DAILY GK 17 JULY 2020
1. INDIA-EU (VIRTUAL) SUMMIT HELD VIRTUALLY
·
15th
summit between India and the European Union (EU) was held virtually where India
was represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the EU was
represented by Charles Michel, President of the European Council,
and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.
·
India-EU
endorsed “EU-India Strategic Partnership: A Roadmap to 2025” as
a common roadmap to guide joint action and further strengthen the EU-India
Strategic Partnership over the next five years.
·
There
was signing of the Euratom-India Agreement between EURATOM and
the Department of Atomic Energy of India on research and development
cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
·
The 27 nation
EU is India’s largest trading partner for goods with trade
exceeding 100 billion dollars, while India is the E.U.’s ninth biggest trading
partner.
·
There
is an upcoming planned investment of €550 million in the Pune
(Maharashtra) and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) Metro Rail Projects by European
Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg.
2. GOVT TO INCREASE PUBLIC HEALTH EXPENDITURE TO 2.5%
OF GDP BY 2025
·
In a meeting with the 15th Finance
Commission the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan highlighted
that the government aims to gradually increase the public health expenditure
to 2.5% of Gross Domestic Product(GDP) by 2025.
·
The government under the Aayushman
Bharat programme proposes to establish 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres by
2022. Of this about 19,000 have been already established.
·
Government has announced 4% health
and education cess on personal income tax and corporation tax. Earlier it was
3%.
3. INDIA & BHUTAN OPENS NEW TRADE ROUTE
·
India
and Bhutan opened a new trade route between Jaigaon in West Bengal and Ahlay,
Pasakha in Bhutan to establish easy connectivity and to increase trade between
India and Bhutan amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
·
The
movement of industrial raw materials and goods from India to Pasakha Industrial
Estate increases the traffic in the Jaigaon-Phuentsholing route.Bhutan’s
largest trading partner is India and the bilateral trade stood at Rs.9227
crores in 2018.
4. 2020 INTERNATIONAL PRESS FREEDOM AWARDEES
·
The Committee
to Protect Journalists(CPJ) has announced that 4 Journalists, Shahidul
Alam from Bangladesh, Mohammad Mosaed from Iran, Dapo
Olorunyomi from Nigeria and Svetlana
Prokopyeva from Russia will be honoured with the 2020
International Press Freedom Awards for their courageous act.
·
In
addition to them lawyer Amal Clooney will be honoured with
the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award 2020.
5. SURINAME ELECTS ‘CHAN’ SANTOKHI AS PRESIDENT
·
Chandrikapersad “Chan” Santokhi (61), an
Indian-origin former police chief has been elected as the president of
Suriname, a country in South America. Santokhi leads the Progressive Reform
Party of the country.
·
Santokhi will be sworn in as the
President from 16, July 2020.
·
Suriname is a former Dutch colony
consisting of the largest ethnic group of Indian descent people about 27.4% of
the total population of 587,000.
6. “COROSURE” – WORLD’S MOST AFFORDABLE COVID-19
DIAGNOSTIC KIT
·
Ramesh
Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, the Union Minister of Human Resource Development (MoHRD)
E-launched the world’s most affordable Reverse Transcription
Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) based COVID-19 diagnostic
kit, “Corosure Kit”.
·
It is
developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi(IIT-D) approved
by Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) and Drugs Controller
General of India (DCGI).
·
The base
price of the kit is Rs.399 and after including the RNA
isolation and laboratory charges the price will be comparatively cheaper than
the available kits.
7. WORLD’S 1ST FULLY AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC FERRIES
·
India’s
largest commercial shipbuilder Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) has signed a contract
to build the world’s first fully automatic electric vessel for ASKO Maritime,
Norway.
·
In
this regard, CSL will construct and supply two autonomous electric ferries to ASKO
Maritime, with an option to build two more identical vessels.
·
The
project, partially funded by the Norwegian Government, aimed at emission-free
transport of goods across the Oslofjord, inlet in Norway
