Today’s top news: 13 December, 2020 (GPN):

NATIONAL NEWS:

1. The farmers union leaders have announced that they go on a hunger strike on Monday, December 14 against the Centre’s new farm laws.
2. Western Maharashtra Tax Practitioners’ Association requested that the due date for filing tax audit report for A.Y. 2020-21 be extended to 28th February 2021 & for filing Income tax return be extended to 31st March 2021.
3. Violence broke out at a Taiwanese technology giant’s plant near Bengaluru after some employees, reportedly angry over salaries, vandalised the facility’s premises.
4. Several trains have been cancelled by the Indian Railways due to the dense fog and the farmers’ protests taking place at the borders of the national capital from over two weeks now.
5. BJP ally marches towards Delhi against farm laws : Amid the ongoing farmers’ protest at the gates of the national capital, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) leader and member of Parliament (MP) Hanuman Beniwal on Saturday began a demonstration march towards Delhi.
6. Delivering the inaugural address at FICCI’s 93rd Annual General Meeting, PM Modi said the economic indicators are raising hopes and the country has learnt a lot during the difficult times. He gave the credit to the country’s entrepreneurs, youth, farmers and all Indians.
7. The Madras High Court has ended the Income Tax proceedings initiated against Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, and his wife over alleged non-disclosure of cash transactions of about Rs seven crore following sale of a property near Chennai.
8. The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-CID police to probe into ”missing” 103 kg gold, which was seized by CBI in a raid from an importer in Chennai. The gold is part of 400.47 kg in bullion and ornaments confiscated by the CBI when it carried out searches at the office of Surana Corporation Ltd in Chennai in 2012.
9. Two persons, including a boy, were arrested for allegedly harassing two lions in Gir forest of Gujarat by chasing them on a motorcycle. The arrest was made after a video surfaced on social media platforms recently, which showed two lions being chased on a motorcycle by unidentified persons, who scared them away with loud noise of the vehicle and honking.
10. Heavy Snowfall In Kashmir , Landslides Due To Rain On Jammu-Srinagar Road.
11. The health department of Maharashtra Government on Friday issued a notification to implement the facility of providing blood free of cost to the patients receiving treatment at all state-run hospitals from Saturday onwards.
12. Eight people were injured after an explosion at a drug manufacturing facility near Hyderabad that triggered a fire on Saturday. The blast took place around 1 pm at Vindhya Organics in the Industrial Development Area at Bollaram in Telangana’s Sangareddy district
13. The convenient 5 kg LPG cylinder has been rechristened ‘Chhotu’, the nation’s top oil firm Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said on Friday. The cylinders are available at various points of sale, including IOC petrol pumps, Indane LPG distributors and department (Kirana) stores and can be purchased by submitting just an ID proof. There is no requirement of address proof for obtaining these cylinders.
14. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has tentatively scheduled the launch of the CMS-01 communication satellite on December 17. PSLV-C50, the 52nd mission of PSLV, will launch CMS-01 from the Second Launch Pad (SLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.
15. To attract tourists from Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Union Territory, Himachal Pradesh (HP) government has introduced adventure sports activities and has notified a paragliding site at Nainikhad, about 14 and 36 kilometers from Punjab and J&K border respectively.
16. Over 7.48 lakh voters will decide the fate of 245 candidates, including 100 women contestants, in the sixth phase of District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, The eight-phased maiden DDC elections commenced on November 28 and so far, voters in 190 constituencies.

17.At least seven people were killed and several others injured on Saturday in a collision involving a jeep and a trailer truck in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh district. The accident occurred near Sadulkhera on Udaipur-Nimbahera highway.

18. The team of Wildlife Division Spiti sighted the threatened Himalayan serow (Capricornis sumatraensis thar) and captured in camera with video clips. Its is a matter of great pride for the Wildlife Division of the Forest Department. the State Chief of Wildlife Archana Sharma congratulated all the staff of Wildlife Division Spiti and directed them to take steps to keep tracking it with taking up measures for the conservation of this rare species.
19. Indian Railways RRB mega recruitment drive from Dec 15 to fill 1.4 lakh vacancies, 2.44 crore candidates appearing.
20. South Indian Superstar Rajnikanth 70th birthday. Wishes poured in throughout the day from celebrities and politicians as well as PM Modi.
21. Bengali actor Arya Banerjee (33 yrs) who acted in several Bollywood films such as the critically acclaimed ‘The Dirty Picture’ was found dead at her south Kolkata residence on Friday . The police broke open the door of her third-floor apartment and found that the body of actor was lying in the bedroom.
22. Ministry of ports, shipping and waterways has released draft of Indian ports bill 2020. This bill will replace the Indian ports act of 1908.
23. Will INS Viraat be allowed to rest in peace?
    The Viraat originally belonged to the British Navy as HMS Hermes, and was commissioned into the Indian Navy after it was acquired by the Indian Government in 1987. Now, ahead of the likely visit of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations next month, David Campbell Bannerman, a director of The Hermes Viraat Heritage Trust, has written to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the UK Prime Minister, seeking their intervention in saving the big lady. The Trust has appealed to both leaders to convert Viraat, which served with distinction in the Royal Navy for 27 years, into a floating museum.
24. Indian Navy fighter pilot Commander Nishant Singh, who did not survive the Mig-29K crash on November 26, was laid to rest with full military honours in Goa on Friday. His wife, Nayaab Randhawa, received the Tricolour and her husband’s uniform from the Commanding Officer of the squadron.
25. For the third time this year, a cadet from Punjab has bagged the prestigious Sword of Honour for being adjudged as overall best cadet of his batch during pre-commission training in an Army institution. The Sword of Honour for the Autumn Term, 2020, was awarded to Lt Watandeep Singh Sidhu during the Passing out Parade (PoP) held at the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun
26. The country’s COVID-19 recovery rate has reached around 94.89 per cent.
27. Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has tested positive for COVID-19
28. Coronavirus Cases: 9,844,322
    Deaths: 142,841
    Recovered: 9,343,056

✈INTERNATIONAL NEWS

1. The State Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Shahriar Alam has said that cooperation between Bangladesh and India can give global competitors in the textile sector a tough time as India is one of the top cotton exporting countries and Bangladesh is the second largest RMG (Ready-made Garments) exporter in the world.
2. PM Modi and his usbekistan counterpart signed 9 agreements on different projects such as renewable energy, cybersecurity, terrorism, etc.
3. The External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday called the seven-month-long border standoff with China in eastern Ladakh “very disturbing” and remarked that India was being tested. He expressed confidence that India will meet the national security challenge posed by its neighbour at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
4. Indian chief of Army staff general naravane held talks with the UAE land forces and staff major general Saleh Mohammed Saleh Al Ameri.
5. The first meeting of India, Uzbekistan, and Iran on the joint use of Chabahar port will take place virtually on Monday . The meeting will be jointly chaired at the deputy minister level from Uzbekistan and Iran and at the secretary-level from India.
6. The proposal for the trilateral meet was made by the Uzbek side and India has welcomed Uzbekistan interest to use the Chabahar port as a transit port saying “this would open up economic opportunities for the traders and business community of the region”, a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs.

🌎WORLD NEWS🌍

1. Ten rockets were fired at various parts of Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul, injuring two and killing at least one on Saturday. Eight people died and 31 were wounded in late November when several rockets hit residential areas and landed close to the Iranian embassy.
2. The Asian Development Bank launched with the nine billion USD vaccine initiative called Asia-Pacific Vaccine Access facility.
3. Morocco has become the fourth Arab League Nation to normalise relations with Israel. The United States has agreed to Tu recognise the the claim of Morocco over the disputed Western Sahara region. Morocco is the fourth country to make the deal with Israel after UAE, Bahrain and Sudan.
4. The Global Carbon Project recently calculated that the world will approximately release 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the air in 2020. It was 40.1 billion tonnes in 2019.
5. The statue of esteemed 19th Century Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh was vandalised at Lahore Fort. This was the second time that Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s statue was defaced in the ‘Mai Jinda’ haveli at the fort since its unveiling in June 2019.
6. Coronavirus Cases:
   71,709,909
   Deaths: 1,606,113
   Recovered:49,861,088

🚣🚴🏇🏁🏊Sports:

1. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday (December 12, 2020) announced that the Indian batsman Rohit Sharma has cleared his fitness test and is set to join the Test team in Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy accordingly. Australia and India that are first and second on the ICC World Test Championship standings will begin the Test series from December 17.
2. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the confirmed schedule and the qualification process for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup which is slated to be played in South Africa in 2023.
3. The 10-team World Cup has now been rescheduled to February 9-26, 2023 and will see the hosts South Africa and the seven top teams on the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings as of November 30, 2021 – from the teams that competed at the Australia 2020 event – qualify automatically for the 2023 edition.

USD 74.93 💷GBP 94.16
In Darjeeling(WB)
🥇Gold ₹49,920@10 gm 24 (Krt)
🥈 Silver ₹67,400@ Kg
⛽ Petrol ₹ 84.90
⛽ Diesel ₹ 77.17
₹ 697.50 /14.2 Kg

🇮🇳Facts about India🇮🇳

The nation paid homage to those who sacrificed their lives while defending Parliament House from dastardly terror attack on this day in 2001. The 2001 Indian Parliament attack was a terrorist attack at the Parliament of India in New Delhi on 13 December 2001. The perpetrators were Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, two terrorist organizations were involved, according to Indian sources.

😀 Thought of the day 

The struggle ends when gratitude begins

 Joke of the day 

पति को बीवी की बनाई पनीर की सब्जी में
पनीर ढूंढने से भी नहीं मिल रहा था…!
.
हिम्मत करके पूछा तो बीवी बोली-
चुपचाप खा लो, सब्जी का नाम ही
‘खोया पनीर’ है…!!!
विज्ञापन. 🤪😆

😇 GK Today

what is CAB…..?

The Bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there.
Those who have migrated to India before December 31, 2014 are eligible. The Bill shall not apply to: 1. Tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura 2. States that are protected by the Inner Line Permit (ILP) — Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.

😳 Why ..❓❓

Darjeeling is one of the district in West Bengal. The name ‘Darjeeling’ came from the Tibetan words, ‘dorje’ meaning thunderbolt (originally the scepter of Indra) and ‘ling’ a place or land, hence ‘the land of the thunderbolt’

LEARN Sanskrit🙏🏻

Establishment संस्थापनम्

🤔 How it works ⁉

How Thermocol is prepared

Thermocol contains an important thermoplastic compound, called polystyrene which is obtained by the polymerisation of styrene or phenylethene. The chemical properties of phenylethene are identical to polyethene. … Hence thermocol is harmful for the environment.

🛕 VEDIC GYAN

क्रोधाद्भवति संमोह: संमोहात्स्मृतिविभ्रम:।
स्मृतिभ्रंशाद्बुद्धिनाशो बुद्धिनाशात्प्रणश्यति॥
(द्वितीय अध्याय, श्लोक 63)

इस श्लोक का अर्थ है: क्रोध से मनुष्य की मति मारी जाती है यानी मूढ़ हो जाती है जिससे स्मृति भ्रमित हो जाती है। स्मृति-भ्रम हो जाने से मनुष्य की बुद्धि नष्ट हो जाती है और बुद्धि का नाश हो जाने पर मनुष्य खुद अपना ही का नाश कर बैठता है।

🧬 HEALTH CARE: HOME REMEDIES🩺
( Note : These home tips followed in villages/ancient traditions, it is up to you to use it or not🙏🏻)

Health benefits of Carrot 🥕
They’re rich in beta-carotene, a compound your body changes into vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes healthy. And beta-carotene helps protect your eyes from the sun and lowers your chances of cataracts and other eye problems.

🙏PLZ FOLLOW GOVT. NORMS, MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCE, KEEP YOURSELF & YOUR FAMILY SAFE🌼