Current Affairs on 8 December 2020

Current Affairs on 8 December 2020

• Raj Kamal Jha wins Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize

  Journalist-author, Raj Kamal Jha has won the 3rd Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize for his novel, "The City and The Sea". Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the winner of the $5,000 prize was announced online in Copenhagen, Denmark.

• ICAR wins 2020 King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award

  The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), has won the prestigious International King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award for 2020. The award was presented annually by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The award was conferred to the ICAR on the occasion of World Soil Day, on December 5.

• ICICI Bank Launches iMobile Pay to offer Payments

  The private lender ICICI Bank has launched a new version of its mobile payment app called iMobile Pay, to offer payment and banking services to customers of any bank. The latest version of the app is interoperable and will now allow payments and other banking services to even those customers who do not hold an ICICI Bank account.

• Sergio Perez wins Sakhir Grand Prix 2020

  Sergio Perez (Mexico-Racing Point-BWT Mercedes), won the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. Esteban Ocon (Renault-France) secured the second position, followed by and Lance Stroll (Racing Point-BWT Mercedes-Canada) at third place.

• Sri Lanka to host Asia Cup in 2021

  Sri Lanka will host the Asia Cup in June 2021 while Pakistan has earned the rights to host the tournament in 2022. As per the original schedule, the tournament was supposed to be hosted by Pakistan in 2020, however, it got postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Climate Change Performance Index

  The Global Climate Change Performance Index was recently released by the New Climate Institute, Germanwatch and CAN (Climate Action Network). In 2020, India slid a position to the tenth. India was at 31st rank in 2014.

• United Nations Investment Promotion Council awarded India Investment Award

  The United Nations Conference on Trade & Development - UNCTAD recently announced "Invest in India" as the winner of the 2020 United Nations Investment Promotion Awards. The award recognizes the outstanding achievements of investment promotion agencies around the world.