Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 January 2021

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 January 2021

::NATIONAL::

Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary was celebrated as National Youth Day

National Youth Day has been celebrated annually on 12 January since 1985. The day marks the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.
The day is observed every year to honour the ideals and thoughts of Swami Vivekananda, who had been extremely vocal about the importance of youth in the process of nation-building. Further, Swami Vivekananda's foray overseas helped revive India's image as a land of spirituality.
An ardent disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, he pushed for national integration in colonial India and his speech in Chicago in 1893 remains one of the most famous speeches ever.
It is to honour his contributions to the country that the government of India, in 1984, declared his birthday as National Youth Day.
One of the main objectives of National Youth Day is to promote rational thinking among the youth, who are the future of the country.
Every year, several seminars, workshops and events take place on National Youth Day which aim to discuss the lectures, thoughts and writings of Swami Vivekananda. Several competitions on essay writing, debates and poetry also mark the day.

::ECONOMY::

Industrial production contracted by 1.9% in November 2020

India’s industrial production contracted by 1.9 per cent in November, official data showed on Tuesday.
According to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data, manufacturing sector output shrank by 1.7 per cent in November 2020.
Mining output also declined 7.3 per cent, while power generation grew 3.5 per cent.
The IIP had grown by 2.1 per cent in November 2019.
Industrial production has been hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March last year when IIP contracted by 18.7 per cent in the month.

::INTERNATIONAL::

US declares Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism

The State Department has designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism for repeatedly providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists.
The Trump Administration has been focused from the start on denying the Castro regime the resources it uses to oppress its people at home, and countering its malign interference in Venezuela and the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
With this action, we will once again hold Cuba’s government accountable and send a clear message: the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of U.S. justice.
For decades, the Cuban government has fed, housed, and provided medical care for murderers, bombmakers, and hijackers, while many Cubans go hungry, homeless, and without basic medicine. Members of the National Liberation Army (ELN), a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, traveled to Havana to conduct peace talks with the Colombian government in 2017. Citing peace negotiation protocols, Cuba has refused Colombia’s requests to extradite ten ELN leaders living in Havana after the group claimed responsibility for the January 2019 bombing of a Bogota police academy that killed 22 people and injured more than 87 others.
designation subjects Cuba to sanctions that penalize persons and countries engaging in certain trade with Cuba, restricts U.S. foreign assistance, bans defense exports and sales, and imposes certain controls on exports of dual use items.
The United States will continue to support the Cuban people in their desire for a democratic government and respect for human rights, including freedom of religion, expression, and association. Until these rights and freedoms are respected, we will continue to hold the regime accountable.

SCIENCE AND TECH

SpaceX Demo 2 Mission Launches into History

In this black and white infrared image, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Demo-2 mission was the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
The test flight served as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system.
Behnken and Hurley launched at 3:22 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 30, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
A new era of human spaceflight begins as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

Sports

Australia Open Qualifiers: AnkitaRaina Moves To Final Round, Curtains For RamkumarRamanathan

India's top-ranked women's player AnkitaRaina moved to the final round of the Australian Open Qualifiers with a gutsy three-set win over world number 118 Katarina Zavatska but it was curtains for RamkumarRamanathan in the men's singles.
In the women's singles qualifiers being held in Dubai, Ankita overcame a second-set lapse to win 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in the second round against the Ukrainian. The match lasted two hours and 20 minutes.