News Flash (14th December 2020): Top 10 Stories Of The Day

1. After 71 test COVID-19 positive, IIT Madras now under lockdown

The campus of IIT Madras has been placed under temporary lockdown as 66 students and 5 staff members have been tested positive for coronavirus till now. The government of Tamil Nadu has asked the IIT Madras institute to conduct COVID tests of all the students on the campus.

2. Amid farmers’ protests, several border points in Delhi stay shut for traffic

On Monday, many Delhi borders remained shut due to the farmer’s protests against the union government’s new farm/agriculture laws. “Singhu, Auchandi, Piau Maniyari, Sabholi and Mangesh borders are closed. Traffic has been diverted from Mukarba and GTK road. Please avoid Outer Ring Road, GTK road, NH-44,” Delhi Traffic Police tweeted.

3. An 8.6% rise seen in women on company boards since 2012 in India

India has observed an 8.6% rise in the percentage of women on boards of companies between the year 2012 and 2020, a report from an advisory firm Egon Zehnder’s 2020 Global Board Diversity Tracker, mentioned. The report further mentioned that women now hold 2.1% of all board chairs as opposed to 1.5% in 2018.

4. For providing internet via light, Google currently in talks with Jio, Airtel

Google is currently in the process of partnering with Indian giants like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel for its Project Taara. It is a project that aims to provide internet connectivity through light beams. The project was initiated by a company within Google called Google X which works on breakthrough technologies. Taara will provide internet to far off places, at speeds of up to 20 Gbps.

5. Images of supermassive black holes merging shared by NASA

Space organization NASA recently shared images of two supermassive black holes in Galaxy NGC 6240 which are in the process of merging. NASA said, “Seen as the bright dots near the center of this image, the black holes are just 3,000 light years apart.” It added, “Eventually they will drift together, forming a larger black hole millions of years from now.”

6. Bill Gates: Presidential transition is complicating vaccine distribution

Bill Gates, billionaire, and Microsoft Co-founder opined that the transition of presidential administrations is causing the delay in bringing the COVID-19 vaccine distribution process to life. He said that the Biden administration was doing a good job, and is also willing to rely on actual experts and not attack those experts. “I think we’ll get through this in a positive way,” Bill Gates said.

7. Google pushes the reopening of offices to Sept, to test ‘flexible work week’: Report

As reported by the New York Times, Google has pushed forward the return of employees to offices to September 2021. Google is also planning to test the idea of a “flexible work week” once employees start working from office. Under this new ‘flexible work week’, Google’s employees will be expected to work at least three days a week in office and work from home the other days.

8. Congress achieves victory with 620 seats in municipal body polls in Rajasthan

In the recent polls that took place in Rajasthan, Congress won 620 seats for the 50 municipal bodies in the state. The State Election Commission announced the results of the general election. Out of 1,775 wards of all the bodies, 620 candidates of Congress, 548 of BJP, seven of BSP, two each of CPI and CPI (M), one of RLP and 595 Independent candidates have emerged victorious.

9. Maharashtra CM and ministers owe over ₹24L as pending water tax: RTI

State ministers including Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar haven’t paid water tax of ₹24,56,469, as per an RTI report. Although the ministers are not bound to pay bills from their own pockets, the state government hasn’t also paid the bills.