DAILY GK: 29, 30 DEC 2020
1. AYUSHMAN BHARAT PM-JAY SEHAT
• PM Narendra Modi launched the Ayushman
Bharat Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana Social Endeavour for Health &
Telemedicine (PM-JAY SEHAT) Health Insurance scheme for covering all the
residents of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).
• The scheme will operate on insurance mode
in convergence with PM-JAY.
• Financial cover of upto INR 5 Lakhs per
family per year on a floater basis to all residents.
• A family floater policy is a health
insurance plan which covers the entire family on the payment of a single annual
premium.
2. PASSEX NAVAL EXERCISE 2020
• Indian Navy & Vietnam People’s Navy
undertook a Passage Exercise (PASSEX) 2020 in the South China Sea to boost maritime cooperation between the two
countries.
• Also
Indian Navy Ship (INS) Kiltan carrying 15 tonnes of Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief
(HADR) reached NhaRong Port, Ho Chi Minh City as part of Mission Sagar-III.
• The relief materials are for the
flood-affected people of Central Vietnam.
3. INDIA’S 1ST EVER DRIVERLESS
TRAIN
• PM Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated
India’s 1st ever Driverless Train Operations on Delhi Metro’s 38 Kilometres
long Magenta Line which connects
Janakpuri West & Botanical Garden in Noida.
• PM also inaugurated the fully operational
National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) services on the Airport Express Line of
Delhi Metro.
• With the inauguration, Delhi Metro Rail
Corporation (DMRC) entered the elite league of 7% of the World’s Metro networks
which are capable of operating without drivers.
4. CEBR’S WELT 2021 REPORT
• According to the 12th edition of World
Economic League Table 2021 (WELT) an Annual Report released by Centre for
Economics & Business Research Ltd (CEBR), India slumped 1 spot to 6th
Largest Economy (out of 193 countries) in the world in 2020 from 5th in 2019
due to the impact of COVID19.
• The United States (US) topped the 2020
rankings followed by China & Japan.
• The report stated that India will become
5th Largest Economy by 2025 & 3rd Largest by 2030.
• China will replace the US as the World’s
Largest Economy by 2028.
5. ICC MALE CRICKETER OF THE DECADE
• The winners of the International Cricket
Council(ICC) Awards of the Decade(2010-2020) were announced.
• In this, Indian Cricketer Virat Kohli wins
the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade.
• He also won ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the
Decade award.
• MS Dhoni(India) won the ICC Spirit of
Cricket Award of the Decade for calling back former England batter Ian Bell
after a disputable runout at Trent Bridge Cricket ground, Nottinghamshire,
England in 2011.
• Ellyse Perry(Australia) wins the Rachael
Heyhoe-Flint Award for ICC Female Cricketer of the Decade.
• She also won ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of
the Decade award and ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Decade award.
6.
‘SCIENTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD-2018’ BY DRDO
• Dr Hemant Kumar Pandey has been conferred
‘Scientist of the Year Award-2018’ by Defence Research & Development
Organization (DRDO) for his contributions towards developing herbal medicines
which includes ‘Lukoskin’ a drug for treatment of leucoderma.
• Pandey has been undertaking research at
DRDO’s Defence Institute of Bio-Energy Research (DIBER) at Pithoragarh in
Uttarakhand for 25 years.
7. GREEN PROPULSION FOR ‘GAGANYAAN’
• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
released the initial data from Chandrayaan-2, India’s second Moon Mission to
the general public through PRADAN portal hosted by ISSDC (Indian Space Science
Data Centre).
• At present, ISRO Science Data Archive
(ISDA) has datasets acquired by Chandrayaan-2 payloads from 7 instruments. Data
sets from Imaging Infra-Red Spectrometer (IIRS) payload will be added in the
future.
8. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
GENDER EQUALITY
• The Gender Park (an initiative of Kerala
Government) in partnership with United Nations (UN) Women will organize the 2nd
edition of International conference on Gender Equality (ICGE-II) at Gender
Parks Kozhikode campus in February, 2021.
• The conference will be 3-days long and the
theme of the event will be ‘Gender in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social
Business: The Mediating Role of Empowerment’.
9. INDIA HOISTS BLUE FLAGS ON ITS 8
BEACHES
• India hoisted ‘Blue Flags’ on its 8
beaches.
• Blue Flag certification is an eco-label
given by Foundation for Environment Education, Denmark for beaches which meets
its stringent environmental, educational, safety-related and access-related
criteria.
• The label signifies India’s efforts to
safeguard its coastal region.
• In October, 2020 India became the First
Country to be awarded the Coveted International Blue Flag certification for 8
beaches in one attempt.
10. UN ESCAP REPORT
• According to the report ‘Foreign Direct
Investment Trends and Outlook in Asia and the Pacific 2020/21’ released by the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN
ESCAP), India has accounted for 77% of total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
inflows to South & South-West Asian subregion receiving about USD 51
Billion in 2019.
• The majority of the FDI in India were in the
fields of Information & Communications Technology (ICT) & Construction
sector.
• Uneven spread of FDI outflows in the
region, only 2 countries – India & Turkey accounted for majority of
outflows in 2019.
11. ICICI BANK TO COLLABORATE WITH
GOOGLE PAY
• ICICI Bank collaborated with Google Pay to
issue FASTag through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on the payments app.
• This allows Google Pay users to order,
track and recharge ICICI Bank FASTag digitally on the payments platform.
• With this partnership, ICICI Bank FASTag
is now available on Google Pay.
12. WORLD’S 1ST CRYPTO BANK,
‘UNICAS’
• ‘Unicas’, world’s first crypto bank was
launched as a Joint Venture(JV) between Cashaa and United Multistate co-op society.
• This bank allows users to transact in
cryptocurrency and fiat from one account to another.
• It will provide banking services for both
fiat and crypto assets.
• This JV allows Cashaa to access regulatory
licenses, physical branches, and overall banking Infrastructure of United
Multistate Co-Op Society.
13. SURYODAY SFB TO FLOAT ITS IPO
• Suryoday Small Finance Bank(SFB) received
approval from Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) to float its
Initial Public Offering (IPO).
• The shares of the SFB is expected to be
listed on BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty.
14. KAMALADEVI CHATTOPADHYAY NIF
BOOK PRIZE 2020
• Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Sabha MP & Former
Union Minister for his book ‘A Chequered
Brilliance: The Many Lives of V.K. Krishna Menon’ and Associate Prof Amit
Ahuja, for his book ‘Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic
Movements’ jointly won Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay New India Foundation(NIF) Book
Prize 2020.
• Prize Money & Trophy:The winners will
share the prize money of 15 lacs and
each of them will receive the Book Prize trophy.
15. INDIA’S 1ST INDIGENOUS VACCINE
AGAINST PNEUMONIA
• Union Minister for Health & Family
Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan virtually launched India’s 1st Indigenous
Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) – ‘Pneumosil’ to treat pneumonia.
• The vaccine has been developed by Serum
Institute of India Private Limited (SIIPL) in collaboration with Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation.
• The Vaccine will make SIIPL the world’s
3rd largest supplier of PCV under the pneumococcal Advance Market Commitment
(AMC), and the first Developing country vaccine manufacturer to access the
global PCV market.
16. DHARMA SWATANTRYA (RELIGIOUS
FREEDOM) BILL, 2020
• Madhya Pradesh (MP) cabinet headed by
Shivraj Singh Chouhan approved the Dharma Swatantrya (Religious Freedom) Bill,
2020.
• The aim of the bill is to outlaw marriages
which take place with a sole motive of religious conversions.
• It will now be placed in the MP state
assembly for discussion & passage.
• Forced religious conversion of minors or
women or a person belonging to SC/ST category will invite jail term of 2-10
years & penalty of INR 50, 000.
• Mass forced conversions invite 5 to 10
years of jail term & fine of up to INR 1 Lakh.
