Daily Current Affairs : 17th September 2020 | Daily GK update Quiz

Exp. India will be self-reliant in fertiliser production by 2023 as new units are being set up with an investment of Rs 40,000 crore to reduce dependency on imports, Fertilisers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said.

Government is promoting nano fertilisers as these are 25-30 per cent cheaper and give 18-35 per cent higher yield..

Exp. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain for the signing of the historic Abraham Accord, which is the first Arab-Israeli peace deal in 26 years.

Egypt was the first Arab State to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1979. Jordon signed a peace pact in 1994..

Exp. India has been ranked at the 116th position in the latest edition of the World Bank’s annual Human Capital Index that benchmarks key components of human capital across countries.

However, India’s score increased to 0.49 from 0.44 in 2018, as per the Human Capital Index report released by the World Bank on 16th September.

The 2020 Human Capital Index update includes health and education data for 174 countries – covering 98 per cent of the world’s population – up to March 2020, providing a pre-pandemic baseline on the health and education of children, with the biggest strides made in low-income countries..

Exp. Four Indian cities — New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru — witnessed a significant drop in their rankings in the global listing of smart cities that was topped by Singapore.

The Institute for Management Development (IMD), in collaboration with Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD), has released the 2020 Smart City Index, with key findings on how technology is playing a role in the COVID-19 era.

In the 2020 Smart City Index, Hyderabad was placed at the 85th position (down from 67 in 2019), New Delhi at 86th rank (down from 68 in 2019), Mumbai was at 93rd place (in 2019 it was at 78) and Bengaluru at 95th (79 in 2019)..

Exp. Four Indian cities drop in Global Smart City Index; Singapore on top.

Four Indian cities — New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru — witnessed a significant drop in their rankings in the global listing of smart cities that was topped by Singapore.

The Institute for Management Development (IMD), in collaboration with Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD), has released the 2020 Smart City Index, with key findings on how technology is playing a role in the COVID-19 era.

In the 2020 Smart City Index, Hyderabad was placed at the 85th position (down from 67 in 2019), New Delhi at 86th rank (down from 68 in 2019), Mumbai was at 93rd place (in 2019 it was at 78) and Bengaluru at 95th (79 in 2019)..

Exp. State-run engineering firm BHEL on 16th September announced its tie up with SwissRapide AG to bring Maglev trains (magnetic levitation) to India.

Aimed at expanding its footprint in the urban transportation sector as part of its diversification initiatives, BHEL has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SwissRapide AG for Maglev Train projects in India

The Maglev Rail system hovers in the air instead of rolling, due to magnetic levitation, thus the vehicles have no physical contact with the guideway. This enables the system to be highly energy efficient, allows operating speeds of easily up to 500 km/h and significantly reduces the total cost of system ownership..

Exp. The State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest public sector lender, and Titan Company have partnered to launch contactless payment services through watches, called Titan Pay.

Benefit:  SBI account holders can tap their Titan Pay watch on contactless payment POS machines without the need of swiping or inserting their SBI bank card. The payment feature on these watches will be accessible on over 2 million contactless MasterCard-enabled POS machines in the country, stated the release..

Exp. UBS Securities has projected India’s GDP for 2020-21 (FY21) to contract by 8.6% earlier it was -5.8%.

For FY22, UBS Securities projects India’s GDP to grow by 10%. UBS Securities is a Chinese investment bank and brokerage firm headquartered in Beijing, China..

Exp. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecast a deeper contraction of 10.2% for India in the current fiscal, surpassing its June estimate of -7.3% in the event of a second wave of infections, in its Interim Economic Outlook report released on 16th September.

While the OECD raised its expectations for global output to -4.5% in 2020 against -6% earlier based largely on improvements in China and US, it cited the prolonged spread of the virus for the downgrade in India’s growth..

Exp. 9stacks has onboarded Suresh Raina as its Brand Ambassador. The partnership will see the cricketer in the brand’s upcoming campaigns and promote 9stacks through various engagement activities.

Founded by Sudhir Kamath, Pratik Kumar & Rishab Mathur in 2017, 9stacks has witnessed a meteoric rise in its popularity and has emerged as one of the most exciting online poker gaming platforms in recent times. With over 32+million users, 9stacks offers its users the experience and thrill of fast-paced and dynamic gaming..

Exp. The World Patient Safety Day is observed globally on 17th September to create a global awareness for patient safety and urge people to show their commitment to making healthcare safer..

Exp. The World Patient Safety Day is observed globally on 17th September to create a global awareness for patient safety and urge people to show their commitment to making healthcare safer.

Theme 2020: Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety..

Exp. Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Governor for 21 days, Amitabha Ghosh, passed away on 15th September at the age of 90.

Ghosh had the shortest stint as RBI governor, from January 15, 1985 to February 4, 1985..