Daily Current Affairs: December 24, 2020

Daily Current Affairs (December 24, 2020) like many other sections is inevitable and this also helps to score in the Banking awareness, Static GK, and Financial Awareness sections. Remember, Banking Awareness, and Static Awareness Questions are asked from the General Awareness section. This will also help you to ride your preparations for the forthcoming exams.

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Important days

National consumers Day- December 24:

• National Consumer Day was observed annually on December 24. It was on this day that the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was enacted. The Act aims to provide consumers with effective safeguards against different types of exploitation, such as defective goods, deficiency in services and unfair trade practices.
• Theme: “New features of Consumer Protection Act, 2019”.

National News

Prime Minister Modi releases postal stamp to mark centenary celebrations at Aligarh Muslim University, Uttar Pradesh:

• Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi released a special postal stamp to mark the centenary celebrations of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). It is the first time in five decades that a prime minister has attended an AMU event as the chief guest. Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank also participated in the event.

Union Minister Arjun Munda E-Launches New Tribes India Outlet at Guwahati International Airport, Assam:

• Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Arjun Munda, has launched a new Tribes India Outlet at the Departure Lounge of Lokpriya Gopinath Bordolai International Airport, Guwahati.
• Divine Products Private Limited (DIVINITI) and TRIFED signed an MoU to create market-leading products and be labelled as “TRIFED-DIVINITY Premium Range” in New Delhi.

Assam:    

• Capital: Dispur
• Chief Minister: SarbanandaSonowal
• Governor: Jagdish Mukhi
• National Parks: Orang National Park, Manas National Park or Manas Wildlife Sanctuary, Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, Kaziranga National Park, Nameri National Park, Dehing Patkai Wls.

Prime Minister Modi launches ‘SEHAT’, a health insurance scheme for Jammu-Kashmir:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) SEHAT scheme for Jammu and Kashmir. SEHAT scheme stands for Social, Endeavour for Health and Telemedicine, a health insurance scheme for the Union Territory.
• Under Ayushman Bharat PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), eligible beneficiaries were covered under Health cover of Rs 5 lakhs.

Jammu and Kashmir:

• Capital: Srinagar (Summer), Jammu (winter)
• Lt Governor: Manoj Sinha
• National Parks: Hemis National Park, City Forest (Salim Ali) National Park, Dachigam National Park, Kishtwar National Park.
• Wildlife Sanctuaries: Changthang Cold Desert WLS, Gulmarg WLS, Jasrota WLS, Baltal-Thajwas WLS, Karakoram (Nubra Shyok) WLS.
• Lakes: Mansar Lake, Nagin Lake, Wular Lake, Surinsar Lake, Dal Lake.

Maharashtra signs MoUs worth ₹61,000 crores with 25 companies under ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ initiative:

• Maharashtra government signed an MoU worth Rs 61,000 crore with 25 Indian companies in more than 15 sectors under its ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ The MoUs signed are expected to create 2.53 lakh jobs across the state. The companies are Bajaj Motors, JSW Steel, Kirtikumar Steel Udyog, Inspire Infra Projects, etc.
• The MoUs were signed in the presence of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Industries Minister Subhash Desai.

Maharashtra:                   

• Capital:
• Chief Minister: Uddhav Thackeray.
• Governor: Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

Special Postal Cover released to commemorate 25 years of Controller of Defence Accounts (CDA) in Secunderabad, Telangana:

• To commemorate the completion of 25 years of the Controller of Defence Accounts, Secunderabad, a special postal cover was released by Rajendra Kumar, Chief Postmaster General, Telangana Circle in the presence of Sanjiv Mittal, Controller General of Defence Accounts.
• The special cover captures CDA Secunderabad’s glory across the country, which has the ‘Philately’ legacy alongside.

Telangana:                      

• Capital: Hyderabad
• Chief Minister: Chandrashekar Rao
• Governor: Tamilisai Soundararajan
• National Parks (NP): KasuBrahmananda Reddy NP, Mahaveer Harina NP, Mrugavani NP.

International News

India and Israel signed an agreement to cooperate in the field of Health and Medicine & support ‘Green Healthcare’:

• India and Israel signed an agreement to cooperate in the fields of Health and medicine, including sharing of expertise in building climate-resilient infrastructure and support to ‘Green Healthcare’.
• The agreement was signed between Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabi Ashkenazi, and India’s Ambassador to Israel, Sanjeev Singla, on behalf of the Indian government.

Israel:

• Capital: Jerusalem
• Currency: Israeli Shekel
• Prime Minister: Benjamin Netanyahu
• President: Reuven Rivlin.

UNICEF launches tool to track developments in COVID-19 vaccine market dashboard:

• UNICEF has launched the COVID-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard – an interactive tool for countries, partners, and industry to follow the developments of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 vaccine market and its efforts of the COVAX Facility to ensure fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF):

• Headquarter: New York, United States
• Executive Director: Henrietta Holsman Fore
• UNICEF Representative in India: Dr Yasmin Ali Haque.

Banking and Economy

SBI Tops in UPI transaction while Paytm Payments Bank has the best tech for UPI payments; NPCI report:

• According to the recent report by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) has the lowest technical decline rate at 02% among all UPI remitter banks and 0.04% among all UPI beneficiary banks.
• State bank of India (SBI) topped in UPI (Unified Payment Transaction) Transaction with 607 million transactions among UPI remitter banks. The list was followed by Axis bank (241 million) and HDFC Bank (179 million).

State Bank of India (SBI):

• Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
• Chairman: Dinesh Kumar Khara.
• Tagline: The Banker to Every Indian

Acquisitions and Mergers:

YES Bank partners with Salesforce to accelerate retail growth to enhance customer experience:

• Yes Bank announced a collaboration with Salesforce to build a next-generation technology platform to power the retail lending business, in line with the bank’s strategy to further scale up its retail assets portfolio. Yes Bank is the first bank in India to move to Salesforce for Loan origination and processing.
• The collaboration aims to engage customers with a unified experience and drive aggressive retail-led growth for the bank.

YES Bank:

• CEO: Prashant Kumar
• Founder: Rana Kapoor
• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Tagline: “Experience our Expertise”.

NMDC and MECL join hands to explore coal, diamonds, and other minerals across India:

• India’s largest iron ore producing Navratna Company NMDC Limited has signed an MoU with Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL) to collaborate and conduct exploration in mutually agreed projects for iron ore, gold, coal, diamond, and other minerals in various states.
• It will help establish resources and reserves of various minerals and ores and its extraction while identifying unexplored mining areas and supporting the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ initiative by the government of India, extending commitment towards mineral security for the nation.

PayPal’s Xoom integrates with UPI payments to support instant remittances to India:

• PayPal’s money transfer service Xoom has added the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to its platform, to enable instant money transfers to India, reports Verdict.
• This integration allows non-residential Indians (NRIs) and persons of Indian origin (PIOs) in the US, Canada, and Europe to remit money to their family and friends in India.

Science and Technology

China’s new space carrier rocket Long March-8 successfully launches five satellites on its maiden flight:

• China’s new space carrier rocket “Long March-8” made its maiden flight, sending five satellites successfully into the planned orbit. The rocket was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan, China.
• The five experimental satellites will carry out the in-orbit verification of microwave imaging and other technologies. They will conduct experiments in space science, remote sensing, and communication technologies.

Appointments

Senior IAS officer Aditya Nath Das appointed as Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh:

• Aditya Nath Das, an IAS officer of the 1987 batch, has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh. He will take over from incumbent Nilam Sawhney.
• Aditya is presently serving as the special chief secretary, water resource and environment, forest, science, and technology departments.

Awards and Recognitions

L&T Defence gets ‘Green Channel Status’ from the ministry of defence for naval weapon systems:

• The Defence Ministry has granted ‘Green Channel Status’, which has benefits like deemed registration status and waiver from pre-dispatch inspection, to L&T Defence for major naval weapon delivery systems, the firm.
• The Green Channel Policy was introduced in March 2017 by the Defence Ministry, as part of the ‘Make in India’

Books and Authors

A Book titled ‘The Light of Asia: The Poem that Defined the Buddha’ authored by former union minister Jairam Ramesh:

• Former Union minister Jairam Ramesh’s new book will uncover and narrate the story of phenomenal poem ‘The Light of Asia’ that has shaped people’s thinking of the Buddha and his teachings.
• The book will be published by Penguins Viking imprint.

Sports News

Lionel Messi scores 643rd goal for Barcelona to equal Pele’s record of goals for a single club:

• Argentine footballer Lionel Messi has equalled Brazilian legend Pele’s record of 643 goals for a single club by scoring for Barcelona against Valencia. Messi has achieved the feat in a Spanish league match where both the teams ended in a 2-2 draw.
• Football legend Pele scored 643 goals in 665 games for Brazilian club Santos between 1956 and 1974, while Messi needed 748 matches from 2005 to 2020 to reach the tally.

Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju virtually inaugurates 8 Khelo India State Centres of Excellence across India:

• Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju virtually inaugurated 8 Khelo India State Centres of Excellence across India in the presence of State Sports Ministers. The 8 States include Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Kerala, Telangana, Nagaland, Karnataka, and Odisha.
• Khelo India has become a brand that everybody, including boys and girls, want to be part of the Khelo India programme. Khelo India games are becoming the most popular sporting event in the country.

Indian men’s hockey team in 4th position, women’s team in 9^th position in FIH rankings:

• The Indian men and women hockey teams will finish 2020 in fourth and ninth positions, respectively, after a major part of the year was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced that the Belgium men’s team and the Netherlands’ women will finish the year at the top of the world rankings.

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Daily Current Affairs Quiz – December 24, 2020

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