Current Affairs - January 3, 2020 Current Affairs

Ministry of Commerce and Industry has appointed Rohan Shah, a practicing counsel at the Supreme Court, as India's Representative and Governor on the board of Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia. The appointment is for a period of three years. The Board of ERIA meets once in every six months in Jakarta and then in Japan.

The Andhra Pradesh Government announced that it will deliver sand at customers' door steps. As a pilot project, the government is to begin the initiative on experimental basis. Under the new initiative, the government will collect transportation charges from the customers anddeliver sand at door steps.

A three-day National Tribal Dance Festival was held in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur, wherein international folk artists from 23 states and six other countries are expected to take part and portray their respective tribal folk culture.

The Andhra Pradesh Police have come up with a new initiative to check crimes against women in the State. From now onwards, police will offer free transportation for women and the elderly during night hours.This is an emergency assistance to public, especially for women and senior citizens. The app, titled 'Disha Mobile Application', works with and without Internet. User can send SOS alert to Control Room by using 'Shake Trigger' featur

On January 2, 2020, PM Modi will dedicate five DRDO laboratories to the country. The laboratories are for young scientists to boost their research capabilities. PM Modi will inaugurate the laboratories during his 2-day visit to Bengaluru.

B Sai Deepak set a Guinness World Records for most side lunges in 60 seconds. Deepak scripted the record by making 59 side lunges in 60 seconds which is his fourth overall Guinness World Records. The previous record held by Pakistan national Irfan Mehsood.

The Karnataka government on January 1 issued an order appointing director, producer and actor Sunil Puranik as chairman of the Karnataka Film Academy. Mr. Puranik has acted in over 25 films, including Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam, and in TV serials.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has successfully commissioned the first lignite-based 500-megawatt thermal unit of the 2 x 500 MW Neyveli new thermal power project in Tamil Nadu.Significantly, this is the country's first lignite-fired 500 MW power plant. It is also the highest rating pulverised lignite-fired thermal unit commissioned in the country so far.

Nearly 4,00,000 babies were born around the world on New Year's Day with India recording the highest number of these births worldwide at 67,385. An estimated 3,92,078 babies were born around the world on New Year's Day, according to UNICEF. Of this, an estimated 67,385 babies were born in India, the most globally. China comes in second with 46,299 births.

On January 2, 2019, India celebrated the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. He is considered to be the 10th Guru of Sikhs. He was born on January. Guru Gobind Singh founded Sikh Warrior community called Khalsa in 1699. He introduced five Ks in Sikhism.

Indian Space Research Organisation establish a second launch port in Thoothukodi district in Tamilnadu exclusively to launch small satellite launch vehicles. ISRO Chairman K Sivan informed that this would come up in 2300 acres.

The Andhra Pradesh Police have come up with a new initiative to check crimes against women in the State. From now onwards, police will offer free transportation for women and the elderly during night hours.

Veteran cartoonist Vikas Sabnis died following a brief illness. He was 69.Sabnis is survived by his wife and son. Born on July 12, 1950, Sabnis completed his education from the JJ school of Arts in Mumbai. He idolised cartoonists RK Laxman and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.

In 2014, Maj. Anoop Mishra was hit by a bullet while serving in Kashmir valley. He decided to work on developing an armour that can withstand hits from all kinds of ammunition. Recently, he was felicitated with the Army Design Bureau (ADB) excellence award for indigenously developing Sarvatra bulletproof jacket that can provide protection against various ammunition including that of sniper rifles.

On the New Year's Eve, the railways announced fare hike across its network, excluding suburban trains, effective from January 1, 2020. While suburban fares remain unchanged, ordinary non-AC, non-suburban fares hiked by 1 paise per km of journey.

Devi Prasad Tripathi, general secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), passed away on the morning of January 2. Widely renowned for his erudition and oratory, Dr. Tripathi, 70, was the party's Rajya Sabha member from 2012 to 2016.He had been ailing from cancer for the last three years.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah dedicate the new campus of National Fire Service College (NFSC) in Nagpur. He will also lay the foundation stone of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) academy.

On course to seal a berth for the Tokyo Games, former world champion MirabaiChanu maintained her eighth spot in the Olympic qualifiers ranking list released by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on January 2.In the race for Olympic qualification, the 25-year-old, who competes in the 49 kg category, has gathered 2966.6406 ranking points till now.

EC launches online Political Parties Registration Tracking Management System (PPRTMS) to allow political parties track status of their applications for registration.

On January 01, 2020, the Reserve Bank of India launched the MANI application for visually challenged persons to identify new currency notes that werelaunched after demonetization. MANI is Mobile Aided Note Identifier.