Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
State Bank of India has launched a new work from home facility for its employees. The board of the bank has approved the plan whereby its employees can work from home using mobile devices.

Notes:
The Union Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has inaugurated the first-ever Indian Railways Human Resources Round Table Conference in New Delhi on June 10, 2017. The aim of the Conference is to improve the productivity of the human resources through inter-change of ideas with various stakeholders and HR practitioners and academics. There are 3-themes of the conference viz. Stakeholders Expectations from HR, The Future of Work – HR Role and Creativity Within Constraints.

Notes:
The Australia Group is an informal group of countries that work together to prevent the spread of chemical and biological weapons. The group was established in 1985 after Iraq used chemical weapons in 1984. The group’s members include 42 countries and the European Union. The group’s members meet annually to improve export licensing measures and stop potential proliferators from acquiring CBW materials.
The Australia Group’s members coordinate their national export controls to limit the supply of chemicals, biological agents, and related equipment, technologies, and knowledge. In 2020, the group agreed to add Novichok nerve agent precursors to its list of chemical weapons precursors.
The Australia Group’s first meeting was held in Brussels, Belgium in September 1989. India became the 43rd member of the group.

Notes:
The Hypersonic Flight Experiment, or HEX, was the first test-flight in the RLV Technology Demonstration Programme. The RLV-TD vehicle was launched from the first launchpad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 23 May 2016.

Notes:
Difference in per cent cost of ‘binding and cutting charges’ and ‘rotalty’ = (18-15)%= 3%
Now, 4% of total cost = Rs. 6000
∴ 3% of total cost =

Notes:
Recently, Switzerland and India have inked a pact to extend the Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) by five years till 2021 based on successes achieved by the project in the first phase. 

Notes:
The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has started its Twitter Seva. The Twitter Handle is ‘DARPGSEVA’. The Twitter Seva aims to address issues relating to the DARPG like Public Grievances and Administrative Reforms etc. The Twitter Seva will enable the DARPG to reach out to the common public and various stakeholders for facilitating redress of grievances and other issues of importance relating to the department.

Notes:
The only project from India called “Installation of Ground Water Recharge System” to get GCF Fund is based in Odisha. It has recently been approved GCF for $34 million. India’s National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) signed an Accreditation Master Agreement (AMA) with the Green Climate Fund. NABARD is the implementation agency of Green Climate Fund in India. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up in 2010 and is one of the operating entities under financial mechanism set up under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to provide support to developing countries in combating climate change, with resources to be generated from funding by developed country Parties and various other public and private sources.

Notes:
The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed a UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, paving the way for tackling child hunger and ending all forms of malnutrition once and for all. Every country in the world in 2015, agreed to eliminate malnutrition by 2030. Brazil became the first country to make SMART commitments as part of the United Nations (UN) Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025.

Notes:
On December 1, 2016, Yoga was listed as UNESCO’s Intangible cultural heritage.