Daily GK Updates – 28th Dec, 2020

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launches E-Sampada web portal: Housing and Urban Affairs Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri has launched E-Sampada, a new web portal and mobile app on Good Governance Day. The new application provides a single-window for all the services including an allotment for over one lakh government residential accommodations, office space allotment to government organisations in 45 office complexes in 28 cities and booking of 1,176-holiday homerooms.

About E-Sampada Portal: The portal provides online facility to users across India to lodge complaints, submit documents and appear for the virtual hearing. This is a significant step towards the promotion of e-governance to enhance transparency and accountability in providing various estate services like allotment, retention, regularisation and no dues certificate. The real-time information on utilisation of assets and delivery of service will facilitate optimum utilisation of resources. The automated processes will minimize human intervention and will lead to greater transparency.

 

2. Punjab Govt launches mobile app and web portal ‘PR Insight’: Punjab Chief Minister Captain, Amarinder Singh has launched Mobile Application and web portal called ‘PR Insight’, to improve the delivery of citizen-centric services, based upon the feedback of its citizens on government policies. The basic objective of PR Insight is to re-orient the existing schemes and programmes of the state government to the people’s satisfaction after meticulously monitoring their feedback. About “PR Insight”:

(1) PR Insight application has been developed by the Information & Public Relations Department to provide a single repository & dashboard of all the news articles & social media posts of the State.

(2) This single repository of news articles and social media posts are then analysed using advance analytics and sentiment analysis tools to understand citizen feedback on Government policies and perception of Governance by the citizens.

(3) As many as 31 leading Newspaper agencies/portals have been integrated online with PR Insight application & portal and all the State Departments’ news articles are fetched from these newspaper agencies on a real-time basis.

(4) The app will monitor the citizen’s feedback and subsequently ensure responsive and transparent administration in the State.

Note: Chief Minister of Punjab: Capt. Amarinder Singh; Governor: V.P. Singh Badnore.

 

3. India’s first Lithium refinery to be set up in Gujarat: India’s first Lithium refinery is soon going to be set up in Gujarat. Manikaran Power Limited, one of the country’s largest power trading and renewable energy company will invest around Rs 1,000 crore to set up this refinery. The refinery will process Lithium ore to produce battery-grade material. Lithium is a rare element and is usually not found in India. Last year, Manikaran Power had collaborated with Australian firm Neometals to tap the Mount Marion Lithium mine in Western Australia. The proposed project is expected to help Gujarat secure the raw material supply for domestic manufacturing of Lithium batteries as it looks to promote electric vehicles.

 

4. Niti Aayog launches Cloud Storage Service ‘DigiBoxx’: NITI Aayog has launched indigenously developed India’s first Digital Asset Management and Storage platform, called ‘DigiBoxx’. The initiative will give a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, as India now has its own cloud storage platform. This cloud storage and file sharing service will be available for desktop, iOS, and Android users, including both regular users as well as businesses. Digiboxx offers free 20GB cloud storage space, and 100GB space per month at just Rs 30.

Note: Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog: Amitabh Kant; Chairperson of NITI Aayog: PM Narendra Modi.

 

5. Himachal CM unveils 18-feet statue of Vajpayee in Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has unveiled an 18-feet tall statue of late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the occasion of his 96th birth anniversary at the historic Ridge in the state capital. The statue has been built at a cost of Rs 1.08 crore. The Ridge Maidan also houses statues of Mahatma Gandhi and former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Note: Chief Minister of HP: Jairam Thakur; Governor of HP: Bandaru Dattatraya.

 

6. Devendra Fadnavis releases book ‘Ayodhya’ written by Madhav Bhandari: Maharashtra former Chief Minister and present leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis has released the book ‘Ayodhya’ written by Madhav Bhandari. The book will serve as a key reference document summarising the protests held for the cause of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. The book brings together various references that are related to Ayodhya town in Uttar Pradesh. The invaders had destroyed the Ram temple there and a defeatist mentality was thrust upon Hindus for years to come. The (temple) campaign was undertaken to counter this mentality and awaken the community.

 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. UNICEF launches Covid-19 vaccine market dashboard: UNICEF has launched an interactive tool to help track the developments in the “rapidly evolving” Covid-19 vaccine market as the designated procurement coordinator and procurement agent for COVAX. UNICEF’s Covid-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard is “an interactive tool for countries, partners and industry” which tracks Covid-19 vaccine market developments and “the efforts of the COVAX Facility to ensure fair and equitable access for every country in the world.”.

The dashboard provides a regularly updated overview of the global research and development pipeline, the projected production capacity, publicly announced bilateral and multilateral supply agreements as well as reported price points.

 

2. China’s new space carrier rocket successfully launches five satellites on its maiden flight: China’s new medium-lift carrier rocket Long March-8 made its maiden flight sending five satellites successfully into planned orbit from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan. The five experimental satellites will carry out the in-orbit verification of microwave imaging and other technologies. They will conduct experiments in space science, remote sensing and communication technologies. The Long March-8 rocket which has a total length of 50.3 meters, and a take-off mass of 356 tonnes can carry a payload of at least 4.5 tonnes to a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 km.

 

OTHER UPDATES:

 

SPORTS

 

1. FIFA cancels next year’s U-20, U-17 World Cups: FIFA has cancelled men’s U-20 and U-17 World Cup tournaments in 2021 for the novel coronavirus. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bureau of the FIFA Council has decided to cancel the 2021 editions of the men’s FIFA U-20 World Cup and FIFA U-17 World Cup, and to appoint Indonesia and Peru respectively, who were due to host the tournaments in 2021, as the hosts of the 2023 editions. So Peru will host the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2023. In the same year, the FIFA U-20 World Cup will be held by Indonesia.

Note: President of FIFA: Gianni Infantino; Founded: 21 May 1904; Headquarters: Zürich, Switzerland.

 

BANKING AND FINANCE

 

1. RBI cancels the Licence of the Subhadra Local Area Bank, Maharashtra: The Reserve Bank of India has cancelled the banking licence issued to Subhadra Local Area Bank Ltd., Kolhapur, Maharashtra to carry on banking business in India. The Reserve Bank cancelled the licence of the Subhadra Local Area Bank Ltd as it had breached the minimum net worth requirement for two quarters in the financial year 2019-20. The affairs of the Subhadra Local Area Bank Ltd. were conducted in a manner detrimental to the interests of its present and future depositors. After this, there are only two Local Area Banks operational in India, i,e.– Coastal Local Area Bank Ltd and Krishna Bhima Samruddhi LAB Ltd.

Note: Subhadra Local Area Bank Ltd MD & CEO: Sanjay Agrawal.

 

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

 

1. Ind-Ra revises India’s GDP contraction to 7.8% for FY21: India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has revised India’s GDP estimate for the current financial year 2020-21 (FY21) to -7.8 per cent from -11.8 per cent estimated earlier. This lower contraction rate is mainly due to the easing of COVID-19 curbs and better-than-expected recovery in the second quarter. Ind-Ra has also estimated the GDP to grow by 9.6% in 2021-22 (FY22).

 

2. DFC to invest USD 54 million in India to support critical infrastructure projects: The United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has announced to invest $54 million in India to support the development of critical infrastructure projects in the country in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The DFC will invest this $54 million in equity for the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) in India. NIIF will use this capital to support economic growth and address critical development challenges in the country. This financing is part of NIIF’s final round of fund-raising for the fund.

About Development Finance Corporation: DFC is the development finance institution of the United States federal government, primarily responsible for providing and facilitating the financing of private development projects in lower- and middle-income countries.

Note: National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Headquarters: Mumbai, India; National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Founded: February 2015; National Investment and Infrastructure Fund MD and CEO: Sujoy Bose.

 

AWARDS AND HONOURS

 

1. HDFC Bank ranks top among 100 BFSI Firms in India: HDFC Bank is the top-ranked company among the 100 Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) companies in the country, as per the BFSI Movers and Shakers 2020 report by Wizikey. HDFC Bank has topped because of its customer service, monetary management, and innovative offerings amid the coronavirus pandemic. ICICI Bank and State Bank of India (SBI) are ranked second and third, respectively. Other top 10 banks in 2020 Wizikey’s BFSI Movers and Shakers report are Yes Bank, PNB, HSBC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Deutsche Bank, and IDBI. Other Category Winner:

Wallet and UPI segment: Google Pay.

Neo Banks segment: YONO.

Payments bank category: Airtel Payments Bank.

Note: Headquarters of HDFC Bank: Mumbai, Maharashtra; MD and CEO of HDFC Bank: Sashidhar Jagdishan(Succeeds Aditya Puri); The tagline of HDFC Bank: We understand your world.

 

OBITUARIES

 

1. Former England batsman John Edrich passes away: Former English first-class batsman John Edrich has passed away. He was amongst the best players of his generation, during a career that ran from 1956 to 1978. He played 77 test matches for England, and scored more than 5,000 runs, spanning 13 years between 1963 and 1976. He scored a triple-century during a test match in 1965 that is the fifth-highest Test score for England.

 

2. Legendary Urdu poet Shamsur Rahman Faruqi passes away: Legendary Urdu poet and critic, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi has passed away, a month after recovering from COVID-19. He received Saraswati Samman in 1996 for his work ‘She’r-e Shor-Angez’, a four-volume study of the eighteenth-century poet Mir Taqi Mir. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 2009.