Home » Current Affairs Date: 20 September 2020

Current Affairs Date: 20 September 2020

National:
  • On 17th September, 2020 Lok Sabha & on 20th September, 2020 Rajya Sabha passed two bills aimed at transforming agriculture in the country and raising farmers’ income.
Both bills are listed:
  1. The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020
  2. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020
G20 Environment Ministerial Meeting:
  • The Environment Ministerial Meeting (EMM) of the G20 countries held on 16th September, 2020 via video conferencing, under the Presidency of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In G20 Environment Ministers Meet Global Initiative on Land Degradation and Coral Reef has been launched:

Global Initiative on reducing Land Degradation: It aims to strengthen the implementation of existing frameworks to prevent, halt, and reverse land degradation.
Global Coral Reef program: It aims to coral reef conservation, restoration, and adaptation, and strengthen ongoing efforts and commitments made to enhance coral reefs conservation.

Joint G20 Finance and Health Ministers Meeting:
  • Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare attended via video conference in Joint G20 Finance and Health Ministers Meeting on 17th September, 2020. Saudi Arabia hosted the Presidency of G20 group session. Dr. Harsh Vardhan said: we need to focus on creating effective health systems for improved pandemic preparedness.
6th BRICS Communication Ministers Meeting:

6th BRICS Communication Ministers Meeting held in virtual format on 17th September, 2020. Shri Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Education, participated in the meeting on behalf of India. Russian Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, Mr. Maxim Parshin hosted the meeting. India will be Chairship the next BRICS Communications Ministers Meeting in 2021.

In the meeting a broad consensus was built to continue cooperation among BRICS Countries on important areas:
  • The role of Information and Communication Technologies in the fight against COVID-19
  • Building trust and security in the use of ICTs
  • Children online protection
  • Granting the access and connectivity of people living in rural areas
  • Groups of persons with disabilities and the role of the digital economy in achieving
  • Sustainable Development Goals
Business & Technology:
  • On 19th September, 2020 Tata group announced that it has received approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for the commercial launch of the country’s first CRISPR COVID-19 test, “Feluda”.
    COVID-19 disease is caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, this test detect the genomic sequence of virus using CRISPR technology. CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology has been indigenously developed & powered by CSIR-IGIB (Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology).
Death:
  • Former Canadian Prime Minister from Liberal Party John Turner died on 19th September, 2020. He was 91. He was Prime Minister of Canada for just 11 weeks.
  • US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died due to cancer on 18th September, 2020. She was 87.