DAILY GK 17 NOV 2020

 DAILY GK 17 NOV 2020

1. LONAR LAKE AND SUR SAROVAR ADDED TO RAMSAR SITES

•      Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) announced that Sur Sarovar also known as Keetham Lake in Agra, Uttar Pradesh and Lonar Lake in Maharashtra,  the only Crater Lake of Country has been added to the ‘Ramsar Sites’.

•      These 2 wetlands have been included in the ‘List of Wetlands of International Importance’ established by Article 2.1 of the Convention.

•      With the inclusion of these 2 wetlands, the total number of Ramsar Sites in India is 41, the highest in South Asia.

 

2. SAANS CAMPAIGN TO REDUCE CHILDHOOD PNEUMONIA DEATHS

•      The Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) launched a 3 month accelerated SAANS (Social Action and Awareness to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully) campaign to reduce childhood Pneumonia Deaths.

•      Target of the Initiative– To reduce less than 5 Pneumonia deaths, per a 1000 live births, to less than 3 deaths by 2025 through the accelerated SAANS (Social Action and Awareness to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully) initiative.

 

3. WORLD’S BIGGEST FREE TRADE PACT ‘RCEP’

•      15 Asia-Pacific Countries including 10 members of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and their 5  Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia signed the World’s largest Regional Free-Trade Agreement “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – RCEP” on the sidelines of the 37th ASEAN Virtual Summit 2020 hosted by Vietnam. India had pulled out of RCEP in 2019 over concerns on Imports.

•      Members who have signed the RCEP pact  account for 2.2 Billion People with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 26.2 Trillion.

 

4. 1ST EVER VACCINE TO BE LISTED UNDER WHO’S EUL

•      The World Health Organization (WHO) listed nOPV2 (novel Oral Polio Taccine type 2) Polio vaccine produced by Indonesia’s Bio Farma PT for Emergency Use Listing (EUL), this is the first approval by WHO of its kind amidst several outbreaks in several parts of the World.

•      The nOPV2 vaccine is aimed at containing outbreaks of circulating Vaccine-Derived Polio Virus (cVDPVs)  in African Countries, Meditarranean Countries as well as Western Pacific and Southeast Asian Region.

 

5. INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S PEACE PRIZE 2020

•      17 year old Sadat Rahman from Bangladesh won the International Children’s Peace Prize 2020 for his involvement in setting up his Social Organization and creating  Mobile Application ‘Cyber Teens’ to end Cyberbullying.

 

6. DRDO SUCCESSFULLY TEST-FIRES QRSAM SYSTEM

•      DRDO successfully Test-Fired Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) System at the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, Odisha. The Missile successfully hit its target during the test.

•      QRSAM has been designed to protect moving Armoured Vehicles from Aerial attacks.

•      It has a range of 25 to 30 Kms.

•      It is an indigenous Missile System developed by DRDO in association with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL).

 

7. TURKISH GRAND PRIX 2020

•      British Driver Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) won the Formula 1 DHL Turkish Grand Prix 2020 held at Intercity Istanbul Park, Turkey. 

•      With this victory, Lewis Hamilton clinched the 2020 Driver’s Championship Title.

•      With this victory, Hamilton secured his 7th F1 World Driver’s Championship, equalling Michael Schumacher’s (Germany) World Record of 7 Titles.

•      The Championships are organized by Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

 

8. WORLD DIABETES DAY 2020

•      United Nations(UN)’s World Diabetes Day is annually observed across the globe on 14th November.

•      The theme of the World Diabetes Day 2020 is “The Nurse and Diabetes”, which focuses on the Vital Role of the Nurses in supporting the lives of the Diabetic patients.

 

9. NATIONAL PRESS DAY 2020

•      National Press Day is celebrated annually on November 16 across India to Commemorate the Establishment of the Press Council of India(PCI) in 1966.

•      PCI Current Chairman– Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad

 

10. SPACEX LAUNCHES 4 ASTRONAUTS INTO SPACE

•      SpaceX launched Four Astronauts (3 Americans, 1 Japanese) to the International Space Station on the first full-fledged Taxi Flight for NASA by a Private Company.

•      They were launched by Falcon Rocket from the Kennedy Space Center.

•      The capsule has been named as “Resilience”. 

•      The Crew was led by Commander Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover (First Black Astronaut on a long-term Space Station) Mission and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi (First person in 40 years to Launch on three types of Spacecraft).