DAILY GK: 2 DEC 2020

 DAILY GK: 2 DEC 2020

1.  HORNBILL FESTIVAL 2020

•      Nagaland started celebrating the 21st edition of Hornbill festival 2020 from 1st-5th of December organised virtually for the first time due to the pandemic.

•      Hornbill festival known as “Festival of Festivals” is organised by the state tourism of arts and culture department of Nagaland at the Naga Heritage Village of Kisama, Kohima.

•      It is a 10-day event.

 

2. SCO CHG HOSTED BY INDIA

•      India virtually hosted the 19th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of Government (SCO CHG) which was chaired by Vice President of India Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu from New Delhi.

•      This was the first Summit-level Meeting held under India’s Chairmanship, since it gained full -membership of the organization in 2017.

 

3. BARASAT NAMED AFTER LATE DIEGO MARADONA

•      A Stadium near Barasat, Kolkata, West Bengal has been named after Late Argentinian Footballer, Diego Maradona.

•      It was at this stadium that Diego Maradona had conducted a Football clinic for school students in December, 2017.

 

4.  ‘SAHAKAR PRAGYA’ TO TRAIN FARMERS

•      Narendra Singh Tomar, Union minister for agriculture and farmers welfare launched ‘Sahakar Pragya’, an initiative of National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). 

•      The 45 new training modules of Sahakar Pragya of NCDC will impart training to primary cooperative societies in rural areas of India along with Lakshmanrao Inamdar National Cooperative Research and Development Academy(LINAC).

•      Sahakar Pragya enhances the NCDC’s training capacity through a network of 18 Regional Training Centres across India by LINAC.

•      LINAC is set up and fully funded by NCDC.

 

5. GCB ASIA 2020

•      In accordance with the 10th edition of the report titled “Global Corruption Barometer (GCB)-Asia 2020” by corruption watchdog Transparency International, India has the highest bribery rate of 39% in Asia and the highest rate of people (46%) who use personal connections to access public services.

•      Nearly 50% people who paid bribes were asked to while 32% of those who used personal connections said they would not receive the service otherwise.

 

6. INDIA RECORDED LARGEST REDUCTIONS IN MALARIA CASES

•      In accordance with the “World Malaria Report 2020” released by World Health Organisation (WHO), India recorded the largest reduction of malaria cases in South-East Asia from 20 million in 2000 to about 5.6 million in 2019.

•      The 11 highest burden countries account for 70% of the global estimated case burden and 71% of global estimated deaths from malaria.

•      These are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania.

 

7. QS ASIA UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2021

•      The global higher education think-tank, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has released the QS Asia University Rankings 2021 in association with King Abdulaziz University (KAU) , Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) for the Asia’s best higher education institutions in 2021.

•      The ranking has been topped by National University of Singapore (NUS) for the 3rd consecutive year.

•      On Indian front, three Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have made it to the top 50 viz. IIT-Bombay (37), IIT-Delhi (47) and IIT-Madras (50) but no Indian university got placed in top-10 list.

 

8. US AIR QUALITY INDEX 2020

•      According to Air Pollution Data released by United States (US) Air Quality Index 2020 on November 30, 2020 Lahore, Pakistan topped the list of World’s most Polluted Cities.

•      It reported a Particulate Matter (PM) rating of 423 (Hazardous).

•      New Delhi with a PM of 229 (very unhealthy) came Second followed by Nepal’s Kathmandu with a PM of 178 (unhealthy).

 

9. 1ST INDIAN TO BE APPOINTED AS GLOBAL CEO OF BATA

•      Sandeep Kataria, the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Bata India has been elevated as the CEO of Bata Organization.

•      He becomes the 1st Indian to be appointed as the global CEO of Bata.

•      He succeeds Alexis Nasard.

•      Before joining Bata India, he served as the chief commercial officer of Vodafone India.

 

10. BIGGEST EVER CRYOGENIC PROPELLANT TANK ‘C32-LH2’ TO ISRO

•      Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) delivered ‘C32-LH2’ Cryogenic Propellant Tank to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

•      It is Biggest ever cryogenic propellant tank fabricated by HAL.

•      C32-LH2 is made of aluminium alloy and has been designed to improve the payload capability of GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) MK-III launching vehicle.