Current Affairs Daily Digest – June 12 2020
1. Indian-American soil scientist wins 2020 World Food Prize
Indian-American soil scientist Dr. Rattan Lal has won the prestigious 2020 World Food Prize, which is considered to be equivalent to a Nobel Prize in the field of agriculture.
The award recognized his contribution to increasing the global food supply by helping small farmers improve the health of the soil. The award also highlights the importance of managing & restoring soil health.
2. Nature Index
The Nature Research, a division of the popular Springer Nature recently released Nature Index. India secured 12th rank in the index. The countries that secured top 5 places in the index includes USA, China, Germany, UK and Japan. Also, three institutions found their places among top 30 Indian Institutions according to Nature Index 2020 ratings. They are
- Indian Association for Cultivation of Science (IACS),
- Kolkata at the 7th position Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) at 14th position
- N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata at 30th
3. Jagananna Chedodu Scheme launched
The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy recently launched “Jagananna Chedodu” scheme. The scheme is to provide financial assistance to barbers, tailors and washer men.
The Jagananna Chedodu scheme is to provide Rs 10,000 per person. It is to benefit 2.47 lakhs of barbers, washer men and tailors. The State Government has transferred Rs 247 crores to the bank accounts so far under the scheme.
4. SAUNI Scheme: Third Phase launched
The third phase of Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (SAUNI) scheme was launched by the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. The scheme is to fill 115 dams with Narmada water by August 15, 2020 and March, 2021.
5. India-ASEAN Youth Dialogue
The third India-ASEAN Youth Dialogue as held between June 8, 2020 and June 10, 2020. The dialogue was held in virtual mode. ASEAN has been India’s utmost priority under its Act East Policy. There are 10 countries in ASEAN grouping.
The organization focuses on military, education, socio-cultural integration, security. It was created in 1967 by 5 countries namely Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.
6. J Radhakrishnan brought back as Tamil Nadu Health Secy amid pandemic
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Tamil Nadu government transferred Health Secretary Beela Rajesh and appointed 1992-batch IAS officer J Radhakrishnan to the post. Radhakrishnan had served as the Health Secretary from 2012 till early 2019.
He was praised by the international media during the 2004 tsunami for his interventions as the then district collector of Nagapattinam.
7.NHAI becomes first construction sector to go completely digital
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has become of the first construction sector organization to go fully digital. The entire project management workflow of NHAI has been transformed from manual to the online portal based, with the launch of cloud-based and artificial intelligence-powered big data analytics platform Data Lake and Project Management Software.
8. World Day Against Child Labour is observed on June 12
The World Day Against Child Labour is an International Labour Organization aiming to raise awareness and activism to prevent child labour.
This day brings together governments, local authorities, civil society and international, workers and employers organizations to point out the child labour problem and define the guidelines to help child labourers.
Theme – COVID-19 Protect childern from child labour, now more than ever
9. Wipro partners with CloudKnox for Cloud security solutions
In partnership with CloudKnox Security, IT major Wipro has announced new solutions to enable enterprises to proactively protect and manage their hybrid and multi-Cloud infrastructure by continuously detecting and remediating over-permissioned identities.
As part of the partnership, Wipro will offer an Access Governance for Hybrid Cloud “as-a-service” offering, powered by CloudKnox.
10. UP govt successfully installs Tru NAAT machines in all 75 districts
In Uttar Pradesh, the State Government has successfully installed Tru NAAT machines in all 75 districts. The state has also increased it’s testing capacity and yesterday tested 15,000 plus samples. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has set the target to achieve 20 thousand COVID testing per day in this month.
11. MHA reconstituted a new committee
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has reconstituted a new committee for the welfare of the freedom fighters. This committee chaired by the minister of state for home affairs G Kishan Reddy and 9 other “eminent freedom fighters” from across the country.
The ministry features a separate division to serve freedom fighters who are alive and their families. It disburses pension to about 30,000 freedom fighters and their families.
