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General Awareness December 2020

1- At the 50th meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell that was held on November 26, the decision to include 8 Para Athletes in four different sports- Para Athletics, Para Shooting, Para Badminton and Para Table Tennis into the Target Olympic Podium Scheme was taken.

2- The combined Index of Eight Core Industries (Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement, Electricity) stood at 124.2 in October 2020, which declined by 2.5 (provisional) percent as compared to the Index of October, 2019.

3- Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has extended the time limit for pensioners upto 28th February next year for submission of Jeevan Pramaan Patra.

4- The Red Bull Racing Junior Jehan Daruvala is the first Indian to stand on the podium in an FIA Formula 2 Race.

5- Sydney Thunder won the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) title for second time, beating favourites Melbourne Stars by seven wickets at the North Sydney Oval.

General Awareness December 2020

6- The Centre has announced the third stimulus package of Rs 900 crore for the Mission COVID Suraksha- The Indian COVID-19 Vaccine Development Mission.

7- 8 Track and Field Athletes were included in the core group of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme at the 50th MOC meeting held on November 26.

8- India’s Visnu Shivaraj Pandian won the bronze medal at the ‘Champion of Champions’ online event of the President of Indonesia Open Tournament.

9- K Anwar Sadat, Chief Executive Officer of Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), has been appointed member of the NCERT Advisory Board.

10- The US has emerged as the second biggest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India, replacing Mauritius, during the first half of the current financial year, Singapore till at the top- according to data of the commerce and industry ministry.

General Awareness December 2020

11- Former Australia captain Steve Smith on Sunday (29/11) became only the fourth batsman to hit three consecutive ODI centuries against India.

12- US President-elect Joe Biden named Janet Yellen as his Treasury Secretary and Indian-American Neera Tanden as Director of Office of Management and Budget, as he announced key members of his economic team.

13- Basin Trials of Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) were successfully conducted at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), marking entry into the final phase of the ambitious warship building project.

14- India successfully test-fired the anti-ship version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory.

15- Branded as XP100, the premium grade petrol was launched across ten cities by Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel.

General Awareness December 2020

16- Department of Posts has decided to deliver Sabarimala ‘SwamyPrasadam’ to devotees across the country at their doorstep.

17- ‘Ramayan Cruise Tour’ on the Saryu river in Ayodhya will be launched soon.

18- The World Malaria Report (WMR) 2020 released by WHO, India is the only high endemic country which has reported a decline of 17.6% in 2019 as compared to 2018.

19- India International Science Festival (IISF) 2020 is going to be organized during 22-25 December 2020 on virtual platform.

20- Britain became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use.

General Awareness December 2020

21- Dharampal Gulati, the owner of MDH Masala, passed away. He was 98.

22- Amateur Sneha Singh wins in the seventh leg of Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Noida Golf Course.

23- Athletics Federation of India (AFI) appointed the vastly experienced Radhakrishnan Nair as its full-time chief coach, filling the post left vacant after the resignation of Bahadur Singh in July.

24- US President-elect Joe Biden has tapped his key COVID-19 advisor Indian-American Dr. Vivek Murthy as the next Surgeon General.

25- The Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) named former India player Atul Wassan as the chairperson of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) for the upcoming season.

General Awareness December 2020

26- PSU major NHPC Ltd said the 2,000 MW Subansiri Hydropower project, will be commissioned by March 2022.

27- Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched a “Mera Covid Kendra” mobile application that gives users the locations of free Covid test centers within a radius of five kilometers in the state.

28- Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India, is among six people named “Asians of the Year” by Singapore’s leading daily, The Straits Times for their work in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

29- Indian wrestler-turned-mixed martial arts fighter Ritu Phogat won her fourth consecutive MMA championship title.

30- Seeking to boost the capability of the lower judiciary to hear cases online, funds have been released to set up ‘video conference cabins’ in 2,506 court complexes across India.

General Awareness December 2020

31- “Soni” fame director Ivan Ayr”s second directorial venture “Meel Patthar” has won the best film trophy at Singapore”s Silver Screen Awards.

32- India’s agri-research body Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has bagged the prestigious ‘International King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award’ from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for raising awareness about importance of soil health among all stakeholders.

33- Promising Indian driver Jehan Daruvala created history when he became the first Indian to win a Formula 2 race during the Sakhir Grand Prix.

34- Indian Army celebrated the 260th Corps Day of the Army Service Corps on 08 December 2020.

35- India donated the final tranche of USD 3 million to complete the construction of Palestine-India Techno Park.

General Awareness December 2020

36- Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the government will start 1000 Khelo India centres in the country to provide employment to retired sportspersons.

37- Breakdancing became an official Olympic sport. The International Olympic Committee’s officially added to the medal events program at the 2024 Paris Games.

38- The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully demonstrated communication between its two labs using Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology.

39- The Cabinet approved setting up of public Wi-Fi networks to provide public Wi-Fi service through Public Data Offices without levy of any License Fee.

40- ShareChat, a social media platform in Indic languages, has appointed Ajit Varghese as its Chief Commercial Officer.

General Awareness December 2020

41- US President-elect Joe Biden and Indian Origin Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have been named by the prestigious TIME magazine as ”2020 Person of the Year” for changing the American story, showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division and sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world.

42- The Maharashtra government will observe the birth anniversary of social reformer Savitribai Phule on January 3 every year as ”SavitriUtsav”.

43- Reserve Bank of India has appointed R Subramanian, RS Ratho and Rohit Jain as executive directors.

44- IT firm- Zensar, has named former Cognizant executive Ajay S Bhutoria as its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.

45- A 43-year-old engineer from Hyderabad- Ravikant Avva, has won the prestigious World Quizzing Championship 2020, an annual international competition, which saw the participation of 668 quizzers from across the world.

General Awareness December 2020

46- ‘Himgiri’, the first of the three Project 17A ships being built at M/s Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE), Kolkata was launched.

47- Softening prices of food items like cereals, fruits and milk pulled down retail inflation to 6.93 per cent in November.

48- Media executive- Uday Shankar, has taken over as FICCI President for 2020-2021.

49- Prasar Bharati CEO- Shashi Shekhar Vempati, was elected as the vice president of Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, one of the largest broadcasting associations in the world.

50- Extending support to J&K and Ladakh students, AICTE has decided to release the instalment of Rs. 20,000/- as maintenance allowance under Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS).

General Awareness December 2020

51- The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has successfully launched the country’s new communication satellite CMS-01 in the intended orbit in space.

52- Prime Minister of India- Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Bangladesh- Sheikh Hasina, jointly inaugurated a railway link between Haldibari in India and Chilahati in Bangladesh during the PM level virtual bilateral summit.

53- Taking a step further to ensure an atmosphere of Clean Sport globally, India has pledged a sum of USD 1 million to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) towards the global agency’s scientific research budget.

54- The Ministry of AYUSH and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the formal recognition of Yogasana as a competitive sport at a joint press conference.

55- E-commerce major Snapdeal has partnered with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to allow shoppers to make QR-based digital payments at the time of accepting delivery of their orders.

General Awareness December 2020

56- Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar announced the selection of 23 Feature and 20 non-feature films in Indian Panorama for the 51st International Film Festival of India, IFFI to be held in Goa in January next year.

57- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the advanced Hypersonic Wind Tunnel (HWT) test facility Hyderabad, making India the third country after the US and Russia to have such a facility.

58- World silver-medallist Amit Panghal (52kg) notched up a gold medal without having to fight his final bout, while veteran Satish Kumar (+91kg) won silver after an injury prevented him from competing in his summit clash at the Cologne World Cup in Germany.

59- India skipper Virat Kohli ended year without an international century, his first such calendar year in 12 years.

60- Opening batsman Mayank Agarwal became the third fastest Indian batsman to get to 1000 runs in 19 innings in Test cricket. Vinod Kambli in 14 innings and Cheteshwar Pujara in 18 innings are first and second respectively.

General Awareness December 2020

61- The Sports Ministry has approved the inclusion of four Indigenous Games to be a part of Khelo India Youth Games 2021, scheduled to take place in Haryana. The games include: Gatka, Kalaripayattu, Thang-Ta and Mallakhamba.

62- Indian pugilists bagged nine medals including three gold, two silver and four bronze at the Cologne Boxing World Cup ended in Cologne, Germany

63- The mutual fund industry of India and the US received “top” grade for robust disclosure practices in areas such as fees and transparency of fund holdings, according to a global study by Morningstar.

64- The e-courts services project of the Department of Justice has won the Digital India Award 2020.

65- Gaganjeet Bhullar overcame a bumpy ride for a hard-fought four-under-68 to win his first PGTI trophy in nine years on the final day of the TATA Steel Tour Championship 2020.

General Awareness December 2020

66- US President Donald Trump presented the prestigious Legion of Merit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership in elevating strategic partnership of the two countries and emergence of India as a global power.

67- HDFC, ICICI Bank, SBI, Yes Bank, PNB and HSBC Bank emerged as the top-10 banks in 2020, while Google Pay and PhonePe were the top wallets among the customers, according to BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) Movers and Shakers 2020 report.

68- Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a special postal stamp to mark the centenary celebrations of the Aligarh Muslim University.

69- Smartphone maker Oppo it has set up of its 5G innovation lab in India which is also the company’s first 5G lab outside China.

70- The India Open Super 500 will be held from May 11 to 16 and will serve as the last qualification event for the Tokyo Olympics, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) confirmed in its new calendar for the upcoming year.

General Awareness December 2020

71- The economic loss due to premature deaths and morbidity from air pollution was Rs 2,60,000 crore or 1.4 per cent of the GDP in India in 2019, according to a new scientific paper.

72- Veteran industrialist Ratan Tata was conferred the title of “Global Visionary of Sustainable Business and Peace” by the Federation of Indo-Israel Chambers of Commerce (FIICC) for epitomising “unity, peace and sustainability”.

73- Bearing maker SKF India has signed a MoU with Tata Community Initiatives Trust (TCIT) to explore and develop skill development initiatives through Tata STRIVE.

74- DRDO conducted the successful trial of the Medium Range Surface to Air MR-SAM missile from Chandipur off the Odisha coast.

75- Country’s largest power producer, NTPC ltd has been conferred “Excellence” in the prestigious CII-ITC Sustainability Awards 2020 in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Domain.

General Awareness December 2020

76- The Cabinet approved the merger of Films Division, Directorate of Film Festivals, National Film Archives of India, and Children’s Film Society, India with National Film Development Corporation.

77- Neetal Narang becomes first female president of Softball Federation of India.

78- To give a fillip to India’s push to usher in a hydrogen-based mobility solutions ecosystem, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) plans to buy 15 buses that can run on hydrogen fuel.

79- Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has agreed to buy out IMG Worldwide LLC from their sports management joint venture for Rs 52.08 crore.

80- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first-ever driverless train operations on Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line through video conferencing.

General Awareness December 2020

81- The Delhi Police set up a solar energy-enabled “modern beat booth”, which is also water, fire and vandalism proof, at the iconic India Gate.

82- According to market researcher Omdia, Samsung Electronics to remain the world’s leading TV vendor for the fifteenth straight year.

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Until next time, Happy Reading! Ciao!

Vivek Nair