Daily Current Affairs 28th November, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 28 November 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Union Environment Ministry approves construction of Rs 1,100 Crore Song Dam Drinking Water Project in Dehradun
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has approved the construction of the Song Dam Drinking Water Project worth Rs 1100 crore in Dehradun. 

• This project , will provide 24-hour drinking water to the city of Dehradun and will give a rebirth to River Rispana
• Originally built on the Song River, the dam is about 148 meters high and aims to generate power up to six megawatts.

Ladakh gets largest solar project at Leh Indian Air Force station
The Union Territory of Ladakh has got the largest solar power project setup under the Centre’s ‘Make In India’ initiative at Leh IAF station to provide sustainable energy alternative to fossil fuel and traditional methods of energy generation.

• The project namely ‘Provision of Solar Photo Voltaic Powerplant 1.5 MW’ has been completed within 12 months well before the completion deadline of March 31, 2021. The total cost of the project is Rs 122 crore. 
• It is the largest installed solar project till date out of the target of 300 MW in three phases for defence sectors and 14 MW for Leh region as set by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Letter of Understanding signed between Rajasthan, UN World Food Programme
A Letter of Understanding (LoU) has been signed between the Rajasthan government and United Nation”s World Food Programme (WFP) for proposed participation to achieve food and nutritional security goals.

• The LoU has been signed with Women and Child Development, School Education, Rural Development and Tribal Regional Development departments so that the target of food and nutritional security can be achieved by taking the necessary support from these departments.

BANKING & FINANCE

YES Bank in partnership with Worldline introduces SMS Pay on POS terminals
Private lender YES Bank launched an SMS Pay functionality on POS terminals, which enables merchants to accept contactless payments from customers.

• The facility was launched in collaboration with French payment services company Worldline, adding that the facility would allow merchants to accept remote payments on POS terminals and thus allow customers to transact safely and remotely.
• Local merchants & department stores could request payments from their customers by entering their contact details in the POS terminal following which an SMS would be triggered with a generated link, that would be used to pay through domestic debit and credit cards.

FinTech unicorn Razorpay launches corporate cards in collaboration with Visa
Indian FinTech unicorn Razorpay announced the launch of RazorpayX Corporate Cards, in collaboration with Visa.

• The new corporate cards aim to provide relief and stabilise the financial operations of COVID-19-affected startups and SMEs.
•  The new cards will enable founders to free up working capital expenses with zero personal risk and liability and a repayment offering of up to 45 days of interest-free credit.
•  The Corporate Cards also offer business owners with credit limits of up to INR 20 lakhs and the ability to extend these corporate cards to their employees. They can be used to make online payments as well as purchases at a PoS in a brick-and-mortar.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

India’s GDP in September quarter contracts 7.5%: Govt data
India’s gross domestic product or GDP contracted 7.5% in the quarter ending September in comparison to the same period last year, data released by the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation (Mospi) showed.

• India’s GDP fell by 23.9% in April-June period quarter, worst in decades, amid the coronavirus pandemic-induced which hit businesses and livelihoods across the country.
• The numbers showed that the narrowing of contraction was led by the manufacturing sector, electricity, construction and agriculture. The construction sector, which had slumped to a decline of 50.3% in the June quarter, displayed some recovery declining by 8.3%.
• This is the first time that the economy posted two successive contractions since the government started publishing quarterly GDP data in 1996.

SPORTS

FIFA Rankings: India rise four spots to 104
The elite football body, FIFA, has released the international rankings for November 2020, India has moved up to 104, a significant rise of four spots, in the recent FIFA rankings.

• The country was placed at 108 when the governing body previously released the rankings in October.
• Nonetheless, the top six spots remain unchanged in the rankings. Belgium have kept their place on the top, followed by France, Brazil, England, and Portugal.

APPOINTMENTS

Lt Gen Harpal Singh appointed Engineer-in-Chief of Indian Army
Lt Gen Harpal Singh has been appointed as the next Engineer-in-Chief of the Indian Army.

• He will take over from the incumbent, Lt Gen SK Shrivastava, on December 1.
• At present, Lt Gen Harpal Singh is posted as the Director-General, Border Roads Organisation (BRO). Maj Gen Rajeev Chaudhary, who has earlier served as Chief Engineer Southern Command, will take over the reins of BRO.

Burkina Faso president Roch Marc Christian Kabore re-elected
President Roch Marc Christian Kabore will serve another five years as Burkina Faso”s president, according to provisional results announced by the National Independent Electoral Commission.

• Kabore won with nearly 58% of the vote, beating 12 opponents and claiming victory in the first round.
• The opposition had hoped to split the vote and deprive Kabore of the 51% needed for an outright victory and then form a coalition behind the strongest candidate for round two. But leading candidate, Eddie Komboigo, head of the Congress for Democracy and Progress, received 15% and the other leading rival, Zephirin Diabre, from the Progress and Change Party, who lost to Kabore in 2015, received approximately 12%.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 

Russia test-launches Tsirkon hypersonic missile in the Arctic
Russia successfully test-fired a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile in the Arctic, the country’s Defence Ministry has announced.

• The frigate Admiral Gorshkov in the White Sea fired a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile, hitting a naval target 450 km away in the Barents Sea at a speed of over Mach 8. 
• In early January, the same frigate test-fired a Tsirkon missile for the first time, striking a ground target over 500 km away.

OBITUARIES

F.C. Kohli, father of Indian IT industry, passes away
Faqir Chand Kohli, (F.C. Kohli), known as the father of Indian Software Industry, passed away in Mumbai following cardiac arrest. He was 96.

• Mr. Kohli was the founder-CEO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). He joined Tata Electric Co. in 1951 where he helped set up the load despatching system to manage system operations.
• He became director of Tata Electric in 1970. As the first CEO of TCS, he pioneered India’s IT revolution and helped the country build the $190-billion IT industry.
• He was a recipient of Padma Bhushan from the Government of India.

James Wolfensohn, former World Bank president, passes away
James Wolfensohn, who served as the president of the World Bank for 10 years and was a guiding force for a couple of the most well-known cultural institutions in the US, has died. He was 86.

• Wolfensohn worked on Wall Street for many years before taking over as the head of the World Bank, a loan-offering global development organization, in 1995. He was nominated by then-President Bill Clinton.
• He was also a lover of the arts, serving as chair of New York’s Carnegie Hall in the 1980s and the Kennedy Center in Washington in the first half of the 1990s. At both places, he worked to boost finances and renovate physical spaces.

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