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Current Affairs - 23 September 2020

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1. Saudi Arabia suspends travel to and from India, Brazil and Argentina due to Pandemic
  • Saudi Arabia on September 23, 2020 suspended travel to and from India, Brazil and Argentina. The decision has been taken due to rising COVID-19 cases in the three nations.
  • The Gulf nation has also barred people who have travelled to any of these three countries 14 days before their arrival in the Kingdom. The information was relayed through an official circular.
  • The Saudi Travel ban comes as the Union Health Ministry announced that India accounts for 17.7 percent of global COVID-19 cases. The Ministry informed that India also has the highest share of global recoveries, almost 19.5 percent.
Foot Notes:
About Saudi Arabia:
Capital: Riyadh
King: Salman of Saudi Arabia
Currency: Saudi riyal
 
2. Government to set up Neutrino Observatory in the country: Dr.Jitendra Singh
  • The central government is planning to set up a Neutrino Observatory in the country. This was informed by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh on September 21, 2020 in a written reply in the lower house of the Parliament, Lok Sabha.
  • The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) will be a world-class underground laboratory with a rock cover that will study the neutrinos produced in the atmosphere of the Earth.
  • Construction of an underground laboratory and associated surface facilities at Bodi West Hills in the Theni district, Tamil Nadu. The underground laboratory will comprise a large cavern of size 132m X 26m X 20m and several smaller caverns. The approach to the caverns will be by a 2100 m long and 7.5 m wide tunnel.
Foot Notes:
About Tamil Nadu:
Capital: Chennai
Chief Minister: Edappadi K. Palaniswami
Governor: Banwarilal Purohit
 
3. DRDO conducts successful flight test of missile target vehicle ABHYAS
  • The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted a successful flight test of ABHYAS on September 22, 2020. The test was conducted from the Interim Test Range in Balasore, Odisha.
  • During the trials, ABHYAS - High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) was successfully test flown. The air vehicle can be used as a target for the evaluation of various missile systems.
Foot Notes:
About DRDO:
Headquarters: New Delhi
Founded: 1958
Chairman: Dr G. Satheesh Reddy
 
4. International Day of Sign Languages: 23 September
  • International Day of Sign Languages (IDSL) is celebrated annually across the world on 23 September. This day is celebrated to raise awareness on sign languages and strengthen the status of sign languages.
  • The choice of 23 September is the same date that the World Federation of the Deaf was established in 1951.
  • The last week of September is also observed as International Week of the Deaf. The theme for the 2020 International Day of Sign Languages is “Sign Languages are for Everyone!”
Foot Notes:
About World Federation of the Deaf:
President: Joseph J. Murray
Founded: 23 September 1951, Rome, Italy
Headquarters location: Helsinki, Finland
 
5. PM Modi pushes for digital self reliance, launches ‘Ghar Tak Fibre’ scheme to connect 45,945 villages across Bihar
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched nine highway projects and Optical Fibre Internet Services in Bihar. The optical fibre services are being provided under the scheme “Ghar Tak Fibre”. These services are to be executed along with combined efforts of Common Service Centre.
  • The project is to be implemented Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under the scheme “Ghar Tak Fibre”. The project will connect 45,945 villages in the state and will thus enable the Digital revolution to reach the farthest corner of Bihar. 
  • The scheme aims to provide optical fibre enabled internet connections to every home in the country, concentrating on the village and rural areas. During his 74th independence-day address, PM Modi had said that over 1.5 lakh village panchayats have received optical fibre connections after 2014 under the scheme.
  • The CSC Wi-Fi Choupal is an initiative to provide high-speed internet connectivity to rural India. It ensures digital connectivity using Bharat Net.
Foot Notes:
About Bihar:
Chief Minister: Nitish Kumar
Governor: Phagu Chauhan
 
About MeitY:
Officeholder: Surinderjeet Singh Ahluwalia (Minister of State)

6. IDFC Mutual Fund launches ‘SIP in Fixed Income’ campaign
  • IDFC Mutual Fund has started a new campaign called SIFI or `SIP in Fixed Income’.
  • The new campaign called SIFI has been launched to make investors more aware about the benefits of investing in fixed income products via Systematic Investment Plans.
  • SIFI can help in generating better risk-adjusted returns, and the debt fund SIP can help cushion the impact of higher volatility in equity markets, thereby balancing the allocation.
  • IDFC Mutual Fund’s SIFI initiative aims to inform investors how a combination of equity and debt SIPs can help them navigate troubled times.
Foot Notes:
About IDFC:
CEO: V. Vaidyanathan 
Headquarters: Mumbai
Founded: October 2015
 
7. Narendra Modi Becomes Second Indian PM To Win Ig Nobel Prize
  • Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has been awarded the Ig Nobel Prize 2020 for Medical Education.
  • He has been awarded the satirical award for “using the COVID-19 pandemic to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can”.
  • PM Modi is the second Indian Prime Minister to be honoured with the Ig Nobel Prize. Prior to this, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was awarded in 1998. He jointly won the Ig Nobel Peace Prize with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan for aggressively peaceful explosions of atomic bombs.
  • PM Modi shares the award with Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Donald Trump of the USA, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan.
Foot Notes:
Previous Recipients: Ghada A. bin Saif, Alexandru Papoiu, Liliana Banari, Francis McGlone, Shawn G. Kwatra, Yiong-Huak Chan, and Gil Yosipovitch 

8. Lok Sabha passes Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020
  • Lok Sabha passed the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020. The bill aims to make Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi, English and Urdu as the official languages of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • The earlier the official language for the Union territory was only Urdu.
  • Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir had informed the Centre that people across the Union Territory had been demanding to include the languages they speak and understand as their official language.
Foot Notes:
About Lok Sabha:
Seats: 543
Founded: 17 April 1952
Next election: May 2024
Secretary General: Snehlata Shrivastava
 
Foot Notes:
About J & K:
Capital: Srinagar (May-October) Jammu (November-April)
Lt. Governor: Manoj Sinha
 
9. Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey takes voluntary retirement
  • In Bihar, Director General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey took voluntary retirement with immediate effect.The State Government granted his request five months before the completion of his service tenure on 28th of February next year.
  • Additional charge of the top post has been given to DG (Homeguard) S. K. Singhal.
  • Mr Pandey has been in limelight for taking a strong stand on the bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case in which an FIR was lodged.
Foot Notes:
About Bihar:
Chief Minister: Nitish Kumar
Governor: Phagu Chauhan
Capital: Patna
 
10. Chef Vikas Khanna’s book titled “Kitchens of Gratitude” to be out soon
  • Michelin Star chef Vikas Khanna’s Feed India initiative was one of the brighter things during the bleak pandemic. It evolved into one of the largest food drives in the world carried forth by an individual.
  • Spearheaded by him, it crossed 30 million meals in more than 135 cities.
  • The chef fed underprivileged kids and ensured food reaches the many cities and towns ravaged by the virus. And now, he will be writing about all this and more in this new book, Kitchens of Gratitude, which will be out next year.
  • Published by Penguin Random House, India, the book will detail the author’s experience and also touch upon his will to combat the ills of the time with the nourishing quality of food.
Foot notes:
Abou Vikas Khanna:
Recently, Chef Vikas Khanna honoured with Asia Game Changer Award 2020.
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