Appointments - Quicktechdiw.com

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Appointments

1. Govt appointed Chiefs (MD and CEO) of 3 PSU Banks -

L V Prabhakar - Canara Bank.

Atanu Kumar Das - Bank of India

Sanjiv Chadha - Bank of Baroda

Government Also appointed Challa Sreenivasulu Setty as managing director of State Bank of

India for 3 years.

2. Robert Abela has been appointed new prime minister of Malta (Southern European island country).

3. Sayyid Haitham bin Tariq al Said has been named as New Ruler of Oman, after earlier ruler Qaboos

bin Said Al Said passed away.

4. Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al-Thani has been appointed as new Prime Minister of Qatar.

5. Tsai Ing-wen won Taiwan presidential elections, winning her second term as Taiwan president.

6. Arjun Munda has been elected as new President of Archery Association of India (AAI), to serve term of

4 years.

World Archery had appointed Kazi Rajib Uddin Ahmed Chapol as observer for elections of

Archery Association of India (AAI), to be held in January 2020. Observer will submit report on

his observations and based on report, World Archery will consider 'conditional lifting' of

suspension on Indian Archery Federation, which was put in July 2019.

7. Former Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic won Croatia’s presidential elections.

8. Government appointed Nripendra Misra as chairperson of executive council of Nehru Memorial

Museum and Library (NMML), with A Surya Prakash as vice-chairperson.

9. Greece’s parliament elected Katerina Sakellaropoulou as Greece's first female president.

10. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been appointed as first female Chancellor of United Kingdom’s Queen’s

University.

11. India's Anil Khanna nominated as Life President of Asian Tennis Federation (ATF).

12. India's Bipul Bihari Saha has been elected as a bureau member of the IUPAC (International Union of

Pure and Applied Chemistry) for 2020-23. Saha is second Indian after Bharat Ratna Professor CNR Rao,

to be elected (1979) for this position in largest global organization of Chemistry professionals.

13. India's Gita Sabharwal has been appointed by United Nations as its Resident Coordinator in Thailand.


UN Resident Coordinators are highest-ranking representatives of the UN’s country-level

development system.

14. Indian Advocate Harish Salve has been appointed as Queen's Counsel (QC) for courts of England and

Wales. The title is conferred upon those who have demonstrated particular skill and expertise in the legal

field.

Mr Salve has represented India in several important matters, including Kulbhushan Jadhav case

in 2019, at International Court of Justice.

15. Indian-American Arvind Krishna is appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Global Tech Major IBM

(International Business Machine).

16. Jagat Prakash Nadda has been elected as new (11th) National President of Ruling Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP), succeeding Amit Shah.

17. Mihir Shah has been appointed as chairman of 11-member committee to draft National Water Policy

(NWP).

18. Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin is appointed as new Prime Minister of Russia, after Dmitri Medvedev

resigned as PM.

19. Misc. Appointments (Jan 2020) -

Axis Bank appointed Amit Talgeri as Chief Risk Officer.

Andhra Pradedsh government appointed Kritika Shukla and and M. Deepika as Special Officers

for implementing Andhra Pradesh Disha Act 2019. It intends for speedy trial and faster execution

in cases of sexual offences against women in state.

Govt approved re-employment of V K Yadav as Chairman of Railway Board for 1 year.

Delhi AIIMS’ Suresh Chandra Sharma has been appointed as 1st Chairman of NMC (National

Medical Commission).

Lakshmi Vilas Bank appointed S Sundar as interim Managing Director and Chief Executive

Officer (CEO).

A Sakthivel is appointed as chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council of India (AEPC) for

2020-21.

Former CRPF Director-General Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar is appointed as Advisor to Lieutenant

Governor of UT of Jammu and Kashmir (Currently G. C. Murmu). Other two Advisors are KK

Sharma and Farooq Khan.


Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLA Rabindra Nath Mahato is elected as Speaker of New Jharkhand

Legislative Assembly.

PSU Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) appointed M Nagaraj as Chairman

and Managing Director(CMD).

Arun Kumar Sahu is appointed as next High Commissioner of India to Commonwealth of

Dominica.

Indian dancer-choreographer Sandip Soparrkar has been appointed by International Business

School of Washington (IBSW) as a new Panel Member in board of Directors.

Rajya Sabha MP Chandra Pal Singh Yadav has been re-elected as Chairman of Krishak Bharati

Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO).

Girish Kumar has been re-appointed as Surveyor General of India for 1 year.

BCCI appointed Former Crickcters Madan Lal and Gautam Gambhir as members of CAC (Cricket

Advisory Commitee).

Punit Sood has been appointed as country head of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) India.

Japanese Investment Major SoftBank appointed Manoj Kohli as its India’s head.

Central Vigilance Commission appointed A.D.M. Chavali, Former Executive Director of Indian

Overseas Bank, as a member in Advisory Board for Banking & Financial Frauds.

Alok Kansal is appointed as General Manager of Western Railway (WR).

Vinay Mohan Kwatra is appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Nepal.

20. Pedro Sánchez has been re-elected as prime minister of Spain.

21. Portuguese diplomat Joao Vale de Almeida is appointed as European Union's top envoy in UK, after

UK leaves the EU bloc (Brexit).

22. RBI appointed its Executive Director Janak Raj as member of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the

highest interest rate setting body. He replaces M D Patra, who was recently elevated as Deputy Governor

of the RBI.

RBI Monetary Policy Committee has 6 Members - 3 RBI officials and 3 external members

nominated by Government. Nominated Members serve term of 4 years.

M D Patra will still remain, MPC Member, now as Deputy Governor of RBI.

Currnet RBI MPC Members -

RBI Officials -

Governor of RBI as Chairperson - Shaktikanta Das


Michael Debrata Patra (Deputy Governor of RBI)

Janak Raj (Executive director of RBI)

Nominated -

Chetan Ghate - Professor Indian Statistical Institute

Pami Dua - Director, Delhi School of Economics

Ravindra H. Dholakia - Professor, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

23. Satinder Kumar Saini has been appointed as new Vice Chief of Indian Army.

24. Supreme Court appointed A M Sapre as chairman of its committee on road safety.

25. Taranjit Sandhu is appointed as India’s New ambassador to United States (US).

26. Umaro Cissoko Embalo won presidential elections in Guinea-Bissau (West Africa).

27. World Archery appointed Kazi Rajib Uddin Ahmed Chapol as observer for elections of Archery

Association of India (AAI), to be held in January 2020. Observer will submit report on his observations

and based on report, World Archery will consider 'conditional lifting' of suspension on Indian Archery

Federation, which was put in July 2019.

28. Yuvraj Malik has been appointed as Director of National Book Trust (NBT).

Awards

29. 17th edition of Crossword Book Awards Winners -

Category Winners

Fiction Twinkle Khanna for ‘Pyjamas Are Forgiving’.

Non Fiction Gaur Gopal Das for ‘Life’s Amazing Secrets’.

Health & Fitness Dr Jaishree Sharad for ‘Skin Rules’.

Children’s books Sudha Murty for ‘The Upside Down King’.

Biography Krishna Trilok for ‘Notes of a Dream: The Authorized Biography of A.R. Rahman’.

Business & Management Anju Sharma for ‘Corporate Monk’.


30. 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (US) Winners –

Category Award Winner

Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries Sam Rockwell, (Fosse/Verdon)

Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries Michelle Williams, (Fosse/Verdon)

Male Actor in a Drama Series Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones)

Female Actor in a Drama Series Jennifer Aniston (The Morning

Show)

Male Actor in a Comedy Series Tony Shalhoub (The Marvelous Mrs

Maisel)

Female Actor in a Comedy Series Phoebe Waller-Bridg (Fleabag)

Male Actor in a Leading Role Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Female Actor in a Leading Role Renee Zellweger (Judy)

Male Actor in a Supporting Role Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time…in

Hollywood)

Female Actor in a Supporting Role Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

31. 62nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony -

Grammy Awards (originally called Gramophone Award) are presented by US Based The Recording

Academy to recognize achievements in music industry. Notable Winners in 2020 Edition -


Category Winner

Album of the Year When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do

We Go?

Record of the Year Bad Guy – Billie Eilish

Song of The Year Bad Guy – Billie Eilish

Best New Artist Billie Eilish

Albums

R&B Ventura – Anderson Paak

Rap Igor – Tyler, the Creator

Country While I'm Livin' – Tanya Tucker

Rock Social Cues – Cage the Elephant

Dance/Electronic No Geography – The Chemical Brothers

Folk Patty Griffin

Pop When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We

Go? – Billie Eilish

New age Wings – Peter Kater

Jazz 12 Little Spells – Esperanza Spalding

World music Celia – Angélique Kidjo

Children's Ageless: Songs for the Child Archetype –

Jon Samson

Historical Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Folkways

Collection

Others

Producer of the Year Finneas (Non-Classical), Blanton

Alspaugh (Classical)

Best Music Video "Old Town Road" (Official Movie) – Lil

Nas X & Billy Ray Cyru

Best Music Film Homecoming – Beyoncé


32. 77th Golden Globe Awards (Hosted in California (US)) -

Best Motion Picture - 1917 (Drama), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Musical or Comedy)

Best Performance in a Motion Picture (Drama) -

Actor - Joaquin Phoenix for Joker

Actress - Renée Zellweger for Judy

Best Performance in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) -

Actor - Taron Egerton for Rocketman

Actress - Awkwafina for The Farewell

Best Supporting Performance in a Motion Picture -

Supporting Actor - Brad Pitt for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Supporting Actress - Laura Dern for Marriage Story

Best Director - Sam Mendes for 1917

Best Foreign Language Film - Parasite (South Korea)

Best Animated Feature Film - Missing Link

Best Television Series -

Drama - Succession

Musical or Comedy - Fleabag

33. HealthSetGo Founder Priya Prakash won Global citizen prize - Cisco Youth Leadership award for

2019, for her school health program that provides healthcare support to children. It honours individuals

aged 18-30 years who solve some global challenges. It includes Cash prize of $250,000.

34. Agricultural Scientist M S Swaminathan and social worker Gutta Muniratnam are chosen as first

recipients of ‘Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu National Award for Excellence’ and ‘Muppavarapu National

Award for Social Service’’.


National Award for Excellence was instituted by Muppavarapu Foundation, while one for Social

Service was launched by Swarna Bharat Trust. Each award carries a cash prize of Rupees Five

Lakh and citation.

35. Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has been conferred with Australia's highest civilian honour, the

Order of Australia honour, for her significant service to advancing Australia's bilateral relationship with

India.

36. Chairman of The Hindu Group, N. Ram has been selected as outstanding media person in a national

award instituted by Kerala Media Academy, carrying a cash prize of INR 1 lakh.

37. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh conferred awards related to Republic Day 2020 Parade -

Among States /UTs - Assam Tableau was adjudged best, based on the theme 'Land of Unique

Craftsmanship and Culture'. Tableaux of Odisha and Uttar Pradesh were named joint second

best.

Among different ministries/departments - Ministry of Jal Shakti and National Disaster

Response Force (NDRF) won joint best Tableaux award. Ministry of Jal Shakti tableau had

showcased Government's new initiative 'Jal Jeevan Mission'.

Tableau of Central Public Works Department (CPWD), with theme 'Kashmir se Kanyakumari',

won special prize.

CISF declared as 'best marching contingent' amongst CAPFs and other auxiliary squads.

38. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese has been honored by 31st Palm Springs International Film Festival as

recipient of Sonny Bono Visionary Award for film ‘The Irishman’, in California (US).

39. Former British film actress of Indo-British descent, Sanjna Kapoor has been awarded French honour of

‘Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) for her

outstanding contribution to the field of theater.

40. Indian Women's Hockey Captain Rani Rampal became first hockey player in world to win the

prestigious ‘World Games Athlete of the Year’ Award, based on public votes.

41. Indian Writer Jasbinder Bilan won UK based Costa Children’s Award 2019, for her debut novel ‘Asha

and the Spirit Bird’. It Includes 5,000 pounds as prize money. Costa Children’s Award is awarded

annually in 5 categories - First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book.

42. Indian environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev has ben awarded 2020 Tyler Prize, jointly with

biologist Gretchen C Daily.


Pavan Sukhdev was honoured for his outstanding work in sphere of the green economy.

Sukhdev was head and special adviser of UNEP’s 'Green Economy Initiative'.

Tyler prize is one of the first international premier environmental awards, often described as the

‘Nobel Prize for Environment’. It was constituted in 1973 by the late John and Alice Tyler.

43. Indian singer Suman Kalyanpur has been chosen for 2017 National Lata Mangeshkar Award of state

govt. of Madhya Pradesh, and composer Kuldeep Singh chosen for same award for 2018. The award

carries a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh.

44. Industrial Awards (Jan 2020) -

Piyush Jaiswal has been awarded Global B`ihar Excellence Award 2019, for his work in

promoting women empowerment.

Ministry of Science and Technology have awarded Swarna Jayanti Fellowships to 14 scientists to

pursue basic research in frontier areas of science and technology. The fellowship includes a

fellowship of 25 thousand rupees per month and research grant of five lakh rupees for five years

is also being provided in addition to salary.

HDFC Bank hass been adjudged best in 'Innovation and Inclusiveness in Priority Sector

Lending' category at '11th Inclusive Finance India Awards' in '16th Inclusive Finance Summit' in

New Delhi.

Award of Excellence for 2019 given by Computer Society of India (CSI) and Special Interest

Group on e-Governance (CSI SIG e-Gov) to 2 applications developed by Election Commission of

India - cVIGIL’ and ‘Voter Helpline App’, in Bhubaneswar (Odisha).

Using cVIGIL (Vigilant Citizen), citizens can report Violations during elections. Every

cVIGIL case is replied back with action taken in 100-minute timeline after evidentiary

proof of violation.

Gujarat topped SKOCH State of Governance 2019 ranking, replacing West Bengal. Top 5 are

Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren conferred with the "Champion of Change Award-2019" for his

work in the Barhait and Dumka assembly constituencies in state, by Former president Pranab

Mukherjee.

Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, N Kumar honoured with Harit Ratna

Award 2019 by All India Agricultural Students Association (AIASA).


Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee has been conferred honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)

by Calcutta University.

Indian Ayurvedic Telemedicine Pioneer Partap Chauhan Conferred with Ayurveda Ratan Award

2020 in Brussels (Belgium), during 2nd Ayurveda Day Celebration at European Parliament. In

November 2018, Ayurveda Day was 1st celebrated at European Parliament.

45. Kerala Govt announced sports awards 2020 -

Sprinter Muhammad Anas won GV Raja award (Male) for athletics. In female category, PC

Thulasi adjudged winner.

TP Ouseph, athletics coach will be conferred with Olympian Suresh Babu lifetime achievement

award.

Award for best sports trainer won by football coach Satheevan Balan.

46. Kerala Tourism's Barrier-Free Tourism Project won global mention with United Nations World

Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), as an ‘Emerging Global Destination’ in Accessible Destination Awards

2019.

In 2019, Kerala announced to make entire state, especially tourist destinations, disabled-

friendly by 2021.

Kerala has also been the first state to work as per the guidelines of UNWTO to make tourist

destinations disabled-friendly.

47. Noted Sindhi writer Vasdev Mohi will be conferred with 29th Saraswati Samman, for his short stories

collection - Chequebook. Saraswati Samman carries cash award of 15 lakh rupees. Mr Mohi has authored

25 books of poetry, stories and translations, and also has received Sahitya Akademi Award.

48. Padma Awards 2020 Announced -

This year, President approved conferment of 141 Padma Awards -

It includes 4 duo cases (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one)

List comprises 7 Padma Vibhushan, 16 Padma Bhushan and 118 Padma Shri Awards.

33 awardees are women, 18 are persons from category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 12

Posthumous awardees.

Padma Vibhushan (7) –


SN Name Field State/Country

1. George Fernandes

(Posthumous)

Public Affairs Bihar

2. Arun Jaitley

(Posthumous)

Public Affairs Delhi

3. Sir Anerood Jugnauth Public Affairs Mauritius

4. M. C. Mary Kom Sports (Boxing) Manipur

5. Chhannulal Mishra Art Uttar Pradesh

6. Sushma Swaraj

(Posthumous)

Public Affairs Delhi

7.

Sri Vishveshateertha

Swamiji Sri

Pejavara Adhokhaja Matha

Udupi (Posthumous)

Others-

Spiritualism Karnataka

Padma Bhushan (16) -


8. M. Mumtaz Ali (Sri M) Others-

Spiritualism

Kerala

9. Syed Muazzem Ali

(Posthumous)

Public

Affairs

Bangladesh

10.

Muzaffar Hussain Baig Public

Affairs Jammu and

Kashmir

11. Ajoy Chakravorty Art West Bengal

12. Manoj Das

Literature

and

Puducherry


Education

13. Balkrishna Doshi Others-

Architecture

Gujarat

14. Krishnammal

Jagannathan

Social Work Tamil Nadu

15. S. C. Jamir Public

Affairs

Nagaland

16. Anil Prakash Joshi Social Work Uttarakhand

17. Dr. Tsering Landol Medicine Ladakh

18. Anand Mahindra Trade and

Industry

Maharashtra

19. Neelakanta

Ramakrishna

Madhava Menon

(Posthumous)

Public

Affairs

Kerala

20. Manohar

Parrikar (Posthumous)

Public

Affairs

Goa

21. Prof. Jagdish Sheth

Literature

and

Education

USA

22. P. V. Sindhu Sports

(Badminton)

Telangana

23. Venu Srinivasan Trade and Tamil Nadu


Industry

Padma Shri (118) -


24. Guru Shashadhar Acharya Art Jharkhand

25. Dr. Yogi Aeron Medicine Uttarakhand

26. Jai Prakash Agarwal Trade and Industry Delhi

27. Jagdish Lal Ahuja Social Work Punjab

28. Kazi Masum Akhtar Literature and

Education

West Bengal

29. Ms. Gloria Arieira Literature and

Education

Brazil

30. Zaheer khan Sports (Cricket) Maharashtra

31. Dr. Padmavathy Bandopadhyay Medicine Uttar Pradesh

32. Dr. Sushovan Banerjee Medicine West Bengal

33. Dr. Digambar Behera Medicine Chandigarh

34. Dr. Damayanti Beshra Literature and

Education

Odisha

35. Pawar Popatrao Bhaguji Social Work Maharashtra


36. Himmata Ram Bhambhu Social Work Rajasthan

37. Sanjeev Bikhchandani Trade and Industry Uttar Pradesh

38. Gafurbhai M. Bilakhia Trade and Industry Gujarat

39. Bob Blackman Public Affairs United Kingdom

40. Indira P. P. Bora Art Assam

41. Madan Singh Chauhan Art Chhattisgarh

42. Usha Chaumar Social Work Rajasthan

43. Lil Bahadur Chettri Literature and

Education

Assam

44. Lalitha & Ms. Saroja

Chidambaram (Duo)*

Art Tamil Nadu

45. Dr. Vajira Chitrasena Art Sri Lanka

46. Dr. Purushottam Dadheech Art Madhya Pradesh

47. Utsav Charan Das Art Odisha

48. Prof. Indra Dassanayake

(Posthumous)

Literature and

Education

Sri Lanka

49. H. M. Desai Literature and

Education

Gujarat

50. Manohar Devadoss Art Tamil Nadu


51. Oinam Bembem Devi Sports (Football) Manipur

52. Lia Diskin Social Work Brazil

53. M. P. Ganesh Sports (Hockey) Karnataka

54. Dr. Bangalore Gangadhar Medicine Karnataka

55. Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar Science and

Engineering

Maharashtra

56. Barry Gardiner Public Affairs United Kingdom

57. Chewang Motup Goba Trade and Industry Ladakh

58. Bharat Goenka Trade and Industry Karnataka

59. Yadla Gopalarao Art Andhra Pradesh

60. Mitrabhanu Gountia Art Odisha

61. Tulasi Gowda Social Work Karnataka

62. Sujoy K. Guha Science and

Engineering

Bihar

63. Harekala Hajabba Social Work Karnataka

64. Enamul Haque Others-Archaeology Bangladesh

65. Madhu Mansuri Hasmukh Art Jharkhand

66. Abdul Jabbar Social Work Madhya Pradesh


(Posthumous)

67. Bimal Kumar Jain Social Work Bihar

68. Meenakshi Jain Literature and

Education

Delhi

69. Nemnath Jain Trade and Industry Madhya Pradesh

70. Shanti Jain Art Bihar

71. Sudhir Jain Science and

Engineering

Gujarat

72. Benichandra Jamatia Literature and

Education

Tripura

73. K. V. Sampath Kumar & Ms.

Vidushi Jayalakshmi K.S.

(Duo)*

Literature and

Education-

Journalism

Karnataka

74. Karan Johar Art Maharashtra

75. Dr. Leela Joshi Medicine Madhya Pradesh

76. Sarita Joshi Art Maharashtra

77. C. Kamlova Literature and

Education

Mizoram

78. Dr. Ravi Kannan R. Medicine Assam

79. Ekta Kapoor Art Maharashtra


80. Yazdi Naoshirwan Karanjia Art Gujarat

81. Narayan J. Joshi Karayal Literature and

Education

Gujarat

82. Dr. Narindar Nath Khanna Medicine Uttar Pradesh

83. Naveen Khanna Science and

Engineering

Delhi

84. S. P. Kothari Literature and

Education

USA

85. V. K. Munusamy

Krishnapakthar

Art Puducherry

86. M. K. Kunjol Social Work Kerala

87. Manmohan Mahapatra

(Posthumous)

Art Odisha

88. Ustad Anwar Khan Mangniyar Art Rajasthan

89. Kattungal Subramaniam

Manilal

Science and

Engineering

Kerala

90. Munna Master Art Rajasthan

91. Prof. Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra Literature and

Education

Himachal Pradesh

92. Binapani Mohanty Literature and

Education

Odisha


93. Dr. Arunoday Mondal Medicine West Bengal

94. Dr. Prithwindra Mukherjee Literature and

Education

France

95. Sathyanarayan Mundayoor Social Work Arunachal Pradesh

96. Manilal Nag Art West Bengal

97. N. Chandrasekharan Nair Literature and

Education

Kerala

98. Dr. Tetsu Nakamura

(Posthumous)

Social Work Afghanistan

99. Shiv Datt Nirmohi Literature and

Education Jammu and

Kashmir

100. Pu Lalbiakthanga Pachuau

Literature and

Education-

Journalism

Mizoram

101. Moozhikkal Pankajakshi Art Kerala

102. Dr. Prasanta Kumar Pattanaik Literature and

Education

USA

103. Jogendra Nath Phukan Literature and

Education

Assam

104. Rahibai Soma Popere Others-Agriculture Maharashtra

105. Yogesh Praveen Literature and

Education

Uttar Pradesh


106. Jitu Rai Sports (Shooting) Uttar Pradesh

107. Tarundeep Rai Sports (Archery) Sikkim

108. S. Ramakrishnan Social Work Tamil Nadu

109. Rani Rampal Sports (Hockey) Haryana

110. Kangana Ranaut Art Maharashtra

111. Dalavai Chalapathi Rao Art Andhra Pradesh

112. Shahbuddin Rathod Literature and

Education

Gujarat

113. Kalyan Singh Rawat Social Work Uttarakhand

114. Chintala Venkat Reddy Others-Agriculture Telangana

115. Dr. Shanti Roy Medicine Bihar

116. Radhammohan & Ms.

Sabarmatee (Duo)*

Others-Agriculture Odisha

117. Batakrushna Sahoo

Others-Animal

Husbandry

Odisha

118. Trinity Saioo Others-Agriculture Meghalaya

119. Adnan Sami Art Maharashtra

120. Vijay Sankeshwar Trade and Industry Karnataka


121. Dr. Kushal Konwar Sarma Medicine Assam

122. Sayed Mehboob Shah Qadri

alias Sayedbhai

Social Work Maharashtra

123. Mohammed Sharif Social Work Uttar Pradesh

124. Shyam Sunder Sharma Art Bihar

125. Dr. Gurdip Singh Medicine Gujarat

126. Ramjee Singh Social Work Bihar

127. Vashishtha Narayan Singh

(Posthumous)

Science and

Engineering

Bihar

128. Daya Prakash Sinha Art Uttar Pradesh

129. Dr. Sandra Desa Souza Medicine Maharashtra

130. Vijayasarathi Sribhashyam Literature and

Education

Telangana

131. Kalee Shabi Mahaboob & Sheik

Mahaboob Subani

(Duo)*

Art Tamil Nadu

132. Javed Ahmad Tak Social Work

Jammu and

Kashmir

133. Pradeep Thalappil Science and

Engineering

Tamil Nadu

134. Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi Literature and Arunachal Pradesh


Education

135. Robert Thurman Literature and

Education

USA

136. Agus Indra Udayana Social Work Indonesia

137. Harish Chandra Verma Science and

Engineering

Uttar Pradesh

138. Sundaram Verma Social Work Rajasthan

139. Dr. Romesh Tekchand

Wadhwani

Trade and Industry USA

140. Suresh Wadkar Art Maharashtra

141. Prem Watsa Trade and Industry Canada

49. Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has been awarded by 11th Dubai Globe Soccer Awards 2019 as

best men’s player of year. England's Lucy Bronze was awarded the best women’s player of the year.

50. Prince William Arthur Philip Louis (Duke of Cambridge) announced Earthshot Prize, to honor

visionaries working to solve environmental problems, from climate change to air pollution. Earthshot

Prize will be awarded to five winners, every year, for the next 10 years. Prize is initially handled by Royal

Foundation of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, headed by Prince William and Kate Middleton.

51. Srinagar Journalist Yusuf Jameel selected for 2019-2020 PEN Gauri Lankesh Award for Democratic

Idealism.

Award is in name of Gauri Lankesh, the editor-activist murdered in 2017. It carries a purse of 1

lakh.

52. Tech Firm Merck announced winners of first Merck Young Scientist Award, recognizing contributions

of young Indian scientists in innovative research. Winners -

Debojyoti Chakraborty (Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology Delhi)


Dipyaman Ganguly (CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology Kolkata)

Siddhesh S Kamat (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune

Mahendran K .R (Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology Thiruvananthapuram)

Sakya S. Sen (CSIR - National Chemical Laboratory Pune)

Basker Sundararaju (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur)

About -

Winners receive INR 200000 & Travel Award of INR 150000 each and runners receive

INR 100000.

Merck Young Scientist Award is presented to a Researcher or Scientist with less than 10

years of research experience (post PhD).

Books

53. Autobiography of Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha titled ‘Relentless’ has been released.

54. Book Essays & Reminiscences: A Festschrift in Honour of Nani A Palkhivala, released to mark birth

centenary of Indian Jurist and Economist Nanaboy Nani Ardeshir Palkhivala.

55. Book Human Dignity – A purpose in perpetuity, authored by Ashwani Kumar (Former Minister of

Law and Justice) has been released.

56. Book The Gateway: A Social Commentary on Safety of Senior Citizens, authored by Hariharan

Balagopal has been released.

57. Book The Story of Yoga: From India to the Contemporary World, written by Scottish cultural

historian Alistair Shearer has been released.

58. Book comprising selected writings by former finance minister Arun Jaitley, namely “New

India:Selected Writings 2014-19” has been released.

59. Book titled PAX SINICA:Implications for the Indian Dawn, authored by Samir Saran and Akhil Deo

has bee releaed. It presents a comprehensive view of how China will implicate the world order in 21st

century.

60. Book “Calcutta nights” (originally ‘Raater Kolkata’) translated into English by Rajat Chaudhuri has

been released.

61. Former Indian Cricketer WV Raman’s book The Winning Sixer has been released.


62. Home Minister Amit Shah released book 'Karmyodha Granth', written on life of PM Narendra Modi.

63. Malayali novelist A Sethumadhavan’s first novel in English, titled ‘The Cuckoo’s Nest’, has been

published.

Committees

64. Committee constituted for transforming Indian Academy of Highway Engineers (IAHE) into a world

class premier institute on highway sector, submitted its report. It was headed by YS Malik. It stated

urgent need for enhancement of knowledge and expertise of engineers to maintain massive road network

of India in efficient, environment friendly and safe manner.

65. Government formed a 7-member group of ministers (GoM) headed by Defense Minister Rajnath

Singh to review crop insurance scheme (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)), and make

suggestions to improve it.

66. Govt formed a 11-member panel including mines secretaries from various states, to examine issues

pertaining to the revision of rates of royalty for minerals. It will be headed by Mines Additional Secretary

(K. Rajeswara Rao currently).

67. Group of Ministers (GoM) chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah has approved Expressions of Interest

(EOI) and Share Purchase Agreement for privatization of Air India. GoM also approved a Voluntary

Retirement Scheme (VRS) & also a debt restructuring plan for Air India.

68. Home minister Amit Shah will head Group of Ministers (GOM) to discuss and examine the

proposed National Tariff Policy 2016. The policy, if implemented, will bring a major reform in stressed

power sector. It is being opposed by state govts and discoms (Distribution Companies) due to clauses like

penalties for load shedding.

69. Supreme Court has set up a panel to firm up a draft legislation to give legal sanctity to disputes settled

through mediation, which would then be sent to government as a suggestion from Supreme court. Panel

will be headed by mediator Niranjan Bhat.


Days

70. Jan 24 is observed as National Girl Child Day in India, initiated in 2008.

Women and Child Development announced an initiative called “Establishment of Chairs in the

Universities in the name of eminent women” which encourages women to carry out research

activities. 10 chairs will be set up by UGC for five years.

Each chair will be given Rs 50 lakh each for a year.

71. Jan 10 is observed as World Hindi day, being celebrated world wide since 2006. The language is

spoken by ovrer 43 core people globally.

Note that National Hindi Day is different from World Hindi Day. It is celebrated on September

14 every year.

September 14 was selected as National Hindi Day as it was the birth date of Beohar Rajendra

Simha, an Indian schola.

72. Jan 15 is observed as Indian Army Day.

On January 15 in 1949, first General of Indian Army General K M Cariappa took charge from

last British General Bucher.

General Cariappa retired on January 14, 1953. His retirement day is being celebrated as Armed

Forces Veterans Day every year since 2017.

Also, Tania Sher Gill became first woman Army Officer to lead the parade.

73. Jan 21 is statehood day of Northeastern States of Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya (Formed in 1972).

74. Jan 23 is Birth Anniversary of Great Freedom Fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose (Born 1897).

On this occasion, to commemorate Netaji’s birth anniversary, Govt inaugurated a temple at

Varanasi in name of the leader with a Dalit woman as a chief priest. The prayers are to be

performed to Bharat Mata at the temple.

Govt also announced winners of Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar 2020 -

Disaster Mitigation & Management Centre, Uttarakhand (in institution category) and

Kumar Munnan Singh (Individual category) have been selected for for their

commendable work in Disaster Management.

Winner institution receives cash prize of 51 lakhs and Winner individual receives cash

prize of 5 lakhs.


In 2019, 8th Battalion of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Ghaziabad was

selected for the award.

75. Jan 24 is observed globally as International Day of Education, with 2020 theme ‘Learning for people,

planet, prosperity and peace’. It was celebrated for first time in 2019.

76. Jan 25 is observed as National Voters’ Day in India. 2020 Theme is ‘Electoral Literacy for Stronger

Democracy’. It is being observed since 2011, to mark Foundation day of Election Commission of India,

which was established on 25th January 1950.

On this occasion, Election Commission awarded National Media Award for print to The Hindu

Tamil, for its voter awareness and education campaign in 2019.

Election Commission also instituted an Annual Lecture Series as a tribute to the first Chief

Election Commissioner of India, Sukumar Sen.

Jan 25 is also statehood day of Himachal Pradesh, formed in 1971.

Jan 25 is also observed as National Tourism Day in India. World Tourism day is observed on

Sep 27.

77. Jan 26 - International Customs Day.

Jan 26, 2020 is also observed as World Leprosy Day, observed on Last sunday of January.

78. Jan 26, 2020 is observed as 71st Republic Day of India. It marks enactment of Indian constitution on

Jan 26, 1950.

Brazil’s President Jair Messias Bolsonaro was Chief Guest at 71st Republic Day Parade. This is

the third time that a Brazilian President was chief guest at Republic Day. Last time a Brazilian

President was chief guest was in 2004 when Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attended.

54 Persons honored by Jeevan Raksha Padak Awards 2019.

Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2020 conferred to 49 children under various categories

(age group 5-18 years).

22 Children named as winners of National Bravery Awards.

104 Fire Service Medals and 49 Home Guard & Civil Defence Medals have been announced.

President approved 440 Gallantry and other Defence decorations to Armed Forces personnel

(Army - 312, Navy - 41, Air Force - 87).

No Ashoka Chakra and Kirti Chakra Awardees This year.

6 Shaurya Chakras have been conferred - Lt Col Jyoti Lama, Maj Konjengbam Bijendra

Singh, Nb Sub Narender Singh, Nb Sub Sombir, Nk Naresh Kumar, Sep Karmdeo Oraon.


India's Top Peacetime Gallantary Awards are - Ashoka Chakra > Kirti Chakra > Shaurya

Chakra.

India's Top Wartime Gallantary Awards are - Param Vir Chakra > Maha Vir Chakra > Vir

Chakra.

Parade Highlights -

DRDO displayed A-SAT weapon system, the Anti-Satellite Weapon System. India is one of

the few countries in the world to own the technology. The other countries include US,

China and Russia. DRDO launched “Mission Shakti”, the first A-SAT mission.

Army Captain Tanya Shergil led an all-male marching contingent of the Indian Army

Corps of Signals, as a first such event.

Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) showcased tableau on

Start Up India at Republic Day Parade, with Theme Reach for the sky. This is first time

Start Up India is participating at Parade.

79. Jan 28 is Birth Anniversary of Noted Freedom Activist Lala Lajpat Rai, also known as “Punjab Kesari”

and “Lion of Punjab”.

80. Jan 30 is Death Anniversary of M K Gandhi, known as Martyr's Day.

81. Jan 30, 2020 is observed as First Ever World Neglected Tropical Diseases day.

82. Jan 4 is observed as World Braille Day. It marks birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the inventor of

Braille, a written language for blind people.

83. Jan 6 is observed as Journalists’ Day in Maharashtra, in memory of Noted journalist Balshastri

Jambhekar, who is also known as ‘The Father of Marathi Journalism’.

84. Jan 9 is observed as Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, established in 2003. It marks contribution of overseas

Indian community in development of India. It also commemorates return of M K Gandhi from South

Africa to India on 9 January 1915.

85. January 12 is observed as National youth Day in india, to commemorate birth anniversary of Legendary

Philiosopher Swami Vivekananda.

Govt will also organize National Youth Festival between January 12 - 16, 2020 in Lucknow,

Uttar Pradesh, being organized since 1995.

National Youth day is being celebrated since 1985.

Indian Embassy in Kathmandu(Nepal) launched 4 books including Nepali translation of Swami

Vivekananda’s ‘Karma Yoga‘ (Publisher -Advaita Ashrama).


86. National Immunization Day observed across India as part of Pulse Polio Programme 2020, with over 17

crore children under 5 years age were administered polio drops.

India has eradicated polio completely in 2012. In order to sustain the eradication, govt organizes

Pulse Polio immunization campaigns on the standards set by World Health Organization

(WHO).

Next round of National Immunization Day is to be held in March 10.

According to WHO, NID has to be conducted twice a year at a gap of 2 to 4 weeks.

Defence

87. 19th edition of India - Japan Annual Joint Coast guard Exercise ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’ began in Chennai

(Tamil Nadu).

88. 2 Indian Coast Guard Ships (ICGS) namely Annie Besant and Amrit Kaur have been commissioned into

service, as second and third in series of five Fast Patrol Vessels (FPVs).

89. AN-32 aircraft of Indian Air Force powered with 10% blend of bio-jet fuel took off and landed

successfully at Leh airport. This is the first time that bot engines of an aircraft are powered with bio-jet

fuel.

90. Assam Rifles constructed war memorial in Nagaland, in memory of 357 personnel who sacrificed their

lives fighting against insurgency in Nagaland. It is first of its kind in the state. It is tiled Veer Smriti.

91. Defence Acquisition Council approved Procurement of defence equipment worth 5100 crores, to be

purchased from indigenous sources. Council also approved the inclusion of iDEX (Innovations Defence

Exellence) in Defence Procurement Procedure.

iDEX was launched in April 2018 to foster technology development in Defence and Aerospace.

92. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh flagged off 51st unit of K-9 Vraj-T cannon, at Hazira (Surat). Ministry

of Defence had signed an agreement of Rs 4500 crore with L&T company in 2017 to supply 100 units of

K9 Vajra-T 155mm/52 caliber guns to Indian Army.

93. India and Oman Navies will hold joint exercise Naseem-Al-Bahr (Means Sea Breeze), being conducted

since 1993.

Also, Al Najah (Means Success) is name of Joint army exercise conducted between India -

Oman. Ex Eastern Bridge is joint Air Force exercise.


94. India conducted successful underwater firing of K4 nuclear capable misile, with 3,500 km range. It is

meant for Arihant-class submarines, the first indigenously manufactured nuclear submarine.

India operates Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile K-15, with range 750 km.

Other under water missile being developed by India is BO-5, with range 700-km.

K-series missiles are named after former president APJ Abdul Kalam. They are much faster than

Agni missiles.

K 15 Missiles are also called Sagarika missiles, as a replica to land-based Shaurya missiles.

95. India deployed INS Vikramaditya in North Arabian Sea where China and Pakistan are holding a naval

drill in North Arabian Sea called Sea Guardians.

Earlier In September 2019, Indian Navy drove out a Chinese PLA in India’s Exclusive Economic

Zone and warned that such activities will be dealt sternly.

96. India will erect non-cut steel fence in sensitive areas of Pakistan and Bangladesh borders, after security

agencies detected Afghan fighters along India-Pakistan border.

First steel fence is to be erected across 7-km stretch in Assam’s Silchar, the border across

Bangladesh. After erection, the border is to be analysed by Border Security Force. Apart from

steel fences, there are plans to implement LASER fences across the two borders.

97. Indian Air Force formally inducted light utility aircraft Flight Inspection System (FIS) Dornier 228 into

the No. 41 ‘Otters’ Squadron. Contract was signed by Indian Air Force for purchasing 14 Dornier aircraft

in 2015, which are flight inspection system planes, for Rs 1,090 Crore from Hindustan Aeronautics

Limited (HAL).

98. Indian Air Force inducted its first squadron of Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft which are capable of carrying

BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, called 222 'Tigersharks' fighter squadron, at thanjavur airbase. New

squadron is armed with 2.5-ton air-launched BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile which is capable of

striking targets at a distance of over 300 KM with pinpoint precision.

99. Indian Army conducted its biggest airborne exercise called the Winged Raider, comprising over 500

special forces troops in North-Eastern theatre.

100. Indian Army will induct 1st batch of 18 indigenously upgraded ‘Sharang’ artillery guns by end of

March 2020. Artillery gun barrel upgraded from 130mm to 155mm has a strike range of 39 kilometers.

101. Indian Army will sign MoU with Russia to procure AK-203 assault rifles. Under this, around 1 lakh

rifles are to be received directly from Russia and 6.5 lakh will be manufactured in India. Rifles will be


manufactured at Korwa in Uttar Pradesh by a joint Venture (JV) called Indo-Russian Rifles Private

Limited (IRRPL). Of the JV, 50.5% is to be owned by India and 49.5% by Russia.

102. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) commissioned high-speed interceptor boat C-448, built by L&T (Larsen &

Toubro) shipyard.

103. Indian Navy launched Operation Vanilla in Southern Indian Ocean, after request received from

Madagascar, which is affected by Cyclone Diane.

104. India’s first Chief of the Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat has proposed creation of an integrated Air

Defence Command to boost the security of India’s skies. He has proposed June 30 as the deadline to

submit proposal for same. He also suggested setting up of common 'logistics support pools' to enable

jointness and synergy in tri-services.

105. India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant will be commissioned in early 2021. Vikrant is

currently under phase three of construction, by Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL).

106. Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas successfully landed on INS Vikramaditya, becoming the first

indogenously made aircraft to make an arrested landing on a naval ship. Other countries with this

capability are US, China, UK, Russia and France.

107. Russia announced that production of S-400 air defence missile system for India has begun, which are

to be delivered by 2025. Also, foreign Ministerial meet of Russia, India and China will be held in March

2020. S500 is a surface to missile defence system with a range of 600 km.

Economy

108. 2 Indian private sector Banks Axis Bank and ICICI Bank will close their operations in Sri Lanka, after

Central Bank of Sri Lanka permitted to do so.

109. AI Powered National Stock Exchange (NSE) knowledge Hub inaugurated in New Delhi, to assist

insurance, banking and financial services. Learning modules in the hub will help in understanding the

stock exchange and its functioning better.

110. According to an RBI Report, current account deficit (CAD) decreased to 0.9 % of gross domestic

product (GDP) or $6.3 billion in July-September 2019 quarter due to economic slowdown that helped

country improve its export and import balance sheet.


It was 2.9 % of GDP or $19 billion in corresponding quarter of 2018-19. Reduction in CAD is

primarily due to low trade deficit of $ 38.1 billion as against the trade deficit at a high of $ 50

billion in 2018.

In first half of FY 20, CAD was 1.5 % of GDP ($ 84.3 billion), compared to 2.6 % ($ 95.8 billion)

in first half of last (2018-19).

111. Adani Capital acquired Essel Finance’s MSME loan business. Through the acquisition, Adani Capital

secured a loan book of around 145 crores, operating out of 10 cities wit 1100 customers.

112. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) will buy 75% stake in Krishnapatnam Port Co.

Ltd (KPCL) at an enterprise value of 13500 crores. Krishnapatnam Port is located in southern Andhra

Pradesh and is a multi-cargo facility.

113. As a First, HDFC Bank launched myApps, a suite of white-label apps that will enable urban local

bodies including Smart cities and municipalities, housing societies, clubs or gymkhanas and religious

institutions to completely digitise their ecosystem. Bank will offer a customised app as a value-added

service in addition to its complete suite of banking products.

114. As per National Statistical Office under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Retail

inflation rose to a 5-year high of 7.35% in December 2019. Earlier, in July 2014, it was 7.39 %.

Retail inflation has crossed the upper limit set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is 2-

6%.

Retail inflation is increase in the price of goods sold at retail market, measured by consumer

price index (CPI).

115. As per data by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Foreign Direct

Investment (FDI) in India rose 15% to $26 billion in first half of FY2020. Singapore was largest source of

FDI in India during the period, with $8 billion investments.

Singapore was followed by Mauritius ($6.36 billion), US ($2.15 billion), Netherlands ($2.32

billion), Japan ($1.78 billion).

116. CSO (Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme implementation) released first

advance estimates of GDP numbers for FY 2019-20 -

GDP growth is estimated at 5% for 2019-20 as against 6.8% in 2018-19, decelerating due to

decline in the growth of manufacturing sector.

Manufacturing sector grew at 2% in 2019-20, compared to 6.9% in 2018-19.


Core and industrial sectors showed 11-year drop in GDP growth. 8 core industries in India

include crude oil, electricity, refineries, coal, cement, natural gas, electricity and fertilizers.

Estimates are based on growth in first two quarters.

117. Competition Commission of India (CCI) released its report on “Market Study on E-Commerce in India.

According to report -

Number of internet users has increased from 45 crores in 2017 to 66 crore in 2019. This is

primary reason for the fast growth of E-Commerce sector. Revenue from the E-Commerce sector

is growing at the rate of 51%.

In July 2018, number of online transactions in E-Commerce sector was 1 to 1.2 million per day.

E-Commerce Sector was established in 2009. There are around 5000 E-commerce start-ups as

of now.

118. Department of Telecom (DoT) approved raising of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bharti Airtel to

100 % from 49 % allowed earlier.

119. Drone Federation of India collaborated with Tata AIG General Insurance Company, for development

and launch of tailor-made insurance products for drone operators.

120. Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) extended USD 35.80 million line of credit to Suriname, to

fund country's rural electrification programme. With this, Exim Bank has in place 258 LOCs covering 64

countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and CIS, with credit commitments of around USD 25.48 billion

from India.

121. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman released report of task force on National Infrastructure on

Pipeline (NIP) 2019-2025. The task force was headed by Atanu Chakraborty (Secretary in Department of

Economic Affairs).

Report says that between 2020 and 2025, Govt has plans to invest 102 lakh crores rupees by

2025 and make India a 5 trillion-dollar economy. Out of expected expenditure of 102 lakh

crores, projects worth Rs 42.7 lakh crore (42%) are under implementation, projects worth Rs

32.7 lakh crore (32%) are in conceptualization stage and rest are under development.

Total capacity of Indian Energy Sector is 356 GW, Out of this, thermal constitutes 66%,

renewable energy constitutes 22%, hydro sector constitutes 13% and nuclear around 2%. Vision

for 2025 is raise capacity to 619 GW of energy by decreasing thermal energy to 50%, increasing

renewable to 39%, hydro to 9% and maintaining nuclear energy at same level.


Transport -

Current freight traffic of Indian Railways is at 33%. Govt will add 30% of net cargo by 2025

and will increase private trains to 500.

There are 12 major ports in India, with capacity 2 billion tons, which is to be increased to

2.5 billion tons.

India ranks 3rd in aviation sector, aiming to improve to 2nd position.

Agriculture -

Currently, Food Corporation of India has installed 7.25 lakh metric tons of silos, which is

to be increased to 100 lakh MT.

Area under irrigation is 68 million hectares, to be increased to 85 million hectares by

2025. Micro irrigation that covers 15% of irrigated area is to be increased to 28%.

Digital Infrastructure -

India ranks second in terms of mobile phones with 119 crore mobile subscribers, aimed at

ranking one. Currently, internet penetration in the sector is 40% and the aim is to increase

this to 80%.

Around 25% of urban and 18 % rural households have drinking water in their premises,

which Under Jal Jeevan Mission, is to be increased to 100% by 2024.

Government also decided to remove Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) to promote digital payments, with

all digital transactions using RuPay or UPI facing no additional charges from January 1, 2020.

122. Finance Ministry retained interest rates on its small savings schemes (SSS) of the post office for the

fourth quarter of the financial year(FY) 2019-20 (January - March 2020). Rates arew -

Scheme Interest Rate

Public Provident Fund (PPF) 7.9%


National Savings Certificate

(NSC)

7.9%

Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) 7.6% (113 months maturity)

Sukanya Samriddhi Account 8.4%

5-year Senior Citizens Savings

Scheme

8.6%

Savings Deposit 4.0%

Term Deposits (1-5 year

maturity)

6.9 %-7.7 %

5-year Recurring Deposit 7.2%

123. Financial Firm Paytm launched all-in-one QR (Quick Response) for merchants across India, to enable

traders to get unlimited payments across country at zero percent fees through Paytm wallet, Rupay Cards

& all UPI (Unified Payments Interface ) based apps directly.

Paytm also unveiled a new service ‘Paytm Business Khata’, which promotes Paytm merchant

partners to maintain digital ledgers of all their customer transactions including cash and credit.

124. Fintech Firm PayU acquired majority equity stake in digital credit platform PaySense, for an equity

value of $185 million.

125. Flipkart former CEO Sachin Bansal acquired DHFL General Insurance, for Rs 100 crores, from

Wadhawan Group Capital (WGC). WGC is parent of crisis-hit Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL),

which has been recently admitted for bankruptcy.

126. Germany Based Financial Firm Deutsche Bank projected that Indian economy will reach $7 trillion by

2030, in its report “Imagine 2030”. According to report, India will grow with Nominal GDP growth rate

of just over 10% in next decade, with economy presently valued at $3 trillion.


127. Government announced its plan of selling its 100 % stake in Air India, inviting bids by March 17,

2020. This is government’s 2nd attempt to sell Air India, after 1st In 2018, which failed to get any bid.

Bidder would have to agree to assume roughly $3.26 billion in debt.

128. Govt raised Indian Overseas Bank's authorised capital from 15000 crores to 25000 crores.

129. Govt will not allow imports without HSN (Harmonized System of Nomenclature) code

(in Others category), stating that there must be zero tolerance for substandard products and services

from industry and consumers.

130. Govt-owned insurer National Insurance Company approved its merger with Oriental Insurance

Company and United India Insurance Company. The same was apprpoved in 2019.

131. Gross GST revenue collected in December 2019 is 103184 crores (CGST - 19962 crores, SGST 26792

crores, IGST 48099 crores and Cess 8331 crores).

132. Gurgaon-based Food delivery aggregator Zomato acquired Uber Eats business in India, in an all-stock

deal. It provides Uber with 9.99% ownership in Zomato after acquisition. Deal is estimated to be pegged

at $300-350 million.

133. HDFC received approvals from Competition Commission of India (CCI), RBI and IRDAI to acquire

51.2% stake in Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company. Apollo Munich will be merged with and into

HDFC Ergo, subject to approval from National Company Law Tribunal. Value of deal is Rs. 1,347 crore in

which HDFC will acquire 50.8%.

134. ICICI Bank launched first-of-its-kind 24×7 self-service delivery tool for customers called “iBox”.

Under this, customers will be able to take their debit, credit card, check book and return check from the

branch close to their home or office. The iBox terminals are installed outside the premises of the bank’s

branches, which can be used even after bank closes.

135. ICICI bank launched India’s largest API (application programming interfaces) Banking portal called

‘ICICI Bank API Banking portal’(https://developer.icicibank.com/), which consists of 250 APIs & allows

bank’s partner companies to sign up on it and create applications.

136. India signed 88 million USD Loan agreement with World Bank, to modernize Assam’s Ferry

transport service on Brahmaputra river. Aim of Assam Inland Water Transport Project (AIWTP) is to

help Assam improve its ferry infrastructure and strengthen institutions operating inland water transport.

137. India signed USD 210 million loan agreement with World bank, to support small holder farmers

participate in competitive agriculture value chains, facilitate agri-business investments, increase market


access and productivity in focus commodities, and build resilience of crops to recurrent floods or

droughts in the state of Maharashtra.

138. Indian GDP Growth Forecasts (Jan 2020) -

World Bank's Global Economic Prospect report predicted India's GDP growth rate to be 5 % in

FY 2019-20 and 5.5 % in FY 2020-21.

CSO (Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme implementation) predicted

5 % Growth ibn FY 2019-20, under first advance estimates of National Income for FY 2019-21.

SBI projected gross domestic product (GDP) for FY20 to be 4.6 %, against 5 % projected earlier.

According to ‘World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2020’ report by United Nations,

India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth forecast for 2019-20 will be 5.7%. It has been

slashed from 7.6% to 5.7 %. In FY 2020-21, growth rate is expected to be 6.6%.

International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook reduced growth forecasts for India to

4.8 % for 2019-21, down from 5.8 %.

Also, IMF has projected global growth to rise from 2.9 % in 2019 to 3.3 % in 2020 and 3.4

% in 2021.

Indian economy growth is expected to rise to 5.8 percent in 2020-21 and 6.5 percent in

2021-22.

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), Indian subsidiary of Fitch group, estimated Indian

economy to grow at a 5.5% rate in FY 21 (2020-21). It is slightly higher than 5% GDP growth

rate estimate for FY20 (2019-20).

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), in its “Economic Outlook

Survey 2020”, projected India’ s GDP growth at 5% for 2019-20 and 5.5 % in 2020-21.

139. Indian Railways signed MoU with Railways PSU RailTel, to implement Phase II of e-office

programme. Railways will also provide content on demand services in premium, suburban, express and

mail trains. E-Office system is an integrated file management system that will help employees manage

data, content electronically.

140. Insurance Regulator IRDAI mandated all general and health insurance companies to offer a Standard

Health Insurance Product (SHIP), aimed at taking care of basic health needs, carrying similar policy

wordings and enabling seamless portability among the insurers. SHIP of each insurer will have

nomenclature of Arogya Sanjeevani Policy followed by the insurer’s name.


141. Insurance regulator IRDAI imposed a fine of Rs 1 crore on Cholamandalam MS General Insurance,

for violating health insurance regulations related to payment of commission.

142. Misc. Corporate Events (Jan 2020) -

Bank of Baroda signed co-lending partnership agreement with JM Financial Home Loans

Limited (JMFL), to provide loans to Home buyers.

Indian Bank signed MoU with Women Entrepreneurs Welfare Association in Tamil Nadu, to

offer training and credit linkage to women members/entrepreneurs of association for

establishing business.

CSC e-Governance Services India signed MOU with Paytm Payments Bank Ltd for sale of

FASTags, to facilitate sale of PPBL FASTags through last mile network of 3.6 lakh CSCs.

PSU Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary

company with name CONCOR Last Mile Logistics Limited.

Amazon India and Future Retail signed long-term agreements to expand reach of Future Retail

stores and consumer brands through the Amazon India marketplace. Amazon also announced

USD 1 billion investment in India.

Axis Mutual Fund announced its new fund – ‘Axis All Seasons Debt Fund of Funds’, as an open-

ended fund of funds scheme investing in debt-oriented mutual fund schemes.

To increase security of credit / debit cards, RBI directed all banks to give card users the facility

to themselves enable/disable their cards for different types of use - online, physical, contact-less

domestically or internationally.

Bajaj Finserv partnered with Apollo Hospitals to extend credit to those having to undergo

expensive healthcare procedures, called Health EMI Cards.

RBI released minutes of Board meeting for the first time, as a step to improve transparency of

its business at board meetings.

ICICI Bank launched Cardless cash withdrawal facility from its ATMs, with per-day transaction

limit of 20000.

ICICI Lombard received Irdai’s approval to pilot 6 innovative applications in its health and

motor portfolio under Sandbox Project.

Regulatory Sandbox Project has provided insurance industry with flexibility to explore

new products and services that suit today’s technology and data driven world.

This is the highest number given to any company under the Irdai-introduced project.


E-Commerce Firm Flipkart signed MoU with Gujarat State Handloom and Handicrafts

Development Corporation, for promotion of local handicrafts by bringing on board thousands of

artisans, weavers and craftsmen, as part of Flipkart’s “Samarth” initiative.

Indian Bank launched 2 two tailor made credit products - Corporate Loan and Ind Surya

Shakthi/ Indian Bank Solar which will be available across country for benefit of textile sector.

143. National Payments Corporation of India launched blockchain technology based “Vajra Platform” to

make payments fast & secure. Vajra is based on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), designed to offer

automatic clearing and settlement of payments on NPCI products such as unified payments interface

(UPI) and Rupay card. Vajra can be accessed by payment companies for providing secured transactions

on their platforms / applications.

144. New India Co-operative Bank will convert it into a small finance bank, under Voluntary Transition of

Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs) into Small Finance Banks (SFBs) dated September 27,

2018, Minimum net worth required for transition is 200 crores, along with other conditons.

145. PM Narendra Modi released 3rd installment of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM

Kisan) worth 12000 crores, benefitting over 6 crore farmers. Toll-free number - 155261 was also

launched on the occasion, for beneficiaries of PM-Kisan yojana.

PM Modi also distributed Agriculture Minister’s Krishi Karman Awards for Progressive

Farmers.

146. RBI approved Shivalik Mercantile Co-operative Bank's transition into a Small Finance Bank (SFB),

under “Scheme on voluntary transition of Urban Co-operative Bank into a Small Finance Bank” issued in

September 2018.

On being satisfied that applicant has complied with requisite conditions (within 18 months),

RBI would consider granting it a licence for commencement of banking business under Section

22 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 as a SFB.

147. RBI cancelled Certificate of Authorisation of Vodafone m-pesa, on account of voluntary surrender of

authorisation. Customers having a valid claim on company as a PSO, can approach the company for

settlement of claims within 3 years.

148. RBI curbed Sri Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank, a private bank in Bengaluru (Karnataka) from

doing business, after finding alleged irregularities in transactions. Bank’ customers can withdraw cash up

to 35000 only, till further notice.


149. RBI enabled selected banks in India to offer round-the-clock (24×7) trading in Indian rupee to allow

Indians to safeguard their foreign exchange (Forex) risks at any time (changed from current window of 9

AM - 5 PM). This will also make offshore currency markets in countries like Dubai & Singapore less

attractive for Indian investors.

150. RBI launched the MANI (Mobile Aided Note Identifier) application for visually challenged persons to

identify new currency notes that were launched after demonetization. MANI application scans currency

notes using camera and gives audio output in Hindi and English. However, the application does not

detect genuine or counterfeit notes.

151. RBI raised investment limit for FPIs in government and corporate bonds, to bring in more foreign

funds into market. Currently, short-term investments by a foreign portfolio investors (FPI) should not

exceed 20 % of total investment of that FPI in either central government securities or state development

loans or corporate bonds. It is now increased to 30 per cent in both cases.

RBI also made a relaxation in voluntary retention route (VRR) for FPI investments in debt. The

investment cap through VRR has been doubled to 1.5 lakh crores.

152. RBI released a report National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI): 2019-2024, formulated by

RBI under aegis of Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee (FIAC). As per report, 6 pillars as part of

strategic objectives to achieve financial inclusion -

Universal Access to Financial Services

Providing basic bouquet of financial services

Access to livelihood and Skill Development

Financial Literacy and Education

Customer Protection and Grievance Redressal

Effective Co-ordination

153. RBI revised Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for banks and other lending institutions, allowing

banks / lending institutions to use “Video based Customer Identification Process (V-CIP). V-CIP is a

consent based alternate method of establishing the customer’s identity and for customer onboarding

from remote areas while leveraging the digital technology.

154. RBI revised its supervisory framework for Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs), aiming to expedite

resolution of UCBs experiencing financial stress. UCBs may be placed under supervisory action

framework under following conditions -

Net Non-Performing Asset (NPA) exceeds 6% of its net advances.


Capital to Risk (Weighted) Assets Ratio (CRAR) falls below 9%.

Incurs losses for two consecutive financial years.

155. SBI announced ‘residential builder finance with buyer guarantee’ (RBBG) scheme, to push residential

sales and improve homebuyers’ confidence. SBI will issue a guarantee for completion of select residential

projects to customers who have availed home loans from it, with focus on affordable housing projects

priced up to 2.50 crore rupees in 10 cities initially.

Under RBBG, guarantee would be given by bank till project gets occupation certificate (OC).

156. Securities and Exchange Board of India tightened noose around corporates, stating to issue INC

(Issuer not cooperating) ratings if companies are not cooperating with credit rating agencies (CRAs) on

disclosure of loan defaults.

Last year in November, Sebi had mandated listed companies to make public disclosure on stock

exchanges about default in payment of interest obligations on loans, including revolving

facilities like cash credit from banks or financial institutions beyond 30 days.

Companies are also required to disclose default in case of unlisted debt securities such as non

convertible debentures within 24 hours.

157. Siemens India acquired Delhi-based electrical and electronic equipment maker C&S Electric for cash

consideration of Rs 2,100 crores. It will help Siemens strengthen position as a supplier of low-voltage

power distribution and electrical installation technology in country.

158. South-Central Railways and SBI signed MoU to implement door step banking in 585 railway stations.

It will enable direct pick up of cash from all stations included in MoU.

159. Stock market regulator SEBI extended deadline for separation of posts of Chairman and MD

(Managing Director) or chief executive officer (CEO) for 500 listed companies by 2 years. Now this rule

has to be followed by April 1, 2022. It’s aim is to separate board and management of top companies.

Rules to separate post of Chairman-MD are part of recommendations of Uday Kotak (MD of

Kotak Mahindra Bank) Committee appointed by SEBI on Corporate Governance.

160. Teleco Reliance Jio launched UPI-powered payments service, becoming first telecom operator to

enter UPI payments space.

161. To promote Ease of Doing Business, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade

(DPIIT) launched paperless licensing process through Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation

(PESO) for road tankers for transportation of petroleum, under Petroleum Rules 2002.


It will provide simpler mechanism, ease of living and business to the petroleum road tanker

owners. It will include filing applications online, online payment of fees. Applicants will be

intimated via SMS and email.

162. To promote digital payments, RBI permitted processing of e-mandate for recurring payments through

UPI (Unified Payments Interface).

This will allow UPI users to bypass additional factor authentication (AFA), a security measure

put in place for card payments that requires OTP – one-time password verification) during

registration and 1st transaction.

This was earlier available for card / wallet payments. The limit on such recurring transactions

has been set at Rs 2000.

163. US-based consumer credit reporting firm Equifax will buy stake held by State Bank of India and its

other local joint venture partners in Equifax Credit Information Services Pvt. Ltd.

SBI will sell its 7.41% stake, Bank of Baroda and Sundaram Finance 10% each, Bank of India

3.5%, Union Bank of India 4.17% and Kotak Mahindra 5.56%.

International

164. India will place stricter quality standards for importing of 371 items, from March 2020, to curb

imports of non-essential items such as toys, plastic goods, sports items, and furniture, especially

from China.

165. 'They’ has been chosen as Word of the Decade by linguists in USA, aiming to recognize growing use of

third-person plural pronouns in a singular form to refer to those who do not identify with either male or

female gender.

166. University College London’s Energy Institute stated that to achieve UN target of reducing carbon

emissions from shipping industry by 50% by 2050, world has to spend 1 trillion USD (50 to 70 billion

USD annually).

Emissions from shipping account to 2.2% of world CO2 emissions, with 90% of world trade

happening at sea.

167. Andhra Pradesh government signed loan for INR 711 crores with Kfw (Germany Development bank)

for expanding climate-resilient Zero-Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) in state. ZBNF already covers

about 1.28 lakh hectares in 3011 villages of Andhra Pradesh, and assistance from KFw will help cover 2


lakh hectares in addition. Helpline number “1800 599 3366” was also launched for enquiries related to

insurance scheme.

168. As per 1st Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report 2020 by Swiss private bank Julius Baer -

Mumbai ranked last (28th ) in list of the world’s 28 most expensive cities for luxury living.

Top 5 - Hong Kong (1), Shanghai (China), Tokyo (Japan), New York (US) and Singapore.

169. As per TomTom Traffic Index by a Dutch independent location technology specialist TomTom -

Bengaluru is most traffic congested city in world, followed by Philippines capital Manila, Bogota

(Columbia), Mumbai, and Pune.

Of the top five most traffic choked cities in world, three are from India - Bengaluru, Mumbai

and Pune.

In Europe, Moscow is the most traffic-congested city.

170. As per a survey by World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) 2020, Sri Lanka ranked 1st out of 97

surveyed countries in supporting breastfeeding women and achieved status of being first-ever green

nation in supporting them. India ranked 78th in list.

171. As per a survey published by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) -

3 of world’s 10 fastest-growing urban areas are in Kerala, While Malappuram tops the list,

Kozhikode ranks fourth and Kollam 10th.

Malappuram recorded 44.1% rise in population between 2015-2020, while Can Tho (Vietnam)

saw its population increase by 36.7%. Suqian (China), ranks 3rd with 36.6 % growth in

population.

Kerala’s cultural capital Thrissur features at number 13.

172. Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) signed agreement with German firm KUNZ GmbH,

to supply aircraft recovery equipment, to jointly establish a centre for disabled aircraft recovery training

and manufacture the equipment necessary. Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) is first airport in

India with the capability effect recovery of disabled aircraft up to Code F category.

173. Britain unveiled a new 50 pence coin minted to mark Brexit (British exit from the European Union

Bloc), which bears the inscription “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations”.

After Brexit, 28 member of European Union states will come down to 27.

174. China and Myanmar signed 33 new deals under BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) to implement China-

Myanmar Economic Corridor. Also, a concession agreement was signed to implement deep seaport

project called Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone.


Controversial Myitsone dam project that is backed by China was not discussed, which allows

China to easy access to Indian Ocean, as this route bypasses Strait of Malacca through which

China imports most of its oil requirements.

Strait of Malacca connects Andaman Sea and South China Sea. This route is on the international

boundary and is far from India’s territories as compared to Myanmar route.

175. China declared that its giant paddlefish often called as ‘Panda of the Yangtze river’ or ‘Chinese

swordfish’ has become extinct, due to decades of overfishing. The last confirmed sighting of the

paddlefish was in 2003.

176. China is now world's second-largest arms industry, as per figures compiled by Sweden based

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). China surpassed Russia and trails only

Behind US Now.

177. Corruption Perception Index 2019 by Transparency International (180 Nations) -

India ranked 80th, compared to 78th last year. Other Nations with same rank as India - Benin,

China, Ghana and Morocco.

Bottom 3 - Syria (178), South Sudan (179) and Somalia (180).

Top 5 - Denmark and New Zealand (1), Finland (3), Sweden, Switzerland and Singapore (4).

Neighbors - China (80), Pakistan (120), Bangladesh (146), Sri Lanka (93)

178. Cyclone Tino has hit oneanic island nation Fiji, causing devastation.

179. Dispute settlement body of World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) has set up a panel to examine

complaints of United States(US) against India for hiking customs duties of 28 American goods in July

2019.

US alleged India's move of increasing custom duties for being inconsistent with 2 global trade

norms of GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) 1994 agreement.

180. Economic Intelligence Unit released Democracy Index 2019 -

Top 3 - Norway (1), Iceland (2) and Sweden (3).

India ranked 51st, slipping 10 positions as compared to its previous ranking.

181. European Parliament deferred voting on a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act,

stating that it is India’s “internal matter". As a compromise, European lawmakers agreed to postpone the

voting and get a direct perspective about CAA from Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar, who wll visit

Brussels (Belgium) shortly.

182. Henley passport Index 2020 -


Indian passport ranked at 84th spot in world’s most powerful passports list, a drop by 2 places

as it ranked 82nd in 2019.

Top 4 - Japan (1), Singapore (2), Germany and South Korea (3), Finland & Italy (4).

183. Hyderabad topped list of world's most dynamic cities, as per 7th edition of City Momentum Index by

global real estate services firm JLL, while Bengaluru ranks second. Chennai is at fifth and Delhi is at

sixth place.

JLL City Momentum Index identifies a number of key growth drivers, including talent

attraction, expansion of innovation hubs and better urban planning, that cities can employ to

meet challenges faced by rapid momentum.

184. India and Bangladesh signed agreement to upgrade 50.58-kilometre long road between Ashuganj

river port and the Akhaura land port in Bangladesh into a 4-lane highway.

185. India extended line of credit of USD 75 million to Cuba for financing solar parks, as per an agreement

signed between Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) and Banco Exterior De Cuba in July 2019.

186. India has been listed as 5th biggest Geo-political Risk of 2020, as per a Eurasia Group report. The

report states ‘Top 10 Risks’ of the -

RIGGED!: WHO GOVERNS THE US?

THE GREAT DECOUPLING

US/CHINA

MNCS NOT TO THE RESCUE

INDIA GETS MODI-FIED

GEOPOLITICAL EUROPE

POLITICS VS. ECONOMICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

SHIA CRESCENDO

DISCONTENT IN LATIN AMERICA

TURKEY

187. India ranked 5th in annual Carbon Disclosure Project 2019 report published by Global Reporting

Initiative, aimed at measuring carbon reduction activities undertaken by firms operating across globe.

Report surveys corporate commitments to science-based targets (SBT) and evaluates climate

change risk that they are exposed to.


India India is first developing economy with maximum number of companies committing to

science-based targets. India had 38 companies committing to science-based targets, up from 25

companies committing to SBTs in 2018.

Top 5 - US (1), Japan (2), United Kindom (3), France (5), India (5).

188. India's Statue of Unity has been included in 8 wonders of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization).

It is World’s tallest statue, dedicated to Sardar Vallabbhai Patel was built at Kevadiya in

Narmada district of Gujarat. Its height is 182 meters (597 ft), built at cost of Rs 3000 crores. It

was opened on 31 October 2018 (Birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel).

Eight Wonders of SCO include -

Statue of Unity in India

Daming Palace in China

Navruz Palace in Tajikistan

Mughals Heritage in Pakistan

Tamgaly Gorge in Kazakhstan

Po-i-Kalan Complex in Uzbekistan

The Golden Ring of Russia

Lahore, the Mughals heritage in Pakistan

Also, India will hold SCO Meet For the first time, later in 20220. Heads of 8 SCO countries

(India, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) will

attend the meeting. India will also invite Pakistan PM Imran Khan for the meet.

189. Indian Oil signed MoU with National Petroleum Authority (NPA) of Ghana, for providing assistance

and technical expertise in the implementation of Ghana’s National LPG Promotion Policy. It also

provides for administrative assistance to Indian Oil in case it decides to participate as a commercial

participant in Ghana’s downstream petroleum sector.

190. Indian PM Narendra Modi and Nepali PM KP Sharma Oli jointly inaugurated 2nd second Integrated

Check Post (ICP) at Jogbani-Biratnagar, built with Indian assistance to facilitate trade and people's

movement.

191. International Court of Justice announced its verdict in Rohingya genocide case, directing Myanmar to

take urgent measures to protect Muslim community from persecution. Ruling came on a petition filed by

Gambia at ICJ against Myanmar, alleging genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya community.


192. International Energy Agency (IEA) launched India’s Energy Policy Report (1st edition), in

collaboration with NITI Aayog.

Oil demand of India will overtake China by mid-2020, making India more vulnerable to supply

disruption in middle east.

Oil demand will reach 6 million barrels per day by 2024. India is third largest consumer of oil

after China and US. India imports 80% of its oil needs. Of this, 65% are from middle east

through Strait of Hormuz.

India is 4th largest oil refiner, and plans to increase refining capacity to 8 million barrels per day

by 2025.

India's strategic petroleum reserves maintain emergency fuel store of 5.33 metric tonnoes,

which can fulfil demand of country for 10 days. 3 such oil storage reserves are located at Padur,

Mangalore and Vizag. 2 more are to be built at Chandikhole and Bikaner.

193. International Labour Organization released The World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends

2020 -

Global unemployment has been stable for last 9 years . But amoid slowing economic growth, no

new jobs are being created.

Unemployment is to increase by 2.5 million in 2020, up from 188 million currently.

Gender gap in wages of the labours is more in South Asian countries. While it stands at 15% in

developed nations, in south asia it is 40%.

194. International Meteorological Organisation released State of Climate Report for 2019.

As per report, climate change claimed 1659 lives in India in 2019. Bihar reported highest deaths

due to extreme weather events.

2019 is 7th warmest year since 1901.

195. International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook reduced growth forecasts for India to 4.8 %

for 2019-21, down from 5.8 %.

Also, IMF has projected global growth to rise from 2.9 % in 2019 to 3.3 % in 2020 and 3.4 % in

2021.

Indian economy growth is expected to rise to 5.8 percent in 2020-21 and 6.5 percent in 2021-22.

196. International arbitration tribunal Bilateral International Treaty organization dismissed all claims

against India, that were brought by private firms in Cyprus and Russia.


BIT allows countries to set up rules for investments between each other, as successor of 19th

century friendship, commerce and navigation treaty. First BIT was signed between Pakistan and

Germany.

BIT ensures that foreign investors are treated equally as that of domestic investors, as nations

tend to restrict foreign investments to promote domestic entrepreneurs.

While most of treaties in world focus on ‘most favored Nation’ treatment, BIT treats foreign

countries equally.

India has so far signed BIT with 75 nations, Out of these 66 are already in force.

197. Iran accepted that it had ‘accidentally’ and ‘unintentionally’ shot down a Ukrainian Boeing 737-800

aircraft, killing all onboard. Iran called it a ‘human-error’ because of aircraft’s unexpected and sharp turn

towards a sensitive area and a military base.

198. Iran announced complete withdrawl from JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) nuclear deal,

after US troops killed General Qassem Soleimani.

In 2018, US had walked away from this nuclear deal. However, other participants such as

Russia, China, European Union, France, Germany and UK tried to keep agreement alive.

According to the deal, Iran curbed its nuclear programme in exchange to relief from sanctions.

199. Iran's top military commander Qasem Soleimani has been killed by a US air strike in Iraq, at Baghdad

airport. US Prez Donald Trump accused him of being responsible for deaths of millions of people.

200. Iran’s parliament passed a bill designating all US forces as terrorists, after US forces killed top

Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in a US airstrike in Iraq. Qasem Soleimani was head of

Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. The incident has escalated tensions between US

and Iran.

201. Knight Frank’s Global Residential Cities Index Q3 (Quarter) 2019 -

Hyderabad ranked 14th among 150 cities in World. New Delhi ranks 73rd and Bengaluru 94th

rank.

Budapest (Hungary) is at top, followed by Xi’an and Wuhan in China.

202. Lebanon President Michel Naim Aoun announced formation of new Government due to anti-

government protests. New Government will be headed by Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

203. Ministry of Law and Justice declared United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a “reciprocating territory” under

Section 44A of Civil Procedure Code 1908. It means that Indian expatriates if convicted in a civil case in

the UAE would no longer be able to seek safe heaven back in India.


It also declared several courts in UAE to be ‘Superior Courts’, meaning that orders passed by

these courts from a ‘reciprocating territory’ can be implemented in India, as if they were passed

in India.

It is believed to help bring down the time required for executing verdicts between the two

countries.

Apart from UAE, other countries declared to be “reciprocating territories” are United Kingdom,

Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Trinidad & Tobago, New Zealand, Cook Islands (including

Niue) and Trust Territories of Western Samoa, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Aden.

204. NTPC is announced as project management consultant for development of 300 MW of solar power

projects in West Africa Nation Togo. It is first time another country has sought help of NTPC, under

International Solar Alliance (ISA).

205. Nepal became first South Asian nation to offer to "mediate" between India and Pakistan over Kashmir

and cross-border terrorism.

206. Pacific Island Nation Palau became first country to ban sun cream that is harmful to corals, banning

common ingredients used in cosmetics including oxybenzone. The Rock Islands in the Palau is a

UNESCO World Heritage Site. The country has banned 10 ingredients that harm coral reefs.

207. Ramsar Convention added 10 more sites from India, taking total to 37 sites in India.

Ramsar Convention was signed in February 1971, aimed at maintaining an international

network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity.

Maharashtra got its first Ramsar site, at Nadur Madhameshwar. Punjad added 3 and UP added

6 to its list.

208. Rights group Oxfam International released report titled Time to Care: Unpaid and underpaid care

work and the global inequality crisis -

India’s richest 1% of the population has more than 4 times of wealth held by 953 million people

making up for bottom 70% of population.

Inequality will be reduced if the richest 1% pay 0.5% etc wealth tax in the next 10 years. This

would generate 117 million jobs in elderly, childcare, education and health sectors.

209. Saudi Arabia announced to not allow Israeli citizens to visit the nation, after Israel approved its

citizens from visiting Saudi Arabia.

Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and other major gulf nations. It has

peace deals with only two Arab nations- Jordan and Egypt.


210. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh launched an e-passport facility for its citizens, which

will have an electronic chip with biometric data of passport holder.

Bangladesh is first country in South-Asia (and 119th globally), to provide an e-passport facility

to its citizens.

211. South American Nation Guyana took over chairmanship of the Group of 77 for 2020 from Palestine.

G77 was established in 1964 in Geneva, as largest inter-governmental organization of developing

countries in United Nations.

212. Switzerland minted smallest gold coin in world, measuring 2.96-millimeter (0.12-inches) and

weighing 0.063 grams. Its nominal value is 1/4 Swiss francs ($0.26).

213. Tech Firm Microsoft announced to become carbon negative by 2030. It also aims that by 2050, it will

remove from environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical

consumption since it was founded in 1975.

214. To observe 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, World Health Organization designated

2020 as the “Year of Nurse and Midwife”. WHO will also launch World Nursing Report in 2020, as first

of its kind.

Florence Nightingale was an English Social reformer born in 1820. She organized camps for

wounded soldiers and also served as a manager of nurses during the Crimean War. She was

called “The Lady with the Lamp” for making rounds on wounded soldiers.

Also, International Nurses Day is being celebrated in her honor, Every year on May 12.

215. UAE validated Multi-entry Tourist Visa which would be valid for 5 years, available for all nationalities

visiting UAE. It aims to boost UAE’s tourism economy.

216. UK Parliament approved Brexit deal, paving way for Britain’s smooth exit from 28-member European

Union on January 31, 2020. The deal was stuck in British Parliament for over a year.

Brexit bill was approved by British MPs after PM Boris Johnson's Conservatives won majority in

elections. Bill was rejected multiple times previously despite several efforts from Johnson and

former British PM Theresa May.

217. UK launched 4 million pound (about Rs 37 crore) fund in India to support collaborative research into

emerging technologies. It will encourage industry and academia to collaborate and develop tech solutions

for social, economic and environmental challenges in India.


218. US President Donald Trump signed revised North American Free Trade Agreement into law. The

trade deal, now called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, updates quarter-century-old

NAFTA.

219. US President Donald Trump unveiled his middle-east peace plan, aimed at resolving Israeli-

Palestinian conflict. Key Features -

It recognises Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital, Proposing transition to a two-state

solution.

New map will more than double Palestinian territory and provide a Palestinian capital in eastern

Jerusalem where US will open an embassy. No Israeli or Palestinian will be uprooted from their

homes.

Vision also promises commercial investment worth 50 billion dollars into new Palestinian state.

Vision gives the Palestinians four years to study the deal and negotiate with Israel.

220. US announced new visa rules to restrict ‘birth tourism’, by no longer issuing temporary visitor visas

to foreigners seeking to enter the nation for birth tourism.

Birth tourism is a practice of travelling to US and giving birth on American soil, thereby securing

automatic and permanent American citizenship for their children.

By restricting birth tourism, US aims to close this immigration loophole to combat endemic

abuses and protect the nation from the national security risks created by this practice.

221. US signed first phase of a trade deal with China, trying to conclude over an year of tough negotiations

and suspension of talks between two countries. China pledged to purchase at least an additional $200

billion worth of U.S. farm products and other goods and services over two years.

222. Uber Technologies and automaker Hyundai Motor teamed up to develop electric air taxis, aiming to

launch Uber Air by 2023 and urban air mobility service in 2028. Hyundai is first carmaker to join Uber’s

air taxi project.

223. United Nation Conference on Trade and Development report on Global Investment Trend Monitor

Report for 2019 -

Global FDI of 2019 was 1.39 trillion USD, declining by 1% as compared to 2018.

FDI to European Union (EU) fell by 15 % to USD 305 billion. US remained topmost FDI

recipient in world (251 Billion USD), followed by China (140 Billion) and Singapore (110

Billion).


FDI in South Asia increased by 10% in 2019, mainly due to India. In 2019, India’s FDI was 49

billion USD, up 16 % from 42 billion in 2018. India ranked 8th among top FDI receivers in 2019.

224. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released its year-end report, which termed past decade as

a ‘Deadly Decade’ for children in conflict with over 170000 grave violations against children since 2010.

Report stated that attacks on children increased by almost three-fold since 2010. Syria, Mali and Yeman

are at top among nations witnessing most attacks on children.

225. United Nations World Tourism Organisation World Tourism Barometer report -

International tourist arrivals in 2019 increased by 3.8%, reaching 1.5 billion. Middle east

region (8%) led growth in arrivals, followed by Asia and Pacific region (5%).

France had strongest increase in international tourism expenditure, while United States (US)

led growth in absolute terms.

226. World Bank released its Global Economic Prospect report. According to it -

World is expected to grow economically at the rate of 2.5%, as lowest prediction since 2008-09.

Advanced economies are to slip their growth by 1.4% as manufacturing sector continues to

soften. US is expected to grow at 1.8% and European Union at 1% in 2020.

Predominantly, growing economies are located in South and South East Asia.

Growth in South Asia is expected to rise by 5.5% in 2020.

Report predicts India’s growth rate at 5% and 5.5% in next year (2020-21).

227. World Bank released its study on how FDI flows are affected in world due to automation, concluding

that automation will disrupt flow of capital from rich to poor countries. Poor countries can gain from

automation if adopted at right time.

It reports that during 2004-2015, High Income Countries (HIC) saw highest FDI outflows.

Later, it reached saturation and began to decline.

Study found that FDI flows from a HIC to a LIC (Low Income Countries) reduced as automation

increased.

228. World Economic Forum released its Global Risks Report 2020, identifying global risks. Report has

listed 5 top risks in terms of Likelihood and in terms of Impact.

Risks in terms of likelihood includes extreme weather, climate action failure, natural disasters,

biodiversity losses and human-made environmental disasters.

For the first time, all 5 risks of likelihood are climate-related.


Global Risks in terms of impacts include climate action failure, weapons of mass destruction,

biodiversity losses, extreme weather and water crisis.

229. World Gold Council (WGC) report World Gold Outlook 2020 -

It stated that gold trade increased by 18.4% in 2019, as compared to 2010.

RBI holds 625.2 tonnes of gold, 6.6% of country’s foreign exchange. India ranks sixth in the

world among other central banks.

Other 5 countries that have bought more gold than India include China, Russia, Kazakhstan,

Turkey and Poland.

In 2019, the largest gold sellers were Uzbekistan and Venezuela, selling 16.6 tonnes and 30.3

tonnes respectively.

230. World Health Organization changed its status of risk of coronavirus as high, from moderate, with

severe outbreak witnessed in china and rapid expansion to other countries.

231. World Health Organization releasesd list of Global Health Challenges of forthcoming year, including

13 potential threats.

Foremost threat is Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) and climate crisis. These 2 threats were on

the top in 2019 as well.

New entrant to nter top 13 potential threats is Lack of Access. The report says that around a

third of world population lack access to vaccines, diagnostic tools, medicines and other essential

health products.

Meetings

232. 3rd international symposium of Marine Ecosystems-Challenges and Opportunities (MECOS) held in

Kochi (Kerala), conducted by Marine Biological association of India. It act as a platform for experts to

discuss on climate crisis, unusual warming of Arabian Sea, ocean acidification, etc.

233. 107th Indian Science Congress Held at University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) Bengaluru

(Karnataka), with theme Science and Technology: Rural Development.

Farmers Science Congress, Children Science Congress and Women Science Congress were held

alongside. For the first time, Farmers Science Congress was held on sidelines of Indian Science

Congress.


PM Modi launched I-Stem portal during the inauguration. I-STEM is Indian Science,

Technology Engineering Facilities Map. It will act as a gateway for the researchers and users to

locate facilities that are required for their research and development work.

Nobel Laureates who participated in event include German Physicist Stefan Hell and Ada E.

Yonath from Israel.

234. 27th edition of South Asian Trade and Travel Exchange Expo (SATTE) 2020 held in New Delhi.

235. 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting held at Davos (Switzerland), with

theme Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World-

Minister of State for Shipping (IC) and Chemicals & Fertilizers, Mansukh

Mandaviya attended on India's Behalf.

Corruption Perception Index 2019 by Transparency International (180 Nations) -

India ranked 80th, compared to 78th last year. Other Nations with same rank as India -

Benin, China, Ghana and Morocco.

Bottom 3 - Syria (178), South Sudan (179) and Somalia (180).

Top 5 - Denmark and New Zealand (1), Finland (3), Sweden, Switzerland and Singapore

(4).


1st edition of Global Social Mobility Report titled Equality, Opportunity and a New

Economic Imperative released by World Economic Forum -

India ranks 76th.

Top 5 - Denmark (1), Norway (2), Finland (3), Sweden (4), Iceland (5)

Neighbors - China (45), Bangladesh (78), Pakistan (79)

Social Mobility is upward or downward movement of an individual in personal

circumstances in relation to their parents.

India joined Reskilling Revolution initiative as a founding member, launched at World

Economic Forum. It aims to help economies to adopt changes being introduced by Fourth

Industrial Revolution.

Other founding members include US, UAE, Russia, Pakistan, France and Brazil.

The initiative aims at providing better education, jobs and skills for more than 1 billion

people in the world by 2030.


Technological integration and automation will create large scale unemployment, affecting

labour population greatly. Therefore, it is essential to shift labour population towards

requirement of technology upgrade. In order to achieve this, Reskilling Revolution Platform

has been launched.

World Economic Forum also released report namely “Jobs of Tomorrow: Mapping

Opportunity in the New Economy”, which maps 96 new emerging jobs in seven fastest

growing professions based on new technologies.

Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2020 (GTCI) report was launched (132 Nations) -

India ranked 72nd, improving by 8 places.

Top 5 - Switzerland (1), US (2), Singapore (3), Sweden (4), Denmark (5)


World Economic Forum(WEF) launched 1t.org, as an effort to support efforts to grow, restore

and conserve 1 trillion trees around the world inorder to restore the biodiversity and help combat

climate change.

Initiative is set up with initial support of Salesforce (CRM) Chairman Marc and his wife

Lynne Benioff.

Restoring 1 trillion trees will remove 12 Gigatonnes(Gt) of Carbon Dioxide(Co2) from

atmosphere per annum with the same trees storing up to 205 Gt of CO2-equivalent once

mature or grown up.

Locking up carbon in world’s grasslands, forests and wetlands will help reduce about one-

third of the emissions required to be cut by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement targets.

World Economic Forum (WEF) in collaboration with PwC released a report titled Nature Risk

Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy”.

Report is the 1st in a series for the New Nature Economy(NNE). As per the report, global

businesses are more than dependent on nature with an estimated exposure of $44 trillion

which is half of world GDP.

Human activities have severely altered 75% of land and 66% of marine environments too.

23rd edition of the PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey -

As per survey based on confidence of CEOs over worldwide economic growth, India ranked

4th while it was topped by United States(US).

China and Germany ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively.


Indian Actress Deepika Padukone honoured with Crystal Award 2020 at 26th annual Crystal

Award ceremony during 50th WEF meet -

She was awarded for playing a leading role in raising mental health awareness and her

foundation Live Love Laugh.

Other Crystal Award awardees -

Theaster Gates - US Artist.

Jin Xing (China)

Lynette Wallworth - Australian artist

Crystal Awards are conferred to honour enduring contributions to society by exceptional

artists.

India participated at United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) programme at World Economic Forum

(WEF), with theme Access for all: Leveraging Innovations, Investments and Partnerships for

Health.

Tata Steel's Kalinganagar Plant has been honoured at WEF 2020 meet, for its recent admittance

into Global Lighthouse Network. The network is a small but growing group of global corporations

that are showing leadership in applying fourth industrial revolution technologies to drive

financial and operational impact.

WEF appointed International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva and African

Rainbow Minerals (ARM) founder Patrice Motsepe to its board of trustees.

As per a New public opinion poll published during the meet, global public is losing trust level in

climate sciences. Indians are most trusting people in this regard, with 86% Indians trusting

scientists on climate science, followed by Bangladesh (78%), Pakistan (70%).

The 1st edition of Positive Impact Rating 2020 was launched at WEF Meet.

2 Indian business schools - IIM Bangalore and XLRI Jamshedpur have been included in

the top 30 list.

Business schools have been rated to measure how much they contribute to solve societal

challenges by providing relevant research results etc.

236. Election Commission of India hosted 10th annual meeting of the Forum of the Election Management

Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) at New Delhi. FEMBoSA was established at 3rd Conference of Heads

of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of SAARC Countries held at New Delhi, in 2012.


India's Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora assumed chairmanship of FEMBOSA, for

2020.

237. India hosted International Summit on Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and

mathematics) with theme, Visualizing the Future: New Skylines, in New Delhi.

238. Indian Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO (INCCU) Meet held in New Delhi, as its first meet

since reconstitution of the commission.

239. India’s first global Mega Science Exhibition “Vigyan Samagam” held at National Science Centre in

New Delhi.

240. International Conclave on “Globalizing Indian Thought” held at IIM Kozhikode (Kerala).

241. Raisina Dialogue Held in New Delhi, with ministerial deligations from 13 nations participating.

Since its inception in 2016, Raisina Dialogue has emerged as India’s flagship conference on

geopolitics and geo-economics, hosted by Observer Research Foundation.

During the meet, Russia questioned idea of “Indo-Pacific”, saying that it is divisive and isolates

China.

India-Finland signed a Defence MoU.

242. World Future Energy Summit Held at Abu Dhabi (UAE), with theme Rethinking Global

Consumption, Production and Investment. 5 main pillars os summit are energy, water, solar, waste and

smart cities. It is being conducted at Abu Dhabi since 2011.

243. World Sustainable Summit 2020 organized by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) at New

Delhi, with theme Towards 2030: Making the Decade Count.

As per report released during the summit, carbon-dioxide emissions from steel sector will reach

600 million tonnes by 2050. Current CO2 emissions from steel sector is 242 Million Tonnes, 35%

of total emissions of India.

National

244. 13th edition of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) held in Jaipur (Rajasthan). Author Ashwin

Sanghi launched his book ‘The Vault of Vishnu’ during the event.

It was announced that France will be the guest of honour at New Delhi World Book Fair for year

2022.


2020 Romain Rolland Book Prize was confered on 1st 3 albums of Asterix series (comic

magazine series), translated into Hindi by Dipa Chaudhuri and Puneet Gupta. It is given

annually to the best translation of a french title into any Indian language inclusive of english.

Sneha Pamneja was awarded Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize 2020, a 1st of its kind award

for brilliance in book design. She was honoured for designing the cover of the book ‘Tiffin:

Authentic Recipes Celebrating India’s Regional Cuisine’.

245. Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth (CCIG) reduced wasteful expenditure on items such

as travel, food and conferences by 20%.

It move aims to avoid fiscal slippage by comprising non-development expenditure and controlling

fiscal deficit within level of budgeted target of 3.3% for FY 2019-20.

Earlier In October 2014, Department of Expenditure directed to cut non-essential expenses by up

to 10%.

246. 12th National Tribal Youth Exchange Programme Held in UT of Puducherry, jointly organized by

Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) and Puducherry Government.

247. 2020 Malaysia Masters Badminton -

Men's Singles - Kento Momota (Japan)

Women's Singles - Chen Yufei (China)

Men's Doubles - South Korea's Kim Gi-jung AND Lee Yong-dae

Women's Doubles - China's Li Wenmei AND Zheng Yu

Mixed Doubles - China's Zheng Siwei AND Huang Yaqiong

248. 28th edition of New Delhi World Book Fair 2020 held at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.

Fair is organized jointly by National Book Trust and India Trade Promotion Organization.

2020 theme is Gandhi, the Writers’ Writer.

249. 2nd phase of Mission Indradhanush 2.0 rolled out at block level in 35 districts of Uttar Pradesh. The

program was launched by central government in 2017 to achieve 90% vaccination coverage in children of

less than 2 years in state. Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 will be conducted till March 2020.

250. 4th edition of ‘Buxa Bird Festival’ held at Buxa National Park in West Bengal’s, district Alipurduar.

251. 5th edition of Science Film Festival of India, SCI-FFI 2020, held in Goa.

252. 9th International Children's Film Festival began in Kolkata (WB), with About 250 films from 45

countries to be screened in week-long festival.


253. A Concession Agreement signed completing 6.5 km long Z-Morh tunnel in UT of J&K, which includes

construction and maintenance of tunnel with approaches on NH-1 at Srinagar-Sonmarg-Gumri Road

from 61 km to 89.30 km on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) Annuity basis.

The 2-lane bi-directional tunnel with parallel escape tunnel will be completed in 3.5 years at a

cost of Rs 2378 Crores.

Tunnel is capable of allowing 1000 vehicles an hour at a speed of 80 km per hour.

254. A turtle rehabilitation Centre will to be set up in Bihar’s Bhagalpur forest, which will shelter more

than 500 turtles. It will help in monitoring rescued turtles before releasing them into rivers. Bhagalpur

was chosen as Flow of water in River Ganga in Bhagalpur is ample. There are number of sandbanks in

region that act as ideal breeding ground for the turtles.

255. According to United National Development Programme (UNDP), Telangana emerged as best

performing state in terms of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Telangana was followed

by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Note that in December 2019, India became first country to release SDG index, launched by NITI

Aayog. In this index, Top 5 states were - Kerala (1), Himachal Pradesh (2), Andhra Pradesh (3),

Tamil Nadu (4), and Telangana (5).

256. Airports Authority of India (AAI) announced that 4 airports in India have received international

recognition for reducing carbon emission. These are Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport

Kolkata, Biju Patnaik International Airport Bhubaneswar, Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport

Varanasi AND Trivandrum International Airport.

The airports had adopted grading system in 2018 and successfully implemented the carbon

emission plan.

257. Airports Authority of India (AAI) will set up 3 water aerodromes in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, as

first-of-its-kind in country. AAI intends to develop water aerodromes in Long Island, Swaraj Island and

Shaheed Island. These are part of 10 water aerodromes that Govt intends to develop.

258. American Chipmaker Qualcomm launched 3 chipsets in India – Snapdragon 720G, 662 and 460).

These chipsets have been developed with support for ISRO’s Navigation with Indian Constellation

(NavIC), a technology considered an advanced location positioning and navigation system than

the GPS technology currently in use.

Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi and Realme will soon launch new smartphones with

Snapdragon 720G chipset processor.


259. Anand Prakash Maheshwari has been appointed as new director general of CRPF (Central Reserve

Police Force). CRPF is world's largest paramilitary force.

260. Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy launched Amma Vodi Scheme in Chittoor, as one of 9

flagship programmes of Andhra Government, called Navratanalu.

The scheme is first of its kind in country, aiming at benefitting school students studying in classes

I to XII (both public and private).

Under this, students belonging to Below Poverty Line will get Rs 15,000 per annum, on ensuring

75% attendance of child.

State Government has allocated Rs 6318 crores under the scheme.

261. Andhra Pradesh cabinet approved proposal to have 3 capitals for Andhra Pradesh, amid protests by

farmers. Government proposed to retain Amaravati as legislative capital, while making Visakhapatnam

home for executive and Kurnool the judicial capital.

262. Andhra Pradesh cabinet approved to abolish Legislative Council.

Legislative Council had stalled two bills that were passed by assembly - AP Capital Region

Development Authority Repeal Bill and Decentralization bill.

Andhra Pradesh is one of the few states to have bicameral legislature, others being Bihar,

Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana. Article 169 of constitution defines

Legislative Council in a state.

263. Annual event Bharat Parv organised in Delhi, with Theme Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’

and Celebrating 150 Years of M K Gandhi.

264. Arunachal Pradesh Assembly adopted a new logo, which reflects distinct identity and culture of state.

Logo consists of National Emblem to signify federal system of India and flower foxtail orchid

(Rhynchostylis retusa) which represents the state. Pictorial Representation -


265. Arunachal Pradesh became first State to initiate International Union for Conservation of Nature

(IUCN)’s ‘red listing’ at the state level, after it inked MoU with IUCN. State will collaborate with IUCN to

prepare IUCN’s Red List Assessment for all orchids in State.

266. As per Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), 8 states

have finalised their action plan to boost agricultural exports. States are Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttar

Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Karnataka.

Agricultural Export Policy was introduced in December 2018, aiming at doubling agricultural

exports from 30 billion USD to 60 billion USD by 2022.

It was needed because India’s share in global agricultural exports is merely 2.2%.

267. As per Bureau of Energy Efficiency's notified energy performance standards for Room Air

Conditioner (RACs), The 24 degree celsius default setting has been made mandatory from Jan 1,

2020 for all room air conditioners covered under ambit of BEE star-labelling program.

Additionally, Indian Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (ISEER) as per new standards will range

from (3.30 - 5.00) for split and (2.70 – 3.50) for window air conditioners, which will be applicable

from 1st January 2021 onwards.

BEE star labelling program for Room Air Conditioners now covers both fixed and inverter RAC up

to a cooling capacity of 10,465 watts (2.97 TR).

268. As per ManpowerGroup's research report on Talent Shortage 2020, India faces a talent shortage of 63

percent, higher than global average.

269. As per Ministry of New and Renewable Energy year end review, over 150 GW of renewable energy has

been installed so far in India.

Under KUSUM initiative, around 17 lakh solar powered agricultural pumps were installed.

Under Phase II of Grid Connected Roof top Solar Programme, 40000 MW of Roof Top solar

power target was set.

Under Wind-Solar hybrid policy, 1440 MW of capacity was installed.

In 2015, Govt had set a target to install 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. It includes 60 GW

from wind, 100 GW from solar, 5 GW from small hydro power and 10 GW from solar. To achieve

this, Govt had set up Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Parks (UMREPP) under Solar Park

Scheme.

270. As per a Jal Shakti Ministry Report, Gujarat is named most water-efficient state, with Rajasthan third

and Delhi among worst states.


Among 7 Central departments reviewed, Survey of India is ranked at top, followed by National

Institute of Hydrology (NIH) and Central Pollution Control Board got lowest (7th) rank.

In 2018’s ranking, Telangana was at top and Gujarat was ranked 7th last. Delhi improved its

position by getting 35th rank as compared to the bottom 41 in 2018.

271. As per survey by Transparency International, Assam tops in terms of budget formulation followed by

Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Survey was based on four parameters - budgetary process, public

disclosure, post budget fiscal management and efforts to make budget citizen friendly.

272. Bombay Stock Exchange signed licensing agreement with Intercontinental Exchange Inc, a leading

operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of data and listings services.

It is for use of the ICE Brent Index as final settlement price for BSE's rupee-denominated Brent

futures contract. India is a large consumers of crude oil, and Brent crude is highly co-related with

Indian crude oil basket.

273. Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) launched State Energy Efficiency Index 2019, in association with

Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy, tracking progress of Energy Efficiency initiatives in 36 states /

UTs.

Karnataka, HP, Haryana and Puducherry are best performers.

Manipur, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir are at bottom.

This year, BEE has included Energy Conservation Building Code as one of its indicators,

developed by BEE under guidance of United States Agency for International Development.

First such Index in country was released in August 2018.

274. CSIR collaborated with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to produce an

indigenous engine for the Saras light passenger aircraft being developed.

275. Cabinet Approvals (Jan 08, 2020) -

MOUs -

Mongolia - Exploration and Uses of Outer Space for Peaceful and Civilian Purposes

France - Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement

Sweden - Polar Science

United Kingdom - Enabling Energy Self Sufficiency for Indian Railways

Memorandum of Cooperation between India and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)

on cooperation in field of Health.


General Approvals -

Approved to confer status of Institution of National Importance to Institute of Teaching and

Research in Ayurveda Jamnagar by conglomerating cluster of Ayurveda Institutes at

Gujarat Ayurveda University campus (Jamnagar), namely -

Institute for Post Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Shri Gulabkunwerba

Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, Institute of Ayurveda Pharmaceutical Sciences including

Pharmacy Unit and to subsume Maharshi Patanjali Institute for Yoga & Naturopathy

Education & Research into Department of Swasthvritta of the Institute of Teaching and

Research in Ayurveda.

Bill to this effect is to be introduced in ensuing Session of Parliament to declare Institute of

Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar as Institution of National Importance.

CCEA Approvals -

Approved North East Gas Pipeline Grid, to be constructed for around 1656 km in eight

states of the North East Region (Manipur, Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh,

Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagaland and Tripura).

Project is a joint venture of 5 Public sector units (ONGC, IOCL, OIL, GAIL and NRL), and is

named IGGL (Indra Dhanush Gas Grid Limited).

Government approved 5559 crores funding for the construction of the grid. Total

expenditure is estimated at 9256 crores.

Approved strategic disinvestment of 4 Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) & 2

Odisha State PSUs in Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL). NINL is a Joint Venture

company in which 4 CPSEs & 2 State PSUs have equity shareholding.

CPSEs include Minerals & Metals Trading Corporation, MECON, Bharat Heavy Electricals

and National Mineral Development Corporation .

2 Odisha State PSUs include Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha

and Odisha Mining Corporation.

276. Cabinet Approvals (Jan 22, 2020) –


MOUs -

Approved MoUs among India, Tunisia and Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission for

elections for cooperation in the field of electoral management and administration.

Approved Model MoU for unilateral/bilateral recognition of Certificates, pursuant to

Regulation 1/10 of International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and

Watchkeeping (STCW) for Seafarers 1978, as amended to be signed between Directorate

General of Shipping (India) and its counterparts in foreign countries.

It would facilitate unilateral recognition by another country of certificates issued by

Directorate General of Shipping to Indian seafarers, without seeking similar recognition by

India of certificates issued by that country.

Brazil - Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, Oil and natural gas sector, Early

childhood, Geology and Mineral Resources.

General Approvals -

Approved extension of term of the Commission to examine the issue of Sub-categorization

of Other Backward Classes, by six months, up to 31-7-2020.

Commission was constituted under article 340 of Constitution, in October 2017, headed by

G. Rohini. Commission has sought extension of its term by six months, and also addition in

its existing Terms of Reference.

Approved Revised Cost Estimates (RCE) for establishment of permanent campuses of new

National Institutes of Technology (NITs), at total cost of 4372 crores for period till 2021 -

2022. These NITs were established in the year 2009 and started functioning from 2010-

2011 in their respective temporary campus with limited infrastructure. Student capacity in

these campuses will be 6320.

Approved amendments in concrerned Acts / Regulations dealing with Goods and Services

Tax (GST), Value Added Tax (VAT) and State Excise, and for designation of Daman as

Headquarters for UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

CCEA Approvals -

Approved Closure of Hindustan Fluorocarbons Limited (HFL), a Central Public Sector

Enterprise (CPSE) under Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals. It also approved

interest free loan of 77.20 crores by Govt. to HFL, for expenditures during closure proocess.

HFL has only 1 plant/unit located at Rudraram (District Sangareddy) in Telangana.


277. Cabinet Approvals (Jan 29, 2020) -

General Approvals -

Approved to extend existing Productivity Linked Reward (PLR) Scheme beyond 2017-18. It

will annually benefit to 28,821 Major Port Trusts and Dock employees/workers and yearly

estimated outgo will be Rs.46 crore.

Approed amendments in National Commission for Homoeopathy Bill 2019, for amending

Homoeopathy Central Council (HCC) Act 1973. Presently, the Bill is pending in Rajya

Sabha. Amendments will -

Ensure necessary regulatory reforms in the field of Homoeopathy education.

Enable transparency and accountability for protecting interests of public.

Approved Amendments in National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill 2019

(NCIM) which is pending in Rajya Sabha.

0. Proposed legislation will ensure necessary regulatory reforms in the field of Indian System of

Medicine education.

1. Proposed regulatory structure will enable transparency and accountability for protecting the

interest of the general public.

Approved 30% of North Eastern Council funds to be allocated to new projects in North

East Region.

0. These projects have been given least importance so far. With increased funds, they will be able to

reach in pace with the older projects and help in faster development.

Approved Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill 2020, to amend

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971. Bill will be introduced in coming summer

session of Parliament.

0. Proposing requirement for opinion of one provider for termination of pregnancy, up to 20 weeks of

gestation and introducing requirement of opinion of two providers for termination of pregnancy of 20-24

weeks of gestation.

1. Enhancing upper gestation limit from 20 to 24 weeks for special categories of women which will

be defined in amendments to MTP Rules and would include 'vulnerable women' including

survivors of rape, victims of incest and others.

2. Upper gestation limit not to apply in cases of substantial foetal abnormalities diagnosed by

Medical Board.


3. Identity of concerned woman shall not be revealed except noted cases.

4. Bill is for expanding access of women to safe and legal abortion services.

Census India 2021 will begin on April 1, 2020 and will end on September 30, 2020. It will be

conducted through a mobile phone application, moving away from traditional pen and paper.

For the first time, Census will collect data of transgenders headed houses. Also, the census will

enquire about “Main cereal”, which s also included for the first time in the history of census of

India.

Census 2021 is to ask 31 questions to the citizens.

Central Government, Bru-Reang representatives, Government of Tripura and Mizoram signed an

agreement to end refugee crisis of Bru-Reang community. Under it, 34000 Bru Refugees are to be settled

in Tripura, with rehabilitation budget of 600 crores.

Displaced families are to be provided with land of 40 by 30 square feet, along with aid of Rs 1.5

lakhs to build their houses. Centre will also provide fixed deposit of 4 lakhs and 5000 cash aid

per month and free ration for 2 years.

Due to ethnic tension in 1997, around 5000 families of 30000 Bru-Reang tribes were forced

out of Mizoram to seek shelter in Tripura. In 2010, Govt began efforts to rehabilitate them in

Tripura.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) issued new guidelines for establishing petrol pumps,

because of their impact on environment.

Any petrol pump can’t be established in 50 meters radius of a school, hospital or residential area.

Oil companies must install Vapor Recovery System (VRS) at stations where about 300-kilo liters of oil

is sold every month.

State Pollution Regulatory Board will impose an environmental penalty equal to the price of VRS in

case of non-installation of VRS.

Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda launched APNA UREA - Sona

Ugle brand of Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Limited (HURL).

HURL is Joint Venture Company promoted by Coal India, NTPC and Indian Oil Corporation.

Earlier in 2016, Government had approved revival of 3 sick Urea plants located at Gorakhpur, Sindri

and Barauni, which have been undertaken by HURL. Other 2 plants at Ramagundam and Talcher will

also commence production soon. After commissioning of these 5 units, production of Urea will increase

by over 63 Lakh Metric Tonne per annum.


Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel has launched an employment-oriented mobile app,‘Rojgar

Sangi’ developed by Chhattisgarh State Skill Development Authority (CSSDA). It will provide

employment to trained youths under their skill development programme.

China operationalised telescope with a diameter of 500 Meters, called Five-hundred-meter

Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). It is a single-dish telescope, located in southwest China’s

Guiyang city. It has receiving area of around 30 football fields. It is expected to pave way for major

discoveries in due course.

Dubbed as “China Sky Eye”, FAST is world's largest telescope and capable of receiving maximum of

38 gigabytes of information per second.

It is world's largest filled-aperture radio telescope, and second-largest single-dish aperture after

sparsely-filled RATAN-600 (Russia).

Citizenship Amendment Act came into effect as central government issued a notification for revised

citizenship act on January 10, 2020.

Under to this, minorities of Hindu, Jain, Parsi, Sikh, Christian, and Buddhist communities who came

to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014, will not be considered as

illegal migrants. Instead, they will be given Indian citizenship.

The new citizenship act was passed in Parliament in Winter session in December 2019.

CAA will not apply to tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura, as these areas are

included in the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

This law will also not be applicable in the areas of Inner Line Permit (ILP) notified under Bengal

Eastern Border Regulation, 1873.

ILP is applicable in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Mizoram.

Coal-belching town of Jharia in Jharkhand named most polluted city in India, as per a Greenpeace

India report.

Delhi is 10th-most polluted city in India, making marginal improvement in its air pollution level.

Average annual levels of PM10 particulate matter less than 10 micrometers in diameter that can enter

lungs and bloodstream, in Jharia was 322 micrograms per cubic metre in 2018.

Jharkhand's Dhanbad is second-most polluted city in India.

Lunglei in Mizoram is the least polluted followed by Meghalaya's Dowki.


Cross-border payments Firm Western Union partnered with teleco firm Bharti Airtel’s 2 arms–

Airtel Payments Bank & Airtel Africa Plc, to enable Airtel customers in India to receive international

remittances in their bank accounts & and Mobile Wallets across 14 countries in Africa.

Delhi Government released guarantee card that consisted of 10 guarantees for residents of Delhi.

Card guarantees uninterrupted power supply throughout year, also including free electricity for

residents up to 200 units.

Government also assured to replace overhead electrical wires with underground cables.

It also assures supply of clean drinking water to every household by 2025.

It also promises to build pucca houses under “Jahan Jhuggi Wahin Makan” scheme for those living in

slums.

Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal granted Delhi Police Commissioner the power to detain

under National Security Act 1980, for next three months. Delhi Police will get emergency detention

power between January 19 till April 18, 2020.

National Security Act allows preventive detention of an individual, who are seen as threat to national

security. The detained person is not charged by Police.

National Security Act was promulgated on September 23, 1980, to provide preventive detention of a

person if authorities are convinced that he / she hampers law and order.

Under NSA, a person can be detained for up to 12 months without a charge.

Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare released Final Estimates of 2018-19

and 1st Advance Estimates of 2019-20 of Area and Production of various Horticulture Crops -

2017-18 2018-19

(Final)

2019-20

(1st Advanced Estimate)

Area (Million Hectare) 25.24 25.43 25.61

Production

(Million Tonne) 310.67 310.74 313.35

Department of Heavy Industries sanctioned 2636 Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations under

FAME India scheme Phase II, to be set in 62 cities in 24 states and Union Territories. Aim is to make


sure at least one Electric Vehicle charging station is available in a grid of 4 km × 4km area in the selected

cities.

FAME India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles) phase II was

launched in April 2019 with budget of Rs 10,000 crores.

Department of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) launched paperless licensing process for

petroleum service stations, under Petroleum Rules 2002. Implementing agency to be Petroleum and

Explosives Safety Organization (PESO). .

Paperless licensing for petroleum service stations will benefit over 70000 pumps and oil marketing

companies. It will benefit in decreasing transit time of fuel as a greater number of vehicles can easily be

employed in process.

Department of Telecommunications taken over process of issuing and managing IMEI

(International Mobile Equipment Identity), a special 15-digit serial number of mobile phones, from

private body MSAI (Mobile Standard Alliance of India).

Government will change system operated by MSAI and develop a new system called “Indian

Counterfeited Device Restriction (ICDR)”, prepared by Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT).

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked people possessing drones to register their

gadgets by January 31, 2020.

Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued this notice soon after a missile attack place through a drone on

Iran.

A Drone Acknowledgement Number (DAN) will be issued when registration will be completed.

Dubai-based Indian girl Sucheta Satish, has won in 'Global Child Prodigy Awards 2020', in singing

category. She is known to be able to sing in 120 languages. Global Child Prodigy Award is a platform to

celebrate children's talent and power in different categories.

10 year old Ishwar Sharma from UK has also been honoured with Global Child Prodigy Award 2020,

for his achievements in spiritual discipline yoga. Sharma is originally from Mysore has participated in

over 100 yoga events worldwide.

East Coast Railways commissioned first waste-to-energy plant of Indian Railways, as 4th such plant

in country. It has been set up at with Polycrack technology, in Bhubaneswar. Plant can process 500 kg of

waste per day and will earn Rs 17.5 lakh per annum.

First such plant was established by Infosys in 2011 at Bengaluru.

In Polycrack Technology, waste is processed and reformed in 24 hours.


Election Commission launched an online system that will allow political parties to track their

applications, called Political Parties Registration Tracking Management System (PPRTMS). Status of the

application shall be obtained through SMS or e-mail.

Forbes' India 20 in 2020s List Includes names 2o people to watch for in 2020s. Some Prominent

names in list -

Prashant Kishor (JD(U) Politician)

Kanhaiya Kumar (Former JNU Students’ Union president)

Dushyant Chautala (deputy CM of Haryana)

Mahua Moitra (Lok Sabha member of TMC)

Adi Godrej

Garima Arora (chef and first Indian woman to receive a Michelin star)

US-born Hasan Minhaj (comedian, political commentator)

Aditya Mittal (Group CFO and CEO, ArcelorMittal Europe)

Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), which considers diversion of forest land for non-forest uses, has

approved Green Credit Scheme that would allow forests to be traded as a commodity.

It allows agencies like private companies, village forest communities etc to identify lands for forest

cultivation and ensures plantations are grown.

After 3 years, these identified lands would be considered as compensatory forest land after meeting

forest department’s criteria. Currently, industry should find appropriate non forest land equal to that

which would be razed for industrial purposes.

Previously in 2015, a ‘Green Credit Scheme’ for degraded forest land with public-private participation

was recommended. But it wasn’t approved by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate

Change(MoEFCC).

Former PNB Chief Sunil Mehta took over as Chief Executive Officer of Indian Banks’ Association

(IBA), for 3 years term.

General Conferences (Jan 11 - 20, 2020) -

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) added 135

laboratories to existing 51 recognized laboratories, with maximum number of laboratories being

increased in Maharashtra (35).

ELECRAMA 2020 Held at India Expo Mart in Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh), as flagship showcase of

Indian electrical industry.


2nd edition of ‘NIC TechConclave 2020’ held at Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra in New Delhi, with

theme Technologies for NextGen Governance.

1st Session of India-Norway Dialogue on Trade & Investment (DTI) held in New Delhi.

After successful run of Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express, 2nd premium Tejas train flagged off between

Ahmedabad and Mumbai. To be operated by IRCTC, it shall be equipped with modern facilities on board

for ensuring a high level of comfort to passengers.

7th annual meeting of Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure held in New Delhi.

NITI Aayog 's Atal Innovation Mission and UN Development Programme (UNDP) hosted Youth

Co:Lab -national innovation challenge in Delhi. It aims at fostering technology, promoting youth

leadership and social entrepreneurship in India.

Under 1st phase of Youth Co: Lab’s national innovation challenge, series of innovation challenges

were held in four cities – Bengaluru, Mumbai, Indore and Varanasi.

Following this, UNDP and Atal Innovation Mission now hosted Youth Co: Lab National Innovation

Challenge in New Delhi.

Ministry of Earth Science launched Seismic Hazard Microzonation project in major cities, to reduce

hazards of seismic activities by putting in adequate measures.

Seismic Hazard Microzonation is dividing earth quake prone areas based on certain factors.

So far, mapping is done in State of Sikkim and other 8 cities - Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Guwahati,

Jabalpur, Dehra Dun, Ahmedabad and Gandhidham.

Govt organised 1st-ever Food Processing Summit in UT of Ladakh.

7th Conference of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association India Region held in Lucknow (Uttar

Pradesh).

6th Island Development Agency meeting Held in New Delhi, focused on “Green Development in

Islands to reach new heights”.

Island Development Agency (IDA) taken up scientifically assessed sustainable development goals in

order to improve growth of Islands, as first time such an initiative is being implemented.

Also, city of Port Blair and other 7 islands of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are to be digitally

connected through submarine optical fibre cable by June 2020.

Total 26 islands(16 from Andaman & Nicobar Islands and 10 from Lakshadweep islands) are

identified for promoting tourism.

31st Road Safety Week Observed between 11th-17th Jan, 2020.


Month long special exhibition titled Indian Heritage in Digital Space, launched in New Delhi.

Chariot festival of Suchindram Thanumalayan Temple held in Tamilnadu.

Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani has launched 7th Economic Census process in state.

7th Economic Census (EC), conducted by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation

(MoSPI) commenced from Tripura. It is held after a gap of 5 years. As per previous Economic Census

conducted in 2013, there were 58.5 million establishments employing around 131 million workers.

Implementing Agency is Common Services Centers (CSC) e-Governance Services India Limited, a

Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY).

Results at national level will be available by March 2020.

Uttar Pradesh's Bahadurpur and Kheri Viran are to become India’s first ‘Model Sports Villages’ as part

of IMT Ghaziabad’s Adarsh Khel Gram’ program, in associaton with and NGO ‘Sports: A Way of Life’.

India's first case of Avian influenza / Bird flu caused by a rare variety of H9N2 virus reported in a 17-

month-old boy of Maharashtra. The viruses are found in wild birds and are endemic in poultry in some

countries.

First phase of Bishwa Ijtema commenced in Dhaka (Bangladesh), as 2nd largest congregation of

Muslim community after Hajj.

In Gujarat, first edition of Krishi Manthan- largest Food, Agri-business and Rural Development

Summit of Asia organized by Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad).

4 districts - Dibrugarh (Assam), Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh), Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Puri

(Odisha) awarded for innovations and initiatives in plastic waste management, during 2020 Swachhata

Darpan plastic management awards conferred by actor Aamir Khan in New Delhi.

General Conferences (Jan 21 - 31, 2020) -

3rd Apex Conference of the Smart Cities organized at Andhra University Convention Center in

Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).

3rd Global Potato Conclave held at Gandhinagar (Gujarat).

Andhra CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy launched first Disha Police Station in Rajamahendravaram city.,

as model stations aimed at rendering speedy justice for female victims of Sexual assault.

Andhra Pradesh government enacted Disha Act, after gruesome rape and murder of a veterinarian in

Hyderabad in November 2019. Disha act to ensure speedy investigation and trial of sexual assault cases.

Under it, state government is opening 13 special courts in each district for expeditious trial of such cases.


1st edition of Ganga-Volga Dialogue of Civilizations 2020 based on the theme “Connectivity”,

between India & Russia held in New Delhi.

Arunachal Pradesh state council for science & Technology organised state's 1st Innovation festival at

science centre IG Park in Itanagar.

Government will set up India's First war memorial for animals in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh).

As a first such initiative, Telangana State Election Commission used facial recognition app in a bid to

counter impersonation by voters, during elections in Kompally Municipality.

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated Classical Telugu Centre at Nellore (Andhra Pradesh),

which has been shifted to Nellore from Mysore.

India's first underwater Metro is being constructed at Hooghly river in Kolkata (West Bengal). The

new under water enable crossing the river in less than a minute. Currently it takes 20 minutes in the

ferry to cross the river and an hour to cross the Howrah bridge.

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launched Composite Regional Centre (CRC) for skill

development, empowerment of persons and rehabilitation in Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands).

CRCs are located in Kozhikode, Bhopal, Lucknow, Patna, Guwahati, Srinagar, Ahmedabad, Mandi and

Suraghi (Chhattisgarh).

Magh Bihu harvest festival celebrated in Assam. It is also called ‘Bhogali Bihu’ or ‘Maghor Bihu’ as it

is celebrated with community feasts after annual harvest takes place.

Nepal created a new Guinness World Record for organizing highest altitude Fashion Show on earth,

at 5340 meters (17515 feet) elevation at Kala Patthar.

National Conclave on Emerging Opportunities in Natural Gas sector held in New Delhi. It was stated

that present share of gas in energy basket of India is 6.2%, targeted to be 15% by 2030. Global average is

24%.

‘Women with wheels’ taxi service has been launched at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New

Delhi, to be only available for female commuters and will be driven by women drivers only.

Indian Railways has taken up RFID project (radio-frequency identification) that aims to automatically

and accurately track and trace rolling stock as they move across India, as an attempt to fuel growth plans

and improve operational efficiency.

PM Narendra Modi attended 3rd edition interaction programme with school students ‘Pariksha Pe

Charcha 2020‘ held in New Delhi.


Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan today launched a scheme of

SAIL to promote Voluntary Philanthropist Activities (VPA) by its employees, called SERVICE - SAIL

Employee Rendering Voluntarism and Initiatives for Community Engagement.

Kochi (Kerala) hosted Global Investors Meet ASCEND 2020.

Kerala Govt unveiled masures to enhance ease of doing business in state, including a wage subsidy

scheme for the first five years for new ventures getting registered from April 1, 2020.

Maharashtra Govt organized Advantage Maharashtra expo 2020 industrial exhibition in

Aurangabad.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray also inaugurated India’s first and biggest ‘walk-through’ aviary in

Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo also known as Byculla Zoo in Mumbai.

Aviary is spread over in 18,234 sq ft, is 44 feet tall and consists of 100 species of Indian and exotic

birds.

E-Commerce Firm Amazon organized SMBhav, a first-of-its-kind mega summit for Small and

Medium Businesses in New Delhi.

National Crime Record Bureau Launched 2 online national level services related to Search of Missing

Persons and to Generate Vehicle NOC.

Lok sabha speaker Om Birla attended 25th conference of speakers and presiding officers (CSPOC)

2020 in Ottawa (Canada).

Odisha Government launched a virtual police station, enabling people to lodge complaints from their

respective districts regarding theft of their vehicles without visiting Police Station.

Iranian film ‘Castle of Dreams’ directed by Reza Mirakarimi won Best Film and Best Director Award

at 18th Dhaka International Film Festival (Bangladesh).

President Ram Nath Kovind laid foundation stone of UT of Lakshadweep’s 1st super specialty hospital

at Kavaratti.

1st session of India-Norway trade and investment dialogue held in New Delhi. India and Norway

signed Dialogue of Trade and Investment when Norway Prime Minister visited India in 2018.

American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) will organize 14th Global Healthcare

Summit (GHS) in Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) in January 2021.

12th edition of South Asia Conference organized by Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA)

in New Delhi, with theme Neighbourhood First.


Tamil Nadu CM announced 'Direct CTO', to enable companies operating under 'green category

industries' receive faster clearances from government to commence operations. It was announced during

event for marking 125 years of trade body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

After Mumbai, e-commerce firm Amazon has set up its second pick up kiosk in Kolkata’s Sealdah

Railway Station, in partnership with Eastern Railways. Pick up kiosk allows the customers to pick up

packages at railway stations.

General Conferences / Events (Jan 1 - 10, 2020) -

CISF announced observing 2020 as “Year of Mobility” for the welfare of its troops.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting conferred Antarrashtriya Yoga Diwas Media Samman to

30 media houses, being presented for the first time. International Day of Yoga is celebrated every year on

21 June.

Navigation facilities for visually impaired inaugurated at Chandigarh railway station in Mohali

(Punjab), as fifth in country. Mysuru Railway Station in Karnataka was India’s first visually impaired-

friendly railway station inaugurated in Nov 2015.

5th Asia Pacific Drosophila Research Conference held at Pune (Maharashtra).

Home Minister Amit Shah laid foundation stone of 200 KM Long Delhi CycleWalk, aiming to reduce

air pollution of New Delhi by least 20% by increasing number of cyckle commuters from 11 lakh to 50

Lakh.

Delhi Government renamed Pragati Maidan metro station as Supreme Court metro station, as per

demand made by Supreme court in September 2019.

Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) developed a viable scientific method to cultivate

Indian Pompano fish in ponds, as a good alternative to shrimp. Pompanos are marine fishes. This is first

scientific experiment on cultivation of Pompano fish in India.

Indian Army began work on GOCO (Government Owned Contractor Operated) Model, extended to

base workshops and ordnance depots. Though, GOCO model in army workshops helps reducing

government expenditure on armed forces and increase combat capability of army, there are certain

issues associated with it, which includes Assets owned by government being operated by private

industries.

Ministry of Agriculture stated that sowing area of rabi crops has increased by 36 lakh hectares, due to

improvement in soil moisture in Rabi growing states. Total area under Rabi crops is now 571 hectares.

5th Pulses Conclave 2020 held in Lonavala (Maharashtra), held biennially.


Andhra Pradesh Government will deliver sand at customers’ door steps, under a new initiative.

Demand for sand in the state is 80,000 tonnes a day. It will help address issues of sand scarcity and sand

mafia.

Jammu and Kashmir registered highest Inpatient Department (IPD) care in country, as per National

Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC). As per report, 96 percent IPD care in rural areas of J&K is

provided by Public Health Facilities which is highest against country’s average of 85 %.

Himachal Pradesh Government introduced a portal “Himachal MyGov” and become 11th state in

India to have this facility. State also launched “CM App”, as a platform through which people of can write

directly to Chief Minister regarding their complaints.

India participated in Tehran Dialogue Forum, 23rd Persian Gulf International Conference held in

Tehran (Iran). During the forum, India supported the Hormuz Peace initiative 2020, which seek stability

in one of world’s busiest shipping lanes i.e, Strait of Hormuz.

31st International Kite Festival held at Sabarmati river front in Ahmedabad (Gujarat).

Indian Navy's 1st Maha-Navy Connect 2020 Tri-Dimensional Expedition held in Mumbai

(Maharashtra), to promote the maritime heritage of India and spread awareness about Coastal Security

amongst coastal communities in Maharashtra.

Indian High Commission organized “Art Exhibition” in Dhaka (Bangladesh), to commemorate 150th

birth anniversary of M K Gandhi.

2nd National GST Conference and Central and State Commissioners held in New Delhi, to streamline

Goods and Services Tax.

Delhi's first smog tower has been installed in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar market, inaugurated by

cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir. The 20-ft tall air purifier will purify air within vicinity of

almost 500 - 750 meters, expected to purify around 250000 to 600000 cubic meter air per day.

Global smartphone brand OPPO signed MOU with IIT Hyderabad, to take up joint R & D projects in

advanced and emerging technologies.

Google announced a $1 million grant for global non-profit organization ‘Internews’ that will launch

a new initiative to promote news literacy in India, as part of $ 10 million Google’s commitment

worldwide to media literacy.

Google also launched new application called “Tangi”, which focuses on Do It Yourself videos. Name is

inspired from TeAch aNd GIve.


Government Think Tank Niti Aayog released its Draft “Model Concession Agreement for Setting Up

Medical Colleges under Public Private Partnership”, document. It suggests Public Private Partnership

(PPP) model to link private medical colleges and district hospitals, to address issues of limited resources

and finances in medical education.

Government appointed Michael Debabrata Patra as Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India

(RBI).

He is 4th RBI deputy governor, other 3 being NS Vishwanathan, BP Kanungo and MK Jain.

Shaktikanta Das is Governor of RBI.

Government eMarketplace (Ministry of Commerce & Industry) and Government of Uttar Pradesh

signed MoU to set up a GeM Organizational Transformation Team (GOTT) Project Management Unit

(PMU) in State, to expedite harmonization of procurement guidelines.

Government has set a new deadline for completion of world’s highest railway bridge - Chenab

bridge. It is now to be completed by December 2021. Konkan railway is the implementing agency of this

project.

Chenab bridge will be 35m taller than Eiffel Tower in Paris (France), and will surpass Beipan river

Shuibai railway bridge (275 m) in China, being 359 meters above chenab river bed.

It is designed to withstand the wind’s speeds of up to 260km per hour. It will be 1.315-km-long and

will connect Bakkal (katra) and Kauri (Srinagar) in Kashmir.

Bridge forms a crucial link in 111-km stretch between Katra and Banihal, as part of Udhampur-

Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project.

Government launched a new scheme National Animal Disease Control Programme for FMD and

Brucellosis with outlay of 13343 crores for five years (2019-20 to 2023-24) by vaccinating 100% cattle,

buffalo, sheep, goat, and pig population for FMD and 100% bovine female calves of 4-8 months of age for

brucellosis. It is touted to be as world's largest vaccination programme.

Government notified structure of National Startup Advisory Council, to advise Government on

measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in country.

National Startup Advisory Council will be chaired by Minster for Commerce & Industry. It will consist

of non-official members, to be nominated by Government. Term of non-official members will be 2 years.

Government promulgated an ordinance to amend coal mining laws, to ease auction of coal mines.

Ordinance amends MMDR act (Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation act) 1957 and Coal

Mines (Special Provisions) act 2015.


It will enhance ease of doing business by democratizing coal sector, opening coal sector for anyone to

invest. It will promote FDI (Foreign Direct Investment).

The amendment will remove eligibility criteria and restrictions in order to achieve this. This also

allows 100% FDI participation.

CMSP act had clauses that allowed only companies that are engaged in specific end use of coal to

participate in auction. These clauses are now removed.

Government signed historic agreement with 9 factions of the National Democratic Front of

Bodoland (NDFB).

Bodoland Territorial Area District will hold special rights for locals. Outsiders will have to obtain

“permit” to work in territory. It will provide political rights to Bodo Tribals living in Assam.

It is 3rd agreement signed in 27 years, with first being signed with All Bodo Students Union in 1993

and second was signed with Bodo Liberation Tigers in 2003.

Government will allocate spectrum to all telecom operators and equipment makers for upcoming 5G

trials in country, also allowing Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei to conduct super-fast speed 5G

network trials in India.

Govt accepted recommendations of a special investigation team (SIT), headed by retired Delhi HC

judge Justice S N Dhingra which has probed 186 cases of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, and Govt will take

appropriate action as per the laws.

Govt announced that jewellers shall be allowed to sell hallmarked gold artifacts that are made of 14,

18 and 22 carat gold alone. Also, it is mandatory for all jewellers to get compulsory hallmark, which is

currently voluntary. Mandatory ruling is to be implemented from January 15, 2021. Violations of hall

marking will result in one-year imprisonment and fine.

Govt announced to make Indian Railways to run 100% on electricity, by 2024. Also, Railways has

planned to make the network zero-emission network by 2030.

So far, till 2017-18, 4,087 km route has been electrified. Electric traction accounts to 57.91% of energy

expenses of Indian Railways.

Govt launched Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD) developed by Indian Institute of

Technology Madras, that will help in proper monitoring and accurate analysis of road accidents. Initially,

it is being implemented in 6 states - Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil

Nadu (TN) and Uttar Pradesh (UP).


Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation (GAIC) will import water-soluble fertilizers from China, named

AGRO. These fertilizers are best suited for precision agriculture. Gujarat has maximum land under drip

irrigation among all states.

Gujarat CM Vijay Ramniklal Rupani unveiled world’s 2nd largest statue of Sardar vallabhbhai Patel

in Ahmedabad (Gujarat). This bronze statue is 50 feet tall, builting at cost of 3.25 crores.

World’s tallest statue known as ‘statue of unity’, dedicated to Sardar Vallabbhai Patel was built at

Kevadiya in Narmada district of Gujarat. Its height is 182 meters (597 ft), built at cost of Rs 3000 crores.

It was opened on 31 October 2018 (Birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel).

Harvest festival of Lohri celebrated on January 13 in North India. Lohri marks Sun beginning its

journey to Northern Hemisphere and days start to get longer.

High Level Committee chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah approved additional central assistance

5908 crores to seven States from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) - for natural calamnities

during south west monsoon 2019. States are Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,

Maharashtra, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) signed MoU with Wipro 3D (metal additive manufacturing

(AM) business of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering), to jointly develop aerospace components using

metal additive technology (Three Dimensional (3D) printing).

3D printing is a modern manufacturing technique, which uses solid material such as plastic or metal

as ink to print or manufacture the desired object layer by layer, also called additive printing.

Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) in New

Delhi, and a National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.

I4C centre was approved in October 2018 at a cost of 416 crores. It has 7 major components.

National Cyber Crime reporting portal will enable the citizens to report cyber crimes online.

Home Minister Amit Shah launched country’s first Cyber Crime Prevention Unit called the “Cyber

AASHVAST” in Gandhinagar (Gujarat).

Video Integration and State Wide Advance Security project called VISWAS was also launched.

AASHVAST unit will prevent cyber crimes with help of VISWAS and NETRANG.

ICC Awards 2019 Winners -

Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy - Ben Stokes (Eng)

ODI Cricketer of the Year – Rohit Sharma


Test Cricketer of the Year- Pat Cummins (Aus)

Spirit of Cricket Award- Virat Kohli. Virat Kohli also named captain of both ICC Test and ODI teams

of 2019.

Associate Cricketer of the Year- Kyle Coetzer (Scotland)

ICC Men's Emerging Cricketer- Marnus Labuschagne (Aus)

T20I Performance of the Year- Deepak Chahar

ISRO launched Bhuvan Panchayat version 3.0, under which ISRO will collaborate with Gram

panchayat members to understand their data requirements. It will run for two years. The portal aims at

helping village development planning process under the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

IT Firm Infosys signed 5 years deal with France based Logistics Firm GEFCO to digitally transform

its worldwide operations. It will help GEFCO to transfrom GEFCO’s next-generation business application

management services.

IT Firm NIIT is selected as one of EdTech companies for NEAT initiative. NIIT will work with

AICTE to implement vision of Ministry of HRD on NEAT. MHRD will institute 5 awards of Rs 50000 for

faculties and 10 awards of Rs 10000 for students.

NEAT (National Educational Alliance for Technology) was launched to customize learning process

using Artificial Intelligence.

IT Firm Tech Mahindra has set up a Google Cloud Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Hyderabad, aimed

at driving digital transformation of enterprises globally.

Income-Tax Department launched a 24x7 control room to monitor black money and illegal

inducements in poll-bound Delhi. The facility will also host a toll-free number- 1800117574 - where

people can inform the department about any suspicious activity.

India has achieved complete phase out of ozone depleting Hydro Chloro Fluoro Carbons (HCFC),

under Montreal Protocol.

Ministry of EFoCC had prohibited import of HCFC-141b, under Ozone Depleting substances

(Regulation and Control) amendment rules 2019.

Use of HCFC-141b by foam manufacturing industries have been come to an end with the stoppage of

import of HCFC-141b.

It will have great impact on ozone layer, as 50% of ozone depleting chemicals being used in country

attribute to HCFC-141b.


India renamed its National TB Control Programme to National Tuberculosis Elimination

Programme. Also, WHO (World Health Organization) recently endorsed on technology developed by

Indian scientists to detect disease, called TrueNat MTB. India plans to eliminate TB by 2025, which is 5

years ahead of goal of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals target.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) released its report on sugar intake of India, as first of

its kind report in India.

Study says that intake of added sugar in metro cities was 19.5 grams per day, lower than level

recommended by ICMR which is 30 gram per day. Sugar intake was highest in Mumbai (26.3 g/day),

followed by Ahmedabad.

Report also stated that overall intake of sugar by women was 20.2 g/day and that of men was 18.7

g/day.

Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and Mangaluru Smart City Ltd signed MoU for giving a boost

to green building movement and sustainable development in Mangaluru.

Indian Institute of Management Indore partnered with video-sharing application TikTok to produce

short video modules on management courses for students and trained professionals.

IIM Indore also tied up with Uttar Pradesh Police, under which it will provide effective

communication and crowd management training to UP Police personnel.

Indian Navy signed MoU with Geological Survey of India (GSI), for Sharing of seabed sediments

data, products and expertise for Naval Application in Meteorology and Oceanography.

Data collected using GSI’s oceanic research vessels Samudra Manthan, Samudra Kaustubh,

Samudra Shaudhikama and Samudra Ratnakar will now be used by Navy’s growing blue water fleet for

reliable oceanographic modeling.

Indian Railways enhanced security in major railway hubs by installing IP based video surveillance

system, which is to be installed in 983 stations at a budget of Rs 250 crores. The budget is being allocated

from Nirbhaya funds.

Nirbhaya fund was announced in Budget 2013, with corpus of 1000 crores. Earlier -

Govt sanctioned 1000 crores from fund to implement women help desks in police stations. Also, anti-

trafficking units are to be set up in all districts with the funds.

A “Safe City Programme” was implemented at a cost of Rs 194.44 crores.

Govt anounced 1023 Fast track Courts to be made, for speedy disposal of cases under POCSO act and

rapes.


Indian Railways integrated its helpline numbers into a single number - 139, for quick grievance

redressal and enquiries by passengers during their train journeys. It will take over all the existing

helpline numbers, available in 12 languages.

Indian Railways will source 1000 MW (1 GW) of solar power and 200 MW of wind power to zonal

railways by 2021-22.

South-Central Railways is the first to actively work on solar based projects. Nandyal – Yerraguntla

section in Guntakal Division has been declared as first solar section in South Central Railway.

Also, Kashmir is to be linked with the rest of India through railway network by December 2021, with a

111-km stretch of railway link project between Katra and Banihal in Kashmir.

Konkan Railways is implementing agency of the project. The bridge across Chenab river, a part of this

project, will be highest bridge in world at 359 metres above river bed.

Indian government announced to reward travellers who explore 15 domestic travel destinations in a

year, out of their state. Government will sponsor their travel expenses as an incentive, under

campaign Dekho Apna Desh.

IndianOil and Oil India Ltd (OIL) signed agreement to collaborate on a CO2-assisted Enhanced Oil

Recovery (EOR) project in Assam. Plan is to transfer CO2 captured from flue-gas stacks of Hydrogen

Generation Unit & Gas Turbine power plant at Digboi Refinery to OIL’s Nahorkatiya & Dikom oil fields

in Assam.

India’s 1st underwater metro project will be completed as East-West Project of Kolkata Metro Rail

Corporation, by March 2022.

India’s first Super Fab Lab inaugurated in Kerala, to function in collaboration with Massachusetts

Institute of Technology (USA). It is only Super Fab Lab that is being installed outside US.

Super Fab Lab is being installed in collaboration with Kerala Startup Mission. Fab Lab offers digital

fabrication. It is an array of computers that covers almost all materials, used in businesses to develop

prototypes and also in education.

Vigyan Ashram (Pune) was first Fab Lab to be opened in India, established in 2002.

India’s first e-waste clinic opened in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), to enable segregation, processing

and disposal of waste from both household and commercial units.

IndusInd Bank launched asset management platform PIONEER, to provide services to high net-

worth customers. PIONEER customers will get several privileges.


Jan 14 is observed as Armed Forces Veterans Day, celebrated since 2017. It was initially called

Armistice Day.

Jan 27 - International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust,

Proclaimed by UN in 2005. 2020 marks 75th anniversary of the day.

The Holocaust was World War II genocide of European Jews. Between 1941 and 1945. Germany

murdered over 60 lakh Jews, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan launched K-RERA (Kerala Real Estate Regulatory Authority) to bring

transparency in real estate sector, and boost customer confidence. As per Real Estate (Regulation and

Development) Act 2016, State governments needs to establish RERA for the effective regulations in real

estate sectors.

Kerala government invoked Article 131 to file a petition against Citizenship (Amendment) Act

(CAA) in Supreme Court, becing first state to move to Supreme court for challenging CAA.

Citizenship (Amendment) Act provides Indian citizenship to religious minorities belonging to six non-

Muslim religions, who have faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Kerala become first state to challenge CAA, stating that it violates Article 14, 21 and 25 of constitution,

which guarantees basic principles such as equality before law, protection of life and personal liberty and

freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion.

Article 131 vests SC with original jurisdiction over any dispute arising between states or between

centre and state. It gives Supreme Court the power to take up such cases straight instead of going

through a lower court or reviewing a lower court’s judgement.

Earlier, Article 131 was invoked by state of Madhya Pradesh in 2011 challenging certain aspects of its

reorganization following bifurcation and formation of Chhattisgarh.

Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) inaugurated the first “Patola Saree” production

unit in Gujarat, to help cut down cost of silk yarn production and also increase sale of raw material for

Patola sarees.

Patola is trademark saree of Gujarat. They are highly expensive and were once worn only by royal

aristocratic families. With the new plant, the cost is expected to come down.

Kolkata Police began 3rd edition of its 'Sukanya' project, to provide girls with self-defence training.

Girl students of VIII, IX, XI and girls studying in the first year at educational institutions in this area will

be part of it.

Lai Haraoba ritualistic festival observed by Manipuri meitei communities in Tripura.


Madhya Pradesh (MP) Govt approved Mukhya Mantri Karmchari Swasthya Bima Yojana, to be

implemented from April 2020, for welfare of 12.55 lakh employees of state govt.

Under this, Rs 5 lakh for general illness and 10 lakh for critical illness & Cashless treatment facility up

to Rs 10,000 per annum in OPD (Outpatient Department) will be provided / free medicines will be

distributed.

Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh state Governments made reading of the Preamble of the

Constitution mandatory for schools, to be done after prayer in all primary and secondary schools in these

states.

Maharashtra government launched a ‘cyber safe women’ campaign, on birth anniversary of Indian

social reformer, Savitribai Phule (Jan 3). it aims to spread awareness regarding atrocities committed

against women and children.

Savitribai is considered as first female teacher of India. She along with her husband Jyotirao Phule

founded first India’s girls’ school in Pune in 1848.

Maharashtra government launched Shiv Bhojan scheme, to provide a meal to the poor at subsidized

rates of INR 10.

At least one 'Shiv Bhojan' canteen will be opened at the district headquarters.

Minister for Law & Justice, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Ravi

Shankar Prasad inaugurted Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Blockchain Technology in Bengaluru

(Karnataka), set up by National Informatics Centre (NIC).

It will facilitate Government Departments in building proof of concepts for use of Blockchain

technology in different dimensions of governance.

Minister for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's new Hindi novel Balwa will be released soon.

It is a fiction story based on happenings in India in 1990s.

Minister for Women and Child Development and Textiles, Smriti Irani launched Yashaswini Scheme

for Women entrepreneurship in Goa. Under this, women self-help groups will be given interest free

loans of upto Rs Five lakh for business.

Other 2 welfare schemes are Swasthya Sahayak Project and breast cancer screening initiative.

Ministry of Defence announced new fuel upgradation for Indian Navy with revised technical

specifications, launching High Flash High Speed Diesel (HFHSD) - IN 512, developed by Indian Oil

Corporation (IOC). Aim of new fuel introduction is to reduce carbon footprint.


This will help in reducing carbon footprint, equipment reliability, increased performance and will help

Navy achieve its Mission based deployment.

Ministry of Earth Science launched Seismic Hazard Microzonation project in major cities of India,

aiming at reducing hazards of seismic activities by putting in adequate measures. It is process of dividing

earth quake prone areas based on certain factors. Based on division, mitigation measures are prepared.

So far, mapping has been done in State of Sikkim and in 8 cities - Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata,

Guwahati, Jabalpur, Dehra Dun, Ahmedabad and Gandhidham.

Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) relaxed Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules to get

Blue Flag certification. These rules restrict construction work around sea beaches.

CRZ rules do not allow any infrastructure on sea beaches and islands. In 2019, MoEF selected 13

beaches of India for Blue Flag certification. Blue Flag certification asks to create some fundamental

infrastructures at beaches like solar water plants, portable toilets, CCTV, etc.

Blue Flag is an international certification of environmental properties and cleanliness on beaches, run

by Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). A Blue Flag beach provides hygienic and clean

bathing water, basic infrastructure to tourists and sustainable development in the area.

Concept started in France in 1985. South Africa was first outside European country that joined the

program in 2001.

Spain has largest number of 566 Blue Flag beaches, while Greece and France have 515 and 395 such

blue flag beaches respectively.

Chandrabhaga beach located on Konark coast of Odisha is first beach in India to receive 'Blue Flag

Certification'.

Ministry of External Affairs will set up a new division called NEST-New and Emerging Strategic

Technologies, which will investment coordination among the states and also with the foreign countries.

NEST will also help India spread emerging technologies among the states.

Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change notified new Wetland Conservation Rules,

that prohibit expansion or setting up of colonies or industries and disposal of demolition waste within

wetland areas.

Also, Each state and UT has to establish an authority to define strategies for wetland conservation and

to the wise use of these wetlands within their jurisdiction.

Wetland authority will publish list of all wetlands in States / UTs within 3 months.


Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released National Draft Policy on rare diseases, which

proposes one-time fund of Rs 15 lakhs to treat rare diseases under Ayushman Bharat.

For certain rare diseases with high annual treatment expenses, a digital platform will to be set up to

raise donations / corporate funding.

An inter-ministerial consultative committee will to be set up at national level.

There are 7,000 to 8,000 rare diseases. However, therapies are available only to less than 5%

diseases. So far, 450 rare diseases have been recorded in India.

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways assigned a new motor vehicle Registration Mark “DD” to

‘Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu’ for registration of vehicles. Note that a New UT was recently

formed after merger of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.

Ministry of Rural Development signed MoU with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, under

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), for furthering their

mutual objectives of strengthening grassroots institutions of rural poor.

Ministry of Steel launched Purvodaya, as a world class steel hub, aiming to accelerate development

programme of eastern states. Ministry will implement the same along with CII (Confederation of India

Industries).

The steel hub will create 2.5 million jobs in the region, helping achieve India’s steel policy target of

300 MT by 2030.

5 Eastern states (West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Northern Andhra Pradesh) are

rich in coking coal, bauxite and dolomite reserves. The region also has major ports such as Haldia,

Paradip, Kolkata and Vizag. Setting up a steel hub hre will help India achieve its 5 trillion-dollar economy

target fast.

Mizoram Government organised Zo Kutpui festival. It will move to states having Mizo population,

trying to unify the Mizo population across world.

Mizoram Govt will celebrate ‘Chapchar Kut’, the biggest festival of Mizos, on March 6, 2020.

Theme will be Promotion of Mizos’ culture and moral code.

NITI Aayog and UT of Ladakh signed MOU, under which NITI Aayog will support Ladakh through

its initiative “Development Support Services to States for Infrastructure Projects” (DSSS). NITI Aayog

will will expedite project implementations, create unique models of development and will identify high-

impact priority projects.


NITI Aayog released its vision for National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP), aiming to

democratize access to publicly available government data. It will host latest datasets from various

government websites, present them coherently, and provide tools for analytics and visualization.

NDAP will spearhead the standardization of formats in which data is presented across sectors and will

cater to a wide audience of policymakers, researchers, innovators, data scientists, journalists and

citizens.

Nagoba Jatara tribal festival celebrated in Telangana.

National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) partnered with UNICEF

Hyderabad field office to set up ‘Communication Resource Unit’ (CRU). CRU will function as mechanism

for providing Social and Behavioural Change Communications (SBCC) support to flagship programmes

of State & central Government.

National Real Estate Development Council launched India’s first e-commerce housing portal

‘HousingForAll.Com’, to give a boost to the ‘Housing for all’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives.

New snake eel species residing in Bay of Bengal has been discovered by Estuarine Biology Regional

Centre (EBRC) of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI). It has been named as Ophichthus

kailashchandrai , to honour vast contributions of ZSI Director Kailash Chandra.

Non-Profit Organization Pratham released its annual report Annual Status of Education Report

2019, based on survey covering 36,000 children in age group of 4 to 8 years.

Around 56.8% of girls and 50.4% of boys are enrolled in government schools. Also, 4 out of every 10

children entering Class I are less than 5 years old, which should be 6 years.

Report suggests that network of Anganwadi Centres should be strengthened.

On January 5 2020, Govt's Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) and LED Street

Lighting National Programme (SLNP) marked their 5th anniversary. These schemes are implemented by

Energy Efficiency Services Limited.

Under SLNP, around 1.03 crore smart LED street lights were installed, reducing Green House Gas

emission by 4.8 million tonnes annually.

Under UJALA, 36.13 crore LED bubs have been distributed so far, helping in reducing green house

gas emission by 38 million tonnes annually.

One Nation One Ration Card Scheme will be implemented across India from June 1, 2020,

preponing from original date of 30th Jun.


Currently, it is operational in 12 states. Under this, a beneficiary will be able to avail benefits across

country using same ration card.

Until now, migrants had to get a new ration card issued, to buy food grains at subsidized prices

through Public Distribution System.

Beneficiary will be verified through Aadhaar authentication at Fair Price Ships on electronic point of

sale (e-POS) devices.

Oxford University Press (OUP) named Samvidhaan (Constitution) as Oxford Hindi Word of 2019.

Oxford Said that 2019 saw the values of democracy, secularism, justice, liberty, equality and fraternity

being tested on the touchstone of the Constitution.

PM Modi dedicated 4 renovated Ancient Buldings in Kolkata - Old Currency Building, Metcalfe

House, Belvedere House and Victoria Memorial Hall.

About Buildings -

Currency Building was built in 1833. RBI operated it till 1937 after which it was abandoned.

Metacalfe Hall was named after Lord Metacalfe, Governor General of India between March 1835 and

March 1836. It is famous for its 30 Corinthian pillars.

Belvedere House was Mir Jafar’s palace.

PM Modi Also attended 150th year celebrations of Kolkata Port Trust, launching a commemorative

stamps of the port trust on this occasion. The port was also renamed as Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Port

on this occasion.

PM Narendra Modi dedicated 5 DRDO laboratories to country, for young scientists to boost their

research capabilities. The labs will act as a platform to identify young scientists up to the age of 35 years.

Paleontologists discovered new species of meat-eating dinosaur in Utah (US), that inhabited flood

plains of western North America during Late Jurassic Period, between 157-152 million years ago. It

belongs to allosauroids.

Previously, paleontologists thought there was only 1 species of Allosaurus in Jurassic North America.

At 155 million years old, Allosaurus jimmadseni is geologically-oldest species of Allosaurus.

Parshuram Kund Mela held in Arunachal Pradesh, on eve of Makar Sankranti. Devotees visit the

sacred place to take a holy dip in the Kund on the occasion of Makar Sankranti every year.

Petroleum Conservation Research Association (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas) launched

fuel conservation campaign Saksham, aimed at creating awareness among public about fuel


conservation. In collaboration with NCERT, PCRA has prepared a comic book on the theme, “Fuel

Conservation”.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari launched an online web portal ‘GATI’, to be

used to monitor around 500 projects worth Rs 3 Lakh Crores. Contractors and concessionaires can raise

any project related issues on the portal.

Security app Very Good Morning (VGM) has been launched at IIT-BHU, as an attempt to check

crime against women. It will send location to police emergency number by pressing mobile's power

button thrice.

State Government of Odisha launched online platform called e-Gazette

portal (http://egazetteodisha.nic.in), a first-of-its-kind initiative in country. With this, Gazette

notifications are now available as error-free and paperless under one platform.

Supreme Court ordered a stay on NCLAT's order reinstating Cyrus Mistry as executive chairman of

Tata Sons, while hearing a petition by Tata Sons challenging National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's

(NCLAT) decision of reinstating Cyrus Mistry as group's chairman.

NCLAT had reinstated Cyrus Mistry as executive chairman of Tata Sons on December 18, 2019. It

came 3 years after Mistry was ousted as Tata Son’s Chairman.

Cyrus Mistry was restored as executive chairman of Tata Sons by NCLAT, pointing out that actions of

former Tata Chairman Ratan Tata against Cyrus Mistry were oppressive.

Supreme Court ruled that African Cheetah shall be permitted to be introduced in India, on

experimental basis. SC had put the move on hold 10 years back, fearing the Cheetahs might become into

conflict with project of reintroduction of lions in Kuno sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.

Supreme Court stated that Right of access to internet is a fundamental right, asking administration

of Jammu and Kashmir to review curbs on internet.

In 2016, UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) released a resolution that condemned

disruption of internet access by government.

Tamil Nadu Assembly renamed a fisheries university and a music university after Former CM J

Jayalalithaa.

Telangana Govt declared to observe 2020 as state’s “Year of Artificial Intelligence”. State will launch

it’s AI program in 2020, which will be implemented by NASSCOM and guided by AI framework

document.


To provide free medical treatment to the poor, Andhra Pradesh Govt Yeduguri Sandinti

Jaganmohan Reddy launched “YSR Aarogyasri scheme” at Eluru in West Godavari district. It will be

extended to each district by April 2020.

It is aimed at providing free medical treatment to people having an annual income of up to Rs 5 lakh.

Eligible people will be given Aarogyasri cards.

Eligible patient will also be provided with pension ranging from Rs 3,000 – Rs 10,000 based on the

disease.

Tribal Affairs Ministry proposed 6th Schedule Area status to UT of Ladakh, sending proposal to

Home Ministry for the same.

6th Schedule of Constitution makes separate arrangements for tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya,

Mizoram, and Tripura. Article 244A was added to the constitution through 22nd Constitutional

Amendment Act 1969.

It provides power of enactment of autonomous district councils (ADCs) to protect rights of tribal

populations.

People of Ladakh want to get tribal status so that people from other parts of the country do not come

and settle there. It will also protect their demographic recognition.

UPSRTC (Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation) launched ‘Damini’ helpline service

considering the safety of women passengers. As the extension of ‘Nirbhaya Yojana’ the unique number

“81142-77777” has been subscribed for this helpline.

US Based Payments Tech Firm Visa accquired software startup Plaid in a $5.3 billion deal, aimed at

boosting Visa's access to financial technology space.

US rolled back designation of China as a currency manipulator. Instead, it placed China along with

nine other trading partners like Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea and Vietnam on a monitoring list.

In Aug 2019, US had designated China a “currency manipulator”, after China’s central bank allowed

Yuan (Chinese Currency) to fall against USD.

US accused China of manipulating its currency to gain unfair competitive advantage in international

trade and that China still targets on continuing to receive hundreds of billions of dollars which it have

been taking from US with unfair trade practices and currency manipulation.

Uttar Pradesh Cabinet approved 234 crores for construction of a zoological garden named after

Shaheed Ashfaqullah Khan in Gorakhpur. Freedom fighter Ashfaqullah Khan was sentenced to death


along with Ram Prasad Bismil for the Kakori train robbery, commonly known as Kakori conspiracy of

1925.

Uttar Pradesh Government launched Mukhyamantri Krishak Durghatna Kalyan Yojana, which will

provide financial assistance of INR 5 Lakhs to family of farmers who die or become handicapped while

working in fields. Scheme will also include the Bataidars, who work in field of other persons and share

the crop after it is harvested. It will cover farmers in age group of 18-70 years.

Uttar Pradesh will become first state to start shortlisting migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and

Afghanistan, eligible for citizenship under new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Uttarakhand become first state to make a policy to lease agricultural land. In lieu of giving land on a

30-year lease, concerned farmer will get the rent for the land. Now any institution can take farm land on

lease in villages, leasing a maximum of 30 acres of land on lease for 30 years.

Vikram Sarabhai Children Innovation Center (VSCIC) will be set up in Gujarat, to nurture

innovative abilities of children in state. It was announced during Children’s Innovation Festival (CIF) in

Gandhinagar (Gujarat).

West Bengal overtaken Uttar Pradesh as top State in vegetable production in 2018-19, as per

Agriculture Ministry Data. West Bengal produced 29.55 million tonnes (mt) of vegetables last year,

vompared to 27.71 mt in UP.

Andhra Pradesh (AP) continued to hold top spot in fruits, with 17.61MT in 2018-19. It was followed by

Maharashtra (10.82 mt) and UP (10.65 mt).

West Bengal passed resolution against CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), becoming 4th state to do

so, After Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan. West Bengal govt stated that CAA does not stick to secularism.

World’s largest meditation centre inaugurated at Kanha Shanti Vanam in Hyderabad (Telangana),

to mark 75th anniversary of the formation of Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM) and Heartfulness

Institute. It can accommodate 1 lakh practitioners at a time.

Top

Persons

Indian-American Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari is among 11 new NASA graduates to have completed

over two years' of basic astronaut training and are set to be a part of NASA's future missions.

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Legendary Indian footballer Chuni Goswami has been honoured with a postal stamp, by Indian

Postal Department. He is 3rd Indian footballer after Gostho Paul (1998) and Talimeren Ao (2018), on

whose name a commemorative stamp has been issued by postal department.

Malavath Poorna from Telangana scaled Mt Vinson Massif, highest mountain peak in Antarctica at

4,892 meters and became first and youngest tribal women in World to scale 6 mountain peaks in six

continents.

Poorna’,a biography of Poorna Malavath was written by Aparna Thota.

Poorna now aims to scale Mt. Denali which is North America’s highest mountain peak in order to

achieve goal of scaling seven mountain peaks in seven continents.

At age of 13 years she became youngest Indian and world’s youngest girl to scale Mt. Everest, in 2014.

She scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) in 2016, Mt. Elbrus (Russia) in 2017, Mt. Aconcagua (Argentina)

in 2019, and Mt. Cartsnez (Indonesia) in 2019.

Obituaries (Jan 2020) -

Ratna Ojha - Noted Eminent Assamese dramatist, litterateur and social activist.

T N Chaturvedi - Former Governor of Karnataka.

Bhim Chandra Jana - Noted Freedom fighter.

Sharif Idu - Noted Folk Singer and sarangi maestro from Punjab. He was conferred with country’s

highest honour for performing arts — the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2006 in dhadi folk music

category.

Minati Mishra - Noted Odissi Danseuse and Padma Shri Awardee.

Hans Tilkowski - German footballer (Goalkeeper).

Akbar Padamsee- Noted painter and artist.

M. Chidananda Murthy - Noted Kannada writer, researcher and historian.

Qaboos bin Said Al Said - Ruler of Oman.

Thomas Antony - Noted Kerala Cartoonist.

Obaid Siddiqui - Noted Broadcaster and Urdu poet.

Gopinath Gajapati Narayan Deo - Odisha’s Gajapati dynasty head and former MP.

Manmohan Mahapatra - Noted Odia filmmaker. He won eight consecutive national film awards for

his films.

Khagendra Thapa Magar - World’s shortest man, from Nepal. He was 2 ft and 2.41 tall.

Bapu Nadkarni - Former Indian Cricketer.


Ashwini Kumar Chopra - Noted journalist and former MP.

P.T. Ummer Koya - Former vice-president of world chess governing body FIDE (International Chess

Federation).

Sunanda Patnaik - Noted Odia Hindustani vocalist.

Man Mohan Sood - Former Indian cricketer.

Saleha Sultan - Titular queen of Bhopal and wife of late Nawab Bashir Yar Jung of Paigah family.

Vinay Kumar Sinha - Noted Indian Film producer.

Sher Singh Kukkal - Noted artist and sculptor.

Kobe Bryant - American Basketball Player and Noted NBA Star. He died in a helicopter crash.

Golok Chandra Goswami - Noted Assamese linguist.

Melhupra Vero - First Rajya Sabha MP from Nagaland and Padma Shri Awardee.

Sunita Chandra - Former Hockey Player.

Jameela Malik - Noted South Indian actress.

Tushar Kanjilal - Noted social worker and Padma Shri Awardee.

Pieter Robert Rensenbrink - Former Netherlands' footballer.

Ajmal Sultanpuri - Noted Urdu poet.

Matthew Satya Babu - Former Noted Indian basketball player.

Sashi Sarma -Noted Assamese litterateur.

Vidya Bal - Noted Feminist and Social Activist.

Persons Resigned / Retired (Jan 2020) -

Indian female hockey Player Sunita Lakra announced her international retirement.

P R Seshadri resigned as MD and CEO of Karur Vysya Bank.

Cricketer Irfan Pathan announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

North Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev resigned from his position.

Italian footballer Daniele De Rossi announced his retirement.

Indian weightlifter Sarbjeet Kaur has been banned for four years by National Anti Doping Agency,

after being found guilty of a doping violation.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev resigned, after President Putin proposed a series of

constitutional changes.

Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Hafeez announced to retire from international cricket, after upcoming

T-20 World Cup 2020 to be held in Australia.


Brazil Tennis Player Joao Olavo Soares de Souza has been banned for life and fined $200,000 by

International Tennis Federation after being found guilty of match-fixing and corruption.

Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Sarec resigned from his post.

Vineet Saxena -Noted Rajasthan domestic cricketer.

Sachin Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart resigned as independent director of Ujjivan Small Finance bank

.

New Zealand Crickter Todd Astle announced his retirement from first-class cricket.

Abidali Neemuchwala resigned as CEO of IT Major Wipro.

Visits from India (Jan 11 - 20, 2020) -

India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval Visited Sri Lanka. He discussed setting up of maritime

research coordination centre in Sri Lanka. India also extended military assistance of 50 million USD to

Sri Lanka.

Visits from India (Jan 21 - 31, 2020) -

External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited African Nations Niger & Tunisia.

India signed MoU with Tunisia, for the setting up of a ‘India- Tunisia centre for innovation

in information and communication technologies (ICT)’ in Tunisia.

He Inaugurated USD 56 million convention centre in Niger''s capital Niamey. It is first centre to be

established in Africa by India to honour M K Gandhi, whose 150th birth anniversary was observed in

2019. Out of cost of USD 56 million, assistance of USD 35.48 was provided by India and the rest USD

20.52 million funded by Niger government.

Visits to India (Jan 1- 10, 2020) -

Tharman Shanmugaratnam - Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies

(Singapore)

Visits to India (Jan 11 - 20, 2020) -

Foreign Minister of Denmark, Jeppe Kofod visited India.

Bangladesh Information Minister Muhammad H Mahmud Visited India. India and Bangladesh

signed MOU for content exchange programme between All India Radio and Bangladesh Betar.

Also, co-production agreement was signed on biopic of “BangaBandhu”, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman,

which will be released during birth centenary year of Bangabandhu.

Bangladesh is celebrating ‘Mujib Year’ from March 17, 2020 to March 17, 2021 to mark centenary year

of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, first President of Bangladesh.


Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Defence of Finland, Jukka Juusti Visited India. India and Finland

signed MOU to further defence cooperation.

Visits to India (Jan 21 - 31, 2020) -

Luxembourg foreign minister Jean Asselborn visited India.

French Minister of Culture Franck Riester Visited India. He honored Sanjna Kapoor (Former British

film actress of Indo-British descent), with French honour of ‘Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des

Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) for her outstanding contribution to the field of theater.

Brazil’s President Jair Messias Bolsonaro Visited India -

He was Chief Guest at 71st Republic Day Parade. This is the third time that a Brazilian President was

chief guest at Republic Day. Last time a Brazilian President was chief guest was in 2004 when Luiz Inacio

Lula da Silva attended.

Brazilian Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply Ms. Tereza Cristina Correa da Costa

Dias also Visited.

15 MOUs Were Signed -

0. Bioenergy Cooperation

1. Oil and Natural Gas

2. Investment Cooperation and Facilitation Treaty

3. Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.

4. Early Childhood

5. Health and Medicine

6. Traditional Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy.

7. Cultural Exchange Programme for period 2020-2024

8. Social Security

9. Cyber Security

10. Scientific and Technological Cooperation (2020-2023)

11. Geology and Mineral Resources

12. MoU between Invest India and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex Brazil)

13. Animal Husbandry and Dairying

14. Cooperation for establishing a nodal institution in India to carry out research on Bioenergy

India-Brazil have set target of USD 15 billion trade by 2022.


Brazilian gunmaker Taurus Armas SA signed agreement for setting up a joint Venture with Indian

steelmaker Jindal Group to manufacture and sell guns in India. Jindal will hold 51% stake in JV and

remaining 49% will be held by Taurus.

Science

Astronomers found farthest galaxy group identified as “EGS77“.

This Trio of galaxies dates to when universe was only 680 million years old, or less than 5% of its

current age of 13.8 billion years.

EGS77 is farthest group of galaxies to have ever been sighted, discovered as part of the Cosmic Deep

And Wide Narrowband (Cosmic DAWN) survey.

The team was led by an Indian-origin Goa-born scientist, Vithal Tilvi.

China launched a new communication technology experiment satellite Tongxin Jishu Shiyan

Weixing -5 (TJSW-5) by its Long March-3B carrier rocket. Satellite will be used in communication, radio,

television and data transmission, as well as high throughput technology test.

Harvard University Researchers discovered a titanic wave of star-forming gases in Our galaxy Milky

Way. scientists reported that this massive structure has been hiding out in Milky Way galaxy’s spiral arm

closest to Earth.

It’s an 50 quadrillion miles long and it’s home to tens of thousands of baby stars, with potential for

countless more stellar births.

The sun is just 500 light years away from the wave at its closest point.

The structure dubbed Radcliffe Wave contains stellar nurseries once thought to belong in a ring-

shaped band around the sun. The wave contains gases equivalent to 3 million times the mass of the sun.

ISRO Launched India’s latest communication satellite GSAT-30, from Spaceport in French Guiana,

onboard launch vehicle Ariane 5 VA-251, from Kourou Launch Base (French Guiana). It carried India’s

GSAT-30 and EUTELSAT KONNECT for Eutelsat.

With a lift-off mass of 3357 kg, GSAT-30 will provide continuity to operational services on some of the

in-orbit satellites. GSAT-30 derives its heritage from ISRO’s earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series and will

replace INSAT-4A in orbit. Mission life of GSAT-30 is 15 years.


ISRO signed pact with Indian Institute of Astrophysics to establish an optical telescope under

“Project NETRA”.

Project NETRA was launched by ISRO in September 2019, to set up observational facilities that will

help in making early warnings to satellites about debris and hazards in their orbit. Aim is to make

facilities powerful enough to track even smallest particle of 10 cm diameter up to a range of 3400 km.

This will help India detect threats to Indian satellites from debris.

ISRO has also set up its 4th Regional Academic Centre for Space (RAC-S) at National Institute of

Technology Karnataka (NIT-K) at Surathkal. RAC-S encourages institutions to take part in advanced

research technologies related to space technology. Othr ISRO RAC-S are in Jaipur, Guwahati and

Kurukshetra.

ISRO will establish a 2nd launch port in Thoothukodi district in Tamil Nadu, to be used exclusively

to launch small satellite launch vehicles.

ISRO will to send a half-humanoid robot called Vyom Mitra as an experimental mission to

Gaganyaan. The robot is to fly in two unmanned mission that are planned in December 2020 and in June

2021.

Under Gaganyaan, ISRO's largely autonomous 3.7-tonne capsule will orbit Earth at 400 km altitude

for up to seven days with a two or three-person crew on board.

Rs 10000 crore project is expected to be launched in 2022, year of 75th anniversary of India's

Independence.

Russia will train Potential Gaganyaan astronauts. Also, France will train Indian flight surgeons to

enable them to monitor the health of astronauts selected for Gaganyaan Mission.

Indian Space Research Organization's proposed astronaut hub will be established at Challakere, in

Chitradurga district of Karnataka. It is expected to start functioning in 3 years. ISRO has prepared a

proposal of Rs 2700 crore for the development of this center.

LIGO (Laser Inferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) detected gravitational waves due to

collision of two neutron stars, as 2nd time the gravitational waves are being detected.

Mass of the neutron stars detected is expected to be 3.3 - 3.7 times that of sun. Scientists believe that

the neutron stars were formed separately and drifted together to form a star pair.

Currently LIGO operates 3 gravitational wave detectors at Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford. They

are located 3,000 km apart in the shape of ‘L’. LIGO India is to come up in Maharashtra. It will aim at

locating gravitational waves and their new sources.


Gravitational waves are caused by exploding stars, black holes, merging neutron stars. LIGO helps to

detect these waves and analyze information that they carry.

NASA 's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) discovered an Earth-sized world within the

habitable range of its star, which could allow presence of liquid water. Planet is named "TOI 700 d",

which is 100 light-years away from earth.

Star TOI 700 is small, about 40 per cent of our Sun's size and only about half as hot. TESS discovered

three planets in orbit, named TOI 700 b, c and d. Only "d" is in the so-called habitable zone, not too far

from and not too close to the star, called Goldilocks zone. It is about 20 % larger than Earth and orbits its

star in 37 days.

TESS also discovered an exoplanet orbiting 2 stars instead of one, identified by a high school

intern Wolf Cukier. Planet's size alone is 6.9 times larger than Earth, making it unlikely to be livable.

Named TOI 1338 b, it is the only planet in TOI 1338 system, which is 1300 light-years away in

constellation Pictor.

Scientists at National Centre for Cell Science Pune discoverd a novel archael species

named Natrialba swarupiae, in Rajasthan' s Sambhar Lake (India’s largest inland salt lake). It is named

after Dr. Renu Swarup (Secretary in Department of Biotechnology).

Archae are microorganisms which are similar to bacteria in size and simplicity of structure but

radically different in molecular organization.

Scientists discovered oldest material on earth, as a 7 billion years old grains inside meteorite that

crashed in a fireball in 1969 into town of Murchison in Victoria State (Australia). Dust analyzed in

research came from before solar system’s formation known as ‘presolar grains’, measuring 2 to 30

micrometers in size.

Presolar grains are solid matter coming from dying stars with stardust flung into interstellar space

ready to be used again to form new stars.

Scientists previously had found a presolar grain in Murchison meteorite was about 5.5 billion years

old, oldest known solid material on earth.

Scientists from University of Oxford in England (UK) shown that a starfish-like species called “red

brittle star (Ophiocoma wendtii)” living in coral reefs of Caribbean Sea, can see even though it does not

have eyes (ability to exhibit extraocular vision). It has become only the 2nd creature, after a sea urchin

species, known to have this ability.


In both species, extraocular vision is said to be facilitated by photoreceptor cells found on their

bodies.

While this creature is deep red during the day, it changes its colour to beige at night.

Scientists of University of Vermont and Tufts University (US) created world’s first living and self-

healing robots Xenobots, using stem cells from frogs. It is named after the African clawed frog, Xenopus

laevis.

Xenobots are new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism, which don’t look like traditional

robots. These are marchines which are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches), small enough to travel inside

human bodies.

Three new species of tiny frogs discovered in Arunachal Pradesh's Lower Subansiri district by

scientists of Zoological Survey of India. New species have been named as 'Liurana himalayana', 'Liurana

indica' and 'Liurana minuta'.

To provide communication support for Astronauts under Gaganyaan mission, ISRO will launch a

new satellite constellation named ‘Indian Data Relay Satellite System (IDRSS)’, similar to American

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, European Data Relay and Luch Satellite Data Relay Network

of Russia.

ISRO will send 2 IDRSS satellites in Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit(GEO), first in 2020 and 2nd in

2021. It will track Indian satellittes in low earth orbits.

India’s first manned space mission, Ganganyaan in 2022 will be the first beneficiary of the IDRSS

satellites.

World’s oldest mushroom has been discovered in Democratic Republic of Congo and dates back to

around 810 million years ago. Preserved in rock, the fossil fungi were found near the city of Mbuji-Mayi,

smashing previous age record by 350 million years.

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Sports

1st edition of Khelo India University Games will be held at KIIT University in Bhubaneswar

(Odisha) between February 22nd - March 1st 2020.

2020 Hobart International Women's Tennis (Australia) -

Singles - Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan)

Doubles - Nadiia Kichenok (Ukraine) AND Sania Mirza (India)

https://www.quicktechdiw.com/


2020 Indonesia Masters Badminton -

Men's Singles - Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (Indonesia)

Women's Singles - Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand)

Men's Doubles - Indonesia's Marcus Fernaldi Gideon AND Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo

Women's Doubles - Indonesia's Greysia Polii AND Apriyani Rahayu

Mixed Doubles - China's Zheng Siwei AND Huang Yaqiong

3rd edition of Khelo India Youth Games held in Guwahati (Assam). Maharashtra adjudged as

champion with 256 medals, including 78 gold. Medal Tally -

Rank State Gold S

i

l

v

e

r

Bronze Total

1 Maharashtra 78 7

7

101 256

2 Haryana 68 6

0

72 200

3 Delhi 39 3

6

47 122

4 Karnataka 32 2

6

22 80

5 Uttar

Pradesh

29 2

8

30 87


63rd National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC) 2019 held at Bhopal (Madhya

Pradesh), organized by National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) & MP State Shooting Academy.

71st edition of International Boxing Tournament Strandja 2020 held in Sofia (Bulgaria) -

India ranked 9th, with 3 medals (1 Silver, 2 Bronze). List was topped by Ukraine with 10 medals.

Indian Medals -

Mohammed Hussamuddin - Silver (57 KG)

Sonia Lather - Bronze (57 KG)

Shiva Thapa - Bronze (63 KG)

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Annual Awards presented in 25 different categories for

2018-19 -

Pacer Jasprit Bumrah received highest prize of Indian cricket – Polly Umrigar Award for the best

international cricketer (2018-19) in men’s category. It carries cheque for 15 lakh. Poonam Yadav clinched

the top prize in women’s category and was awarded the best international cricketer.

Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Anjum Chopra were awarded Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement

Award and BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award for women respectively.

Other Notable Winners -

Award Winner

Dilip Sardesai Award for highest run getter in Test

cricket (2018-2019)

Cheteshwar Pujara

Dilip Sardesai Award for highest wicket-taker in Tests

(2018-19)

Jasprit Bumrah

Best International Debut – Men Mayank Agarwal

Best International Debut- Women Shafali Verma

Best Performance In Bcci Domestic Tournaments Of Vidarbha C A


2018-19

Canadian Female footballer Christine Sinclair became all-time top scorer in international soccer,

with her 185th goal against St. Kitts and Nevis. This is a record for both male ane female category. She

got past mark held by American Abby Wambach.

Female Hockey Player Rani Rampal has been nominated for “World Games Athlete of the

Year”award 2019, by International Hockey Federation (FIH). 2019 will be the 6th edition of the IWGA.

Former England Cricketer Alastair Cook and ex-West Indies team manager Richard ‘Ricky’ Skerritt

are appointed as members of England's Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)'s World Cricket Committee.

Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's lap around Wankhede Stadium after World Cup 2011

win has been nominated in Laureas's list for most inspiring sporting event in last twenty years.

Apart from Tendulkar, England's Andrew Flintoff is other cricketer to feature in list. In 2005, England

defeated Australia in an Ashes Test, but Flintoff chose to first shake hands with Brett Lee rather than

celebrate with his side.

Campaign has shortlisted 20 sporting stories from last 20 years that have left their mark on world.

Winner will be decided on public vote.

Fouaad Mirza became 1st Indian equestrian (Horse rider) since 2000, to qualify for Olympics. He

will be particpating in 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (Japan).

Earlier, Imtiaz Anees participated in Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Fouaad Mirza was conferred with Arjuna Award in 2019.

Harshvardhan Sadgir defeated Shailesh Shelke to win 63rd Maharashtra Kesari Wrestling

Championship.

India's P Magesh Chandran won the title at 95th edition of Hastings International Chess Congress at

Hastings in England. He remained unbeaten in all the nine rounds.

Indian Table Tennis Player Manav Thakkar has been ranked world no.1 in latest International Table

Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings in the Under-21 men’s singles category. He achieved this after

winning title at ITTF Challenge Plus Benemax-Virgo North American Open in Markham (Canada).

Thakkar is 4th Indian to achieve this, after Harmeet Desai, G Sathiyan and Soumyajit Ghosh.


Indian female footballer Ngangom Bala Devi became first Indian woman to earn a professional

football contract abroad after signing for Scottish giant Rangers FC. She is also Rangers’ first-ever Asian

international footballer.

Indian shooters at Meyton Cup in Innsbruck (Austria) -

Divyansh Singh Pawar and Apurvi Chandela won gold, in men's 10m air rifle and 10m air rifle

women's category.

Deepak Kumar and Anjum Moudgil won bronze in same events respectively.

Indian wrestlers won 7 medals (4 gold, 2 silver, and a bronze) at 1st UWW (United World Wrestling)

Matteo Pellicone Rome Ranking Series 2020 held in Rome (Italy) -

2020 ranking series consists of two events - 1st, which already held in Rome, Italy and 2nd will held i

June 2020 in Warsaw (Poland). Indian Medalists -

Bajrang Punia 65kg freestyle Gold

Ravi Kumar Dahiya 61kg freestyle Gold

Vinesh Phogat 53kg Gold

Gurpreet Singh 82kg -Greco-

roman Gold

Anshu Malik 57kg Silver

Sunil Kumar 97kg Silver

Sajan Bhanwal 77 kg Bronze

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports de-recognised Rowing Federation of India (RFI) because of

violating the Sports Code of 2011 in four areas during RFI elections.

Misc. Sports events (Jan 2020) -

Ladakh won 7th National Ice Hockey Championship Women trophy held at the Karzoo Ice Hockey

Rink in Ladakh.

“Lawn bowls” and “cycling” events will be included in 3rd edition of Khelo India Games to be held in

Guwahati (Assam) in January 2020.


New Zealand Cricketer Leo Carter became 7th cricketer in world to score six sixes in an over, during

New Zealand's Twenty20 tournament Super Smash.

Australian Wade Ormsby won Hong Kong Open Golf Title.

International Hockey Federation unveiled a new world ranking system for 2020, as a match-based

instead of tournament-based calculation. It is expected to remove subjectivity surrounding continental

weighing by creating a system which is fair to all.

As per International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), India fnished Shooting Nation in World in

2019, with 21 gold, 6 silver, and 3 bronze. India secured first position in all Rifle-pistol World Cups and

Finals in 2019.

Hyderabad's Aashman Taneja has set a Guinness World Record in sport of Taekwondo, for most

number of full-contact knee strikes in one hour., with over 1200 knee strikes in an hour.

Norwegian chess player Magnus Carlsen has set a world record of 111 unbeaten classical games.

Team of Indian Consulate won Diplomat Cup Cricket Championship of 2020 held in Sharjah (UAE),

defeating Pakistan Consulate.

Jacqueline Williams of Jamaica became first woman third umpire in men’s international cricket

match, when she oversaw T20 matches between West Indies and Ireland.

Australia will host 11th Indoor cricket World Cup in Oct 2020.

Dattu Bhokanal’s two-year suspension on charges of tanking a race during 2018 Asian Games, has

been lifted by Rowing Federation of India (RFI).

Indian cyclist Esow Alben won gold Medal in men’s Keirin individual event at Berlin Tournament in

Germany.

Mizoram defeated Sikkim to win North East Dr T Ao Football Trophy 2020.

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal of Spain to make Serbia champion of

1st edition of ATP Cup 2020 held at Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney (Australia).

Sports Ministry approved holdihng Commonwealth Games shooting and archery events in India, to

be held under aegis of Commonwealth Games (CWG) Friendship Program in March 2022.

Switzerland based International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) Football Observatory released list

of the most valuable football players -

France's Kylian Mbappe topped list with €265 million, followed by Raheem Sterling (England) with

€223.7 million and Mohammed Salah (Egypt) with €175.1 million.

Lionel Messi raked 8th with €125.5 million.


World Archery conditionally lifted suspension on India, after elections were held for India’s

controversy-ridden Archery Association and Arjun Munda was elected as new President.

World Archery had appointed Kazi Rajib Uddin Ahmed Chapol as observer for elections of Archery

Association of India (AAI).

Observer submitted his report and based on that, World Archery considered 'conditional lifting' of

suspension on Indian Archery Federation, which was put in July 2019.

Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt and Paralympian Deepa Malik are among new inductees in government's

All India Council of Sports (AICS), from which Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and chess player Viswanathan

Anand have been omitted for not being "active" enough.

Tenure of AICS (formed in 2015) is extended by 3 years and it will continue to be led by sports

administrator V K Malhotra.

Other Noted new entrants in Council are former shooter Anjali Bhagwat, footballer Renedy Singh,

mountaineer Bachendri Pal and Cricketer Harbhajan Singh.

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