DAILY GK: 25 DEC 2020

 DAILY GK: 25 DEC 2020

1. HIGH POWER ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES INDIGENOUSLY MANUFACTURED

      India became the 6th Country to manufacture High Power Electric Locomotives indigenously, in 2015 Ministry of Railways & Alstom (France) signed a contract worth €3.5 billion (INR 25,000 crore)  to produce High Power Electric Locomotives at Madhepura Electric Loco Factory in Bihar.

      It was the largest ever Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) project of Indian Railways.

      2020 marks the 5th year of signing of the contract.

      The other countries are Russia, China, Germany & Sweden.

      The contract allowed for manufacturing of 800 Prima Locomotives at the Madhepura Electric Loco Factory, Bihar.

 

2. GLOBAL MEDIA AND FILM SUMMIT IN 2021

      Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting addressed the Confederation of Indian Industry(CII) Big Picture Summit 2020.

      During the event mentioned that India will host Global Media and Film Summit in 2021.

      During the event, he announced that India will establish a special pavilion at Cannes in 2022 as the Cannes Film Festival celebrates 75 years.

 

3. “FIREFLY BIRD DIVERTER”

      “Firefly Bird Diverter” a unique initiative of the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to reduce the mortality of the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) from the overhead power lines in areas with high population of GIB in the wild.

      Under this initiative, around 1813 diverter flaps, called “fireflies”, were installed on the lines, which can be spotted by the birds from a distance of 50 meters and change their course.

 

4. ‘MANAGEMENT OF COVID-19’

      The 31-member Committee (10 from Rajya Sabha, 21 from Lok Sabha) Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs headed by Rajya Sabha MP, Anand Sharma presented a report on ‘Management of COVID-19 pandemic and related issues’ to Rajya Sabha Chairman – Venkaiah Naidu (Vice President).

      The report lauded the Government’s efforts in controlling the spread of COVID-19, but pointed out the deficiency of testing facilities at Airports throughout March 2020.

 

5. ARMY VARIANT OF MRSAM

      India successfully conducted the first army variant test of Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, Odisha.

      The missile has been jointly developed by Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) & Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

      The MRSAM has been manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL).

      It has a strike range of 100 kms and speed of Mach 2 (supersonic).

 

6. AMITABH KANT VIRTUALLY LAUNCHED DIGIBOXX

      Amitabh Kant, CEO of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog virtually launched India’s 1st digital asset management platform, DigiBoxx.

      The digital file storage, sharing, and management SaaS product provides storage options for individuals and organisations of all sizes and industries.

      This cloud storage service was created by a tech startup founded and promoted by Arnab Mitra, MD, LIQVD ASIA along with Ashish Jalan and Vivek Suchanti, Concept Group.

 

7. BOOK “COVID-19: SABHYATA KA SANKAT AUR SAMADHAN”

      Former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh launched Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s new book titled “Covid-19: Sabhyata ka Sankat aur Samadhan” (Covid-19: Crisis of Civilisation and Solutions).

      This Hindi book was published by Prabhat Prakashan.

 

8. NATIONAL CONSUMER DAY 2020

      The National Consumer Day also called as National Consumer Rights Day  is annually observed across India on 24th December to highlight the importance of the consumer movement and the needs to ensure that customers are aware of their rights and responsibilities.

      The National Consumer Day marks the day on which the Consumer Protection Act 1986 received the presidential assent.

      The theme of National Consumer Day 2020 is “New Features of Consumer Protection Act, 2019”.