19 January 2020 - Daily Current Affairs
1. NDRF celebrates its 15th Raising Day
- The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) celebrated its 15th Raising Day on January 18, 2020.
- Established in 2006 the NDRF is a specialized multi-skilled, humanitarian force of the country.
- Since its inception, NDRF has saved more than One lakh lives in its 3100 operations and rescued/evacuated over 6.7 lakh people during disasters.
National Affairs
2. Tuberculosis control programme renamed
- Government of India renamed its National TB Control Programme to National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme.
- The name change is in line with the goal of India in eliminating the disease by 2025.
- This is five years ahead of the goal of United Nations Sustainable Development target.
- Also, the WHO endorsed on technology developed by India to detect the disease called TrueNat MTB in terms of accuracy.
National Affairs
3. Centre of Block Chain Technology sets up in Bengaluru
- National Informatics Centre has set up the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Blockchain Tech in Bengaluru to provide BC as a service and allowing all stakeholders to benefit from shared learning, experiences, and resources.
- Inaugurated by Ravi Shankar Prasad, the center will share its blockchain-based proof of concepts with govt entities.
- The center will also help different wings of the govt. to understand the potential of tech
Banking & Finance
4. UN revises India’s GDP growth forecast for 2019-20 to 5%
- The UN has released ‘World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2020.
- It says a growth rate of 2.5% is possible in 2020 for the global economy.
- It lowered its GDP growth estimate for India to 5.7% in the current fiscal (from 7.6% forecast in WESP 2019) and lowered its forecast for the next fiscal to 6.6% (from 7.4% earlier).
- It has also forecast a growth rate of 6.3% for the fiscal beginning in 2021.
