DAILY GK 19-20 JULY 2020


DAILY GK 19-20 JULY 2020
1. CAPITALS OF NE STATES TO BE CONNECTED THROUGH RAIL NETWORK BY 2023
·        Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav has announced the connectivity of all capitals of North-Eastern (NE) states through rail network by 2023.
·        Railways is already implementing a project in this regard. 
·        The capitals of Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh are already connected.
·        The work to connect capitals of Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Meghalaya is in progress.
·        In Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya, the capital connectivity work is in progress. Manipur will be connected in March 2022, Mizoram in March 2023, Nagaland in March 2023, Meghalaya in March 2022 and Sikkim in December 2022.

2. ‘AIR BUBBLES’ WITH FRANCE, GERMANY AND US
·        Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri informed that India has established individual bilateral ‘air bubbles’ with France and the United States(US).
·        In addition to this, a similar arrangement with Germany has been established and Lufthansa will be operating the flights.
·        This agreement allows countries’ airlines to operate international flights. 
·        India is planning to establish such agreements with the UK, under which 2 flights a day will be operated between Delhi and London.
·        The similar arrangements with the United Arab Emirates(UAE) till 26th July, 2020.
·        Air India will operate flights to France, Germany and the US under bilateral air bubbles.


3. UN’S GLOBAL MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY INDEX
·        The United Nations’ “The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index(MPI) 2020: Charting pathways out of multidimensional poverty: Achieving the SDGs” states that India records the largest reduction in the number of People living in poverty as around 273 million people moved out of the multidimensional poverty over 10 years (2005/2006 – 2015/2016).
·        The report released by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) focuses on how multidimensional poverty has declined.

4. INDIA REMAINS AS LOWER-MIDDLE-INCOME ECONOMY
·        According to the New World Bank country classifications by income level 2020-2021India remains in the classification, Lower-Middle-Income Economy. In total 218 countries have been included in this classification.
·        The World Bank classifies countries into four income groups namely: low income , lower-middle income, upper-middle income, and high-income economies.
·        The classifications are updated each year on July 1 and are based on Gross National Income(GNI) per capita in current USD(using the Atlas method exchange rates) of the previous year.
5. 2020 NELSON MANDELA PRIZE
·        Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, The President of United Nations General Assembly announced that Marianna Vardinoyannis, of Greece, and Doctor Morissana Kouyaté, of Guinea will receive the 2020 Nelson Mandela Prize.
·        They will be recognised in the virtual ceremony on 20th July 2020.
·        The award will be presented to them in an in-person award ceremony at a later date at the United Nations(UN) headquarters, New York, United States of America.
·        The United Nations’(UN) Nelson Mandela International Day is annually celebrated on July 18th the birth anniversary of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, to recognise his contribution in creating a democratic South Africa.
·        The first Nelson Mandela International Day was celebrated on 18th July 2010.

6. FIFA WORLD CUP 2022
·        Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) informed that the 2022 World cup the tournament is to be held in Qatar at Al Bayt Stadium (or) Al Khor Stadium.
·        Men’s 2022 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to be the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup.
·        Host country will be Qatar.
The first men’s FIFA World Cup to be staged in the Middle East, is also the first edition to be held in the November-December window.