National:
TROPMET-2020:
- Indian Meteorological Society (IMS) in collaboration with North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC), Shillong, organized a four-day Virtual Symposium on Tropical Meteorology (TROPMET-2020) from December 14 to December 17, 2020 at NESAC, Shillong.
The Symposium was on the theme of “Weather and Climate Services over Mountainous Regions”.
During the Symposium, Speakers discussed the importance of weather and climate services for the mountainous regions including the complex Himalayan and other mountainous regions.
Vice President of ABU:
- Prasar Bharati, CEO, Shri Shashi Shekhar Vempati has been elected as the Vice President of Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), on December 16, 2020.
Shri Vempati has been elected to the office of the Vice President, ABU for three years with immediate effect.
Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union is one of the largest broadcasting associations in the world. This was formed in 1964.
International:
2020 Human Development Index:
- 2020 human development index report has been released by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In this report, India has been ranked 131 with the HDI value of 0.645 for 2019.
Biggest Drop in Carbon Dioxide Emissions:
- Due to corona virus pandemic-struck, world cut its carbon dioxide emissions this year by 7%, the biggest drop ever.
Global Carbon Project, an authoritative group of international scientists tracked carbon emissions. According to study, in 2020, world will have put 37 billion US tons (34 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide in the air, which is less than from 40.1 billion US tons (36.4 billion metric tons) in 2019. This study was published in the journal Earth System Science Data on December 10, 2020.
World Quizzing Championship 2020:
- 43-year-old Engineer Ravikant Avva has won the World Quizzing Championship 2020. He is from Hyderabad. He is a graduate from IIT-Madras and IIM Ahmedabad. This international competition was organized by the International Quizzing Association.
Sports:
- ‘Olympic Council of Asia‘ announced that 2030 Asian Games will be hosted by Doha, Qatar, & 2034 edition will be hosted by Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Death:
- Eminent Writer Dr Kalpetta Balakrishnan died on December 14, 2020. He was 75. He served as the secretary of Kerala Kalamandalam.
- British espionage novels author John le Carré died on December 12, 2020. He was 89. He was best known for his novels “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold”. He also worked for both Security Service & Security Intelligence Service during 1950s & 1960s.