• India has announced the launch of Phase-IV of the High Impact Community Development Projects in Afghanistan. It envisages more than 100 projects worth  80 million dollars that India would undertake in Afghanistan. External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar said this during the  2020 Afghanistan Conference organized in Geneva through video-conference. The two-day conference began yesterday and was co-hosted by the United Nations, the Government of Afghanistan, and the Government of Finland.
• Dr. Jaishankar also announced that India had just concluded with Afghanistan an agreement for the construction of the Shatoot dam, which would provide safe drinking water to two million residents of Kabul city. He said, India had earlier built the 202-kilometer Phul-e-Khumri transmission line that provided electricity to Kabul city.

• Uttarakhand’s first moss garden was inaugurated by Magsaysay Award-winner Rajendra Singh, also known as the ‘Waterman of India’, near Khurpatal (lake) in Nainital district on Friday.
• The garden, that houses around 30 different species of mosses — including two which are in red (endangered) list of IUCN — also has a 1.2-km-long moss trail. 
• The two endangered species in the garden are — Hyophila involuta (cement moss) and Brachythecium buchananii. The objective behind developing the garden is to conserve various species of moss and other bryophytes and to make people aware of its environmental and ecological significance.

• G20 leaders announced on Sunday that India will host the summit of the high-profile grouping in 2023 — a year later than what was decided earlier.
• India was earlier slated to host the summit in 2022 with the Osaka declaration of the G20 stating last year that "we look forward to meeting again in Saudi Arabia in 2020, in Italy in 2021 and in India in 2022".
• "We thank Saudi Arabia for hosting a successful Riyadh Summit and its contribution to the G20 process. We look forward to our next meetings in Italy in 2021, Indonesia in 2022, India in 2023, and Brazil in 2024," the G20 Riyadh Summit Leaders Declaration said.
• On India now hosting the summit in 2023, a source said, "The order of the rotating presidency is decided among member states on the basis of consultations and mutual convenience."

• Amid the standoff with China in eastern Ladakh, the Indian Navy Wednesday got its ninth P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft, part of the nearly $1 billion deal with the US for four additional planes signed in 2016.
• India, which had first signed a contract for eight such aircraft in 2009, is also negotiating a deal for six more P-8Is with the US under the government-to-government route. 
• Incidentally, the aircraft, the latest of which landed at INS Hansa in Goa early Wednesday morning, is also being used by India in Ladakh for surveillance besides the Indian Ocean Region. It was deployed during the 2017 Doklam standoff as well.
• The Indian Navy has been put on complete operational alert and almost its entire Western and Eastern Fleet are out in the Indian Ocean Region as part of India’s response to Chinese aggression.

• Airports Authority of India (AAI) commenced Aviation Safety Awareness Week 2020 (23rd November to 27th November 2020). The week-long celebration is being observed at all airports and ANS locations managed by AAI across India. 
• Shri Arvind Singh, Chairman, AAI, requested all Regional Executive Directors & Airport Directors to be proactive and to devote time personally for monitoring the safety performance of their respective region/station. 
• To raise awareness on Aviation Safety, AAI will undertake various employee engagement programs at the airports and ANS stations like reviewing documents and facilities, Mock exercises, preventive maintenance, etc. Various social campaigns too will be rolled out to raise awareness on the issue. Banners and posters are being displayed across AAI offices and operational centers to educate both external and internal stakeholders on the significance of the Safety Awareness Week. 

• Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' today inaugurated 46 online AICTE Training and Learning (ATAL) Academy Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs) to train teachers of higher education institutions. The FDPs will be conducted in 22 Indian states. On the occasion, Mr. Pokhriyal said, in the year 2020-21, new thrust areas in the field of Engineering, Management, Life Skills, Design and Media have been incorporated. 
• The online Faculty Development Programmes will be conducted according to the new National Education Policy -2020. The Education Minister also informed that the London-based organization has recognized the FDPs as a world record, under which 1,000 online FDPs in over 100 emerging areas will benefit one lakh faculty members across premier institutions like IITs, NITs, and IIITs. This year the online FDP program will cost 10 crore rupees.

• Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated a mobile COVID-19 RT-PCR Lab at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in New Delhi on Monday.
• It has been jointly developed by Spice Health and the ICMR. 
• This testing lab and more such labs which are planned to be set up will help in adding more capacity to COVID-19 testing. 
• The lab is accredited by NABL and approved by the ICMR. 
• These tests will be free of cost for the people. This initiative is a step in making COVID-19 testing affordable and more accessible to the common person.
• The test report would be available within 6 to 8 hours from the time of sample collection compared to the average 24 to 48 hours taken by similar test reports.

• To mark the occasion of 3 years of UMANG and 2000 plus services milestone, an online conference was organized under the chairmanship of  Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad.
• On this occasion,  Mr. Prasad launched the UMANG’s international version in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs for select countries that include the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, UAE, Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. It will help Indian international students, NRIs, and Indian tourists abroad, to avail of Government of India services, anytime. It will also help in taking India to the world through ‘Indian Culture’ services available on UMANG and create interest amongst foreign tourists to visit India.
• The international version of the UMANG App can be downloaded from the Play Store of specific countries. The Union Minister also launched an e-Book which presents major milestones of UMANG and major services available on the UMANG App classified into various categories.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to prominent leader Sir Chhotu Ram on his birth anniversary today.
• He said, Sir Chhotu Ram dedicated his life to public service and farmer welfare and fought for the rights of the food givers of the country.
• Mr. Modi said, Sir Chhotu Ram became the voice of the workers, the deprived, and the exploited, and his contribution towards the upliftment of society will always remain unforgettable.

• Tribes India is continuing with making its product offerings more attractive to its customers, and at the same time helping millions of tribal enterprises get larger markets. Keeping this as the objective, over the last month, Tribes India has included many new products (mainly immunity-boosting products and produce in the Forest Fresh and Organics range). This week, Tribes India has now added more new products to its offering. The highlight is Saheli, the eco-friendly sanitary pads made by the Vasavatribals under the Gram Sangathan Kambodiya in Gujarat. Tribes India is partnering with them to distribute these sanitary pads across the country.
• The new products fall under the Forest Fresh Naturals and organics range and also some of these will make excellent gifting and decoration options as well.
• All the new products introduced in the past few weeks are available in Tribes India outlets, Tribes India mobile vans, and also on online platforms such as the Tribes India E-marketplace (tribesindia.com) and e-tailers.
• Speaking on the occasion, Shri Pravir Krishna, MD, TRIFED said, “Tribes India is continuing in its mission to impact and transform tribal lives and improve their livelihoods. The highlight of today’s launch is the eco-friendly, sustainable sanitary pads made by the Vasavatribalsin Gujarat that are being supplied by Gram Sangathan Cambodia. In order to give a boost to this impactful and relevant work, Trifed will be distributing these economical pads.”

Download Daily GK PDF of 24  November 2020