DAILY GK: 19, 20 DEC

 DAILY GK: 19, 20 DEC

1.             PM MODI LAYS FOUNDATION STONE OF GANGA EXPRESSWAY IN UP

·               Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the longest highway in India, the Ganga Expressway in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh (UP) to offer fast-paced connectivity in India.

·               The six-lane 594 km long expressway will be built at a cost of about Rs 36200 crore will connect the western and eastern regions of UP.

·               A 3.5 km long airstrip was also planned to be built in Shahjahanpur for assisting emergency landing and take-off of Air Force planes.

·               An industrial corridor will also be built along the expressway for the socio-economic development of the region.

 

2.             ‘PROJECT AMBER‘ LAUNCHED

·               National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Generation India Foundation (GIF) launched ‘Project AMBER‘ (Accelerated Mission for Better Employment and Retention) at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi to bridge the gap between skilling and employment.

·               Objective is to develop and implement a scalable, and sustainable model of skill development to empower India’s youth with industry-relevant skills and employment opportunities.

·               The project will be equally funded by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) under the Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) programme, and private philanthropy.

·               Under the project, training will be provided for 30,000 youth with 50% of them being women. The training will be conducted in Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs) across 70 districts in COVID-19 resilient job roles.

 

3.             INDIA’S 1ST IAMC IN TELANGANA

·               Justice NV Ramana, Chief Justice of India(CJI) and K Chandrasekhar Rao, Chief Minister(CM) of Telangana has inaugurated India’s First International Arbitration and Mediation Centre(IAMC) at Phoenix VK Tower at Nanakramguda, Hyderabad, Telangana. 

·               IAMC has been established to quickly resolve the issues that arise due to the Lack of sufficient judges.

·               Arbitration is a method of resolving disputes outside of court.In this procedure, the dispute is submitted, by agreement of the parties, to one or more arbitrators who make a binding decision on the dispute.

 

4.             RBI AUTHORISED RBL BANK TO COLLECT INDIRECT TAXES

·               RBI has granted permission to RBL Bank to collect indirect taxes on behalf of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).

·               RBL Bank has already got permission from RBI in November 2021 to collect direct taxes. Thus the current announcement enables the bank to collect both direct and indirect taxes.

 

5.             KARL NEHAMMER SWORN IN AS CHANCELLOR OF AUSTRIA

·               Karl Nehammer was sworn in as Austria’s chancellor by Alexander Van der Bellen, President of Austria

·               Karl Nehammer from the ruling conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), previously served as the Interior Minister of Austria.

 

6.             BALLISTIC MISSILE ‘AGNI P’ SUCCESSFULLY TEST-FIRED BY DRDO

·               Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully test-fired its new generation Agni Prime (Agni-P) missile.

·               The test was done from a defence base at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam island off the Odisha coast in Balasore.

·               The surface nuclear capable ballistic missile with a range of 1000 to 2000 km.

·               Agni-P is a new generation advanced variant of the Agni class of missiles.

·               The longest of the Agni series is Agni-V, an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) with a range of over 5,000 km.

 

7.             COMMONWEALTH WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP & WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP

·               India concluded the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships 2021 with 16 medals, including 4 golds held at Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

·               Bindyarani Devi being India’s only medallist at the world championships 2021.

·               Indian weightlifter Purnima Pandey won the gold medal in the +87kg women’s category at the Commonwealth.

 

8.             INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS DAY 2021 – DECEMBER 18 

·               The year 2021 marks the 70th anniversary of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), established in 1951.

·               The theme of International Migrants Day 2021 is “Harnessing The Potential Of Human Mobility”.

 

9.             MINORITIES RIGHTS DAY 2021 – DECEMBER 18 

·               The day is annually celebrated by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM)

·               December 18th was chosen to mark the day on which the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA) on 18 December 1992 by resolution 47/135.