DAILY Current Affairs 20 MAY 2020
1. GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTS SHEKATKAR
COMMITTEE’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Government has accepted and implemented 3
important recommendations of Committee of Experts (CoE) under the
Chairmanship of Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar (Retd) relating
to border Infrastructure so as to speed up road construction,
which leads to socio-economic development in the border areas.
In relation to creating border
infrastructure, the Government has implemented the CoE’s recommendation
to outsource road construction work beyond the optimal capacity of the Border
Roads Organisation(BRO).
Other recommendations are in relation to
introduction of modern construction plants, equipment and machinery implemented
by delegating enhanced procurement powers from Rs 7.5 crores to Rs 100
crores to BRO, for domestic and foreign procurements.
Completing land acquisition and
obtaining statutory clearances such as forest and
environmental clearance will be prerequisites for approval of Detailed Project
Report (DPR) for a new road.
2. 6 CITIES RATED 5 STAR FOR GARBAGE FREE
CITIES
Hardeep
Singh Puri announced the results of the Star Rating of Garbage Free Cities,
for the assessment year 2019-2020, where 6 Cities(Ambikapur, Rajkot, Surat,
Mysuru, Indore and Navi Mumbai) were rated 5 Star, 65 Cities rated 3 Star
and 70 Cities rated 1 Star out of 141 cities & also launched the revised protocol for
the Star Rating of Garbage Free Cities.
Swachh
Survekshan(SS) was introduced 5 years ago to ensure a high degree of cleanliness
and sanitation in urban areas. As it is a ranking system, many cities despite
doing exceptionally well, were not being recognized appropriately.
4. ARMY -“THREE-YEAR SHORT SERVICE”
SCHEME
Indian army is considering a proposal to
allow civilians, including young working professionals, to join the force for 3
years as officers and in other ranks (ORs) in areas like logistics and
front-line formations under the “Tour of Duty” or “Three-Year
Short Service” Scheme.
The
cumulative approximate cost of pre-commission training, salary and other
expenses after three years would be just Rs 80 lakh to Rs 85 lakh each which
results in saving of around Rs 11,000 crore, which can be used for
modernisation of the armed forces.
8. 2019 ALEXANDER DALRYMPLE AWARD FROM UK
The
National Hydrographer to the Government of India, Vice Admiral Vinay Badhwar is
honored with the 2019 Alexander Dalrymple Award. The award was first presented
in 2006 by the UK Ministry of Defence sponsored UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) named
after the first Hydrographer of the Admiralty, Alexander Dalrymple.
The
recipients are selected by the Executive Committee of the UK Hydrographic
Office (UKHO) from
all over the world for their efforts in raising the standards of the
hydrography, cartography and navigation.
9. ACCENTURE ACQUIRES STARTUP BYTE
PROPHECY
Accenture plc an Irish-domiciled multinational professional
services company, has acquired Ahmedabad (Gujarat)-based AI (Artificial
Intelligence) startup Byte
Prophecy for an undisclosed sum.
Under
this acquisition, more than 50 data science engineers from Byte Prophecy will
now join Accenture’s Applied Intelligence unit.
10. SCR DEVELOPS ROBOT “RAIL-BOT (R-BOT)”
South
Central Railway (SCR) zone developed a robotic device, “RAIL-BOT” (R-BOT)
to assist in hospital management functions towards patient care in the wake of
COVID-19 outbreak. The R-BOT robotic device was developed by Hem Singh Banoth,
Additional Divisional Railway Manager.
The
R-BOT underwent extensive trial and demonstration before being deployed for use
in Central Railway Hospital, Lallaguda, Secunderabad.
12. BAN ON USE OF SALIVA TO SHINE BALL
The International Cricket Council
(ICC) Cricket Committee, chaired by former Indian cricketer &
commentator, Anil Kumble has recommended a ban on the use of
saliva to make the ball shine due to the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
However, the committee considered ball-shining as safe from the use of sweat.
The
use of saliva to shine the ball, especially in the red-ball format, is meant
for swing bowling.
