15th December 2020 Current Affairs

1. Indian Tennis player Ankita Raina clinched her third doubles title of the season, winning the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge with Georgia’s Ekaterine Gorgodze in Dubai on December 12, 2020.
2. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be the Chief Guest for Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2021. He has accepted PM Narendra Modi’s invitation to the event, informed Dominic Raab, UK Foreign Secretary during his talks with Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on December 15, 2020.
3. Ashraf Patel was awarded the social entrepreneur of the year award. The award was presented by Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani at a virtual ceremony in November 2020. Ashraf Patel is the co-founder of two organizations -Pravah and Community Youth Collective that train the youth for leadership roles.
4. The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 will be held from March 4- April 3, 2022 in New Zealand. The 31-day match schedule was announced on December 15, 2020 by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
5. The Indian women’s cricket team will begin its campaign at the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 on March 6, 2022 against one of the qualifiers at the Bay Oval in Tauranga.
6. The Reserve Bank of India will be setting up its first Automated Banknote Processing Centre (ABPC) in Jaipur for storage, receipt and dispatch of currency notes. The decision was taken to effectively deal with the increasing circulation of banknotes.
7. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s 70th death anniversary was observed on December 15, 2020. He was the first Deputy Prime Minister of India and was also popularly known as the Iron Man of India, as he helped in the integration of the Princely States with the Indian Union.
8. The United States on December 14, 2020 imposed sanctions on Turkey for purchase of S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Russia and urged Ankara to resolve the problem “immediately in coordination with the US”.
9. Department of Posts (DoP) and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) unveiled a new digital payment app ‘DakPay’ at virtual launch event today. The App is launched as part of its ongoing efforts to provide Digital Financial inclusion at the last mile across India. DakPay is not just a digital payment app but a suite of digital financial and assisted banking services provided by India Post & IPPB through the trusted Postal (‘Dak’) network across the nation to cater to the financial needs (‘Pay’) of various sections of the society – be it sending money to the loved ones (Domestic Money Transfers – DMT), Scan QR code and make payment for services/merchants digitally (Virtual debit card & with UPI), enabling cashless ecosystem through biometrics, providing interoperable banking services to the customers of ANY BANK (AePS) and Utility Bill Payment services.