Daily GK Updates – 24th Dec, 2020

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. PM Modi to launch ‘SEHAT’, Health Insurance Scheme for J&K: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch ‘SEHAT’ – Health Insurance Scheme for the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on 26th December. This scheme will cover the remaining One crore population which was not covered under Ayushman Bharat Scheme. Under Ayushman Bharat PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), eligible beneficiaries were covered under Health Cover of Rs 5 Lakh.

Under PMJAY scheme, 30 lakh people are being covered in J&K. With the launch of ‘SEHAT’ Scheme by the Prime Minister on December 26, J&K will be among the first in the country to achieve Universal Health Coverage. Programmes will be organized across the UT and the distribution of Golden cards will be started on the same day. Around 16 Lakh registrations have been done as on date and the registrations for the rest of the beneficiaries is underway.

Note: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor: Manoj Sinha.

 

2. GoI notifies new “Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020”: The Union Power Ministry, R. K. Singh has framed the new ‘Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020. These rules shall empower the consumers of electricity and added that these Rules emanate from the conviction that the power systems exist to serve the consumers and the consumers have rights to get the reliable services and quality electricity.

About Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules 2020: These rules provide for Rights of consumers and Obligations of Distribution licensees. The distribution licensee shall supply 24×7 power to all consumers. However, the commission may specify lower hours of supply for some categories of consumers like agriculture. Following key areas are covered in the Electricity (Rights of consumers) Rules: Rights of consumers and Obligations of Distribution licensees;

Release of new connection and modification in an existing connection; Metering arrangement;

Billing and Payment; Disconnection and Reconnection; Reliability of supply; Consumer as Prosumer; Standards of Performance of licensee; Compensation Mechanism; Call Centre for Consumer Services; Grievance redressal mechanism.

 

3. Prakash Javadekar releases ‘Status of Leopards in India 2018’ report: The Union environment minister, Prakash Javadekar has released a report titled the ‘Status of Leopard in India 2018’. As per the report, the population of leopard in India has increased by 60 per cent in four years since 2014. India now has 12,852 leopards as per 2018 estimate, compared to the previous estimate of 7910 conducted in 2014. The States of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra recorded the highest leopard estimates at 3,421, 1,783, and 1,690 respectively.

 

4. S. Jaishankar addresses 5th Annual Global Technology Summit: The 5th edition of the annual Global Technology Summit (GTS) was organised virtually by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India in collaboration with Carnegie India (CI). GTS is one of the four flagship annual conferences organised by MEA. The other three conferences are the Raisina Dialogue, the Geo-economic dialogue, and the Indian Ocean Conference. The theme of the 2020 GTS was “The Geopolitics of Technology”. The speakers from included the External Affairs Minister, Dr S. Jaishankar, and Dr K. VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. The industry experts, policymakers, and scholars from all over the world participated in the five-day event to deliberate on five comprehensive sub-themes, which included: Geopolitics of Technology; Data: Linking the World; Digital Payments: The Future of Global Financial Highways; Digital Inclusion: Taking the Local to the Global; Transforming Healthcare for a Post-COVID World.

 

5. World’s tallest rail bridge on Chenab in J&K likely to be completed by 2021: Touted as the next man-made wonder, the world’s tallest rail bridge on the Chenab in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory is expected to be completed by 2021. The 1,315-metre-long bridge between Bakkal and Kauri villages of Reasi is coming up at a height of 359 metres. The arched structure will connect Baramulla to Jammu via Udhampur, Katra and Qazigund with a travel time of six and a half hours.

 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. India-Vietnam Leaders’ Virtual Summit 2020: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, jointly addressed the India-Vietnam Virtual Summit, via video conferencing. During the Summit, a ‘Joint Vision for Peace, Prosperity and People’ document was adopted to guide the future development of the India-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

About the Summit: Both leaders agreed to support each other’s national development priorities and work together towards the shared objective of a peaceful, stable, secure, free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region. India and Vietnam signed seven agreements during the virtual summit in areas such as defence, scientific research, renewable energy, nuclear energy, petro-chemicals, and cancer treatment.

 

2. PM Narendra Modi addresses 6th Indo-Japan SAMVAD Conference: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed the sixth edition of the India-Japan SAMVAD conference 2020, via virtual conferencing. The purpose of this Samvad Conference is to discuss the need to build the future of Asia on the positive influence of traditions of non-violence and democracy in Asia. During the conference, the PM proposed to create a library of traditional Buddhist literature and scriptures in India. This library will collect digital copies of Buddhist literature from across different parts of the world. The library will then translate these works and make them available for all scholars and monks of Buddhism.

 

OTHER UPDATES:

 

SPORTS

 

1. Lewis Hamilton wins BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2020: Formula 1 world champion, Lewis Hamilton has won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2020. This is the second time that the 35-year-old Hamilton has been crowned Sports Personality of the Year. Prior to this, he won the award in 2014. Other award winners at Sports Personality 2020:

Helen Rollason Award: Captain Sir Tom Moore

Expert Special Panel Award: Marcus Rashford

Coach of the Year: Jurgen Klopp (Football)

Team of the Year: Liverpool FC

Unsung Hero: Sgt Matt Ratana

Captain Tom Young Unsung Hero: Tobias Weller

Young Sports Personality of the Year: Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix (British diver)

 

2. Indian Boxers bag 3 Gold at Cologne Boxing World Cup: Indian boxers have bagged 9 medals including three gold, two silver and four bronze at the Cologne Boxing World Cup 2020, held in Cologne, Germany. India finished 2nd in the overall Medals List, Germany topped the list with 16 medals. The Cologne Boxing World 2020 was hosted by the European Boxing Confederation (EUBC). List of Medal Winners:

Gold: The three gold medals for India were bagged by Amit Panghal (52kg), Manisha Moun (57kg) and Simranjit Kaur (60kg) in their respective categories.

Silver: Silver medals were claimed by Sakshi Choudhary (57kg) and Satish Kumar (91kg).

Bronze: Sonia Lather (57kg), Pooja Rani (75kg) Gaurav Solanki (57kg) and Mohamed Hussamudin (57kg) claimed the bronze medal in their respective categories.

Note: European Boxing Confederation Founded: 2009; European Boxing Confederation President: Franco Falcinelli; European Boxing Confederation Headquarters: Assisi, Italy.

 

BANKING AND FINANCE

 

1. Central Bank of India ties up with NPCI to launch ‘RuPay Select’: The Central Bank of India has launched a unique variant of a contactless debit card under the name ‘RuPay Select’, in association with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Central Bank RuPay Select Debit cardholders will be able to avail complimentary membership and concessional access to golf courses, gyms, spas and restaurants.

About “RuPay Select Card”: This RuPay Debit Select Card will focus on customers’ lifestyle, fitness, rejuvenation, nutrition and personal care. The card comes with features such as airport lounge access to over 20 domestic and more than 500 international lounges. The card will also facilitate offline transactions in both transits as well as retail purchases. Apart from this, the cardholders would also be entitled to discounted health check-ups with this National Common Mobility Debit Card (NCMC). Additionally, it comes up with an accidental and permanent disability insurance cover up to 10 lakh at no extra cost to customers.

Note: National Payments Corporation of India MD & CEO: Dilip Asbe; National Payments Corporation of India Headquarters: Mumbai; National Payments Corporation of India Founded: 2008.

Central Bank of India Headquarters: Mumbai; Central Bank of India CEO: Pallav Mohapatra; Central Bank of India Founded: 21 December 1911.

 

AWARDS AND HONOURS

 

1. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Telecom Skill Excellence Awards announced: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has presented the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Telecom Skill Excellence Awards, including a cash award of Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 respectively, to both awardees. The nominations were called for the first time for the year 2018.

First Prize: Sreenivas Karanam, Bengaluru was selected for the FIRST prize for his contribution in developing a cost-effective customized technical solution under the brand ‘C mobile’, for deep-sea communication, operating along the Kerala coast, facilitating communication among fishermen and issue of weather alerts etc. The service enables the fishermen to have one-one voice calls, group calls, SMS, Location services and Emergency services while they are out of GSM coverage area. The service is available from Thiruvanathapuram to Calicut, almost 500km along Kerala coast, with devices installed in nearly 900 motorboats.

Second Prize: Subrat Kar, New Delhi was selected for the SECOND prize for his innovative solution on development & deployment of a large scale sensor network and devices to avoid a train-animal collision, which works without interfering with natural movements/behaviour of animals, thereby helping in wildlife conservation. The system under the pilot phase is installed in Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand, to prevent elephant deaths by train-elephant collision.

About Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Telecom Skill Excellence Awards: This award is given to motivate the Telecom Skill ecosystem, DoT launched Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Telecom Skill Excellence Awards scheme in 2017, to reward the successful telecom skilled people for their special contributions in the areas of Telecom Skilling, Telecom Services, Telecom Manufacturing, Telecom Applications in deploying telecom dependent sectoral solutions for different fields such as agriculture, commerce, health, education etc.

Note: Minister of Communications and Electronics & IT: Ravi ShankarPrasad.

 

DEFENCE

 

1. Rajnath Singh inaugurates advanced “HWT” test facility in Hyderabad: Union Minister of Defence, Rajnath Singh has inaugurated the advanced Hypersonic Wind Tunnel (HWT) test facility of the DRDO in Hyderabad, Telangana. The state-of-the-art HWT Test facility has made India as the only third country in the world, after the US and Russia, to have such a huge facility in size and capability.

About Hypersonic Wind Tunnel (HWT): The indigenously developed HWT Test facility is a pressure vacuum-driven enclosed free jet facility having a nozzle exit diameter of 1 metre. This will simulate Mach No 5 to 12 (Mach represents the multiplication factor to the speed of sound)”. The facility has the capability to simulate hypersonic flow over a wide spectrum and will play a major role in the realization of highly complex futuristic aerospace and defence systems.

 

OBITUARIES

 

1. Pakistani Actress Firdous Begum passes away: Firdous Begum, the famous Pakistani veteran actress who shot to fame for her iconic role in 1970’s movie ‘Heer Ranjah’, passed away. She was 73. A leading lady of Pakistani films from 1970s to 1980s, Firdous started her film career in 1963 with a movie ‘Fanoos’ in which she had a supporting role. She got a break from movie ‘Malangi’ in 1965 and thereafter there was no looking back. Her iconic role in ‘Heer Ranjah’ made her the most sought-after actress in 1970s. Firdous performed in over 150 Punjabi, Urdu and Pashto films.