Current GK 2020

Oscar Awards 2020 Winner Complete List | 92nd Academy Awards

Oscar Awards 2020 Winner List- Parasite, director Bong Joon Ho’s twisted satire on the class divide, leap-frogged through 92 years of Oscar history to become the first non-English and South Korean film to win the best picture award. Joaquin Phoenix won the Oscars in the Best Actor in the Leading Role category. Renée Zellweger won […]

8 West African Countries Announce New Common Currency ‘Eco’

Eight West African countries have announced a new common currency ‘Eco’ as part of the move to do away with the remnant symbols of the French colonial period. These eight countries, belonging to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), are-Mali, Niger, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, and Ivory ...

Finland’s Sanna Marin becomes world’s youngest serving PM

Finland’s Social Democratic Party vice-chairperson Ms. Sanna Marin hogged the global limelight as she was on December 10, 2019 sworn in as the Prime Minister of the country to become the world’s youngest serving head of a government at 34. She heads a 5-party Centre-Left coalition whose four other parties are all led by women, […]

UTs of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli to Merge into one Unit

The Union Government on December 19, 2019 announced that two Union Territories–Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli–will merge into one unit from January 26, 2020. Earlier, the Parliament on December 3, 2019 passed the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill, 2019. Lok Sabha had passed this […]

What is Atal Bhujal Yojana?

The Union Government on December 25, 2019 launched a ground-breaking ambitious scheme, the Rs. 6,000 crore Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal). The scheme aims at effective ground water management to benefit nearly 8350 Gram Panchayats in 78 districts of seven states– Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar ...

Tamil Nadu Tops in Good Governance Index 2019

Tamil Nadu has secured top position in the Good Governance Index (GGI) 2019 in the category of big states, followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka on second and third spots respectively. Chhattisgarh got the 4th position while Andhra Pradesh was 5th, Gujarat 6th, Haryana 7th, Kerala 8th, Madhya Pradesh 9th and West Bengal at the 10th […]

General Mukund Naravane takes charge as new Army Chief

General Manoj Mukund Naravane on December 31, 2019 took over as the 28th Chief of the 1.3 million-strong Indian Army. He was earlier the Vice-Chief of the Indian Army as Lt. General. He succeeded Gen. Bipin Rawat who superannuated on the same day and went on to become the first Chief of Defence Staff. Gen. […]

Parliament Passes NIA (Amendment) Bill, 2019

Parliament has passed the National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2019, with the Rajya Sabha approving it on July 18, 2019. The Lok Sabha had already passed the bill on July 15, 2019 by a majority of 278 against 6 members voting against it. The legislation aims at enhancing the jurisdiction of NIA to investigate scheduled […]

Parliament Approves Teachers Quota Bill

Parliament on July 3, 2019 passed a bill to enable universities or colleges to be considered as a unit instead of the department while providing reservation for filling vacancies of teachers in central educational institutes. The passage of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Bill 2019 in Rajya Sabha ...

Cabinet approves Code on Wages Bill

The Union Cabinet on July 3, 2019 approved the Code of Wages Bill which seeks to subsume existing laws related to workers’ remuneration and enable the centre to fix minimum wages for the entire country. • The code in wages is one of the four codes that would subsume 44 labour laws with certain amendments […]