DAILY GK: 20, 21 DEC 2020
1. DOMINIC RAAB’S VISIT TO INDIA
• Dominic Raab, Secretary of State for
Foreign, paid 4-day visit to India.
• The meeting assumes significance as the UK
is keen to promote its ties with India in Post-Brexit era.
• UK & India will jointly invest 5
Million Pounds into the NEEV fund to support green recovery.
• New Virtual UK-India vaccines hub
announced by both countries to help in the shared fight against Coronavirus.
2. SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN POWER
SECTOR
• RK Singh virtually launched India’s 1st
Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Skill Development in Power Sector at the campus
of National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gurugram, Haryana.
• The CoE will serve as a platform to create
a robust cadre of certified trainers and assessors across the country.
3. HUMAN FREEDOM INDEX 2020
• According to the ‘Human Freedom Index
2020: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom’ – 6th
Annual Report released by Cato Institute of United States & Fraser
Institute in Canada, India (overall score of 6.43) ranked 111 in the list of
162 countries.
• New Zealand (score – 8.87) topped the
index followed by Switzerland (score – 8.82) & Hong Kong (score – 8.74).
1 New Zealand 8.87
2 Switzerland 8.82
3 Hong Kong SAR, China 8.74
4. NPCI INTRODUCED RUPAY CONTACTLESS
(OFFLINE) FEATURE
• National Payments Corporation of India
(NPCI) has introduced RuPay Contactless (Offline) feature, that also provides reloadable wallets within RuPay
Card, for daily transit payments.
• NPCI has also introduced RuPay Contactless
(Offline) feature for retail payments on pilot basis.
• All these additional features will expand
the total transaction experience for Rupay cardholders and also transform the
overall card payment ecosystem.
5. DRDO DEVELOPED SYSTEMS
• Rajnath Singh handed over 3 New Indigenous Systems – Border Surveillance
System (BOSS), Indian Maritime Situational Awareness System (IMSAS) & ASTRA
MK-I Missile all developed by DRDO to the Chiefs of 3 Armed Forces – Indian Navy, Indian Air Force (IAF) &
Indian Army at a function held in DRDO Bhawan, New Delhi.
• BOSS – An all-weather electronic
surveillance system designed for automatic detection of intrusion at harsh
high-altitude sub-zero temperature areas.
• IMSAS – A high performance software system
to provide Global Maritime Situational Picture, Marine Planning Tools &
Analytical capabilities to Indian Navy.
• ASTRA Mk-I is an Beyond Visual Range (BVR)
Missile (Air-to-Air Missile) capable of being launched from Sukhoi-30, Light
Combat Aircraft (LCA), Mig-29 & Mig-29K.
6. RUSSIA LAUNCHES 36 UK TELECOM
SATELLITES
• Russian space agency Roscosmos Space
Agency launched a Soyuz rocket carrying 36 UK telecommunications and internet
satellites into space from Vostochny launch site.
• The satellites were made by British
company OneWeb.
• This was the first launch of OneWeb
satellites from the Vostochny spaceport.
• The launch was delayed when OneWeb went
bankrupt in April, 2020.
• The UK government and Indian telecom giant
Bharti took over the company with USD 500 million investment.
7. “OH, MIZORAM”, BOOK OF ENGLISH POEMS
• M Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India
virtually released the book titled “Oh, Mizoram”, a collection of poems written
by P S Sreedharan Pillai, the Governor of Mizoram.
• The book is published by Indus Scrolls
Press.
8. JUSTICE S MURALIDHAR WAS
ELEVATED AS CJ OF ORISSA HC
• Justice S Muralidhar, Judge of Punjab
& Haryana High Court has been elevated as the Chief Justice(CJ) of Orissa
High Court(HC).
• Prior to his transfer to Punjab & Haryana
HC he served as the judge in his parent high court in Delhi.
• The elevation was recommended by the
Supreme Court Collegium chaired by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde
Mohammad Rafiq, the current CJ of Orissa has been transferred to Madhya Pradesh
HC.
