NATIONAL UPDATES:
1.
Madhya Pradesh govt announces ‘Gau Cabinet’ for protection of cows: The Madhya Pradesh
government, led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has decided to set up
a ‘Gau Cabinet’ for the protection, conservation and promotion of cows in the
state. The Cabinet will comprise of the departments of animal husbandry, forests,
panchayat and rural development, revenue, home and farmers welfare. The first
meeting of the Cabinet will be held at 12 pm on ‘Gopashtami’ on November 22 at
the Cow Sanctuary in Agar-Malwa district named ‘Kamdhenu Gau Abhyaranya ‘. It
is India’s first cow sanctuary which was set up by the Bharatiya Janata Note:
Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Singh Chouhan; Governor: Anandiben
Patel.
2.
India’s Param Siddhi ranked 63rd in most powerful supercomputers: According to the
Department of Science and Technology (DST), Indian supercomputer, Param Siddhi
has achieved 63rd rank in the list of 500 most powerful supercomputers in the
world. Param Siddhi is the high-performance computing-artificial intelligence
(HPC-AI) supercomputer established under National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)
at C-DAC. The Top 500 project which ranks the top 500 non-distributed computer
systems in the world is published twice a year. The first of these updates
always coincides with the International Supercomputing Conference in June, and
the second is presented at the ACM/IEEE Supercomputing Conference in November.
About Param Siddhi AI system: The AI system
will strengthen application development of packages in areas such as advanced
materials, computational chemistry & astrophysics, and several packages
being developed under the mission on the platform for drug design and
preventive health care system, flood forecasting package for flood-prone metro
cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Patna and Guwahati. The supercomputer will
also help in acceleration of research and development in the fight against
COVID19 through faster simulations, medical imaging, genome sequencing and
forecasting and is a boon for Indian masses and for start-ups and MSMEs in
particular. The supercomputer with Rpeak of 5.267 Petaflops and 4.6
PetaflopsRmax (Sustained) was conceived by C-DAC and developed jointly with the
support of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under NSM.
3. Dr
Harsh Vardhan addresses 33rd Stop TB Partnership Board meet virtually: The Union Health
Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan addressed the 33rd Stop TB Partnership Board meet in
New Delhi through Video Conference on 18
November 2020. During the meet, the minister has stressed on the need to create
a mass movement for elimination of TB with strategized advocacy, thought
leadership, disruptive social entrepreneurship, powerful, societal and
political commitment. It must be noted that, India is running the “TB Harega,
Desh Jeetega” campaign that targets to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal
target related to TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global target of 2030.
4.
Union Minister Narendra Singh inaugurates capacity building component of the
PM-FME Scheme:
Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Shri Narendra Singh Tomar
virtually inaugurated the capacity building component of the Pradhan Mantri
Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises scheme (PM-FME Scheme) on 18
November 2020. He also launched the GIS One District One Product (ODOP) digital
map of India. Under the capacity building component of the PM-FME scheme,
training would be given to the master trainers
through online mode, classroom lecture and demonstration, and self-paced
online learning material. The master trainers will then train the
district-level trainers, who will eventually train the beneficiaries. PM-FME
Scheme has been launched with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore for a period of five
years from 2020-21 to 2024-25
5.
National Newborn Week: 15th to 21st November: In India, the National Newborn Week
2020 is observed every year from 15 to 21 November. Union Minister of Health
and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan has chaired an event to mark the National
Newborn Week 2020. The main purpose of the week is to reinforce the importance
of newborn health as a key priority area of the health sector and reduce the
infant mortality rate by improving healthcare conditions for babies in the
neonatal period. The theme of National Newborn Week 2020 is ‘Quality, Equity,
Dignity for every newborn at every health facility and everywhere’. In 2014,
India became the first country to launch the India Newborn Action Plan (INAP),
in alignment with the Global Every Newborn Action Plan towards eliminating preventable
deaths of new-borns and stillbirths.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:
1.
Japan & Australia signs defence deal to counter China: Japan and Australia
have signed a ‘landmark’ defence pact in a bid to counter China’s growing
influence in the South China Sea and over the Pacific island nations. The deal
called Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) was signed between Japanese Prime
Minister Yoshihide Suga and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison. RAA will
allow Japanese and Australian troops to visit each other’s countries and
conduct training and joint operations. The treaty will strengthen its security
ties and facilitate cooperation between defence forces.
Note: Japan Capital: Tokyo; Japan Currency:
Japanese yen; Japan Prime minister: Yoshihide Suga.
Prime Minister of Australia: Scott
Morrison; The currency of Australia: Australian dollar; Capital of Australia:
Canberra.
2.
World Children’s Day: 20th November: The Universal/World Children’s Day is
celebrated on 20 November annually to promote international togetherness,
awareness among children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare. The day
also marks the anniversary of adoption of Declaration and Convention of the
Rights of the Child. In 1959, UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of
the Rights of the Child. In 1989 UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on
the Rights of the Child. 2020 marks the 31st anniversary of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child.
3.
World Fisheries Day:
21st November: World Fisheries Day is celebrated on 21 November every year
throughout the world by the fisherfolk communities. It highlights the
importance of healthy oceans ecosystems and to ensure sustainable stocks of
fisheries in the world. 2020 is the fourth World Fisheries Day. The World
Fisheries Day helps in highlighting the critical importance to human lives, of
water and the lives it sustains, both in and out of water. Water forms a
continuum, whether contained in rivers, lakes, and ocean. Fishing communities
worldwide celebrate this day through rallies, workshops, public meetings,
cultural programs, dramas, exhibition, music show, and demonstrations to
highlight the importance of maintaining the world’s fisheries.
4.
World Television Day: 21st November: World Television Day is observed on 21
November every year. The day is observed to acknowledge the role of broadcast
media. On this day, the journalists, writers, bloggers, and others who are
associated with the medium promote the role of television in communication and
globalization. The 21 November was proclaimed by the United Nations General
Assembly in December 1996, because the first World Television Forum was held in
1996.
OTHER UPDATES:
SPORTS
1.
FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup 2021 cancelled: The 2021 U-17 Women’s World Cup,
which was scheduled to be held in India, has been cancelled due to the
Coronavirus pandemic. It has also been decided that India will host the 2022
edition of the World Cup. The tournament was supposed to be held in November
2020 initially, only for the pandemic to force a postponement. FIFA then
revised the schedule and the tournament was to be held in February and March in
2021 in India. The 2020 U20 Women’s World Cup has also been cancelled along
with the U17 edition. While Costa Rica will get the chance to host the 2022 U20
Women’s World Cup. Five venues had been selected as host cities for the
tournament – the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Vivekananda Yuba Bharati
Krirangan (VYBK) in Kolkata, Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati, EKA
Arena in Ahmedabad and the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
Note: Headquarters of FIFA: Zürich,
Switzerland; President of FIFA: Gianni Infantino.
BANKING AND FINANCE
1.
Karnataka Bank launches CASA campaign: Karnataka Bank launched CASA (current
account, savings account) mobilisation campaign which will run from November 17
to March 4, 2021. The bank stated that it intends to mobilise over 4.10 lakh
current and savings accounts with an accretion of 650 crores of business. With
this campaign, the bank intends to introduce its attractive and superior line
of digitally powered savings and current account products to its customers.
The objective of the Campaign: To enable the
basic banking services to the unbanked(not use banks or banking institutions)
sections of the society. To popularize bank’s digitally powered CASA products
to the next level of customers on the basis of their requirements.
Note: Karnataka Bank Limited Headquarters:
Mangaluru(Mangalore), Karnataka; Karnataka Bank Limited MD & CEO:
Mahabaleshwara M.S; Karnataka Bank LimitedIncorporated: February 18th, 1924;
Karnataka Bank Limited Tagline: ‘Your Family Bank Across India’.
2.
DIPAM inks agreement with World Bank: Department of Investment and Public Asset
Management (DIPAM) has signed an agreement with the World Bank, to provide
advisory services to DIPAM for asset monetization. DIPAM is mandated with
facilitating monetization of non-core assets of government CPSEs under
strategic disinvestment or closure and enemy property of the value of 100 crore
and above. DIPAM has a framework for monetizing non-core assets.
Under the agreement: The World Bank
advisory project, approved by the Finance Minister, is aimed at analyzing
public asset monetization in India and benchmarking its institutional and
business models against international best practices as well as supporting the
development of operational guidelines and capacity building for their
implementation.
Note: Headquarters of World Bank:
Washington, D.C., United States; President of World Bank: David Malpass.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
1.
CCI approves Google picking up 7.73% stake in Jio Platforms: The Competition
Commission of India (CCI) has said that it has approved Google picking up 7.73%
stake in Mueskh Ambani-led Jio Platforms for ₹33,737 crore, facilitating the
internet major and Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL) to develop and launch Android
smartphones in India. Internet giant Google will be making the investment into
the digital arm of Reliance Industries through its wholly-owned subsidiary
Google International LLC (GIL). Google became the 14th investor to invest in
Jio Platforms after Facebook, Silver Lake Partners, Vista Equity Partners,
General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton, PIF, Intel Capital and
Qualcomm Ventures.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
1. HelpAge India and Queen Mother of
Bhutan receive 2020 UN Population Award:
Her Majesty Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck, Queen Mother of Bhutan, was
announced as the individual laureate for the 2020 United Nations Population
Award. HelpAge India was announced as the award’s institutional laureate. Her
Majesty Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck is a longstanding champion of sexual
and reproductive health and rights and the need to end violence against women,
girls and children in Bhutan. HelpAge India working in 20 States across India,
the organization also provides employment opportunities to older people,
advocates for their rights in the community and helps local organizations to
support them. Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1981, the
United Nations Population Award recognizes contributions in the fields of population
and reproductive health.
OBITUARIES
1.
Former Goa Governor Mridula Sinha passes away: Former Governor of
Goa and veteran BJP leader, Mridula Sinha passed away. She was the first woman
Governor of Goa. She was also a proficient writer, making extensive
contributions to the world of literature as well as culture. She has served as
the head of the BJP’s women’s wing and Chairperson of Central Social Welfare
Board in the Ministry of Human Resource Development. A native of Muzaffarpur,
Sinha will be remembered for starting cultural events called ‘Chaand ke Saath’
in the lawns of Governor House. She had also opened a cattle shed inside the
Raj Bhawan.
2. Former England, Tottenham and Liverpool goalkeeper, Ray Clemence, passes away: The former England international football goalkeeper, Raymond Neal Clemence, has passed away due to prostate cancer. He was 72. Ray was one of only 29 players to have made over 1,000 career appearances. He made his debut for Scunthorpe United and later joined Tottenham, Liverpool and England. After his retirement as a player, Clemence held coaching positions with England and Spurs.
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