General Awareness – December 2020 3
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Story of Nobel Prizes Alfred Nobel, a famous scientist, inventor, businessman The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901 in Physics, and founder of the Nobel Prizes was born on October 21, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. He died in San Remo, Italy Peace. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden's central on December 10, 1896. bank) established the Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel. In his last will and testament, he wrote that The prizes are decided by the various Swedish much of his fortune should be used to give prizes to Academies and announced every year in October and those who have done their best for humanity in the field presented at Stockholm, Sweden on the Nobel’s death of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature anniversary – December 10. However, the Peace Prize and peace. Not everybody was pleased with this. His will is presented at Oslo, Norway as the same is decided by was opposed by his relatives and questioned by an expert committee of Parliament of Norway. authorities in various countries. It took four years for The Nobel Prize amount for 2020 is set at his executors to convince all parties to follow Alfred's Swedish Kronor 10 million (Rs. 8.24 cr) for one full wishes. Nobel Prize. FIELD PRIZE DECIDED BY WINNER OF 2020 SELECTED WORK The Nobel Assembly Harvey J. Alter, USA Michael For the discovery of Hepatitis C virus leading to highly Physiology at Karolinska Houghton, Britain and Charles sensitive blood tests for the identification of virus or Medicine Institute, Stockholm M. Rice, USA Britain's Roger Penrose, For their discoveries about one of the most exotic The Royal Swedish Reinhard Genzel of Germany phenomena in the universe, the black hole. Physics Academy of Sciences and US scientist Ms. Andrea Ghez Ms. Emmanuelle Charpentier For the discovery of one of gene technology’s sharpest The Royal Swedish Chemistry (France) and Ms. Jennifer A. tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors in 2012. Academy of Sciences Doudna (USA) American poet Louise Glück, The Swedish She is seen as one of the most prominent poets and Literature professor at Yale University, Academy essayists in American contemporary literature. USA The Norwegian Nobel UN World Food Programme, For its efforts to combat hunger and food insecurity in Peace Committee Rome, Italy regions of conflict and hardship around the globe. Economic The Royal Swedish US economists Paul Milgrom For improvements to auction theory and inventions of Sciences Academy of Sciences and Robert Wilson new auction formats INDIAN NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS Rabindranath Tagore Literature in 1913 For his collection of poems “Geetanjali”. Sir C.V. Raman Physics in 1930 For his “Raman Effect” related to light. Mother Teresa Peace in 1979 For her service to people suffering from Leprosy and to those dying in destitute, through her Charitable Mission “Nirmal Hriday” at Calcutta Dr. Subramanian Chandrashekar Physics in 1983 For his theory on white dwarf stars’ limitation known as ‘Chandrasekhar Limit’. Dr. Amartya Sen Economics in 1998 For his work in Economic Theory related to Poverty, Democracy, Development and Social Welfare. Kailash Satyarthi Peace Prize in 2014 For his work for the freedom of children working as (Jointly with Malala Yousafzai) labourer in various factories / units. GYANM GENERAL AWARENESS – DECEMBER 2020 3 GENERAL AWARENESS December 2020 Vol. 9, Issue 04 A PUBLICATION OF GYANM EDUCATION & TRAINING INSTITUTE PVT. LTD. SCO 13-14-15, 2ND FLOOR, SEC 34-A, CHANDIGARH Contents NATIONAL NEWS CURRENT AFFAIRS 03-47 OCTOBER September to October 2020 BULLET NEWS INDIA AND US SIGN ‘BECA’ DEAL 48-68 May 2020 to August 2020 LATEST 100 GK MCQs 69-76 SSC TIER – II | QUANTS 77-92 MODEL TEST PAPER Current GK Bytes 93-114 FIGURES TO REMEMBER REPO RATE 4.00% REVERSE REPO RATE 3.35% MARGINAL STANDING 4.25% FACILITY RATE BANK RATE 4.25% STATUTORY LIQUIDITY RATIO 18.00% India and the US signed the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement CASH RESERVE RATIO 3.00% (BECA) at the end of the third Indo-US 2+2 summit. BECA is a military pact BASE RATE(s) 8.15 to reserved for close defence allies of the USA. It allows access to US generated (of various banks) 9.40% satellite imagery that is used in precision strikes by armed drones and long- range missiles. The two countries resolved to jointly undertake development INDIA’s RANK IN and infrastructure projects abroad to counter Chinese aggression in security Global Hunger Index 2020 94th and economic domains. th Teacher Status Index (GTSI) 6 QUAD MINISTERIAL MEETING HELD IN TOKYO Asia Power Index 2020 4th Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister External affairs attended the 2nd QUAD Ministerial Global Economic Freedom Index 105th Meeting in Tokyo, Japan on October 6. The meeting focused on the issue of Human Capital Index 116th ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific in the face of China’s increasingly aggressive behaviour across the region. The four QUAD members collectively Global Innovation Index 48th affirmed the importance of maintaining a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific World Risk Index (WRI) 89th region. Budget Transparency Index 53rd QUAD - Quadrilateral Security Dialogue is a strategic grouping of four nations - Global Energy Transition Index 7th India, Australia, Japan and USA. All four countries of the Quad have problems Global Press Freedom Index 142nd with China and view Beijing’s conduct with suspicion. Australian government has Inclusive Internet Index 46th pledged to halt projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Japan is worried World Happiness Report 144th about Chinese intrusions near the Senkaku Islands, and the US is engaged in a Intellectual Property Index 40th trade war and has opposed China’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea. Sustainability Index 77th Flourishing Index 131st VIRTUAL SUMMIT HELD WITH DANISH PM Indian Prime Minister held a Virtual Bilateral Summit on Sep 28 with the Prime Climate Change Performance Index 9th Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen. A MoU in the field of intellectual Global Talent Competitive Index 72nd property cooperation between the two countries was also signed on the Carbon Disclosure Project Report 5th occasion. st Democracy Index 2019 51 Denmark also announced her joining of ISA - International Solar Alliance. Corruption Perception Index 80th Bilateral trade in goods and services between India and Denmark has grown by Social Mobility Index 76th over 30 per cent from 2.82 billion dollars in 2016 to $3.68 billion in 2019. GYANM GENERAL AWARENESS – DECEMBER 2020 4 8 BEACHES GET BLUE FLAG CERTIFICATION CBSE LAUNCHES FACIAL RECOGNITION TECH The CBSE has introduced a state of the art Facial Recognition technology that will enable students to download their digital academic documents of class X and XII. This computer application matches a human face from a digital image already stored in the database and once successful, the certificate will be emailed to the student. This application is now available on “Parinam Manjusha” and DigiLocker platform. POLL SPENDING LIMIT RAISED BY 10% The Government hiked the poll campaign spending limit by 10 percent for candidates contesting Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The hike has been made notified by the Law Ministry on the recommendations of the Election Commission that contestants be allowed to spend more on campaigning keeping in mind difficulties Eight beaches from India have secured the coveted they may face due to COVID-19 curbs. International Blue Flag Certification. The iconic Blue The maximum expenditure a candidate can incur for Flag is one of the world’s most recognised voluntary campaigning in Lok Sabha polls is now Rs. 77 lakh, up awards for beaches, marinas. In order to qualify for the from Rs. 70 lakh earlier. For the Assembly election, it has Blue Flag, a series of stringent environmental, been hiked from Rs. 28 lakh to Rs. 30.80 lakh. The last educational, safety and accessibility criteria have to be time the expenditure ceiling was enhanced was ahead of met and maintained. the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. The eight BlueFlag beaches are Shivrajpur beach in Dwarka, Gujarat; Ghoghla beach in Diu; Kasarkod and JUSTICE LOKUR TO MONITOR ‘PARALI’ BURNING Padubidri in Karnataka; Kappad in Kerala; Rushikonda in The Supreme Court appointed former Supreme Court Andhra Pradesh; Golden Beach in Puri, Odisha and judge, Justice Madan B. Lokur as a one-man committee Radhanagar beach in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. to monitor and prevent instances of stubble (Parali) burning by farmers in the three States. INDIA GETS CHAIRMANSHIP OF ILO (Parali burning refers to burning of crop residue to Apurva Chandra, Labour and Employment Secretary, remove them from the field to sow the next crop). has been elected as the Chairperson of the Governing He will be helped by student volunteer forces deployed Body of the International Labour Organization, ILO for from the National Cadet Corps, the National Service the period October 2020- June 2021. The Governing Scheme and the Bharat Scouts and Guides to protect Body is the apex executive body of the ILO which Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region) from pollution decides policies, programmes, agenda, budget and elects caused by stubble-burning in the three neighbouring the Director-General. At present ILO is based at Geneva, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh this winter. Student Switzerland and has 187 members. forces will patrol highways and fields in the three States and ensure that no fires are started in the fields. WORLD’s LONGEST HIGHWAY TUNNEL IN HP Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated on Oct 3 the ONLY AC COACHES IN ALL SUPER FAST TRAINS world’s longest highway tunnel, Atal Tunnel at Rohtang Railways has decided to upgrade all non-AC sleeper in Himachal Pradesh.