Daily news will speed up the preparation for the Civil Services Examination and it also plays a crucial role to grasp the current affairs topic comprehensively. Here we have covered most of the topics related to various categories including National, International, Sports, Science and Technology, and so on.
1. G-20 Anti-Corruption Working Group
– Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh addresses the 1st ever Ministerial Meeting of G-20 Anti-Corruption Working Group.
– According to Dr. Jitendra Singh, India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to the policy of zero tolerance against corruption and unaccounted money.
– Dr Jitendra Singh referred to India’s Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Modi government amended it after 30 years in 2018.
– It was amended to introduce a number of new provisions including criminalizing the act of giving bribe also in addition to taking a bribe and at the same time putting in place an effective deterrence for such actions by individuals as well as corporate entities.
– The objective of the present Act is to check corruption in big places and striking hard against corporate bribery. It seeks to establish a vicarious liability so that the actual bribe giver is also exposed.
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2. War Trophy T-55 Tank
– Army War Trophy – “T- 55 Tank” was installed in the premises of the Office of Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Officer) Pune on 22nd October 2020.
– PCDA (O) Pune is a flagship organisation of Defence Accounts Department (DAD) under the Ministry of Defence (Finance).
– The organisation is entrusted with the task of pre-audit and payment of Pay and Allowances and all claims of over 53,000 officers of Indian Army from Lieutenant to Chief of Defence Staff serving over the length and breadth of the country.
– Army War Trophy – “T-55 tank” in the premises of PCDA (O) reflects the synergy between the Army and Defence Accounts Department.
Daily Gist of ‘The Hindu’, ‘PIB’, ‘Indian Express’ and Other Newspapers: 22 October, 2020
3. Regional Raw Drug Repository (RRDR)
– The Minister of State (IC) for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik inaugurated the Regional Raw Drug Repository (RRDR) at All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi through a virtual function on 22 October, 2020.
– This RRDR is the second in the series of repositories proposed by National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH and will be dedicated to the Trans-Ganga Plain Region.
– The event is graced by Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary Ministry of AYUSH.
– NMPB is already involved in the process of developing policies in this direction and for attaining speedy development in the areas of making sustainable availability of authentic raw material of medicinal plants for the AYUSH industries.
Daily Gist of ‘The Hindu’, ‘PIB’, ‘Indian Express’ and Other Newspapers: 21 October, 2020
4. Three key projects in Gujarat
– Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate three key projects in Gujarat on 24th October through video conferencing.
– Prime Minister will launch the ‘Kisan Suryodaya Yojana’ for the farmers of Gujarat.
– He will inaugurate the Paediatric Heart Hospital attached with U.N Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre and a Mobile Application for telecardiology at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad.
– He will also inaugurate the Ropeway at Girnar on the occasion.
Daily Gist of ‘The Hindu’, ‘PIB’, ‘Indian Express’ and Other Newspapers: 20 October, 2020
5. State of Global Air 2020
– State of Global Air 2020 (SoGA 2020) is a global study that has ben released by the Health Effects Institute (HEI).
– The highlight of the report is that air pollution is the largest risk factor for death among all health risks.
– It is the first-ever comprehensive analysis of air pollution’s global impact on newborns.
– Health Effects Institute (HEI) is an independent, nonprofit research institute funded jointly by the USA’s Environmental Protection Agency and others.
– India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal are among the top ten countries with the highest PM2.5 (particulate matter) exposures in 2019. All of these countries experienced increases in outdoor PM2.5 levels between 2010 and 2019.
– In 2019, India is also among the top ten countries with the highest ozone (O3) exposure.
Among the 20 most populous countries, India recorded the highest increase (17%) in O3 concentrations in the past ten years.
– In India in 2019, Long-term exposure to outdoor and household (indoor) air pollution contributed to over 1.67 million annual deaths from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer, chronic lung diseases, and neonatal diseases.
Daily Gist of ‘The Hindu’, ‘PIB’, ‘Indian Express’ and Other Newspapers: 17 October, 2020
6. Mobile application for Geo-Tagging
– The Ministry of Jal Shakti, recently launched a mobile application for geo-tagging of the components of projects under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY).
– The mobile application has been developed with the help of Bhaskaracharya National Institute of Space Applications & Geo-informatics (BISAG-N).
– The objective is to track the pace of work and the actual status of the projects.
– The mobile application can be used to capture the image of the project component along with other details such as location, type of canal/ structure, completion status, etc.
– The captured information can be submitted by the user for geo-tagging on the geographic information system (GIS) portal developed for this purpose.
About Bhaskaracharya National Institute of Space Applications & Geo-informatics (BISAG-N)
It is an autonomous scientific society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. It comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Daily Gist of ‘The Hindu’, ‘PIB’, ‘Indian Express’ and Other Newspapers: 16 October, 2020
7. COVIRAP
– Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently has approved a new low-cost COVID-19 diagnostic method named COVIRAP.
– It is developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur.
– COVIRAP has an automated pre-programmable temperature control unit, a special detection unit on genomic analysis, and a customised smartphone app for results.
– The machine has an isothermal nucleic acid amplification method, which did away with the need for a thermocycler.
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