Current Affairs 2020 Current Affairs August 2020 Date – 5 August 2020 Alternative Academic Calendar for upper primary stage students Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank released the Alternative Academic Calendar for upper primary stage students. NCERT under the guidance of Education Ministry has developed the alternative academic calendars for students, parents and teachers of primary and upper primary stages with an aim to engage students meaningfully during their stay at home due to COVID-19. The Calendar provides guidelines to teachers on the use of various technological tools and social media tools available for imparting education in fun-filled and interesting ways. This calendar will cater to the need of all children including Divyang children (Children with Special Need) as link for Audio books, Radio programmes, Video programme will be included. World Breastfeeding Week 2020 World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is a global campaign to raise awareness and galvanise action on themes related to breastfeeding. The 2020 theme is “Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet.” It is an annual celebration which is held every year from 1 to 7 August in more than 120 countries. Being organized by WABA, WHO and UNICEF, WBW came up with the goal to promote exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life which yields many health benefits, providing critical nutrients, protection from deadly diseases such as pneumonia and fostering growth and development for the first time in 1991. The correct norms of infant and young child feeding are: Initiation of Breastfeeding within an hour of birth. Exclusive breastfeeding for first six months of life i.e. only breast Milk ‘NO’ other milk, food, drink or water. Appropriate and adequate complementary feeding from six months of age while continuing breastfeeding. Continued breastfeeding up to the age of two years or beyond. UAE becomes first Arab country to produce nuclear energy UAE became the first country in the Arab World to produce nuclear energy as the Barakah Nuclear Plant's 1st Unit got operational. The new plant is part of the UAE's graph to become less reliant on oil and gas, the current source of the vast majority of its energy. UAE is among the world's biggest fossil fuels producers. Report Errors in the PDF – [email protected] ©All Rights Reserved by Gkseries.com Current Affairs 2020 The Barakah nuclear power plant is the United Arab Emirates's first nuclear power station, the first nuclear power station in the Arabian Peninsula, and the first commercial nuclear power station in the Arab World. It is situated in the Al Dhafrah region of Abu Dhabi. It consists of four APR-1400 nuclear reactors (one operational, three mostly completed). The plant, powered by South Korean technology, hopes to produce 5.6 gigawatts of electricity and supply up to 25% of the UAE's electricity needs. Union Agriculture Minister launched Sahakar Cooptube NCDC Channel Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has launched the National Cooperative Development Corporation's YouTube channel, 'Sahakar Cooptube NCDC India', to encourage farmers and the youth to take benefit of cooperatives. He also released videos on formation and registration of cooperatives for 18 states in Hindi and regional languages. The videos will be aired on the new channel. The guidance videos in different languages covering 18 states would also strengthen and deepen the major initiatives of our government to promote and form 10,000 farmer-producer organisations (FPOs). More states will be added to the collection of guidance videos on Sahakar Cooptube NCDC India channel on YouTube in due course of time. National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) as an apex-level statutory institution under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare has achieved tremendous success with a cumulative financial assistance to cooperatives to the tune of Rs 1,54,000 crore. Foundation Stone of Indian Institute of Management, Sirmaur Recently Union Education Minister has laid the foundation stone of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh through online mode. Union Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken decision in 2014 to establish seven new IIMs including IIM Sirmaur. On 15th August 2014 it was announced that the IIM for Himachal Pradesh would be set up at Dhaulakuan in the Sirmaur district. IIM Sirmaur is one of the newest IIMs in the prestigious IIM family established by the Government of India. The Minister informed that IIM Sirmaur was operationalized by IIM Lucknow in August as the mentor Institution with the commencement of the first batch of PGP of 20 students, from its temporary Campus at Paonta Sahib, Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh. Report Errors in the PDF – [email protected] ©All Rights Reserved by Gkseries.com Current Affairs 2020 He further informed that the current academic activity is operationalised from temporary campus which is fully residential for students with all modern facilities. The students are not only pursuing academics but also engaged in various cultural, sporting and CSR and community outreach activities. Theatre director Ebrahim Alkazi passed away at 94 Recently, Ebrahim Alkazi, a famous theatre director who revolutionised Indian theatre and was the longest-serving director of the National School of Drama, passed away at the age of 94. Ebrahim Alkazi (1925 – 2020) was an Indian theatre director and drama teacher. He is remembered as the father of Indian theatre. He served as the Director of National School of Drama, New Delhi (1962–1977). He was the first person to bring regional language plays to NSD. He has directed over 50 plays, including Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq and Dharamvir Bharati’s Andha Yug. He was the first recipient of Roopwedh Pratishtan's the Tanvir Award (2004) for lifetime contribution to the theatre. He received the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan (1991), and Padma Vibhushan in 2010. He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in Direction in 1962, and later the Akademi's highest award the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for lifetime contribution to theatre. Singapore to have the first right to Arcturus' covid vaccine Singapore has sought out U.S. Covid-19 vaccine developer Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. and is funding its research in order to secure the first doses of any successful final product, in a reflection of the growing urgency in the race for immunization. As with many vaccine makers seeking a shot to control the pandemic, Arcturus has seen its stock soar. The shares have surged nearly 400% this year. It’s too soon to know if Arcturus’s vaccine will be effective, and Payne didn’t give a time frame for when it could reach the market. The vaccine, known as Lunar-Cov19, is one of approximately 20 candidates globally that have reached the clinical trial phase. Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority granted approval in July for the vaccine to be tested in a study involving 108 healthy volunteers of varying ages. More than 160 vaccines are currently under development globally. Moderna Inc. and China’s CanSino Biologics Inc. are among the leading candidates with shots in the advanced stages of human testing. Report Errors in the PDF – [email protected] ©All Rights Reserved by Gkseries.com Current Affairs 2020 Thenzawl Golf Resort project in Mizoram under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme Government of India has inaugurated the “Thenzawl Golf Resort” Project implemented under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme of Ministry of Tourism, Government of India in the presence of Tourism Minister of MizoramShri Robert RomawiaRoyte and Commissioner and Secretary for Tourism Department of Government of MizoramSmt. Esther LalRuatkimi in New Delhi. The Project was sanctioned under the Integrated Development of New Eco Tourism under Swadesh Darshan- North East Circuit at Thenzawl& South Zote, District Serchhip and Reiek, Mizoram. India boasts of more than 230 golf courses in all. The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India endeavours to work as a catalyst and active supporter for the development of Golf Tourism in the country. India has several golf courses of international standards and golf events held in India also attract domestic and international tourists. In order to tap the growing interest in golf tourism, the Ministry of Tourism is creating a comprehensive and coordinated framework for promoting golf tourism in India as a niche tourism product for attracting both International and domestic tourists. The competitive advantage of Thenzawl Golf Course is that it will provide quality golfing experience and international facilities at a fair price. Assam got own 24/7 Doordarshan Channel Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting has launched Doordarshan Assam, a 24-hour dedicated channel for the State, via video conferencing from New Delhi. The channel is a gift to people of Assam and this channel will cater to all sections of the population of Assam and will be immensely popular, according to the minister. DD North East channel was conceived as 24x7 composite channels by PrasarBharati for all 8 States of North East Region, and commissioned on 01.11.1990; launched on 15.08.1994 and was made 24 Hrs channel from 27.12.2000. DD ArunPrabha channel was later introduced for Arunachal Pradesh which is being beamed from Itanagar. DD Arunprabha channel was launched by the Prime Minister on 09.02.2019. Subsequently PrasarBharati decided to put all the other limited hours channels originating from capital of different North-Eastern States on ‘DD Free Dish” to have national connect. Five channels for states of North-Eastern region namely, DD Meghalaya, DD Mizoram, DD Tripura, DD Manipur and DD Nagaland beamed from Doordarshan Kendra Shillong, Aizawl, Agartala, Imphal, Kohima respectively have been placed on DD FreeDish(DTH) Platform w.e.f. 9th March 2019. It was subsequently felt appropriate to repurpose DD North East channel into exclusive channel for Assam.