Blog

Hello All,

Here we would be going through some general awareness topics (India) and will be updated weekly and new posts available on a monthly basis. So let’s get started.

General Awareness- October 2020

1-Noted Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur was named as the President of Film and Television Institute of India, FTII Society and Chairman of Governing Council of FTII.

2-Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, continues to top the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2020 for the ninth consecutive year, with a total wealth of Rs 6.58 lakh crore.

3-Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched the Defence India Startup Challenge, featuring the initiatives aimed at expanding the horizons of Innovations for Defence Excellence ecosystem in New Delhi.

4-Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will hold a virtual meeting in December.

5-Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Santosh Kumar Gangwar released a booklet on ‘COVID-19- Safe Workplace Guidelines for Industry’.

6-Non-food bank credit growth decelerated to 6 per cent in August as against 9.8 per cent in the same month last year, RBI data showed.

7-Lt Gen Harinder Singh, the commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps who held six rounds of tough negotiations with Chinese military on the border standoff in eastern Ladakh, has been appointed as head of the prestigious Indian Military Academy.

8-ISRO is scheduled to launch its Venus mission in 2025 and France will participate in it, French space agency CNES said.

9-Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation -The world’s longest high altitude tunnel, the Atal Tunnel, at Rohtang.

10-The Swachh Bharat Awards-2020 was given to States, Districts, Blocks and Village Panchayats by Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat; Gujarat bags award at the state level, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu at district level, Khachrod, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh at the block level and Chinnaur, (Salem) at the village panchayat level.

General Awareness- October

11-Kerala’s first and nation’s twentieth mega food park was virtually inaugurated in Palakkad district of Kerala by the Union Minister for Food Processing Industries, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj- Narendra Singh Tomar.

12-Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Summit RAISE 2020 – ‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020.

13-Indian Olympic quota winner Yashaswini Singh Deswal won the 10m air pistol event in the 5th edition of the International Online Shooting Championship (IOSC).

14-To catalyse cutting-edge solar cell manufacturing in India, NITI Aayog, the New and Renewable Energy Ministry, and Invest India organised a global symposium virtually ‘India PV EDGE 2020’.

15-Software industry major Dassault Systemes has established a research centre in collaboration with Shiv Nadar University in Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida.

16-Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) has been successfully flight tested from Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha.

17-As a part of Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi PM SVANidhi Scheme, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has entered into an MoU with Swiggy, online food delivery platform, to onboard street food vendors on its e-commerce platform, giving them online access to thousands of consumers.

18-The 12th BRICS Summit will be held on 17th November 2020 via video conference.

19-IT company IBM will set up a centre of excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) in India in partnership with Government e-Marketplace.

20-Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli became the first Indian player to score 9,000 runs in T20 cricket.

General Awareness- October

21-Americans Harvey J Alter and Charles M Rice, and British scientist Michael Houghton were chosen for the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.

22-A historic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center-ISLRTC and National Council of Educational Research and Training – NCERT to make educational materials accessible for Deaf children in their preferred format of communication viz Indian Sign Language.

23-Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched ‘MSME Prerana’, an online business mentoring programme for MSMEs by state-run Indian Bank.

24-Vistara and Axis Bank launched a co-branded forex card that can load up to 16 currencies.

25-The 2020 Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to Roger Penrose for black hole discovery and Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for discovering “a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.”

26-Commonwealth Games medallist shuttler Chetan Anand was named the brand ambassador of India’s first-ever badminton brand ‘Transform’ which was launched virtually.

27-The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing.”

28-The world famous Jog falls in Karnataka will get a face lift at a cost of Rs. 120 crore.

29-More than 150 million people may fall into extreme poverty throughout the world by 2021 as a result of the economic contraction caused by the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, the World Bank said in a report.

30-The 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to the American poet Louise Glück “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”

General Awareness- October

31-Former England international and Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler has been appointed the head coach of East Bengal for the next two years.

32-In a bid to promote health and fitness, the directorate of sports and youth services of Maharashtra held a national-level athletic fitness championship virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

33-Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman announced measures of Rs. 73,000 crore to stimulate consumer spending in the economy in an effort to fight the slowdown due to COVID-19 pandemic following lockdown.

34-Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati has signed an MoU with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune to set up a Rs. 17-crore supercomputing facility.

35-Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the autobiography of Dr. Balasaheb Vikhe Patil titled ‘Deh Vechwa Karani’ through video conferencing.

36-Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and MSMEs Shri Nitin Gadkari inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for 8 National Highway projects in Kerala.

37-“Tech For Tribals” initiative was e-launched by TRIFED, Ministry of Tribal Affairs in association with Chhattisgarh MFP Federation and IIT Kanpur.

38-India has established a separate bilateral air bubble arrangement with Ukraine for operation of special international passenger flights between the two countries.

39-Vedanta Group firm Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) has signed a pact with Gujarat government to set up a greenfield zinc smelter in the state.

40-Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a commemorative coin of 75 rupees denomination to mark the 75th Anniversary of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

General Awareness- October

41-Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a campaign Red light on, Gaadi off to tackle air pollution in the national capital.

42-BrahMos, the supersonic cruise missile was successfully test fired from Indian Navy’s indigenously-built stealth destroyer INS Chennai, hitting a target in the Arabian Sea.

43-The eighth edition of annual Indian Navy (IN) – Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) bilateral maritime exercise SLINEX-20 is scheduled off Trincomalee, Sri Lanka from 19 to 21 October 2020.

44-World number one Indian Elavenil Valarivan won a gold medal and Shahu Tushar Mane bagged a silver in the Sheikh Russel International Air Rifle Championship, held virtually.

45-Minister of State for Shipping (I/C) Mansukh Mandaviya e-launched the development of Indigenous Software solution for Vessel traffic services (VTS) and Vessels Traffic Monitoring Systems (VTMS) in New Delhi.

46-The poll spending limit for candidates contesting Lok Sabha and Assembly elections has been enhanced by 10 percent.

47-Union Minister for MSME, Nitin Gadkari launched India’s first-ever high quality Khadi Fabric Footwear, designed by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) through Video Conference.

48-The sixth edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF), 2020, will be held virtually from December 22-25, Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan has said.

49-A 60 kilometre-long stretch of Greenfield highway will be constructed in Rajasthan under the Bharatmala Pariyojana to ensure high speed traffic movement between Delhi and Mumbai.

50-The Reserve Bank barred Payment System Operators (PSOs) from launching any new proprietary QR code for payment transactions.

General Awareness- October

51-Vodafone Idea and Nasscom Foundation launched MyAmbar – an app-based solution for women safety in India.

52-The government has decided to supply fortified rice in schools covered under the mid-day meal programme as part of its effort to fight malnutrition.

53-Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has launched 26 new tourism projects across the state in a bid to boost the crisis-hit tourism sector.

54-A 19-seater seaplane which will be used for flights between the Sabarmati riverfront and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel”s Statue of Unity in Gujarat as part of a first-of-its-kind service in the country arrived here from Maldives.

55-Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and MSMEs Shri Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stones of nine National Highway projects with a total length of nearly 262 kms worth over Rs 2752 crore in Tripura.

56-Union Minister for Education Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ virtually inaugurated newly constructed Mechanical Engineering Block, Bio-Technology and Chemical Engineering Block and facilities such as Central Instrumentation and Reaction Engineering Laboratory of NIT Arunachal Pradesh.

57-The postgraduate programme in enterprise management (PGPEM), offered by the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B), has been ranked in the top 100 in the Financial Times (FT) EMBA 2020 ranking.

58-India and US held the 3rd bilateral two plus two Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi and signed the landmark defence pact, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement, BECA.

59-In the ongoing fight against Covid, Uttar Pradesh government has started digital library to help the students in higher education to get the education content in digital format.

60-IT major Cognizant has named Rajesh Nambiar as the Chairman and Managing Director of its India operations and a member of its Executive Committee.

General Awareness- October

61-Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Sardar Patel Zoological Park, popularly known as Jungle Safari, developed near the 182-metre tall Statue of Unity.

62-The Indian Army launched a messaging app called SAI that will provide secure voice, text and video calling services to its soldiers.

63-Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched the ‘Green Delhi’ App to increase citizen participation in Delhi’s fight against pollution and ensure timely action against pollution sources in the city.

64-The World Bank said remittances to India would fall this year by nine per cent to USD 76 billion due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and global economic recession.

For more detailed General Awareness content you can follow here. More General awareness topics coming soon. Stay updated to the latest general awareness topics by following my blogs. Until next time, Happy Reading! Ciao!

Vivek Nair