DAILY GK 26-27 JULY 2020
1. INDIA EXTENDED MEDICAL ASSISTANCE WORTH ABOUT USD
1 MILLION TO NORTH KOREA
·
Government
of India (GoI) has extended medical assistance in the form of anti-tuberculosis
medicines worth about US$ 1 million to Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(DPRK).
·
It is to
be noted that New Delhi’s medical assistance is under the
aegis of an ongoing WHO’s anti-tuberculosis programme in North Korea and hence
exempted from the sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
2. GOVT IMPOSED RESTRICTIONS ON PUBLIC PROCUREMENT
·
Government
of India (GoI) has amended the Rule 144 of General Financial Rules
(GFRs) 2017 entitled “Fundamental principles of public buying” by
inserting sub rule (ix) which has imposed restrictions on
bidders of countries sharing land borders with India in public procurement
tenders.
·
The
order in this regard has been issued by the Department of Expenditure
(DoE), Ministry of Finance.
·
It
should be noted that India shares its land border with China, Nepal, Bhutan,
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
·
By
invoking the provision of Article 257(1) of the Constitution
of India, the central government has also directed state governments
to implement this order for all public procurement.
3. ELECTRIFIED RAIL TUNNEL CAPABLE TO RUN
DOUBLE-STACK CONTAINERS
·
India
builds one kilometer (km) long World’s first electrified rail tunnel that fits
double stack containers.
·
It
cuts through Aravali mountain on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC)
near Sohna, Haryana.
·
The
project is implemented by the DFCCIL (Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of
India Limited).
·
The
tunnel connects Mewat and Gurgaon districts, Haryana.
4. WORLD CLASS STATE OF THE ART HONEY TESTING LAB
·
Union
Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ welfare Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated
the ‘World Class State of Art Honey Testing Laboratory’ virtually.
·
This is
considered to be the first Government Honey Testing lab in India.
·
The
testing lab was established by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)
in Anand, Gujarat with support of NBB (National Bee
Board).
·
Tomar
also inaugurated ‘Two Days Online Training Programme on Scientific Honey bee
production’ conducted by NDDB.
5. WORLD’S MOST SURVEILLED CITIES 2020
·
As per
the new analysis by Comparitech on the World’s Most Surveilled
Cities 2020, in 150 major cities across the globe, Hyderabad has
positioned in 16th rank among the list of top 20
cities with the maximum number of Closed-circuit television (CCTV)
surveillance cameras.
·
It has
most CCTV surveillance in India.
·
The List
was topped by Taiyuan, China.
·
Chennai
(21st rank) and Delhi (33rd rank) made into the top 50 list.
6. INDIA RANKED 3RD IN GAINING FOREST AREA IN
WORLD
·
In
accordance with the latest Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2020
brought out by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United
Nations (UN), India has ranked 3rd among the top 10 countries that have
gained in forest areas during 2010-2020.
·
India
reported 0.38% annual gain in forest, or 266,000 ha of forest
increase every year at an average.
·
It’s
naturally regenerating forest rate was also 0.38% in 2010-20.
·
As per
the report, the world has a total forest area of 4.06 billion hectares (ha) in
2020, which is 31% of the total land area where India accounts for 2% of total
global forest area.
·
Russia has a maximum forest area accounting 20% of
global forest area (815 312 ha) followed by Brazil (496 620 ha-12%) &
Canada (346 928 ha- 9%).
7. USD 400 MN CURRENCY SWAP FACILITY FOR SRI LANKA
·
Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) has agreed to a USD 400 million
currency swap facility for Sri Lanka, valid till November
2022.
·
This
will help Sri Lanka to meet its short-term international liquidity
requirements and to boost its foreign exchange reserves following the economic
crisis resulting from COVID-19.
·
Recently,
India and Sri Lanka held a “technical discussion” on the rescheduling of the
bilateral debt repayment through video conference.
8. RIL BECOMES WORLD’S SECOND MOST VALUABLE ENERGY
COMPANY
·
Reliance
Industries Limited(RIL) became the world’s second most valuable
energy company, overtaking American oil giant ExxonMobil after its market
capitalisation(m-cap) reached over Rs 14 lakh crore(14.1 trillion or USD 189.3
billion).
·
Aramco
tops the list. ExxonMobil has an m-cap of USD 184.7 billion.
·
It
is to be noted that no Indian company has ever crossed the m-cap of Rs 14
trillion.
