Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 02 February 2021

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

On 31 January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the 125th-anniversary celebration of ‘Prabuddha Bharat’, the monthly magazine of the Ramakrishna Mission.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) gave this information on Friday. The ‘Enlightened India’ magazine has been an important medium for disseminating the message of ancient spiritual knowledge of India. Its publication was started from Chennai (erstwhile Madras) from where it was published for two years.
In April 1899, the place of publication of the magazine was shifted to Advaita Ashram and since then it has been publishing from there.
The Prime Minister will address the function at around 3.15 pm on 31 January. The ceremony is being organized by the Advaita Ashram in Mayawati.
Many great personalities have made their mark on the pages of ‘Enlightened India’ through their writings on Indian culture, spirituality, philosophy, history, psychology, art and other social issues. Writers like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bhagini Nivedita, Sri Aurobindo, and former President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan contributed to the magazine for many years.

The move comes as China and Hong Kong have said they will no longer recognise the British National Overseas (BNO) passport as a valid travel document from January 31.
Hong Kong residents can apply from Sunday for a new visa offering them an opportunity to become British citizens after Beijing's imposition of a national security law in the Asian financial hub last year.
The move comes as China and Hong Kong have said they will no longer recognise the British National Overseas (BNO) passport as a valid travel document from Sunday, January 31.
Britain and China have been arguing for months about what London and Washington say is an attempt to silence dissent in Hong Kong after pro-democracy protests in 2019 and 2020.

In what could be a mega boost to the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in India, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has announced its plan to launch a new vaccine, Covovax, in partnership with American company Novavax, by June this year. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Saturday that its partnership for a COVID-19 vaccine with Novavax has shown excellent efficacy results.
"Our partnership for a COVID-19 vaccine with @Novavax has also published excellent efficacy results. We have also applied to start trials in India. Hope to launch #COVOVAX by June 2021!" Poonawalla said in a tweet.
The new vaccine shall be launched under the brand name of Covovax, which SII is manufacturing in partnership with Novovax. The Pune-based global vaccine giant has sought permission from the DCGI to start domestic trials of the new product.
The development comes close on the heels of US-based biotechnology company Novavax announcing that its vaccine is 89.3 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 in a trial conducted in the UK.
"NVX-CoV2373 has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis. We look forward to continuing to work with our partners, collaborators, investigators and regulators around the world to make the vaccine available as quickly as possible," Stanley C. Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax.

Inspiration4, which is expected to launch in the fourth quarter, seeks to raise support for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and is another step towards Musk’s efforts to make human spaceflight more common.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced on Monday that it will launch its first all-civilian orbital spaceflight in late 2021. The mission is called 'Inspiration4' and the company's technology entrepreneur Jared Isaacman will be commanding it. Isaacman, who is also a trained pilot, will be joined by three other people.
"Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, is donating the three seats alongside him aboard Dragon to individuals from the general public who will be announced in the weeks ahead," a statement issued by the company read.
"The Inspiration4 crew will receive commercial astronaut training by SpaceX on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft, orbital mechanics, operating in microgravity, zero gravity, and other forms of stress testing. They will go through emergency preparedness training, spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises, as well as partial and full mission simulations," it added.

Denmark are world champions once more beating Sweden 26-24 in the final of Egypt 2021 Handball World Championships.
Before 2019 Denmark had never won this tournament, now in 2021 they are back-to-back world champs and defending Olympic champions too, redemption for their early exit from Euro 2020 this time last year.
Mikkel Hansen was the hero once more, scoring 7 goals on his 219th appearance, making it over 1,100 goals for him in a Danish shirt
Captain Niklas landin was clutch too making 15 saves, denying and demoralising a Swedish attack time after time.