Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 20 December 2020

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The country's COVID-19 recovery rate has further improved to 95.53 per cent, as more than 25 thousand COVID patients have recovered during the last 24 hours.
Health Ministry said, the total number of recoveries has gone up to over 96 lakh six thousand. The actual caseload currently comprises only 3.02 per cent of the total positive cases.
Presently, the total number of active cases in the country is around three lakh three thousand. India has one of the lowest Covid 19 deaths per million population globally, which stands at 105.
The Ministry said, focussed measures including targeted testing, early identification, timely isolation and prompt hospitalization and Standard Treatment Protocol have ensured that daily fatalities are under 400.
During the past 24 hours, 24 thousand 337 new cases were reported taking the total number of positive cases in the country to over one crore 55 thousand. The Ministry said, that effective implementation of the strategic and graded Test, Track and Treat approach has led to higher recoveries and lower fatality. Currently, India’s Case Fatality Rate is at 1.45 per cent, which is one of the lowest globally. During the last 24 hours, 333 deaths were reported taking the toll to one lakh 45 thousand 810.

At some part of our lives, we all have come across uniform wearing watchmen in our neighbourhood and wondered who do they work for, how are they able to serve us privately and most importantly, why do they not get respect as much a police officer gets if they both do almost similar work and that is to protect us from any kind of threat?
As much it is needed to have the answers of these questions, it is also needed to know one more thing and that is when do our real “chowkidar” will get his due respect? Let us find the answers and we will also find the role of CAPSI in this article.
The watchmen, bouncers, primary first-aid providers and fire trained marshals of the majority of the MSMEs today are part of the private security industry. Private security industry (PSI) is a blooming industry in India growing at a CAGR of around 20% for a decade now. It is one of the largest employers and provider of the man power in India. As of now, the Indian personal security market is likely to touch INR 99,000 crore and 1.5 Lakh crore by 2022. This shows how important is their contribution to not only our society but to our economy too.
The significance of the PSI in order to have a crime-free society is great. A typical security personnel’s job includes protecting people, places and property from potential threats but there are additional roles too which make their jobs really very important for the proper functioning of our system and law enactment.

Australia said it had detected cases of the new virulent coronavirus strain identified in the United Kingdom, while Hong Kong said it would suspend Britain flights.
Two travellers from the United Kingdom to Australia’s New South Wales state were found carrying the mutated variant of the virus that Britain has said could be up to 70% more infectious. Both are in quarantine, and the recent spike in infections in Sydney are not linked to this, authorities said.
The new strain has prompted Britain’s European neighbours and several others including Canada and Iran to close their doors to travellers from the country.
Much is unknown about the strain, but experts said current vaccines should still be effective against it.
Asian nations including Japan and South Korea said they were monitoring the new strain even as they battle a spike in infections at home.
Hong Kong became the first city in the region to ban flights from Britain in a bid to curb already rising case numbers in the dense financial hub.

Scientists have developed energy storage devices with stepped-up voltage window using organic nanofibres, which can serve as miniaturized energy source for supplying small packets of energy to the various electronic gadgets that would be needed for the lifestyle of the future.
While tiny batteries could provide the desired supply of energy, they are incapable when it comes to energy requirements in the form of a power pulse, which capacitors could deliver only if their energy storage capacity is increased. Supercapacitors are poised to fill the gap in between providing desirable energy and power densities in one go. It is critical to enhance the operable voltage window of supercapacitors to step up their efficiency above present-day supercapacitors, which operate with voltages typically below 3 V.
In this direction, Prof G U Kulkarni and his group from Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences, Bangalore, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, have come up with a simple method for the fabrication of a planar supercapacitor using organic nanofibres as solid-state electrolyte drop coated on low-cost titanium metal microelectrodes. The present work has been recently published in the scientific journal ‘Nano Energy’.

After the recently concluded Australia vs India Test in Adelaide, despite India’s capitulation, Virat Kohli managed to fractionally close the gap on Steve Smith at the top of the ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings from 25 points to 13 points.
Kohli’s first innings of 74 enabled him to gain two points, whereas Smith’s 1 & 1* lost him 10 points in the table. Marnus Labuschagne’s innings of 47 & 6 in such a low-scoring match have pushed him to a career-best 839 points. Whereas, Captain Tim Paine’s player-of-the-match innings of 73 not out has lifted him with a career best of 33rd place with 592 points. His previous best was 45th in December of 2018. Further down, Joe Burns unbeaten 51 saw him move into 48th place, the first time he has been in the top 50 since 2016.