Daily GK Updates – 5th Dec, 2020

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. India invites UK’s Johnson as 2021 Republic Day chief guest: United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is expected to be the chief guest at 2021 Republic day with Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally inviting him. Johnson, on his part, has invited PM Modi to the G-7 summit in the United Kingdom next year. The last British prime minister at the Republic Day parade was John Major in 1993.

 

2. Karnataka’s 1st 11.5 megawatt power plant being set up at Bidadi: In Karnataka, Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa laid the foundation stone for a 11.5 megawatt power plant based on municipal waste in Bidadi, Bengaluru. It is first of its kind power plant in the state being set up by the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) and will help in converting 600 tonnes of municipal waste into 11.5-megawatt energy. This power plant will add 80.59 million units of power to the existing power grid. The power plant project is being constructed at a cost of Rs. 260 crore and is likely to be operational by 2022.

Note: Chief Minister of Karnataka: B.S. Yediyurappa; Governor: Vajubhai Vala.

 

3. Yogi Adityanath rings bell at BSE for listing bond of LMC: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath rang the bell at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), to mark the listing of bonds of Lucknow Municipal Corporation on the exchange. The bonds of LMC were launched on November 13, with a coupon rate of 8.5 per cent and had tenure of 10 years. The issuance had garnered 4.5 times subscription.

About Lucknow Municipal Corporation Bond: Lucknow is the 9th city in India and first from UP, to have raised municipal bonds for fundraising. It is also the first city to issue municipal bond after the launch of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme. Lucknow Municipal Corporation is the first civic body from North India to issue a bond on BSE. The funds raised through the bond will be invested in various infrastructure schemes, being implemented under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) Scheme, in Lucknow. Ghaziabad will be the next city of the state to issue a municipal bond and it will be followed by Pragyaraj, Varanasi, Agra and Kanpur.

 

4. IOCL launches India’s first 100 Octane Premium Petrol: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan launched India’s first indigenously developed ‘100 Octane premium petrol’ through video conferencing. Octane ratings are measures of fuel stability that increases engine efficiency. The high octane premium grade petrol will be marketed under the brand ‘XP-100’. It has been developed by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) at its Mathura refinery in Uttar Pradesh.

Availability of “XP-100”: XP-100 will be made available in a phased manner across the country and in the first phase, it will be made available in 10 cities. The cities are Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Agra, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad. With this launch, India has joined a select league of nations globally that have such superior quality fuel.  Till date, such quality of fuel is available only in six countries including USA, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Malaysia and Israel.

Note: Indian Oil Corporation Limited Chairperson: Shrikant Madhav Vaidya; Indian Oil Corporation Limited Headquarters: New Delhi; Indian Oil Corporation Limited Founded: 30 June 1959.

 

5. AR Rahman roped in as ‘BAFTA Breakthrough’ India ambassador: Oscar and Grammy-winning Indian composer, AR Rahman has been roped in as ambassador of the BAFTA Breakthrough initiative in India. In 2020, BAFTA will identify and support up to five exceptional talents working in film, games or television in India.

About BAFTA: The BAFTA Breakthrough initiative, is part of the Academy’s year-long programme to support new talent, coming up in the film, games and television industries in the UK, China, India and the US and gives them access to unique career development and mentoring opportunities. It is a unique opportunity for promising artists to be supported by a world-renowned organisation, including connections with other talented creatives across the world and being mentored by BAFTA-winners and nominees.

 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. New Zealand declares climate emergency: New Zealand has declared a “climate emergency” and promised to make its public sector carbon neutral by 2025. New Zealand now joins 32 other countries that have declared a climate emergency. They include Japan, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern told legislators that the climate emergency declaration was “an acknowledgement of the next generation – an acknowledgement of the burden that they will carry if we do not get this right and do not take action now”.

Note: Prime minister of New Zealand: Jacinda Ardern; Capital of New Zealand: Wellington; Currency of New Zealand: New Zealand dollar.

 

2. India ranked 8th in Global Terrorism Index 2020: In the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2020, India has been ranked at 8th spot globally in the list of countries most affected by terrorism in 2019. The GTI score of India is 7.353 out of 10. India recorded 277 Deaths, 439 Injuries & 558 Incidents due to Terrorism in 2019. Regionally, South Asia was the most impacted region by terrorism in 2019, recording more deaths than any other region. Also, globally the deaths caused due to terrorism fell by 15 per cent to 13,286 in 2019 over 2018.

Regarding India: Jammu and Kashmir was the most affected Region due to terrorism, it reported 165 attacks and 103 deaths. The three most active groups in Kashmir was Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Hizbul Mujahideen & Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Chhattisgarh was the second most affected region in India with 85 attacks and 53 deaths all from Maoist Extremists.

Countries Most Affected by Terrorism: With a score of 9.592, Afghanistan has topped the index as the worst terror impacted nation among the 163 countries. It is followed by Iraq (8.682) and Nigeria (8.314) at second and third place respectively.

Countries Least Affected by Terrorism: Qatar (0.014) took the 133rd Rank followed by Uzbekistan (0.010) in the 134th Rank and around 29 Countries (score of 0.000) took the 135th Rank which means they are Least Affected Countries or Face No Impact due to Terrorism.

About the Global Terrorism Index: The Global Terrorism Index is published annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), headquartered in Sydney, Australia, to measure the impact of terrorism on the countries.

 

3. International Volunteer Day: 5th December: The International Volunteer Day (IVD), also called International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development is observed on 5 December every year. IVD 2020 Theme: “Together We Can Through Volunteering”. The IVD international observance was mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1985. The purpose of the day to celebrate the efforts of volunteers and organizations and offer the opportunity to promote volunteerism, encourage governments to support volunteer efforts and recognize volunteer contributions to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at local, national and international levels.

 

4. World Soil Day: 5th December: The World Soil Day is celebrated every year on December 5 to raise awareness of the importance of soil quality for human well-being, food security and ecosystems. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) campaign “Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity” aims to raise awareness of the importance of sustaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being. The date of 5 December was chosen because it corresponds with the official birthday of the late H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand, who was one of the main proponents of this initiative.

An international day to celebrate Soil was recommended by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) in 2002. Under the leadership of the Kingdom of Thailand and within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership, FAO has supported the formal establishment of WSD as a global awareness-raising platform. The FAO Conference unanimously endorsed World Soil Day in June 2013 and requested its official adoption at the 68th UN General Assembly. In December 2013, the UN General Assembly responded by designating 5 December 2014 as the first official World Soil Day.

Note: Food and Agriculture Organisation Headquarters: Rome, Italy; Food and Agriculture Organisation Head: Qu Dongyu; Food and Agriculture Organisation Founded: 16 October 1945.

International Union of Soil Sciences President: Takashi Kosaki (Japan); International Union of Soil Sciences Founded: 1924; International Union of Soil Sciences Headquarters: Vienna, Austria.

 

OTHER UPDATES:

 

SPORTS

 

1. England’s Dawid Malan achieves highest-ever rating points in T20I history: England’s Dawid Malan has attained the highest-ever rating points for batsmen in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20I Player Rankings after a terrific run saw him top the series aggregate with a total of 173 runs and help England thrash South Africa 3-0. The 33-year-old left-hander has reached 915 points, the first to cross the 900-point mark after Australian Aaron Finch’s 900-point achievement in July 2018. Malan now enjoys a 44-point lead over Pakistan’s Babar Azam, whom he overtook to become number one in September this year. Malan’s player of the series performance included a match-winning 99 not out in the final match and helped England leapfrog Australia to take top position in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings.

 

BANKING AND FINANCE

 

1. RBI orders HDFC Bank to halt its digital launches: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued an order to HDFC Bank with regard to certain incidents of outages in the internet banking, mobile banking and payment utilities of the lender over the past 2 years, the private sector bank informed to the stock exchanges. The RBI also noted the recent outages in the HDFC Bank’s internet banking and payment system on November 21, 2020, owing to a power failure in the primary data centre. The RBI vide Order has advised the Bank to temporarily stop:

(a) All launches of the Digital Business generating activities planned under its program ‐ Digital 2.0 (to be launched) and other proposed business generating IT applications.

(b) Sourcing of new credit card customers.

(c) In addition to this, the order also states that HDFC Bank’s board should examine the lapses and fix accountability.

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.

 

2. ICICI Lombard gets in-principle approval from IRDAI approval to acquire Bharti AXA General Insurance: Insurance Regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India(Irdai) gave in-principle approval to proposed arrangement between ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd. and Bharti AXA General Insurance Co. Ltd., according to an exchange filing. The IRDAI mentioned that following the demerge, ICICI will issue 1.82 crore equity shares to Bharti General Ventures Private Limited and 1.75 crore equity shares to Societe Beaujon. Currently Bharti Enterprises owns 51% in Bharti AXA General Insurance, while French insurer AXA has 49%. With the deal with ICICI Lombard in place, Bharti and AXA will be public shareholders in the combined entity.

 

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

 

1. Highest FDI inflows to India coming from Singapore and USA: The U.S. has emerged as the second biggest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India after Singapore, replacing Mauritius, during the first half of the current financial year, according to data of the Commerce and Industry Ministry. During April-September 2020, India attracted FDI worth $7.12 billion from the U.S. and $2 billion from Mauritius, which slipped to fourth position, the DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) data showed. Singapore with $8.30 billion foreign inflows continued to be the top source of FDI for India in April-September 2020-21. The country has received $2.1 billion inflows from Cayman Isands. The islands was followed by Netherlands ($1.5 billion), U.K. ($1.35 billion), France ($1.13 billion), Japan ($653 million) , Germany ($202 million), and Cyprus ($48 million).

 

OBITUARIES

 

1. Former Pak PM Zafarullah Jamali passes away: Former Pakistan prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali passed away at a hospital in Rawalpindi at the age of 76. Jamali, the country’s first and only elected prime minister from Balochistan, had served during the military regime of Gen Pervez Musharraf. However, Gen Musharraf sought his resignation in 2004 and he was replaced by Shaukat Aziz. He won the 2013 general elections as an independent, but later joined the PML-N and used to sit on the treasury benches in the previous assembly.