Current Affairs - January 21, 2020 Current Affairs

The two innovative ICT applications of Election Commission of India i.e. 'cVIGIL' and 'Voter Helpline App' developed in-house have won the eGovernance 'Award of Excellence' for the year 2019. These awards were given by Computer Society of India (CSI), Special Interest Group on e-Governance (CSI SIG e-Gov) at KiiT, Bhubaneswar.

The World Gold Council (WGC) recently released its report, "World Gold Outlook 2020". The report says that gold has performed the best since 2010 in 2019. In 2019, the gold trade in USD has increased by 18.4% as compared to 2010. According to the WGC, RBI (Reserve Bank of India) currently holds 625.2 tonnes of gold. This is 6.6% of the country's foreign exchange. With this, India ranks sixth in the world among other central banks.

The atoll nation was hit by the storm with strong winds and heavy rain battering the country. On January 18, Tino ripped through Fiji, bringing gusts of up to 130km/h and heavy rain.

The 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting will be held on 21-24 January 2020, in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. WEF annual meetings aim to engage world leaders in collaborative activities to shape the global, regional, and industry agendas at the beginning of each year.

Global payments company Mastercard planned to invest nearly $1 billion in India over the next five years. The proposed investment will be made over five years in our India operations includes an R&D facility at Pune and another center at Vadodara.

Australia's Ashleigh Barty has captured her first WTA title on home soil with an emphatic straight-sets victory in the Adelaide International final. The world No 1 downed world No 24 Ukranian Dayana Yastremska 6-2 7-5 in the Finals.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani launched the 7th Economic Census process in the state. The Economic Census process organized by the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation with the help of Common Service Centres. Around 40 thousand enumerators will use mobile applications for the first time to gather information under the guidance of 6,500 supervisors.

Gujarat ranked the best for parameters on efficiency targets in the review of state and Central government water departments by the ministry of Jal Shakti. Rajasthan is the third-best, and Delhi is among the worst-performing states, according to the ranking for 2019 circulated to different state governments recently.

On January 18, 2020, China and Myanmar signed 33 new deals under BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) to implement China-Myanmar Economic Corridor. Also, a concession agreement was signed by the countries to implement the deep seaport project called Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone.

Former principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Nripendra Misra, has been appointed chairperson of the executive council of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML). Misra is a 1967-batch retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.Before serving as the principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Misra worked in several top positions including as the chairperson of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), secretary, Telecom and secretary, Fertilizers.

Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju on January 19 inaugurated the 'Fit India Cyclothon' along with Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant at Campal Parade Ground in Panaji, Goa. The event is part of the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports' 'Fit India Mission' and has been jointly organized with Goa's Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs.

Union minister Arjun Munda was elected as president of the suspended Archery Association of India (AAI) in its much-delayed elections, which were held here smoothly in the presence of three observers. Enjoying the support of former AAI President Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Munda had a smooth sailing as he beat his rival BVP Rao by a margin of 34-18 votes.

Pulse Polio is an immunisation campaign which was established by the government of India to eliminate poliomyelitis in India. Approximately 17.4 crore children of less than five years are given polio drops as part of the drive of Government of India to sustain polio eradication from the country. According to the national health portrayal, 2020 polio day program is going to be held on January 19th.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar explained that the electric vehicles are the future of the country as they are eco-friendly and helpful in the reduction of carbon footprint. The fourteenth edition of Elecrama - a conference for discussion on new trends and innovation for energy transition at Greater Noida.

Microsoft announced ambitious new plans to become carbon negative by 2030 and then go one step further and remove by 2050 all the carbon it has emitted since the company was founded in 1975.

The world's shortest man who could walk, as verified by Guinness World Records (GWR), has died at a hospital in Nepal at the age of 27. Khagendra Thapa Magar, from Nepal's Baglung district, measured 67.08cm (2ft 2.41in).

The Sea Cadet Corps (SCC) unit of Visakhapatnam, celebrated its 50th anniversary with a ceremonial parade held at INS Circars Parade Ground. Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command, reviewed the parade and inspected the guard of honour.The parade was conducted by 12 platoons of SSC, including four girl cadet platoons.

For the first time, the Census will collect data of transgenders headed houses. Also, the census will enquire about "Main cereal", which is also included for the first time in the history of census of India. The Census 2021 is to ask 31 questions to the citizens.

On 18 January 2020 Lieutenant General Satinder Kumar Saini was appointed as the next Vice Chief of the Army Staff and would assume the office from 25 January 2020.

India returned with seven medals from the tournament.Vinesh Phogat and Anhsu Malik won a gold and silver respectively in the women's competition. In Greco-roman, Gurpreet Singh (82kg) won gold, Sunil Kumar (97kg) a silver, while Sajan Bhanwal (77kg) settled for a bronze.Bajrang Punia was far from his fluent best but still claimed gold while Ravi Kumar Dahiya showed sparkling form in his gold-winning effort.