Daily Current Affairs for UP State Exams: 07.01.2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 450-km Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore built by GAIL (India) Ltd. marks an important milestone towards the creation of “One Nation One Gas Grid”.
The pipeline will carry natural gas from Kochi in Kerala through Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, and Kasargod districts to Mangaluru in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.
Note: Natural gas pipeline network will be doubled in 5-6 years and CNG stations will be raised to 10,000 from the current 1,500.

Education Minister lays foundation stone of IIT Hyderabad's TiHAN Foundation

Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has laid the foundation stone of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad’s TiHAN Foundation.
Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation Systems for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Remotely Operated Vehicles at IIT Hyderabad, known as 'TiHAN Foundation' has been incorporated as a Section-8 company by the institute in June 2020.

The center has set up a high-level group to help build a South Asia-focused energy security architecture.
The high-level group, headed by former Union power secretary Ram Vinay Shahi, is named the South Asia Group for Energy (SAGE).
It has been set up under the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)-run think tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).

Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’ and Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani launched a virtual toy hackathon ‘Toycathon 2021’.
The ToyCathon2021 is being organized to create awareness among school students about the rich cultural heritage of our country.
Note: The toys market is Rs 7 lakh crores in the world. In our country, 80 percent of toys are imported.

The world's largest floating 600 MW solar energy project to be constructed at Omkareshwar dam on Narmada River in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh will begin power generation by year 2022-23.
The International Finance Corporation, World Bank, and Power Grid have granted in-principle consent for providing aid for the said project development.
Electricity will be produced in about 2000-hectare water areas by installing solar panels in the dam.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constructed a composite Digital Payments Index (DPI) to capture the extent of digitization of payments across the country.
The RBI-DPI has been constructed with March 2018 as the base period. The DPI for March 2019 and March 2020 work out to 153.47 and 207.84 respectively, indicating appreciable growth.
Note: The RBI-DPI comprises five broad parameters that enable the measurement of deepening and expansion of digital payments in the country over different time periods.
These parameters include Payment Enablers (weight 25%), Payment Infrastructure – Demand-side factors (10%), Payment Infrastructure – Supply-side factors (15%), Payment Performance (45%) and Consumer Centricity (5%).

BEL signs contract with Indian Navy for Initial supply of indigenously developed Laser Dazzlers

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has signed a contract with the Indian Navy to initially supply 20 Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation Dazzlers (Laser Dazzlers).
The Laser Dazzler is used as a non-lethal method for warning and stopping suspicious vehicles/boats/aircraft/UAVs/pirates etc. from approaching secured areas during both day and night.
Note: Ministry of Defence has signed a contract with Bharat Electronics Limited for procurement of 10 Lynx U2 Fire Control systems for frontline warships of the Indian Navy under the Buy (Indian) category.

Japan’s Sumitomo Forestry firm and Kyoto University goals to launch the world’s first wood-based space satellite to fight the drawback of space junk.
Note: According to the European Space Agency (ESA) statistical model, there are greater than 130 million items of anthropogenic space debris due to human actions. The debris can journey at a pace of greater than 22,300 mph and may affect different satellites.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha administered the oath of office to Justice Pankaj Mithal as the new chief justice of the common high court for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh in Jammu.