Daily updates 19 November 2020

International News

1. Japan & Australia signs defence deal to counter China

• Japan and Australia have signed a ‘landmark’ defence pact in a bid to counter China’s growing influence in the South China Sea and over the Pacific island nations.
• The deal called Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) was signed between Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison.
• RAA will allow Japanese and Australian troops to visit each other’s countries and conduct training and joint operations.
• The treaty will strengthen its security ties and facilitate cooperation between defence forces.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Japan Capital: Tokyo.
• Japan Currency: Japanese yen.
• Japan Prime minister: Yoshihide Suga.
• Prime Minister of Australia: Scott Morrison.
• The currency of Australia: Australian dollar.
• Capital of Australia: Canberra.

2. Maia Sandu Wins Moldova Presidential Election

• Maia Sandu has won Moldova’s presidential election after a run-off vote against the incumbent Igor Dodon.
• Ms Sandu has won 57.7% of the vote compared to Mr Dodon’s 42.2%. Sandu is a former World Bank economist who favours closer ties with the European Union. Mr Dodon, meanwhile, is openly backed by Russia.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Moldova Capital: Chișinău.
• Moldova Currency: Moldovan leu.

State News

3. Madhya Pradesh govt announces ‘Gau Cabinet’ for protection of cows

• The Madhya Pradesh government, led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has decided to set up a ‘Gau Cabinet’ for the protection, conservation and promotion of cows in the state.
• The Cabinet will comprise of the departments of animal husbandry, forests, panchayat and rural development, revenue, home and farmers welfare.
• The first meeting of the Cabinet will be held at 12 pm on ‘Gopashtami’ on November 22 at the Cow Sanctuary in Agar-Malwa district named ‘Kamdhenu Gau Abhyaranya ‘.
• It is India’s first cow sanctuary which was set up by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Madhya Pradesh government in September 2017.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Singh Chouhan; Governor: Anandiben Patel.

Banking News

4. Karnataka Bank launches CASA campaign

• Karnataka Bank launched CASA (current account, savings account) mobilisation campaign which will run from November 17 to March 4, 2021.
• The bank stated that it intends to mobilise over 4.10 lakh current and savings accounts with an accretion of 650 crores of business.
• With this campaign, the bank intends to introduce its attractive and superior line of digitally powered savings and current account products to its customers.
• To enable the basic banking services to the unbanked(not use banks or banking institutions) sections of the society.
• To popularize bank’s digitally powered CASA products to the next level of customers on the basis of their requirements.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Karnataka Bank Limited Headquarters: Mangaluru(Mangalore), Karnataka.
• Karnataka Bank Limited MD & CEO: Mahabaleshwara M.S.
• Karnataka Bank LimitedIncorporated: February 18th, 1924.
• Karnataka Bank Limited Tagline: ‘Your Family Bank Across India’.

Agreements News

5. DIPAM inks agreement with World Bank

• Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has signed an agreement with the World Bank, to provide advisory services to DIPAM for asset monetization.
• DIPAM is mandated with facilitating monetization of non-core assets of government CPSEs under strategic disinvestment or closure and enemy property of the value of 100 crore and above.
• DIPAM has a framework for monetizing non-core assets.
• The World Bank advisory project, approved by the Finance Minister, is aimed at analyzing public asset monetization in India and benchmarking its institutional and business models against international best practices as well as supporting the development of operational guidelines and capacity building for their implementation.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Headquarters of World Bank: Washington, D.C., United States.
• President of World Bank: David Malpass.

Ranks and Reports

6. India’s Param Siddhi ranked 63rd in most powerful supercomputers

• According to the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Indian supercomputer, Param Siddhi has achieved 63rd rank in the list of 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world.
• Param Siddhi is the high-performance computing-artificial intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer established under National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) at C-DAC.
• The Top 500 project which ranks the top 500 non-distributed computer systems in the world is published twice a year.
• The first of these updates always coincides with the International Supercomputing Conference in June, and the second is presented at the ACM/IEEE Supercomputing Conference in November.
• The supercomputer with Rpeak of 5.267 Petaflops and 4.6 PetaflopsRmax (Sustained) was conceived by C-DAC and developed jointly with the support of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under NSM.

Sports News

7. Sudeep Tyagi announces retirement from all forms of cricket

• Indian cricketer, Sudeep Tyagi has announced his retirement from all forms of the cricket.
• The 33-year-old had played for the Indian national cricket team in four ODIs and a lone T20I as a fast bowler.
• Apart from this, the right-arm medium-fast bowler had also featured in 14 games in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

8. FIFA U17 Women's World Cup 2021 cancelled

• The 2021 U-17 Women's World Cup, which was scheduled to be held in India, has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
• It has also been decided that India will host the 2022 edition of the World Cup.
• The tournament was supposed to be held in November 2020 initially, only for the pandemic to force a postponement.
• FIFA then revised the schedule and the tournament was to be held in February and March in 2021 in India.
• The 2020 U20 Women's World Cup has also been cancelled along with the U17 edition.
• While Costa Rica will get the chance to host the 2022 U20 Women's World Cup.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Headquarters of FIFA: Zürich, Switzerland.
• President of FIFA: Gianni Infantino.

9. BCCI announces MPL Sports as Official Kit Sponsor

• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced its partnership with Mobile Premier League (MPL) Sports, the athleisure wear and sports merchandise brand from Mobile Premier League, India’s largest esports platform, as the new kit sponsor and official merchandise partner for the Indian Cricket Team.
• MPL Sports has entered into a three-year agreement from November 2020 to December 2023.
• MPL Sports’ association with the BCCI begins with upcoming India’s tour of Australia, 2020-21, which will see Team India sporting the new jerseys.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• President of BCCI: Sourav Ganguly.
• Headquarters of BCCI: Mumbai, Maharashtra; Founded: December 1928.

• MPL Founded: September 2018

• Headquarters of MPL: Bengaluru, Karnataka.

• Co-Founder and CEO of MPL: Sai Srinivas Kiran G.

Important Days

10. World Philosophy Day: 19 November

• World Philosophy Day is observed on the third Thursday of November every year.
• This year World Philosophy Day falls on 19 November 2020.
• The Day encourages academic exchange and highlights the contribution of philosophical knowledge in addressing global issues.
• In 2005 the UNESCO General Conference proclaimed that World Philosophy Day would be celebrated every third Thursday of November.
• In establishing World Philosophy Day UNESCO strives to promote an international culture of philosophical debate that respects human dignity and diversity.

11. World Toilet Day: 19 November

• World Toilet Day (WTD) is observed globally on 19 November to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis.
• World Toilet Day celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 4.2 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. It is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.
• The day was established by the World Toilet Organization in 2001 and officially declared by the UN General Assembly in 2013.
• This year the theme remarks on the importance of "Sustainable sanitation and climate change".

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• World Toilet Organization Headquarters: Singapore.
• World Toilet Organization Founder and Director: Jack Sim.
• World Toilet Organization Founded: 19 November 2001.

12. World COPD Day 2020: 18 November

• World COPD Day is observed on the third Wednesday of November every year to raise awareness about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and improve COPD care throughout the world. World COPD Day 2020 falls on 18 November 2020.
• The day is organized by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) in collaboration with health care professionals and COPD patient groups throughout the world.
• The first World COPD Day was held in 2002. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a lung disease that blocks airflow and makes it difficult to breathe.
• The 2020 theme: Living Well with COPD-Everybody, Everywhere.

Obituaries News

13. Former Goa Governor Mridula Sinha passes away

• Former Governor of Goa and veteran BJP leader, Mridula Sinha passed away.
• She was the first woman Governor of Goa. She was also a proficient writer, making extensive contributions to the world of literature as well as culture.
• She has served as the head of the BJP’s women’s wing and Chairperson of Central Social Welfare Board in the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
• A native of Muzaffarpur, Sinha will be remembered for starting cultural events called ‘Chaand ke Saath’ in the lawns of Governor House.
• She had also opened a cattle shed inside the Raj Bhawan.