26th December 2020 Current affairs

1. The Indian Railways has operationalised its first 12,000 HP Electric locomotive manufactured locally by French rolling stock manufacturer Alstom. India has become the 6th country in the world to join the club of countries producing high horsepower locomotives indigenously with these powerful e-locos being manufactured within the nation.
2. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will establish a Regional Academic Centre for Space at IIT (BHU) to facilitate short and long term projects at the institute. ISRO and the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) and the move can help propel the culture of research and development among students.
3. The Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Prakash Javadekar announced that India will hold a Global Media and Film Summit in 2021. Javadekar said that the year 2022 will mark 75 years of independence and 75 years of Cannes Film Festival and the occasion will be celebrated in a different scale with a special pavilion at the International Film Festival.
4. Niti Aayog has launched a cloud storage service called DiggiBoxx as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. Like Google Drive and Apple’s iCloud service, DiggiBoxx will enable both individuals and enterprises to store, manage, collaborate, organise and share all their data online. You can use a free account or subscribe to its monthly or yearly plans starting at Rs. 30 per month.
5. Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s new book titled ‘Covid-19: Sabhyata ka Sankat aur Samadhan’ has been launched by former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh.
6. Government of Telangana signed an MoU with SAP India to digitize and empower MSMEs in the state by equipping them with digital skilling and technologies.
7. FASTag will be mandatory for vehicles from January 1, 2021, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said.
For National Permit vehicles, the fitment of FASTag was mandated since October 1, 2019. A valid FASTag would be made compulsory for getting a new third party insurance. This would come into force from April 1, 2021.
8. A 12-year-old Indian boy in the UAE has entered into the Guinness Book of World Records by identifying the most aeroplane tails in a minute. Siddhant Gumber, an Abu Dhabi-based homeschooled boy who identified 39 aeroplane tails in 60 seconds, is also the youngest Indian to identify top 100 tallest buildings.