ASI identifies 138 'must see' monuments, guess which Kerala site made it to the list

NATIONAL NEWS

ASI identifies 138 'must see' monuments, guess which Kerala site made it to the list

• ASI has identified 138 monuments as "Must See Monuments", Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Prahlad Patel informed Parliament.
• there are 38 World Heritage Sites in India, out of which 22 cultural sites including monuments/ buildings and caves are under the protection of the ASI.
• The "Must See" list features outstanding Indian monuments and archaeological sites, under the protection of the ASI, including those that feature on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Switzerland partner country for BioAsia 2020

• Switzerland will be the partner country for BioAsia 2020
• Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary of the Industries and Commerce and Information Technology, Government of Telangana announced.
• Switzerland will serve as the country partner for the 17th edition of BioAsia.

Workshop on Bamboo cultivation to be held on 19 & 20 Dec in Jammu

• In Jammu and Kashmir, a first of its kind workshop on Bamboo cultivation will be held on 19th and 20 of this month in Jammu. Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh will inaugurate the exhibition.
• The workshop will focus on promotion of Bamboo cultivation in the potential Kandi areas of Jammu and its value addition as an economic activity and to generate entrepreneurship and employment opportunities

INDEX

India rises one rank to 129 in human development index

• India inched up one spot to rank 129th out of 189 countries on the 2019 Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Inequality and deprivation continue to be high in the country.
• India’s HDI for 2018 improved to 0.647 compared to 0.640 the year before.
• However, when the value is discounted for inequality, the HDI falls to 0.477, a loss of 26.3 per cent due to inequity in the distribution of the HDI dimension indices.
• This is higher than the average loss due to inequality for medium HDI countries, at 25.9 per cent, and for South Asia, at 25.9 per cent.
• India has a GII value of 0.501, ranking it 122 out of 162 countries in the 2018 index. “In India, 11.7 per cent of Parliamentary seats are held by women (compared to 17.1 per cent in South Asia). And 39 per cent of adult women have reached at least a secondary level of education (39.9 per cent in South Asia) compared to 63.5 per cent of their male counterparts,”

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

World's first' fully-electric commercial flight takes off

• An all-electric powered seaplane has taken flight in Vancouver, Canada, in what the operators describe as a "world first" for the aviation industry.
• The short test flight by Harbour Air and magniX involved a six-passenger aircraft fitted with an electric motor.
• It was a first step to building the "world's first all-electric commercial fleet.
• The push to electric could help slash carbon emissions in the high-polluting aviation sector.
• "This historic flight signifies the start of the third era in aviation - the electric age,"

APPOINTMENT

Shri C. Sugandh Rajaram has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Ghana

• Shri C. Sugandh Rajaram (IFS-2001), presently Consul General, Consulate General of India, Munich has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Ghana.

OBITUARY

George Laurer, inventor of bar code dies at 94

• George J. Laurer, whose invention of the Universal Product Code at IBM transformed retail and other industries around the world, has died. He was 94.
• Laurer was an electrical engineer with IBM in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park in the early 1970s when he spearheaded the development of the UPC, or bar code.
• The now-ubiquitous marking, composed of unique black bars and a 12-digit number, allowed retailers to identify products and their prices as they are scanned, usually at checkout.

ICSSR chairman B Kumar passes away

• Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), B Kumar, passed away.
• Braj Bihari Kumar was appointed as the chairman of the ICSSR in May 2017.

SPORTS

Praggnanandhaa wins London Chess Classic

• India's R. Praggnanandhaa won the FIDE Open category of the London Chess Classic, which concluded, with a tally of 7.5 points out of nine rounds.
• The 14-year-old finished joint first with Anton Smirnov of Australia, who also scored 7.5 points. In the ninth and final round that stretched to the next day, Praggnanandhaa drew with his compatriot Sahaj Grover.
• Earlier, in the eighth round, the Indian Grandmaster drew with his country-mate Arvindh Chithambaram (7 points), who ended up in third place.