November 2nd Week 2020 Current Affairs Online Test English

• The new indigenously designed and built ship named ICG C–452 has been commissioned into the Indian Coast Guard. The ship was commissioned by Additional Director General (Western Seaboard) of Indian Coast Guard. The ship was designed and built by Larsen & Toubro, Surat in lines with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “Make in India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.

• The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister has approved for an MoU between Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru and its counterpart of Spain. The MoU aims to develop scientific and technical collaborations in astronomy field. The agreement is expected to enhance capacity building through increased scientific interaction and training between the two countries.

• Election Commission of India is organizing a three–day International Virtual Election Visitors Programme. In the context of the ongoing Bihar Legislative Assembly Elections, the programme is being organised for Foreign Election Management Bodies and Organizations. Delegates from over 40 countries across the world are invited.

• Tripura has recently issued warning against hunting of migratory birds, especially Amur falcons, amidst the onset of winter. The Forest Department is set to issue order to inform that the migratory birds including the Amur falcons are covered under the Wildlife Protection Act enacted in 1972. The state of Nagaland had already issued an order to save the migratory birds.

• The 23rd edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) is to be held virtually between November 19 and 21, this year. The summit will be organised by the Department of Electronics, Information Technology, Bio Technology and Science and Technology of the State Government of Karnataka. Several Technology Leaders are expected to participate in the summit.

• The Food Price Index, which was seen in news recently, is released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The United Nations Food agency has recently announced that the index reached 100.9 points in October, which is the highest since January this year. The index measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar.

• The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has launched the ‘Go Electric’ campaign in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The state government has nominated the Non–conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited (NREDCAP), as the state nodal agency to set up charging stations. The state government has also planned to launch 400 charging stations in the state.

• Char–chaporis are shifting riverine islands of the Brahmaputra river and they are primarily inhabited by the Muslims of Bengali–origin referred to as ‘Miyas’. Several people of Assam were requesting the government to fast–track the establishment of Miya museum reflecting the culture and heritage of the people living in char–chaporis.

• Two secure and flexible services have been created by the Interpol to facilitate cybercrime related communication among law enforcement agencies. One of them is the Cybercrime Knowledge Exchange workspace and the other is Cybercrime Collaborative Platform–Operation. The former handles general, non–police information and is open to all relevant users whereas the latter is restricted to select few agencies only.

• Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs launched three initiatives, namely, the Nurturing Neighborhoods Challenge focusing on shaping cities for young children and their families; the Data Maturity Assessment Framework to evaluate data ecosystems of cities; and an online training programme for City Data Officers of 100 Smart Cities in an event.

• A number of welfare schemes for the refugee and the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) population have been announced by the state Government of West Bengal. One among them is providing land pattas to refugee colonies. The state has decided to give a total 1,25,000 land pattas to the refugees, of which 25,000 pattas were given by the Chief Minister recently.

• Enhanced PINAKA rocket, developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been successfully flight tested from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the coast of Odisha. The design and development have been carried out by Pune based DRDO laboratories. Enhanced version of the Pinaka rocket would replace the existing Pinaka Mk–I rockets.

• WhatsApp has received the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) approval to enter Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in phased manner. WhatsApp, owned by Facebook has over 400 million users in India. The UPI payments service is expected to be launched to 2 crore WhatsApp users initially.

• As per the Schmidt Ocean Institute, its research vessel ‘Falkor’ has discovered a massive coral reef in Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The research vessel has been undertaking a 12–month exploration mission of the ocean surrounding Australia. The 500–meter–high reef has been discovered for the first time in 120 years. ‘SuBastian’, the underwater robot of the institute is deployed to explore the new reef.

• External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar recently virtually addressed the first India –Nordic – Baltic Conclave. The Nordic–Baltic Eight (NB8) co–operation framework includes eight countries namely Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden.

• Kerala has recently become a part of the “Padhna Likhna Abhiyan” programme and is ready to receive the central funds for literacy programmes, after ten years. Padhna Likhna Abhiyan is the reading and writing campaign launched by the Central Government. IT aims to achieve the goal of complete literacy in the country by 2030.

• China has successfully sent 13 satellites from the single rocket named Long March–6 carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre. It includes ten satellites from Argentina. This launch was also the 351st by the Long March rocket series. China has also planned to launch ninety earth observation satellites.

• According to the recent order by the Personnel Ministry, former Chief Secretary of Delhi M M Kutty has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas. Several technical experts from IIT–Delhi, IMD and the Environment Ministry have also been appointed as the full–time members of the commission.

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has recently reported that it has recently observed a mix of X–ray and radio signals that were never observed before in the Milky Way. It also announced that the first fast radio burst (FRB) was also observed within the galaxy. The detection of the phenomenon called FRB was recently published in the journal ‘Nature’.

• ‘International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict’ is observed every year on November 6. The UN General Assembly declared the observance of this day, in the year 2001. As per the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), at least 40 percent of all internal conflicts are linked to the exploitation of natural resources.

• The apex court of India, the Supreme Court has asked the Government of India to issue directions within a month regarding or regulating the use of disinfection on humans, in disinfection tunnels. The Supreme Court stated that though the Centre had issued advisory that spraying of disinfectant on human body is not recommended, no steps were not taken in this regard to prevent or regulate it.

• The Reserve Bank of India has announced a Co–Lending Model (CLM) scheme for priority sector lending. Under the new scheme, Banks can enter into a prior agreement with NBFCs for co lending of Priority Sector Loans. The CLM is an improvement over the co–origination of loan scheme announced by the RBI in September 2018.

• The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has decided to hold a meeting on December 1, 2020 to commemorate all victims of World War II. The resolution in this regard was drafted by Russia and has been adopted based on a voting. Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world’s countries forming two opposing military alliances namely the Allies and the Axis.

• The International ‘Satavadhanam’ program has been launched by the Vice President Venkiah in a virtual mode. Satavadhanam is a literary event that is organized by Dr. Medasani Mohan under the sponsorship of Sri Krishnadevaraya Satsang in Tirupati. It includes literary performance like solving tricky literary posers, improvising poems etc.

• The 5th Joint Working Group on Coal between India and Indonesia was hosted by India, through video conference mode. It was co–chaired by Vinod Kumar Tiwari, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal and its counterpart of Indonesia. During the meeting, India’s Ministry of Coal made presentations on Indian Coal Policy reforms, Coking Coal Exploration and Commercial Mining which was followed by presentations by the Indonesian side.

• Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha has been recently appointed as the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) as per the statement from the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Prior to this appointment the post of CIC was held by Bimal Julka, who completed his term in August. President Ram Nath Kovind has also administered the oath of office to Uday Mahurkar, Heera Lal Samariya and Saroj Punhani as Information Commissioners.

• Uttar Pradesh has launched an awareness campaign regarding the burning of Crop remains in many parts of the state. The Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the farmers of the state not to burn remains of their crops (known as Parali) but to make compost with it. Several volunteers are also involved in creating awareness about pollution.

• The One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme was launched to provide uniform pensions for Armed Forces Veterans, who are retiring in the same rank with the same length of service. The Prime Minister has recently highlighted that the One Rank One Pension scheme has completed five years since its implementation. The pension is provided irrespective of the time they retire.

• As per the recent statement from the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is set to issue forecast for malaria outbreaks from next monsoon. India has also planned to increase the high–performance computing (HPC) facility from the current capacity of 10 petaflops to 40 petaflops. India is at fourth place after the US, the UK and Japan in HPC, at present.

• Over 50 people have been killed by landslides in Guatemala after the Storm named ‘Eta’ caused torrential rain and winds. After the storm hit the Central American country, it was later downgraded to a tropical storm. A hillside in a single town of the country collapsed which buried several houses under mud. It also mae landfall in the neighbouring country Nicaragua.

• Kerala Tourism has been awarded the prestigious ‘Highly Commended’ Award by World Travel Mart London. The state has been awarded for its remarkable activities aimed to promote Responsible Tourism (RT) during COVID–19. Kerala’s Responsible Tourism (RT) Mission received the award in the category of ‘Meaningful Connections’.

• The Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed has recently launched military operations in the region of Tigray, in the country. The Air Force of Ethiopia has recently bombed and destroyed military artillery in the northern Tigray region. The campaign has been launched against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

• Tamil Nadu has won the first position under the ‘Best State’ category of National Water Awards (NWAs) 2019. The awards have been constituted by the Department of Water Resources, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti. Tamil Nadu is followed by Maharashtra and Rajasthan as the best states under the normal category.

• Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi announced the Haj 2021 guidelines to be followed during COVID–19 pandemic. The online application process for Haj 2021 has also been started and interested people can apply online, offline and through Haj Mobile App. Haj 2021 is scheduled during June–July in the year 2021.

• The Gov Tech Thon 2020 is a virtual hackathon that was organized by IEEE, National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Oracle, under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The team from Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Private Limited named “Fit for Future” has bagged the first position in the hackathon for demonstrating prototype for automating vehicle fitness checks.

• A Ro–Pax ferry service between Hazira and Ghogha in Gujarat is going to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India. The Ro–Pax Ferry Vessel named ‘Voyage Symphony’ would connect Hazira and Ghogha. It can carry 30 trucks on the main deck, 100 passenger cars on the upper deck and 500 passengers plus 34 crew on the passenger deck.

• Vidisha Maitra, an Indian Diplomat has been elected to the UN’s Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ). She won the election contesting for the only post in Asia–Pacific group, with 126 UN members supporting her candidature. She is a 2008 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer.

• India’s latest earth observation satellite named EOS–01 will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The satellite along with 9 other customer satellites would be carried to space by ISRO using its PSLV–C49 rocket. The rocket would be launched from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

• The World Science Day for Peace and Development is observed every year on 10th of November to highlight the significant role of science in society and the need to engage the wider public in debates on emerging scientific issues. It also underlines the importance and relevance of science in our daily lives. The theme for 2020 is “Science for and with Society”.

• The Fifteenth Finance Commission led by the Chairman N K Singh has recently submitted its Report to President of India Ram Nath Kovind. Last year, the Commission submitted its report with recommendations for the year 2020–21 and it was accepted and tabled in the Parliament. Now, the Commission has submitted recommendations for the period 2021–22 to 2025–26.

• Russia’s SIRIUS and Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) has recently launched ‘AIM–Sirius Innovation Programme 3.0’. It is a 14–day virtual programme for Indian and Russian schoolchildren. It is also the first Indo–Russian bilateral youth innovation initiative, which envisages to develop technological solutions for both countries.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently inaugurated several development projects in the city of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, via video conferencing. The development projects include Sarnath Light and Sound show, infrastructure facilities for protection and conservation of cows, Varanasi city smart lighting work among others.

• Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has recently inaugurated a model of the anti–satellite missile system. The model, which is seen as a symbol of national technological advancement, has been inaugurated at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) headquarters in New Delhi. In 2019, DRDO conducted an Anti–Satellite (A–SAT) missile test ‘Mission Shakti’.

• Shusha is a strategically important cultural city located near the Nagorno–Karabakh region, a mountainous enclave regarded as part of Azerbaijan but populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians. The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has recently announced that his country’s forces had taken Shusha. It is also the second–largest city in the Nagorno–Karabakh enclave. Over 1,000 people have died in the fights around Nagorno–Karabakh.

• The Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan held a consultation with the Indian diaspora. This interaction was aimed at enabling them to make valuable contributions in India’s Science Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) 2020. This interaction with Indian diaspora is seen as first of its kind.

• The Book named Moustache written by Malayalam writer S. Hareesh and translated to English by Jayasree Kalathil has been selected for the 2020 JCB Prize for Literature. The prize is worth Rs 25 lakh and is one of the most prestigious literary awards in India. The 2020 shortlist comprised five books, of which Moustache has been selected for the award.

• The Union Ministry of Finance has given an approval for creation of the first ever national database of migrant labour called the National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW), which would be seeded with Aadhaar. This database would provide a platform for the government to implement specific programmes for such labourers

• The IIT Alumni Council has launched MegaScope, which includes data analysis, testing and genomics to diagnose infections accurately. It would also be used to prescribe personalised medicine. The MegaScope aims to improve accuracy of testing and predict the disease severity thereby enhancing treatment effectiveness.

• Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is set to unveil a life size statue of Swami Vivekananda. The statue is being unveiled at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus at New Delhi on November 12th. The statue would be unveiled by the Prime Minister in a virtual mode. The statue has been installed in JNU campus with the support of the JNU alumni.

• Gold and silver coins in the name of the Vaishno Devi shrine have been released by the Lt. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha. The coins have been released ahead of Diwali festival. The Vaishno Devi shrine board has decided to make the coin available in Jammu as well as in Delhi.