Notes:
Supreme Court recently asked the Centre to consider the deployment of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to guard the various courts in India — taking over the job of securing the courts from the local police forces.

Notes:
Khurana shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for research that showed the order of nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carry the genetic code of the cell and control the cell’s synthesis of proteins. In 1972, he also created the first ever artificial gene.

Notes:
Current Ashwini Lohani heads Air India. It began operations in 1932 with a single-engine, de Havilland Puss Moth monoplane. In 1962, it became the world’s first airline to boast an all-jet fleet. Last October, it also became the world’s first airline to use a Taxibot on an A320 aircraft with passengers onboard. Recently, Group of Ministers (GoM) of the central government have approved the proposal to divest stake in the national carrier. Led by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the GoM met on Tuesday and approved all proposals on debt transfer from Air India to a special purpose vehicle. The Expression of Interest (EoI) and the share purchase agreement would be issued in January 2020.

Notes:
In first week of January, 2020 the government has released the first advance estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2019-20. The economy will grow at 5% this year, a massive downgrade from the 7% projected by the Economic Survey last year and much lower than the 6.8% growth in the previous year.

Notes:
According to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD’s) Statement on Climate of India During 2019 report, the number of cyclones in the Arabian Sea was 400% higher than normal frequency because five out of eight cyclones affected Arabian Sea. These give cyclones were Vayu, Hikka, Kyarr, Maha and Pavan. This after the sea on India’s west coast normally undergoes only one cyclone annually — read a 400% rise. (India normally has five cyclones in total every year.) However, the Bay of Bengal — usually the more cyclone-prone coast of India — was relatively subdued in 2019 with three (Pabuk, Fani, Bulbul) instead of four cyclones that occur there annually on an average.