentations on major platforms/equipment like Artillery Systems, Radars, Protected Vehicles, Missiles and Air Defence Equipments, Training Solutions etc in the webinar. BEL announced its plans to open representative office in Kazakhstan. The webinar was attended by more than 350 participants and 39 virtual exhibition stalls, which includes 7 stalls from Kazakh companies have been set up in the Expo.

 

2. India designated Vice-Chair of OECD Working Group on GLP: India has been designated the Vice-Chair of Good Laboratory Practice, GLP Working Group of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), recognising the contribution of the Indian GLP programme. Good Laboratory Practice is a quality system, which has been evolved by OECD to ensure that safety data generated on various chemicals like industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetic products and medical devices can be relied upon by regulatory authorities.

Note: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 37 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade.

 

3. Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju attended Y20 Global Summit Virtually: The first-ever virtual G20 (Group of Twenty) Youth 20 (Y20) Global Summit was virtually hosted from Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia for exchanging ideas and dialogues for the empowerment of youth Post COVID, where Indian side was represented by Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju. Indian side emphasized on galvanizing the youth to take on the challenges set forth by the worldwide COVID 19 Pandemic. The theme of the Summit was “Government – Youth dialogue on post-COVID-19 opportunities”. The Summit concluded with the drafting of the Y20 Communique under the three overarching priority areas viz. Future Fit; Youth Empowerment; and Global Citizenship.

About Youth 20 (Y20) Summit: Notably, the year 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of Y20 as the official G20 youth engagement group. Y20 is a forum for developing cooperation with the future generation and provides a platform for young people to have their voices heard on issues relevant to the G20 agenda.

 

OTHER UPDATES:

 

SPORTS

 

1. Elavenil Valarivan Wins Gold, Shahu Tushar Mane Silver in Sheikh Russel International Air Rifle Championship: World number one Indian Elavenil Valarivan won a gold medal and Shahu Tushar Mane bagged a silver in the Sheikh Russel International Air Rifle Championship, held virtually. The championship was organised by Bangladesh Shooting Sport Federation (BSSF). Shiori Hirata won the silver, while Indonesian Vidya Toyyiba took the bronze, however, won the gold in the men’s event as Naoya Okada shot a solid to leave India’s Shahu behind. Shahu settle for second place while Baki Abdullah Hel won bronze for the hosts. The championship is being held to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sheikh Russel, the youngest son of Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and brother of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

 

2. Champions Mohun Bagan lift I-League 2019-20 trophy: The I-League 2019-20 trophy was handed over to the champions Mohun Bagan at a city hotel in Kolkata. Dhanachandra Singh along with a couple of other players, assistant coach Ranjan Chaudhuri and other members of the support staff and senior clubs officials received the trophy from AIFF Leagues CEO Sunando Dhar in the presence of state sports minister Aroop Biswas.

 

BANKING AND FINANCE

 

1. Jana Bank to be sponsor bank for Ashoknagar Co-operative Bank: Jana Small Finance Bank, a Bengaluru-based small finance bank (SFB), has partnered with Ashoknagar Co-operative Bank Limited under the bank sponsorship programme. With this, Jana Bank has become the first SFB to go live under the sponsorship programme. Ashoknagar Co-operative Bank Limited, in association with Jana Small Finance Bank, can extend ATM, POS and e-commerce services to its customers. This association marks the fulfilment of Jana Bank’s endeavour to promote a full suite of services to co-operative banks.

 

2. IRDAI rolls out standardised life insurance cover ‘Saral Jeevan Bima’: Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) has unveiled is a standard individual term life insurance product ‘Saral Jeevan Bima’. It will help customers to make informed choice reducing mis-selling. All life insurers will have to offer this by Jan, 2021. It will be a non-linked, non-participating individual pure risk premium life insurance plan. The Saral Jeevan Bima will be a pure term life insurance product that can be purchased by people in the age group of 18 to 65 years and will have a policy term of 4 to 40 years. The sum assured for the term life insurance policy will range from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh (in multiples of Rs 50,000). It allows for a maximum maturity age of 70 years.

 

AWARDS AND HONOURS

 

1. Chandigarh University bags first rank in India as stand-alone institution for filling highest number of patents in a year: Chandigarh University Gharuan has emerged as Top Stand-Alone University in India for filling highest number of patents in a year.

As per the Intellectual Property India annual report released by Government of India, Chandigarh University Gharuan has emerged as the leading stand-alone institution to file highest number of patents which is followed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with 239 patent applications, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) with 202 applications and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) with 173 applications.

In the academic institutions category, Chandigarh University Gharuan has emerged as the leading stand-alone institution while the university has been placed at second position in overall patent rankings,”. In addition, with the filing of 148 patents Chandigarh University has also bagged third position in the Top 5 Indian Applicants for patents in the field of Information Technology and is just placed behind the top Indian IT Companies TCS and Wipro”.

 

DEFENSE

 

1. Australia to Join U.S., India, Japan for Malabar 2020 in High-End Naval Exercise of ‘The Quad’: Australia will join the India-led Malabar 2020 naval exercise next month, operating along with the U.S. and Japan in an exercise meant to send a message to China. The exercise will be a first for the so-called “Quad,” the Pacific cooperation between Japan, India, Australia and the U.S.

Australian Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said in a statement that “high-end military exercises like Malabar are key to enhancing Australia’s maritime capabilities, building interoperability with our close partners, and demonstrating our collective resolve to support an open and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Exercise Malabar also showcases the deep trust between four major Indo-Pacific democracies and their shared will to work together on common security interests.” India has hosted the Malabar series with the U.S. Navy since 1992, and in 2015 Japan joined as an annual participant.

 

OBITUARIES

 

1. Acclaimed carnatic vocalist P S Narayanaswamy passes away: Padmabhushana Vid. Shri Puliyur Subramaniam Narayanaswamy, one among the finest gurus of carnatic music in India, passed away. He was 86. A winner of many awards and titles, including the Padma Bhushan, and Kalaimamani from the Tamil Nadu government, Narayanaswamy was a torch bearer of the Semmangudi Tradition, evolving a style of his own with ‘Manodharma Sangeetham’.